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| 2 Stupid Dogs | |
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| Format | Animated television series |
| Run time | 30 Minutes |
| Creator(s) | Donovan Cook |
| Starring | Brad Garrett Mark Schiff |
| Country | United States |
| Network | TBS (TV network) |
| Original run | September 11, 1993 – January 21, 1995 |
| No. of episodes | 39 |
2 Stupid Dogs was a US animated series created by cartoonist Donovan Cook produced by Hanna-Barbera Cartoons that ran from September 1993 to January 1995 on TBS Superstation. After it was cancelled, reruns continued to air on Cartoon Network and later Boomerang.
The main segments of the show featured two very stupid dogs, both of whom went unnamed (though the big dog was called 'Jonathan' in one episode). The big dog was voiced by Brad Garrett, later of US TV's Everybody Loves Raymond, and the little dog was voiced by Mark Schiff. A back-up segment, Super Secret Secret Squirrel, featured a modernized take on the classic Hanna-Barbera character Secret Squirrel.
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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. 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 HB in particular. His first pitch and first series put into production in 1992 was 2 Stupid Dogs, by recent California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) graduate Donovan Cook.
The show was considered by some to be Hanna-Barbera's attempt to cash in on the popularity of Ren and Stimpy, which was at the height of its popularity when 2 Stupid Dogs hit the air. Ren and Stimpy was a cartoon about an insane chiuhauha and a stupid cat, with off-beat, weird gross-out jokes with a Bob Clampett-like animation style. 2 Stupid Dogs, similarly, was a cartoon about a stupid dog and another stupid dog, with similar jokes and an animation style that was unusual (at the time), although very different from the animation style of Ren and Stimpy.
Several artists and directors from the show became the first creators in Seibert's innovative What-A-Cartoon! program, 48 theatrical length, original character cartoons, made expressly for the Cartoon Network, and designed to find the talent and hits of the new generations. 2 Stupid Dogs spawned creators Genndy Tartakovsky (Dexter's Laboratory), Craig McCracken (The Powerpuff Girls), Miles Thompson, Paul Rudish, and Zac Moncrief. Many of their shorts were imparted with the same strikingly two-dimensional, purposefully cartoony animation style.
It seemed that the big dog is a bit stronger and more clever than the small dog. In several episodes the big dog succeeds in playing tricks on the small dog or figuring out the correct way to do something.
Other characters include:
Running gags on the series include: