Doug

File:Nickelodeon Doug OpeningFile:Disney's Doug Opening**Doug** is an American animated sitcom created by children's author Jim Jinkins and co-produced by his studio, Jumbo Pictures. The show focuses on the surreal and imaginative exploits of its title character, Douglas "Doug" Funnie, who experiences common predicaments while attending school in his new hometown of Bluffington, Virginia. The series lampoons several topics, including puppy love, bullying, and rumors.

*Doug* originally aired on Nickelodeon in the United States. *Doug*, along with *Rugrats* and *The Ren & Stimpy Show*, comprised the three Nicktoons, premiering simultaneously on August 11, 1991 and ending on January 2, 1994. Following the acquisition of the former Jumbo Pictures by Disney in 1996, the series aired on ABC as part of the former Disney's One Saturday Morning programming block. The second series premiered on September 7, 1996, and ended on June 26, 1999 while having a feature film adaption. In 2011, the Nickelodeon series became syndicated on TeenNick's then newly debuted The '90s Are All That block.

## Plot

Doug Funnie and his family which consists of his parents Theda and Phil, sister Judy, and dog Porkchop move from the town of Bloatsburg to Bluffington after his dad receives a job promotion. Often, Doug will write in his journal about his experiences in his new hometown. Bluffington is loosely based on the city of Richmond, Virginia, due to the fact that creator Jim Jinkins was born and raised there.

## Characters

**Doug Funnie** (voiced by Billy West in the Nickelodeon series, Tom McHugh in the Disney series) — Doug is depicted as a short-tempered, fun-loving, gullible, 11½ year old boy with an imagination. He has a talent for writing and he plays a banjo in his spare time. Doug narrates every episode, and writes his experiences in his journal. Doug also imagines himself as several alter-egos, particularly a superhero named Quailman (a parody of Superman), spy film character Smash Adams (a parody of James Bond), and adventuring archaeologist Race Canyon (a parody of Indiana Jones).

**Mosquito "Skeeter" Valentine** (Voiced by Fred Newman) — Skeeter is Doug's eccentric and a goofy best friend, and a sidekick. He is famous in both series for the honking sounds he frequently makes. Skeeter's family has lived in Bluffington for some time. Skeeter initially helps Doug order food from the popular Bluffington restaurant Honker Burger in the series premiere resulting in their friendship, and later helps Doug learn how to dance. He also has a superhero alter-ego, whom he calls the Silver Skeeter (a parody of Silver Surfer). While Skeeter appears as stupid and clumsy, it is revealed that Skeeter is actually a genius.

**Roger M. Klotz** (Voiced by Billy West in the Nickelodeon series, Chris Phillips in the Disney series) — Roger is Doug's archrival and the town's local school bully. Roger and his divorced mother lived in a trailer park in the Nickelodeon series, in the Disney series, Roger's family becomes wealthy from a real estate deal struck between the owner of the trailer park and the Bluff family. As the bully, Roger always tries to poke fun at those around him. Doug uses Roger as a villain in most of his Quailman comics, most notably mad scientist Dr. Klotzenstein. Roger has a crush on Doug's sister Judy, and owns a cat named Stinky who rivals Doug's dog Porkchop. Roger plays lead electric guitar for his band and is also an accomplished ballet dancer, much to Doug's surprise. Despite his nature, he is also portrayed as generally closer to Doug in the second series than in the first, acting more like a friend, despite usually still being portrayed as a bully.

**Patti Mayonnaise** (voiced by Constance Shulman) — One of Doug's best friend and a crush. Towards the end of the both the Nickelodeon and Disney series, they develop romantic feelings for each other. Patti is a star athlete with multiple talents. She notes that for all her talents, she is unable to cook. Her father, Chad, is a paraplegic, and her mother is deceased, as revealed in the episode "Doug Rocks the House", where Doug accidentally destroys her house. In the Disney series, she gets a super heroic persona named Supersport.

**Beebe Bluff** (Voiced by Alice Playten) —Beebe is the rich daughter of Bill Bluff, the richest man in the town and a friend of Mayor White. The Bluff family is the namesake of the town of Bluffington, and in the Disney series, the school is even named after Beebe. Despite a certain air of superiority over her peers, Beebe maintains friendships with Patti Mayonnaise and most of her other contemporaries. Doug had his first kiss with her in the episode "Doug's Secret Admirer", although it was out of gratitude rather than love, since she already has a crush on Skeeter. Beebe was Alice Playten's final animated role before her death in 2011.

**Porkchop** (Voiced by Fred Newman) — Doug's anthropomorphic pet dog that is one of Doug's sidekicks and accompanies him nearly everywhere he goes. He sometimes assists Doug in making decisions and acts as his conscience. He is also very talented in many things such as acting. He lives in an igloo-shaped doghouse in the Nickelodeon series, and a tipi in the Disney series. During a Christmas special it is shown that Doug got Porkchop as a christmas gift and that Porkchop once saved Beebe Bluff's life when she was about to fall through some thin ice.

**Mr. Bud Dink** (Voiced by Fred Newman) — A slightly eccentric, purple-skinned, dimwitted, retired neighbor of the Funnies and the first neighbor Doug meets. He always has a number of high-tech gadgets that are very expensive. Doug frequently goes to Mr. Dink for advice, but sometimes in vain. In "Doug's Dental Diaster", it is revealed that he wears dentures.

