2 Stupid Dogs is an American animated television series created by Donovan Cook and produced by Hanna-Barbera Cartoons for TBS. It originally ran from September 5, 1993, to February 13, 1995, as part of TBS's Sunday Morning in Front of the TV block and in syndication. The show's main segments feature two unnamed dogs, called the "Little Dog" and the "Big Dog" in the credits (voiced by Mark Schiff and Brad Garrett, respectively). The show entirely used digital ink and paint in every episode.
The show has been described as "Hanna-Barbera's answer to Ren and Stimpy", a hit show created by Hanna-Barbera alumnus John Kricfalusi (who served as a consultant on the series) and premiered two years earlier in 1991 on Nickelodeon. Like Ren and Stimpy, the titular Dogs are not very bright, the show is scored with jazz music, and the comedy style leans on gross-out body-secretion humor. It was the first show put into production by Hanna-Barbera's new president, Fred Seibert, in 1992, but asked about the comparison, Hanna-Barbera CEO Seibert was unconcerned, saying that it was "like Pearl Jam worrying about being compared to Nirvana."
A backup segment, Super Secret Secret Squirrel (a sequel series to Secret Squirrel), is shown in between the main 2 Stupid Dogs cartoons in the first season's episodes, similar to early Hanna-Barbera cartoons from the 1960s. The series served as a precursor to the programming of Cartoon Network, where Hanna-Barbera would earn more success with series similar in tone.
The show, as the title suggests, is about two unintelligent and unnamed dogs, and their everyday misadventures. The animation style in the first season is unusual for the time: a very flat and simplistic style similar to the early Hanna-Barbera cartoons of the 1950s and 1960s, but with early 1990s humor and sensibility. The wilder, more absurd second season has more fluid and exaggerated character animation.
Note: All episodes in this season were directed by Donovan Cook.
On August 14, 2018, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment (via the Warner Archive Collection) released the first season of the series as 2 Stupid Dogs/Secret Squirrel Show Volume One on DVD.
Martin "Dr. Toon" Goodman of Animation World Magazine described 2 Stupid Dogs as one of two "clones" of The Ren & Stimpy Show (despite Kricfalusi acting as a consultant on the series), the other one being Disney's The Shnookums & Meat Funny Cartoon Show. The series was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award but lost to Rugrats.