Cow and Chicken - History

History

The idea of Cow and Chicken first existed as a story that David Feiss had made for his daughter. Feiss was a cartoonist who had worked with Hanna-Barbera and related projects since 1978.

Later, Feiss was called to submit any ideas he had for the series What A Cartoon!, a series composed of various cartoon shorts from various creators and writers. Feiss submitted three ideas for the series to Larry Huber, the series' executive producer. One of the ideas was Cow and Chicken. Cow and Chicken premiered on the "What a Cartoon!" series in 1995. Although most cartoons in the series had never gone beyond one short, Hanna-Barbera had decided to turn Cow and Chicken into a full series (possibly since the Emmy Award nomination of the original short), following many letters from fans asking for more Cow and Chicken cartoons.

The Cow and Chicken series premiered on July 15, 1997, and ran for 52 episodes through 1999. Reruns continued to be shown on Cartoon Network until April 10, 2006. As a supporting segment, the show included a cartoon called I Am Weasel; this segment was spun off as an independent series late in the show's run. Typically, an episode would consist of two seven-minute Cow and Chicken shorts playing back-to-back, then followed by a seven-minute I Am Weasel short before the end credits. The exception to this structure was episode 105 ("The Ugliest Weenie"), which had the Weasel short ("I Are Big Star") play in-between the two Cow and Chicken shorts, possibly because said shorts were one storyline.

Cow and Chicken was notable in that a single actor, Charlie Adler, voiced three leading roles of Cow, Chicken, and the Red Guy (much like how Mel Blanc voiced many characters in the Warner Brothers' Merrie Melodies and Looney Tunes series). Other actors provided supporting voices, including Dan Castellaneta (the voice of Earl). David Feiss himself did the voice of a clown in an episode called "The Great Pantzini". Additional voices in various episodes were provided by Will Ferrell, Steve Carell, and Seth MacFarlane.