"Thank you for the childhood nightmares we secretly loved" — Internet pays tribute to Courage the Cowardly Dog head writer, David Steven Cohen
Well-known writer David Steven Cohen, 58, has reportedly died after a long battle with cancer. The news was first revealed by the editor-in-chief of Cartoon Research and Animation Scoop, Jerry Beck, on March 16, 2025, through Facebook, where he added a photo of him posing with David.
Jerry recalled David's contributions over the years and wrote in the caption:
“Among his work, live action comedy series (Pee-Wee’s Playhouse, Alf, Parker Lewis Can’t Lose, etc) and hilarious work on FUNNY animated series like ALF TALES, COURAGE THE COWARDLY DOG, and many others) – and the feature film, BALTO – among much else.”
Jerry Beck also mentioned that David Steven Cohen would be remembered by everyone and that he shared a close friendship with a lot of people. Meanwhile, David's family members are yet to share an official statement regarding his passing.
Notably, netizens took to the comments section of a post shared by Toon Hive on X (formerly Twitter), expressing their grief over the reports of David's death. One of them also thanked Steven Cohen for being an important part of everyone's childhood and wrote:
“Thank you for the childhood nightmares we secretly loved.”
Users specifically expressed gratitude to David for his work in Courage the Cowardly Dog.
“Damn, R.I.P. definitely one of the best shows in Cartoon Network history”, a user wrote on X.
“Oh.. this one hurts… Thank you Mr Cohen… Rest well..”, a netizen stated.
“RIP. That cartoon was a totally different thing”, an X reaction mentioned.
After the news went viral, tributes continued to pour in for David Steven Cohen.
“58 is too young. Rip David”, one of the reactions reads.
“I always thought that Courage was an underrated show”, another netizen commented on X.
“Best cartoon show RIP”, an X user reacted.
David Steven Cohen worked on various TV shows over the years
The Brooklyn, New York City native managed to build a huge fanbase for his work on multiple children's TV series. He was specifically known for being the head writer of Courage the Cowardly Dog, in which he started working in the second season.
A few of the segments created by David Steven Cohen also became popular among the audience, including The Transplant, Klub Katz, The Sand Whale Strikes, and more.
In 2018, he appeared for an interview with Trainwreck'd Society, saying he was never passionate about becoming a storyteller. He said that when he was a second-grade student, the entire class used to have weekly spelling tests where they had to write a story using five words.
David Steven Cohen mentioned that the words were not linked to each other "except that they were on a second-grade spelling level." He further stated:
“It was like connecting dots that had no numbers and I loved it. This would turn out to be the great practice for my career. We’re often tasked with writing stories from someone’s idea of good story elements that are as randomly combined as those spelling words.”
Trainwreck'd Society also stated that David Steven Cohen was nominated at the Emmy Awards for his writing work on shows like Peg + Cat and Arthur. Another TV show in his credit is The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss, in which he served as an executive producer. Apart from that, he was also an executive producer for Writers Guild Awards.
As mentioned, the news of David's death is yet to be made official by his family, and further updates on the same are currently awaited.
