Despite its popularity in Britain and elsewhere and the fact that the English version was made in the United States, it only aired briefly in America on the USA Network (when they still showed cartoons). Part of the reason may have been content such as alcohol consumption and attempted murder that would have been considered inappropriate for children's entertainment in the United States. The sequel series, despite being dubbed by the same California studio, didn't air in the U.S. at all (though it probably really was because BRB was fearing a lawsuit from Hanna-Barbera due to Beajeaux having a very strong resemblance to Scooby-Doo). Otherwise, the show's greatest success in North America was on Canadian pay TV in French.
Although the original series was animated and aired first in Japan, it was a ratings flop there, achieving only around a 4% in the Kantonote Tokyo and surroundings region. Its failure led to the cancelation of the literary anime block (a la World Masterpiece Theater) on the TBS network when the sponsor, soft-drink company Calpis, withdrew its support. The later (Taiwan-animated) series never aired in Japan.
Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: Chapter 24, The Impostor, shows Dogtanian and his friends suddenly marching in a really weird way, during quite a couple of minutes, making some viewers wonder if there was supposed to be a song there, as Porthos is shown moving his mouth.
Hilarious in Hindsight: The names of the four musketeers being attached to dogs (although non-anthropomorphic ones this time) cropped up years later in Star Trek: Enterprise, wherein we meet Captain Archer's beagle Porthos, who was originating from a litter of four puppies that got theme-named this way.
Nightmare Fuel: Chapter 19, Dogtanian Is Put to the Test, has a scene with the main character running alone in the woods during the night, while a number of scary stuff appear to him: bats, owls and trees with faces.
Sequelitis: The Return of Dogtanian. Most of the fans of the original series noticed the animation quality dropping due to BRB dismissing Nippon Animation and replacing it with a Taiwanese company (not surprising given the tendency of Western producers to subcontract to Taiwanese or South Korean studios since they were cheaper than working with Japan). Not only the animation suffered, but the story of the sequel was also loosely based on the Man in the Iron Mask story and some other random junk the writers thought up.
