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Cow and Chicken

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Cow and Chicken is an American animated television series, created by David Feiss, first broadcast on the Cartoon Network from 1997 to 2001. The series shows the adventures of a cow, conveniently named Cow, and her brother Chicken (who is a chicken), who are often tormented by the Red Guy, a usually naked devil-like character who poses as various characters to scam them. Usually the Red Guy's pseudonyms are puns on his nude appearance (e.g. Dr. Hiney Bottoms, Officer Pantsoffski, Baron von Nein-Lederhosen, Ben Pantced, Mrs. Barederriere, C.D. High-Knee, I.B. Horny, etc.).

Like Dexter's Laboratory, the original pilot appeared as an episode of the series What a Cartoon!. Before I.M. Weasel and I.R. Baboon got their own series, I Am Weasel was partially aired as an under-series. In the episode where Weasel finds out everyone's watching his life Cow and Chicken are seen watching both him and later Baboon's show being aired. This may be the reason why The Red Guy appears in both cartoons, with the same attributes.

Contents

Background

Cartoons frequently have a bizarre scenario — in this case a brother and sister who are a chicken and a cow, but have human parents. Creators are faced with the question of whether and how to explain this scenario. Sometimes opening credits are cumbersome vehicles for an origin story. David Feiss approached this problem with gusto: an opening song goes Mama had a chicken/Mama had a cow/Dad was proud/He didn't care how. This is all that is ever offered in explanation, though there is one hint in that the children have a cousin Boneless, who is a boneless chicken (unable to walk or get up from the floor). Their other cousins are Snail Boy, a snail, Black Sheep and Sow, an evil pig. One segment also showed the supposed ghosts of a pair of Cow and Chicken's ancestors, a male farmer and a female chicken. The episodes take the scenario and run with it with a manic energy that is also seen in cartoons like Ren and Stimpy. Many of the jokes use adult humor, thus making the show very controversial.

poster to the Cow and Chicken pilot No Smoking
Enlarge
poster to the Cow and Chicken pilot No Smoking

The series draws on the clichés of cartoons. For example, Cow has an alter-ego Supercow, who is a superhero with different chararactistics to her normal character (such as flight, and the ability to speak Spanish); and the Red Guy tries in vain to discover Supercow's secret identity even as he torments Cow. The children seem unable to enter water without inadvertently doing so in the proximity of a large and dangerous waterfall. The children's parents, who are called Mom and Dad, exist only from the waist down, and can be seen to stop at the waist (whenever their shadows appear, they are cut off at the waist). This is an obvious homage to Mammy-Two-Shoes from MGM's Tom and Jerry cartoons, who was Tom's African-American owner who was only seen from the waist down, and also to many cartoons who often only show the adults from the waist down (i.e. Muppet Babies, Fairly OddParents in it's earlier stages).

In some episodes, the missing upper bodies are used as a gag. For example in one episode, the cartoon "camera" accidentally zooms out too far, and shows Mom and Dad cut off at the waist. In another episode, Cow and Chicken search through a closet by throwing out everything inside, and for a small moment, the upper (human) bodies of Mom and Dad are visible as part of a discarded science project by cow.

A single actor, Charlie Adler, voiced all three of the leading parts. While this practice was commonplace in cartoons of the 1940s and 1950s, thanks to the talents of Mel Blanc, it is much rarer in work of the 1990s. Other actors provided supporting voices, however, including Dan Castellaneta (Earl), the voice of Homer Simpson. David Feiss himself did the voice of a clown in an episode called The Great Pantzini.

Banned Episodes

Two episodes of "Cow and Chicken" were banned due to its content. The first of it being the pilot, "No Smoking". The last time this episode aired was the week of the "Buffalo Gals/Cow and Chicken Reclining" premiere. This episode has never been seen since then because, in this cartoon, the Red Guy is known as The Devil and Chicken is lured into Hell because he wants to smoke cigarettes.

The other is "Buffalo Gals". Because of the lesbian stereotypes and extensive sexual innuendo, Cartoon Network only aired "Buffalo Gals" once, and since then it was replaced with "Orthodontic Police".

Voice Actors and their characters

Japanese Dub

Characters

Writers

Storyboard Artists

Art Directors

Animation Directors

Directors

Titles in other languages

See also: I Am Weasel.

External links

 

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