Why Did “Courage the Cowardly Dog” Get Discontinued in the Whole World?

 “Horror, suspense, comedy and thrill co-opted, its name is Courage the Cowardly Dog”. And today you are going to know the whole story of “Courage the Cowardly Dog” from its creation to closure. 'Courage the Cowardly Dog’ is an American animated comedy horror television series which was made by ‘John R Dilworth’ especially for Cartoon Network channel. Its entire story mainly revolves around an anthropomorphic dog named ‘Courage’. Anthropomorphic means a human-like animal that walks on two legs, laughs or cries like a human. He does all the work like humans. It is told that Courage is a timid dog, who lives with Muriel and her husband at an unknown place. But this house is different because every day some creepy things happen here. Sometimes aliens come from space and sometimes mummies come alive and ask for stones from them. And ‘Courage’ saves this family from all these kinds of dangers. A fun fact is that Muriel had found that dog alone at a secluded place. Where it was not a common thing for someone to be alive with such fear. That’s why Muriel named that dog ‘Courage’. And finally, she took ‘Courage’ to keep him in her house.

The background of ‘Courage the Cowardly Dog’:

John R Dilworth, the American animator, Actor, Director, writer, Storyboard Artist, Producer, and is creator of ‘Courage the Cowardly Dog’. Dilworth had begun making his own animations while studying in college at the New York School of Visual Arts. In 1985, right five years after completing his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, he formed his own animation company called ‘Stretch Films” where John R Dilworth made himself art director and a team of animators started producing animation shows. He held up his ideas to the world in the form of several animated short films. “The Chicken from Outer Space” was one of those shows which was created by John R Dilworth in 1996. John Dilworth had made several award winning animated shows before this as well like ‘The limited Bird’, ‘When Lilly Laney Moved In’ and one of the most popular shows ‘The Dirty Birdy’, but this seven minutes show which came in 1996 was so special because it made horror cartoon shows memorable in the childhood of kids all over the world. 

But how?? By bringing ‘Courage the Cowardly Dog’ into existence.

“What a cartoon show!” yes!! ‘Courage the Cowardly Dog’ could never have existed without it. So “What was a Cartoon Show”?

On 20 February 1995, Cartoon Network started a series in which a new episode was broadcast on TV every week.

This was the series that benefited the new creators the most as they could have showcased their own cartoon shows by getting them broadcasted directly on TV and could find out if their show was interesting or not. And if the audience liked any show too much, even by mistake, then all good to the creator of that show. Because after that it was Cartoon Network’s task of converting the pilot of that one show into an entire show, animating it and airing it on TV. Many new creators took advantage of this series. And what’s interesting is that this series has led to the existence of many of Cartoon Network’s most successful shows and created a buzz in the cartoon world. 

Have a look at the list of the episodes of What a Cartoon Show! The Powerful Girls, Dexter’s Laboratory, Johnny Bravo, and ‘The Chicken from Outer Space’, on which the entire series of; Courage the Cowardly Dog’ was later made. Initially ‘The What a Cartoon Show’ was known as ‘What a Cartoon’. And in this whole series, the creators only used to come up with their own ideas, the rest of the animating them and converting them into pilot episodes was done by Hannah Barbra Studio. Originally this series ran from 1995 to 1997. And later in 2000, this series was relaunched with a different title ‘The Cartoon Cartoons’. And this time too many successful shows came to existence, in which the biggest name is ‘The Adventures of Billy & Mandy’. Long story short: ‘What a Cartoon Show’ was a program that no one in the history of TV broadcasting would have ever thought of doing. But Cartoon Network did it and more specifically the credit for creating this series goes to the head of Cartoon Network Channel, Mr. Fredrick Seibert. This whole idea was his that we will start a series which will help the new creator in making their imagination a reality. And obviously it worked and we got some of the most amazing cartoon series to make our childhood more special and memorable.

         18th February 1996, the day ‘The Chicken from Outer Space’ was broadcasted on TV for the first time. This was a non dialogue show, meaning no voiceover was given to any cartoon character except Courage’s one or two dialogues. ‘The Chicken from Outer Space’ was animated by Hanna Barbera Studio along with John Dilworth’s company Stretch Films. Two years after ‘The Chicken from Outer Space’ aired on TV Cartoon Network.  They asked John Dilworth if they wanted to make his short film a cartoon series. After knowing this Mr. Dilworth became very happy and granted permission on a condition that his company ‘Stretch Films’, will animate it, not ‘Hanna Barbera Studios’. Initially Cartoon Network did not agree to this condition but after a bit of instigation by John Dilworth, they agreed. Almost one year later, on 19 November 1999, its first episode aired as a series. After that 2nd episode, 3rd episode and so on. 

         Its total 4 seasons contained 12 episodes each. On 22 November 2002, its last episode was aired and then discontinued permanently. Its new episodes stopped being made, but Cartoon Network keeps rebroadcasting its four seasons globally. In India, this show was dubbed in Hindi and aired on Cartoon Network between 2002 and 2003.

Why does ‘Courage the Cowardly Dog’ stop?

         So why was ‘Courage the Cowardly Dog’ cancelled? Some people say that the show was too scary and watching these kids used to have scary dreams. And many times, parents used to complain about it. Due to this the show was discontinued. But this fact was not true as it is reported that it was Dilworth's own decision. If John Dilworth wanted, he could have taken the show further, but he did not. Because he had many other ideas on which he wanted to work. If you visit the YouTube channel of Stretch Films, you will find how many cartoon series John Dilworth has worked on in the last 11 years. ‘Courage the Cowardly Dog,’ even if it has been discontinued for whatever reason, will definitely be memorable for all of us. A show whose story is so well written that we definitely tremble after seeing it but at the same time we enjoy it too. Also, this series not only won the hearts of the people but also won many awards.  Also nominated for Oscars unfortunately could not win it. In a short video, John Dilworth talks about his short movie ‘The Chicken from Outer Space’ and reveals many secrets that you yourself would never know.

Secret No. 1 – John Dilworth has pictures and names written of real humans everywhere like walls etc. in Courage’s house, and these are the persons who worked in Stretch Films or John Dilworth got inspired from them and respected them.

Secret No. 2 - if you’ve watched the first episode of ‘Courage the Cowardly Dog’, Courage, while sending the chicken back to its hideout, has a suitcase with Mars written on it but before that it was replaced by Albany. But Cartoon Network said that this chicken came from space, so if you write Mars on it then people will find it more relatable that they will get it really came from space. And that’s why John Dilworth had to replace Albany with Mars. Otherwise John Dilworth wanted to write Albany there because Albany is a real place where John Dilworth had gone on a trip with his sister.

Secret No.3 – in the end of the same episode, when chicken became ashes, John Dilworth wrote a secret message in that Ashes, “EAT ME”. And many more secrets like these. In an interview with Bob Miller in 1999, John Dilworth says, “If you want to learn something wholeheartedly or want to know better things related to your passion, then no school or college will teach you that but you will have to take the responsibility of those things and learn them. This is the reality of life, if you want to bring a big change in this world by creating something then remember that no one else can help you except you. Whether it’s a teacher or your best friend, you have to learn things on your own. And you may have to bear the pain in that learning process. And after learning those things, you should enjoy the process of making something. Because the happiness from the outcome will last for some time but in the process of learning you will create memories.” Somebody asked John Dilworth which episode of Courage do you think is the worst? He answered, if I could do it, I can make all those episodes again with more perfection, but I can’t. Because what we make cannot be perfect. No matter how perfect that thing may seem to you at this moment, but when you look at that thing again in the future, you will laugh and wonder if I made it? In conclusion, “don’t wait to be happy after getting the result of your work but enjoy the process of your work and be always happy.”