Courage the Cowardly Dog is an American animated comedy horror television series created by John R. Dilworth for Cartoon Network.

The eponymous character is an anxious dog who lives with an elderly couple, Muriel and Eustace Bagge, in a farmhouse in the middle of Nowhere, a fictional town in Kansas.

In each episode, the Bagges are repeatedly thrown into bizarre, frequently disturbing, and often paranormal or supernatural adventures, with Courage often having to rescue his owners.

[3] Soon after, he was found in an alleyway by Muriel Bagge (Thea White), a caring woman who decided to take Courage in as her own; the nature of this first meeting inspired her to give him his name.

In the present, Courage lives in an isolated farmhouse in Kansas with Muriel and her husband Eustace Bagge (Lionel Wilson in episodes 1–33, Arthur Anderson in episodes 34–52), a cranky and greedy man who is jealous of Courage, refers to him as "stupid dog", and periodically uses the "Ooga Booga" mask to frighten him.

The task of protecting Muriel and Eustace from such dangers falls on Courage, who endeavors to thwart or reconcile with the monster of the week and remedy or repair any damages done.

Although Courage is occasionally aided with that task, the full extent of his efforts is usually performed unbeknownst to Muriel and Eustace.

Although episodic in nature, there are a handful of recurring characters in the show's cast, including Courage's sarcastic, sentient computer (Simon Prebble); the family physician Dr. Vindaloo (Paul Schoeffler); a fortune-telling chihuahua named Shirley the Medium (Mary Testa); Eustace's mother "Ma" (Billie Lou Watt); some of the villains including Katz, Le Quack, Snowman (all three also voiced by Schoeffler), and the antagonistic Di Lung (Tim Chi Ly).

[5] The original animated short had no dialogue except for one line spoken by Courage, who had a more authoritative voice akin to Jackie Mason than in the series.

[4] Original music featured in Courage the Cowardly Dog was composed by Jody Gray[9] and Andy Ezrin.

John G. Nettles of PopMatters reviewed the show and called it, "a fascinating and textured mixture of cartoon and horror-movie conventions, and a joy to watch.

"[16] KJ Dell Antonia of Common Sense Media gave the show three stars out of five with the summary, "Cult fave 'toon plays over-the-top violence for laughs.

"[17] Antonia warned parents that the series contains graphic animated violence, including "exploding organs, growing extra limbs, turning inside out, you name it".

[17] Randy Miller III of DVD Talk said that shows aimed at younger audiences "usually don't go for thrills and chills, so it's good to see a genuinely surreal and slanted series develop a decent following.

[19] Courage the Cowardly Dog was ranked number five in Entertainment Weekly's 2012 list of "10 Best Cartoon Network Shows".

1 of their list of top 10 1990s cartoons and gave special praise to the episode "Courage in the Big Stinkin' City", stating that the show remains enjoyable in present times.

[30][31][32][33] The PlayStation 2 version of the video game Cartoon Network Racing contains the episodes "Robot Randy" and "The Magic Tree of Nowhere" as unlockable extras.

[37] In October 2018, Dilworth commented on a Facebook post that he was in negotiations with Boomerang for a prequel to the series under the working title Before Courage.