Courage the Cowardly Dog was a horror-comedy cartoon that debuted in 1999 on Cartoon Network. John R. Dilworth created Courage, the protagonist of the show. He is an anxious lavender beagle dog who lives in Nowhere, Kansas with his owners Muriel and Eustace. Courage’s parents were sent into outer space for a scientific experiment, ultimately abandoning Courage. Muriel found him in an alley and named him Courage because she thought he was extremely brave to be out there alone ("Courage the Cowardly Dog." The Cartoon Network Wiki). Courage’s name does not describe his personality at all. It is quite ironic, actually, because Courage is extremely scared of everything. The origin of the character comes from a Dilworth 7-minute short production that was submitted in a festival (“Creator / John R Dilworth.”). The short was called “Smart Talk with Raisin”. All the characters in that short were considered “proto” characters. Raisin was the original Muriel, who had her own TV show where she promoted her dog Hamilton to do magic tricks. Like Courage in Courage the Cowardly Dog, Hamilton was Raisin’s dog that did not speak, hated confrontation, and had an oblong left eye (StretchFilms 2010). When Courage the Cowardly Dog came around in 1999, Courage often would fight…show more content… Courage the Cowardly Dog was known and is still know as a classic cartoon that left kids terrified but coming back for more. When I was younger I loved this show. It was ironic because I hated anything remotely scary, and still do, but this show scared me so bad that I kept watching. Kids that grew up on 90s cartoons will describe them as extremely wacky. The 90s was a time where style was funky and vibrant, just like the TV. Cartoon Network, the network Courage the Cowardly Dog was on, had a lot of wacky cartoons with a bunch of different styles and genres. Courage the Cowardly Dog was first of its
