Courage the Cowardly Dog

Courage the Cowardly Dog is an American animated television series about the adventures of a dog named Courage and his owners Muriel Bagge, a kindly old Scottish woman, and Eustace Bagge, a grumpy old farmer, living together in a farmhouse in the middle of the town of Nowhere, Kansas (often described as The Middle of Nowhere), encountering strange things, which originally ran for four seasons from 1999-2002.

Originally, Courage started out as a Canadian, one-episode cartoon, which was featured in the Cartoon Network special "The Fifty Greatest Cartoons of All Time." In the original cartoon, there was no dialogue, except for a line spoken by Courage (who was voiced by a different, authoritative voice in this short). An alien chicken was the villain in this short, and it would come back for its revenge in the American series. The Chicken From Outer Space was nominated for an Oscar.

Courage the Cowardly Dog was created by John R. Dilworth, who directed each episode, and was produced and aired by Cartoon Network. It premiered alongside Mike, Lu & Og on November 12th 1999, and aired its final episode on November 2nd 2002. The show featured a number of differences from its original pilot, most noticeably featuring voiced dialogue by all characters. As the series continued, the use of stock dialogue recordings grew in use rather than recording new dialogue; this lead to the open disparity of Eustace' original voice actor, Lionel Wilson, still being heard alongside his replacement, Arthur Anderson.

New York-based rock band They Might Be Giants created a tribute song, "Courage the Cowardly Dog", that was animated and aired as a music video on Cartoon Network in 2002. The song also appeared in 2006 on their Podcast 4A.

The series returned to Cartoon Network on Monday, August 31, 2015, airing Monday through Friday from 6-7 am.

Plot
Courage the Cowardly Dog revolves around the exploits of Courage, a small pink dog who, despite his name, is afraid of the most mundane things. However, his fear is usually warranted: Eustace, Muriel, and Courage are constantly attacked by or run into various monsters, aliens, curses, natural disasters, and other forms of peril Courage must face.

Every opening of the show documents Courage's past: "Abandoned as a pup, he was found by Muriel, who lives in the middle of Nowhere (Kansas) with her husband Eustace Bagge. But creepy stuff happens in Nowhere, it's up to Courage to save his new home." In one later American episode, more about his past is revealed, that Courage's parents were unwillingly sent to the moon by a psychotic scientist in an experiment to make animals stronger. Courage also seems to have an odd ability to change his shape in a comic style, such as folding himself up to go through the letter slot or imitating a monster in a vain attempt to warn his owners of danger.

Eustace always resented Courage's presence in the home and continually attempts to scare the living daylights out of Courage by whipping out a giant green mask, or fake eyeballs, screaming "Ooga Booga Booga!" Afterwards, Eustace laughs at Courage's expense, until Muriel comically bludgeons Eustace over the head with a rolling pin to which he replies "What did I do?"

In the series, when Courage wants to save his family, he sometimes faces off the villain in a game (instead of typical feats of strength, the methods by which he tries to defeat villains is usually something mundane like dodge-ball or a staring contest, in which Courage always loses), convinces the villain to leave the life of crime, or tricks the villain.

Prototype
There is an obscure Dilworth animated short, Smart Talk with Raisin - Pulling a Malade out of a Hat, that appeared on MTV's Liquid Television in Season 3, episode 1. It features a proto-Courage character named Hamilton as well as what can be considered a proto-Muriel, the titular Raisin, and a proto-Eustace, named Malcolm (who in this case is Raisin's misanthropic brother).

The premise of the short is that a young girl named Raisin has her own primetime show the format of which is unspecified but the implication is that it is a variety show. In the short, Raisin is encouraging her dog Hamilton to perform a magic trick for the show that involves him pulling a Malade from a hat. It is not explained until the end that the term 'Malade' refers to a teacher from Raisin and Malcolm's school whose surname is Malade.

The majority of the short involves Malcolm verbally abusing Hamilton and Raisin. Several stylistic features are seen in this short that mark it as Dilworth's work, and several characteristics of Courage are seen in Hamilton. For example, Hamilton does not speak, and is timid and non-confrontational in the face of Malcolm's overt hostility. Their appearance is also similar although a key difference is that Hamilton's left eye is drawn elongated in a style similar to some secondary characters in the Courage series. This short does not appear on any official Liquid Television DVD, and is not listed in Dilworth's filmography on IMDB. However, it is currently viewable on Dilworth's Stretch Films site.

Fake 2019 reboot
On June 2nd, 2018, there was a another rumor claiming that a rebooted version of Courage the Cowardly Dog is set to premiere in sometime in 2019, but the premiere date that was listed on the teaser image (which also featured a redesign for Courage) was February 30th of that same year. The month of February not being allowed to have a 30th day confirmed that the reboot is indeed false; much like the Ed, Edd n Eddy reboot, the original article of this hoax also came from the exact same FaceBook page not made by Cartoon Network (it is obviously another reason of how this reboot had a confirmation to be fake). The name of the Facebook page who posted these two articles is called The Old Cartoon Network, and it also reminded the viewers to double check the premiere date to see if it is real or not.

Appearances in other media
Courage made a cameo in the OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes episode, Crossover Nexus. In the episode, he appeared as one of the Cartoon Network heroes that were summoned and defeated by Strike.

Appearances in video game crossovers
Courage was a playable character in the video games, Cartoon Network: Speedway and Cartoon Network: Block Party, both released for the GameBoy Advance.

Courage, Muriel, and Eustace were playable racers in Cartoon Network Racing for Playstation 2 and Nintendo DS.

Courage was an NPC in the MMO online game, Cartoon Network Universe: FusionFall.

Courage appeared as an NPC in the mobile game, Cartoon Network: Match Land. In a later update, he became an official playable character.

The Mask (from the episode of the same name) appeared as wardrobe in the mobile game, Kleptocats: Cartoon Network.