Courage the Cowardly Dog
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Courage the Cowardly Dog

House Calls is part two of the forty-first airing and second episode in Season 4 of Courage the Cowardly Dog, written by Lory Lazarus and directed by John R. Dilworth.

The episode was produced in 2002 and premiered on Cartoon Network in the United States on September 13 of that year.

Synopsis[]

Lonely Dr. Gerhart wants some neighbors, but his old and envious house fends them away. He uses his new invention to bring the Bagges' farm next to his house, but Gerhart's house intends on destroying the Bagges' home. Courage then has to find a way to please Dr. Gerhart's house.

Plot[]

The episode opens on a desolate landscape with a gaunt, weathered, and filthy house occupied by a lonely sound doctor named Dr. Gerhardt von Orbison. He muses to himself about how he has created a way to finally have neighbors after years of solitude in his house. A loud voice screams out in protest, and it's revealed his house is actually alive and very displeased about Dr. Gerhardt's plans. Dr. Gerhardt ignores this and starts up his phonograph, and the music snakes it's way to the Bagge Farm. When the music reaches the farm house, it rips off it's foundation using beams as legs and begins walking in Dr. Gerhardt's direction, carrying Courage, Muriel, and Eustace with it. The house sits itself down and Dr. Gerhardt arrives to greet his new neighbors with a basket of sardines. Muriel welcomes him inside, ignoring Eustace's usual antisocial tendencies.

While Muriel and Dr. Gerhardt chat, Courage notices the angry house across the way and attempts to warn them after it attacks him, to no avail. Another knock is heard at the door, and Muriel opens it to find the house angrily glaring at her. Dr. Gerhardt explains that he used sound to bring his house to life years ago, but she became very jealous and unfriendly. The house uses her tongue (a long red carpet) to snatch Dr. Gerhardt back inside.

The house begins to smash apart the Bagge's home. The wind vial detaches and becomes saw-like, beams punch holes in the walls, and bricks hurl themselves through windows. Dr. Gerhardt begs her to stop while the Bagges hide under the basement stairs. Muriel claims that the house is probably jealous of the farm house because she is musty and dirty, and if she was touched up, it could make her happier. Courage grabs a brush and a few cans of pink paint and hurries over to the house, dodging missile like fence spires along the way.

Courage hurriedly begins painting the house, and that seems to calm her down slightly. This doesn't last long though, and Courage and Dr. Gerhardt race to renovate the inside of the house. Muriel and Eustace are cornered in the cellar by the revolving wind vial, and just as it's about to hit them, it turns and exits the basement. They go over to the all pink house to find the inside elegant and re-furnished with Dr. Gerhardt warmly greeting them.

Before long, a neighborhood springs up around the house. The Mayor tells the Bagges that they have to move their farm house or it will be demolished. Dr. Gerhardt doesn't want them to leave, but Muriel tells them that true neighbors aren't separated by miles. The house thanks Courage by kissing him with her carpet tongue, as the farm house collapes into dust from the damages done to it, closing the episode.

Characters[]

Main Characters[]

Minor Characters[]

  • Mayor
  • Destruction Crew

Trivia[]

  • When Dr. Gerhart plays the disc "home sweet home" after his house was renovated, the music playing is a rendition of Mozart's "Piano Concerto No. 21 - Andante".
  • Dr. Gerhart is a parody of Roy Orbison.
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