Dennis Mitchell character was modeled after Dennis Ketcham, son of animator,
Hank Ketcham, the creator of the comic strip, with the same title. Despite the affable nature of the character, the real Dennis suffered a somewhat tragical life. When he was only twelve years old, Dennis lost his mother to a drug overdose while she was in the process of divorcing his father. Hank Ketcham then moved them to Switzerland but when Dennis had trouble adjusting to his new life & environment, then started getting into trouble in school, Hank shipped him off to a boarding school back in USA while he stayed behind in Switzerland with his new wife and family. Dennis managed to straighten his life out and even joined the military and fought in Vietnam. After he returned home, he suffered from PTSD and all the while being estranged from his father who, by then, had earned (and continue earning) a lot of money from the daily newspaper comic strips he drew based on his son.
