2 Stupid Dogs

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File:2 Stupid Dogs Opening**2 Stupid Dogs** is an American animated television series, created and designed by Donovan Cook and produced by Hanna-Barbera and Turner Program Services, that originally ran from September 5, 1993 to May 15, 1995, in Syndication, which included Fox, and on TBS. The main segment of the show featured two dogs, called "The Big Dog" and "The Little Dog" in the credits. The Big Dog was voiced by Brad Garrett and the Little Dog was voiced by Mark Schiff.

Reruns of the series were played on Cartoon Network and later its sister network Boomerang from 2005 through 2007, and returned on June 1, 2009, and also returned on July 5, 2011, to Cartoon Network for the first time in ten years, but it left on September 23, 2011, and it was removed from the lineup again on September 26, 2011.

A backup segment, a remake of Hanna-Barbera's *Secret Squirrel*, titled *Super Secret Secret Squirrel*, was shown in between the two main *2 Stupid Dogs* segments in many of the first 13 episodes, similar to early Hanna-Barbera cartoons of the 1960s.

## Plot

2 Stupid Dogs is about a big dog and a little dog, neither of whom, as the title explains, is very intelligent, and their everyday misadventures. The animation style is unusual for the time: a very flat, simplistic style similar to early Hanna-Barbera cartoons of the '60s and '70s, but with early '90s humor and sensibility. In addition, the Big Dog talks much less than the Little Dog does and most of the time, the Big Dog talks about food. It also did not have a series structure, similar to many humorous cartoons and sitcoms. The show did not follow a continuous storyline — what happens in one episode has little to no effect on another. 2 Stupid Dogs contained very brief sexual innuendos, as did other such cartoons of the time such as Rocko's Modern Life or Animaniacs.

## Characters

**The Little Dog** (voiced by Mark Schiff) — Little Dog is a small tawny colored Dachsund, whom is much more energetic and hyperactive than the Big Dog. The Little Dog is completely scared of cats, possibly due to a case of ailurophobia and when a cat appears, it is the Big Dog who scares the cat away. He often refers to things he doesn't like as "caca". In "Sheep Dog", it was revealed that he does not know his own name, and nor does the Big Dog.

**The Big Dog** (voiced by Brad Garrett) — Big Dog is a large grey English Sheepdog with a purple nose. He is much stronger than the Little Dog. The Big Dog is generally too lazy to bother with anything, and most of the time seems more aloof and unconcerned about his surroundings than actually stupid. In some episodes, he surprisingly reveals deep philosophical intelligence. His name was confirmed to be Jonathan on two separate occasions ("Love", "Spit Soup").

**The Cat** — The Cat is a small innocent cat which the Little Dog is terrified of, despite its harmlessness. The Big Dog's bark causes the Cat to freeze in terror; however, the Cat is not afraid of the Big Dog unless it barks.

**Mr. Hollywood** (voiced by Brian Cummings) — Hollywood is a large man who likes to point out others' mistakes. Whenever the dogs bump into him, he has a completely new appearance. He has also had many occupations such as a teacher, farmer, casino manager, and pet shop owner. When pointing out others' mistakes he will say, "Aw, isn't that cute? But it's wrong!" or, in the event that others (usually the dogs) repeat their mistakes, "Aw, isn't that cute? But it's still wrong!"

**Kenny Fowler** (voiced by Jarrett Lennon) — Kenny is a small skinny kid with nerdy glasses, who is often pushed around by school bully Buzz and often asks the dogs for help. He often falls down on the floor.

**Cubby** (voiced by Rob Paulsen) — Cubby is a fat, spotty teenager with big glasses, blonde hair and blue lips. In the episodes he appears in, he assumes the role of a different job, like Mr. Hollywood. He has a squeaky voice and often lets off gas when excited. He helps the stupid dogs with questions and problems they have, which mainly involve food.

**Red** (voiced by Candi Milo) — Red is a parody of Little Red Riding Hood, a small, meek little girl that the dogs often encounter. When she speaks, she shouts one word in the sentence very loudly compared to the quiet tone of voice she usually uses. The dogs usually just join her for food. She needs glasses and even with them, her sight is far from 20/20. On one occasion the Dogs have shown fear and anger towards her and the Little Dog even called her an evil little girl, one of the few times the Little Dog shows genuine intelligence.

## History

*2 Stupid Dogs* was the beginning of the successful revival of Hanna-Barbera's fortunes, since the studio had not launched a bona fide hit since *The Smurfs* in 1981 and *The Snorks* in 1984. The Turner Entertainment president installed MTV and Nickelodeon branding veteran Fred Seibert as the head of production. Seibert's plan to reinvent the studio was to put his faith in the talent community, a first for television animation, and Hanna-Barbera in particular. His first pitch and first series put into production in 1992 was *2 Stupid Dogs*, created and designed by recent California Institute of the Arts graduate Donovan Cook. *Ren & Stimpy's* creator, John Kricfalusi, was credited with adding "tidbits of poor taste" to the three "Little Red Riding Hood" episodes, and a few other Spümcø artists also contributed to select episodes during the course of the show.

Cook graduated out of Cal Arts at the time and he gained the idea for the show after seeing two stray dogs roaming around his apartment complex. Him and the rest of his cartoonist friends later came up with the idea and they pitched it to studios all over Hollywood. Hannah Barbera Studios later took a look at it and bought it. Seibert ordered Cook to revive a classic cartoon from H-B studios to go with the main show; he chose *Secret Squirrel* because it was one of his favorites and he enjoyed watching the series during the 1970s when he was a kid.

Several artists and directors from the show became the first creators in Seibert's *What A Cartoon!* program; 48 short, original character cartoons, made expressly for the Cartoon Network, and designed to find the talent and hits of the new generations. Larry Huber, who later served as executive producer on the *What a Cartoon!* program, teamed first with Seibert as producer on the *2 Stupid Dogs* series and directed the *Super Secret Secret Squirrel* segments. *2 Stupid Dogs* eventually helped launch the careers of creators: Genndy Tartakovsky (*Dexter's Laboratory*, *Samurai Jack*, *Star Wars: Clone Wars* and *Sym-Bionic Titan*), Craig McCracken (*The Powerpuff Girls*, *Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends* and *Wander Over Yonder*), Butch Hartman (*The Fairly OddParents*, *Danny Phantom* and *T.U.F.F. Puppy*) Seth MacFarlane (*Family Guy*, *American Dad!* and *The Cleveland Show*) Miles Thompson, Paul Rudish, Rob Renzetti (*My Life as a Teenage Robot*), and Zac Moncrief.

The voice cast consisted of a combination of then-novice voice actors, professional voice actors, comedians and child actors. When Cook was developing his show, he saw one of comedian Mark Schiff's stand up routines on TV and called him in to audition as the voice of Little Dog. Hollywood, one of the central characters of the show, was based on a neighbor that Donovan had when he was shooting a short film at a beach house in San Diego. Kenny's voice was found by holding a casting call of child actors to audition in the HB studio and after a final callback, Jarrett Lennon was chosen.

## Episodes

*2 Stupid Dogs* has a total of 26 episodes spread over 2 seasons that were produced from September 1993 to May 1995.

## International television broadcast history

### Italy

* Rai
* Mediaset
* Cartoon Network

## References

1. ↑ Strike, Joe (July 15, 2003). The Fred Seibert Interview — Part 1. *Animation World Magazine*. Animation World Network. Archived from the original on August 6, 2010. Retrieved on August 31, 2010.