I was a huge fan of Oswald and it’s contradictions until Nickelodeon pulled the plug on the show a year later before it could pick up any traction. The idea behind the show was unique; a bunch of animals act as the personification of the various personalities that often coexist inside of a co-op in New York City and act out an urban lifestyle in a way that appears to borrow much from Charlie Brown. It was a creative mix of old tried and true children’s programming formulas and the idea that everyone can find themselves in the city, both romanticizing life in the metropolis and appealing to a child’s imagination all at once.
Oswald was the main character acted out through the voice of Fred Savage of “The Wonder Years” and “Boy Meets World”, whose pet dog is an actual hot dog (meant to be a dachshund in real life) who doesn’t speak but is man’s best friend to him. His day usually consists of interrupting the lives of his friends, (as he doesn’t seem to have one) the only which that has a real name is Henry, the typical self-consumed New Yorker that likes his routine plain Jane and doesn’t care for a lot of change and excitement thank you very much. But Oswald only comes across as obnoxious to Henry; the rest of his friends are often excited and
ecstatic about Oswald’s life adventures, as seemingly trivial or meaningless that they must seem to adults.
What Oswald does is effectively turn the dynamics of the social life and interpersonal relationships between children into entertainment, which is what few shows are able to do creatively, though many shows do. Yet much of the reason behind Oswald’s cancellation may have been because the show was more of a conspicuous attempt by adults to tell children what they should watch as opposed to an honest appreciation of what children really do like. The show is entirely too easy for adults to enjoy; I liked it in my mid thirties, but then again I like a lot of other children’s shows with adult humor like “Lilo & Stitch” and movies like “The Incredibles”.
The show was aggressively promoted, if not too much so; Nickelodeon, Nick Jr. (CBS), Cartoon Network and the Disney Channel showed it. It should have been a huge hit; by now there should have been an Oswald movie, among other things. Yet Oswald faded into the background of television obscurity while a host of more popular mainstream shows that lacked the intelligent, dark humor of Oswald went forward. There aren’t any YouTube clips or anything, or other video I can find, but I still have the DVD to remember it by, if nothing else from the sweet memories I had of that show years ago …
