Everything Action Theater: Dog City

The world of Jim Henson expands well beyond The Muppets and in one corner of that world is the 90s animation/puppetry hybrid, Dog City.  A joint venture between Nelvana Limited and Jim Henson Productions, Dog City aired on Fox Kids from the Fall of ’92 until the Fall of ’94, although it started life on NBC as an episode of another series, The Jim Henson Hour.  The original TV movie was all puppets and had some similar characters and cameos from characters like Rowlf and Sprocket from Fraggle Rock but when the series was created, it became a half puppet/half animated series.  The show followed puppet character Eliot Shag, an animator who draws the adventures of private eye Ace Hart, which makes up the traditional animation side of the series.  Ace and Eliot are able to interact and Ace usually consults with Eliot about issues with the episode’s plot, which Eliot is able to draw and correct and he even jumped into the world of Dog City in one episode.  Other characters in the animated world include Rosie O’Gravy, the feisty chief of detectives for the police who is Ace’s love interest, and villains like Bugsy Vile.  The characters in the animated world are all seemingly based on the characters in Eliot’s apartment building and neighborhood, like Rosie being Eliot’s neighbor Colleen Barker.  The show aired 31 episodes across three seasons and had a few VHS releases but hasn’t been released on DVD or Blu-ray.  All the episodes are available on the Retro Rerun YouTube channel and you can watch the first episode of the show “The Big Squeak”, below.