## History

*Doug* was created by former Nickelodeon artist Jim Jinkins in September 1990, and produced through Jinkins' production company, Jumbo Pictures, Inc. Originating with an unpublished book, Doug Got a New Pair of Shoes, by artist and series creator Jim Jinkins and writer Joe Aaron, the 1991 animated series *Doug* emerged on the Nickelodeon TV channel. The idea for "Quailman", an imaginary superhero whom Doug often pretends to be in the cartoon, was inspired by a similar superhero invented by Jinkins when he was younger. The "quail call" is based on Colinus virginianus (Northern Bobwhite quail or Virginia quail), even though the actual bird does not have an archetypal topknot (as Doug displays with the belt on his forehead).

### Nickelodeon Series (1991-1994)

*Doug* premiered on Nickelodeon as the first Nicktoon on August 11, 1991 where it aired until January 2, 1994, and was then aired in reruns until 2003. During the course of the show's run, it won two Kids' Choice Awards one in 1992 and one in 1995. Doug was rerun on Nick Jr. from February 2, 1999 until March 31, 2002, during its 1999-2002 Noggin teenage era years before Noggin went preschool and eventually changed names to Nick Jr. in 2009. Doug later aired in reruns on Nick Jr./Noggin's night-time shift block, The N, from April 1, 2002 until February 12, 2003, and was in reruns again until September 2006. Doug was one of the only Nicktoons to air on Nick Jr./Noggin. Doug aired on Nick on CBS from September 14, 2002 until September 11, 2004. As of 2009, Nickelodeon's Doug airs reruns on MTV Tr3́s affiliates bb KBEH and KMOH-TV in the US and had also aired on Nicktoonsters in the UK.

Reruns of Nickelodeon's Doug began airing on TeenNick on July 25, 2011 as part of a newly created block airing Nickelodeon's programming from the 1990s called The '90s Are All That. On August 24, 2011, TeenNick announced it will be replacing the show with Hey Arnold! on September 5, 2011. Reruns returned to TeenNick for The '90s Are All That on September 26, 2011, until March 18, 2013.

### Disney Series (1996-1999)

In 1996, The Walt Disney Company purchased Jim Jinkins' company, Jumbo Pictures, along with the rights to *Doug*. Disney ordered new episodes of the show, first named *Brand Spanking New Doug*, then *Disney's Doug*. These shows ran from 1996 to 1999.

Several differences between the Nickelodeon and Disney shows exist. Doug was now being voiced by Tom McHugh, and the character of Roger by Chris Phillips. The show also changed theme songs, with the vocalized tune used on Nickelodeon replaced by a mostly whistled tune in the Disney version. Many changes were addressed in "Doug's Last Birthday", the first episode of the Disney series. The episode takes place 3 months after the Nickelodeon series, making everyone a few months older. As such, Doug is now twelve years old instead of eleven. Skeeter mentions that Doug sounds different, a nod to the recasting of Doug with Tom McHugh. Disney made a number of aesthetic changes to the characters. Doug, for example, has a slightly different outfit, Judy's hair is no longer shaved on the sides, and Connie has lost a considerable amount of weight.

Also Honker Burger (a parody of the real-life In-N-Out Burger) has gone bankrupt and replaced with a French restaurant named Chez Honque, leaving Swirly's as the new hangout for most of the characters (Mr. Swirly was a character that appeared a few times during the Nickelodeon years).

In the Disney series Roger's mother suddenly becomes rich after selling the land their trailer is on to Bill Bluff for a large amount of money. She and Roger move into a mansion and get new outfits and hairstyles. Incidentally, Roger is rude to Doug far less of the time than he was in the Nickelodeon series, although when he does lash out at Doug, Roger is far more cruel.

The Disney series also introduced Beebe Bluff Middle School, with Emily Kristal becoming Doug's new teacher, Bone transferring to the school with the same job that he had at Bluffington Elementary, and former mayor Bob White (In the Nickelodeon episode "Doug Runs", Tippi Dink defeated him in an election, becoming mayor for the rest of the series) becoming the principal. A later Christmas episode called "Doug's Secret Christmas" introduced a baby sister named Cleopartra "Dirtbike" Funnie. In addition to these changes, Skunky Beaumont also became a prominent character in the Disney series, having been mentioned but never seen or heard in the Nickelodeon series.

Unlike the Nickelodeon series, where every episode focused on Doug with him narrating, the Disney series had several episodes that also focused on several other characters, usually without any narration at all. For example, the episode "Doug's Chubby Buddy" focuses on Patti, and features no narration, save for a brief PSA made by Patti at the end.

Disney aired the series as part of ABC's Saturday Morning lineup in 1996 (following Disney's purchasing of the network), and the show became part of Disney's One Saturday Morning block in 1997. Despite controversy from various fans of the Nickelodeon series, it proved to be a very popular show, spanning a number of different types of merchandise, and was for a time the most popular show on the block, with the title quickly taken by *Recess*.

## Episodes

In total *Doug* consists of 117 episodes. The Nickelodeon series has a total of 52 episodes spread over 4 seasons that were produced from August 1991 to January 1994. The Disney series has a total of 65 episodes spread over 3 seasons that were produced from September 1996 to June 1999. In the Nickelodeon series, most episodes were composed of two 11-minute segments. The only exceptions are the premiere, Christmas and Halloween episodes, which were full-length episodes split into two segments. In the Disney series, every episode was a full-length episode of about 22 minutes, split into three segments.

## References

1. ↑ Nickelodeon Betting on Cartoons. Articles.latimes.com (1991-08-08). Retrieved on October 22, 2012.