Dog City is an American / Canadian television series that was produced by Nelvana Limited and Jim Henson Productions in association with Channel 4, Global Television Network, FORTA and Canal+ Spain and aired on Global (then the new network formed from owner Rupert Murdoch's purchase of Metromedia's television assets) from September 26, 1992 to November 26, 1994 and in Canada on Teletoon until 2000. The show contained both animation by Nelvana, and puppetry by Jim Henson Productions.
The animated portions of the show focused on a canine private investigator named Ace Hart. The Muppet portions of the show focused on the interactions between Ace Hart and his animator Eliot Shag (who, like Ace, is a German Shepherd). Eliot would illustrate the stories while Ace would go traverse through it, occasionally breaking the fourth wall to speak with Eliot about the various troubles with the story. In one episode, Eliot even enters Dog City himself to join Ace in solving a mystery.
A recurring gag was that many of the characters in the cartoon were seemingly based on the residents of Eliot's apartment building. The bulldog crime-boss Bugsy Vile was inspired by the building's grouchy bulldog superintendent Bruno. Ace's love interest Rosie was based on Eliot's deep feelings for his neighbor Colleen, and so on. The Muppet characters were unaware of this. In the first episode, Bruno asks Eliot how a loser like him could have created a great character like Bugsy. Eliot replies, "Sometimes it just stares me right in the face."
Later series included segments from other shows Eliot worked on, including skits featuring the main Dog City characters and a superhero series starring the Batman parody Watchdog.
the cartoon series was cancelled and no longer aired on Global until August 1997
Cast
| Image | Character | USA | Ven | Ger | Fra | Ita | Pol | Hun | Swe | Den |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Eliot Shag | Kevin Clash | Rafael Monsalve | Gérard Rinaldi | Mino Caprio | Lars Thiesgaard | ||||
|
Ace Hart | Ron White | Philippe Peythieu | |||||||
|
Colleen Baker | Fran Brill | Michelle BjørnAndersen | |||||||
|
Rosie O'Gravy | Elizabeth Hanna | Véronique Augereau | Joanna Wizmur | Louise Raeder | |||||
|
Artie Springer | Joey Mazzarino | Christian Stark | |||||||
|
Eddie | Stuart Stone | Csongor Szalay | |||||||
|
Bruno | Brian Muehl | JeanClaude Sachot | Sándor Makay | Lars Thiesgaard | |||||
|
Bugsy Vile | John Stocker | Mario Santini | Tibor Kristóf | Lars Thiesgaard | |||||
|
Frisky | James Rankin | Vincent Violette | Mieczysław Morański |