Trivia / CatDog

• Acting for Two:
  • Dog and Cliff were voiced by Tom Kenny.
  • Winslow and Lube were voiced by Carlos Alazraqui.
  • Mervis and Dunglap were both voiced by John Kassir.
  • Rancid Rabbit, Mr. Sunshine and Randolph were voiced by Billy West.
  • In the Swedish dub, Joakim Jennefors voices both of the titular characters.
• Adored by the Network: Initially, it was. It was given a 40 episode order. It was one of the few cable cartoons at the time to be given more than the standard 13-episodes per season, which even surprised creator Peter Hannan... however, see Screwed by the Network below.
• The Cast Show Off: Entire episodes, notably "Doo-Wop Diggity" seemed to be nothing but excuses to get Jim and Tom to sing together. Nobody is complaining.
• Crossdressing Voices: Shriek is voiced by a man in the French dub while Eddie is voiced by two women in the Latin American Spanish dub.
• Dueling Dubs: The show has two Polish dubs: One that aired on Canal+ and Minimax, and the other that aired on Nickelodeon. Wojciech Paszkowski and Grzegorz Wons respectively reprise their roles as Cat and Dog in the Nickelodeon dub.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: The full version of the theme song, with two additional verses and a harmonica solo. Nickelodeon aired it as a music video exactly once.
• Kids' Meal Toy: Burger King released a set of five toys in 1999.
• No Export for You: The show's 2 VHS releases were never released in Canada, because the show had yet to air there at the time.
• The Other Darrin: Shriek's father was voiced by Jim Cummings in "Rich Shriek, Poor Shriek", but his cameo in "The Great Parent Mystery" had him voiced by Billy West instead.
• Playing Against Type: To an extent. Jim Cummings is still playing a curmudgeonly character, but it's one of his few roles where he uses his normal speaking voice.
• Screwed by the Network: After realizing that the show wasn't the breakout hit they'd hoped it'd be, Nickelodeon decided to just up and pull the plug on the series while the final season was still in its initial run, and as a result, several episodes from the end of the final season were never aired on Nick; they were, however, later seen when the show aired on the Nicktoons Network.
• Short Run in Peru: The finale didn't air until 2005, after it had been shown in other countries.
• Teasing Creator: Peter Hannan tends to give very roundabout answers to the infamous "bathroom" question. In the book "Not Just Cartoons: Nicktoons!" his explanation is that they simply don't go to the bathroom at all... even though several episodes clearly indicate that they do.
• Troubled Production: While many Nicktoons have run into problems with apathy on the part of Nickelodeon, CatDog suffered the opposite problem. The network had high hopes for the show (while conversely having little faith in SpongeBob SquarePants, which was greenlit for production on the same day), to the point of announcing a whopping 100 episode order to the artists at the studio (on the other hand, they planned to give SpongeBob only six for its first season; it was later bumped up to a full twenty). As the series was to be the first Nicktoon to premiere as a weekday strip, this meant episodes had to be rushed through production, and while not many details have surfaced, it's known to have been hellish enough that by the end of its run, studio empolyees could only be convinced to work on the show through threats and bribes. In the end, CatDog sputtered out after 68 episodes, two of which never even aired in the United States, while SpongeBob SquarePants became Nickelodeon's Cash-Cow Franchise.
• Unfinished Dub: The Canal+/Minimax Polish dub only dubbed the first 2 seasons. The Japanese dub was able to dub the first three.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Peter Hannan originally pitched the idea as a series of two-minute shorts. Once he recorded the theme song, however, the Nick higher-ups decided to make it a series.
  • The character of CatDog was originally a two-headed superhero called The Amazing CatDog Man as part of a never-published book Superheroes You've Probably Never Heard Of.
  • An episode based on Les Misérables was proposed, but never went into production.
  • There were plans to release a Licensed Game for the PlayStation called CatDog: Saving Mean Bob, but that never came to pass.
  • There was going to be a fourth Greaser named Darlene. She was the brains of the gang and originally had the crush on Dog.
  • There was plans for a CatDog mascot costume that was scrapped due to it being difficult to preform in.
• Word of God:
  • The creators stated that the purpose of the show is to "really play off of kids' sympathies" by portraying the characters experiencing "the worst of the worlds."
  • According to Peter Hannan, Mr. Sunshine is a "pig man."
  • One of the crew members, Ray Pointer, was caricatured as a magician called "The Amazing Ray" in "CatDog Divided." It was rumored that he was insulted by this portrayal for a while and this was the reason why the character never reappeared, however he later said that he actually found it amusing and would joke that he "cameo'd on a cartoon once".