CatDog

CatDog is an American animated television series created by Peter Hannan for Nickelodeon. The series follows the zany hijinks of orange-furred conjoined brothers of different species, with one half of the resultant animal being a cat and the other a dog. Nickelodeon produced the series from Burbank, California. The first episode aired on April 4, 1998, following the 1998 Kids' Choice Awards, before the show officially premiered in October of that year. Similarly, the Season 2 episode "Fetch" was shown in theaters in 1998 before airing on television.

The series ended on June 15, 2005, after a total of four seasons and 66 aired episodes over seven years, plus two produced episodes never aired. It was produced by Nickelodeon Animation Studio and Peter Hannan Productions and was released on DVD in Region 1 by Shout! Factory.

Two animation studios, Saerom Animation and Rough Draft Studios through Rough Draft Korea, worked on the animation for the show.

Premise
The series revolves around Cat and Dog, a golden-furred conjoined twin hybrid of a cat and a dog with two heads and shared body, with no tail or hind legs. Although they are best friends they have very different personalities, similar to "The Odd Couple" and the Looney Tunes shorts, mixed with elements of Laurel and Hardy, Abbott and Costello, and fellow Nicktoon characters Ren and Stimpy. Cat is strait-laced, while Dog is impulsive. Dog enjoys chasing garbage trucks, cars, and exploring – many things that Cat does not want to be involved with. Dog enjoys eating at fast-food restaurants such as Taco Depot (a parody of Taco Bell), whereas Cat does not. The series takes place in Nearburg, a town dominated by anthropomorphic animals and the occasional humanoid.

Characters

 * CatDog (voiced by Jim Cummings and Tom Kenny, respectively)
 * Winslow Oddfellow (a mouse) (voiced by Carlos Alazraqui)
 * Cliff Feltbottom (a bulldog) (voiced by Tom Kenny)
 * Shriek Dubois ( a poodle) (voiced by Maria Bamford)
 * Lube (a hound) (voiced by Carlos Alazraqui)
 * Rancid Rabbit (voiced by Billy West)
 * Eddie the Squirrel (voiced by Dwight Schultz)
 * Randolph Grant (voiced by Billy West)
 * Tallulah Headbank (voiced by Maria Bamford)
 * Mean Bob (voiced by Billy West)
 * Lola Caricola (voiced by Nika Futterman)
 * The Ingrid Twins (both voiced by Laraine Newman)
 * Mervis (a pig) and Dunglap (a weasel) (voiced by John Kassir)
 * Mr. Sunshine (voiced by Billy West)

Production
The series, created by Peter Hannan, was developed as the next Nicktoons production and produced from Nickelodeon Animation Studio in Burbank, California. Hannan served as executive producer. This was part of Nickelodeon's $350 million investment in original animation over the next five years after the series' inception.

Albie Hecht, Nickelodeon's senior vice president of worldwide productions, said that the creators planned for the series to "really play off of kids' sympathies" by portraying the characters as experiencing "the worst of both worlds". Hannan said CatDog was inspired by watching neighborhood cats and dogs occasionally fight each other, and thought that it would be great to make conjoined twins Cat and Dog to see how both of the animals would fare against other things. The idea of them being conjoined twins came from Hannan watching several news stories on TV about conjoined twins living a normal life conjoined together. Both aspects, he claimed, initially developed the idea of CatDog.

The title characters were originally envisioned as a two-headed superhero called "CatDog Man".

Broadcast
The series originally aired on Nickelodeon in the US from 1998 to 2004, and aired reruns from 2005 to 2007. It was subsequently aired on Nicktoons (2002–2011) and NickSplat (2013-2018) and streams on Paramount+ (2020–present). In the UK and Ireland, the series was broadcast on Nickelodeon (1998–2005), Channel 4 (1999-2007) and Nicktoons (2002–13). In Canada, the series was broadcast on Nickelodeon (2009–2019) and on YTV (1998–2006). In Australia and New Zealand, the series was broadcast on Nickelodeon (1998–2015). In Japan, the series was broadcast on Nickelodeon (1999–2009) and on TV Asahi (1999–2006). In Middle East, the series was broadcast on Nickelodeon Arabia (2008–2011) and on MBC 3 (2014–2015). In March 2021, the series was added along with other various Nicktoons and Nickelodeon shows onto Paramount+.

Critical
The series was reviewed by Common Sense Media with a score 2/5 stars, advised for children 7 and up.

Awards and nominations
In 1998, the series was nominated for an Annie Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement for Writing in an Animated Television Production, for "Dog Gone". The recipients would have been Derek Drymon, Robert Porter and Peter Hannan.

At the 1999 Kids' Choice Awards, the show was nominated for Favorite Cartoon. However, it lost to Rugrats. It did so again in the 2000 Kids' Choice Awards.

Home media and digital download releases
Two VHS tapes of the series were released by Paramount Home Video on March 30, 1999. Together Forever contains a bonus short "Cat-Diggety Dog" plus the episodes "Dog Gone", "Flea or Die", "Diamond Fever", "CatDog's End" and "Work Force", and CatDog vs. The Greasers contains the episodes "Siege on Fort CatDog", "Squirrel Dog", "Full Moon Fever", "Shriek Loves Dog" and "All You Need is Lube". In 2010, Nickelodeon contracted Amazon.com's CreateSpace service arm to produce DVD sets of CatDog and other Nickelodeon shows exclusively for sale on Amazon. The DVDs were "manufactured-on-demand" DVD-Rs to match orders. The series is also available for download on Amazon's InstantVideo service. From 2011 to 2013, Shout! Factory released the series on DVD via several season sets, and a proper complete series set was released on December 9, 2014.

The complete series is also available for download in the iTunes Store and streaming on Paramount+.

In Australia, seasons 1-3 were released on DVD by Beyond Home Entertainment.

Promotions
Nickelodeon initiated a $20 million promotional campaign for the series' first season in 1999 with partners Burger King, Duracell, Jell-O, and Nabisco. Burger King, which had promoted Nickelodeon's The Rugrats Movie with toys the previous year, offered CatDog-themed toys in its kids meals for five weeks beginning February 22, 1999. Nickelodeon promoted a trip to Universal Studios Florida as a prize in an on-air sweepstakes sponsored by Burger King and Mattel, which also released a line of CatDog toys that year. Duracell held a back-to-school-themed backpack offer as well as a "Catch CatDog" sweepstakes on television and radio during the holiday season. Jell-O packaged CatDog stickers in its Jell-O Yogurt kids packs. Nabisco marketed limited edition CatDog Cheese Nips flavors, which featured instant-win contest prizes that included a trip to Los Angeles to meet and have their likeness drawn by creator of CatDog.

Video games
On May 13, 1999, Nickelodeon and Hasbro Interactive announced a three-year partnership to publish video games based on Nickelodeon television series, the first being CatDog: Quest for the Golden Hydrant for Microsoft Windows, which released in late 1999. Ports of the game for PlayStation and Game Boy Color were mentioned but ultimately never released. Another Hasbro title, CatDog: Saving Mean Bob, was announced for a 2000 release for PC and PlayStation but never released.

Characters from the series appeared as cameos or playable characters in the Nickelodeon games Nicktoons Racing, Super Brawl Universe, Nickelodeon Kart Racers 2: Grand Prix, Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl, Nickelodeon Extreme Tennis, and Nickelodeon Kart Racers 3: Slime Speedway. Characters make cameo appearances in Nickelodeon Party Blast, Nicktoons: Attack of the Toybots, and Nicktoons MLB.