Doug is an American animated television series on Nickelodeon and is the first Nicktoon ever made, starring an 11-year-old named Doug Funnie (full name: Douglas Yancey Funnie). The series originated with an unpublished book, Doug Got a New Pair of Shoes, by artist and series creator Jim Jinkins and writer Joe Aaron. The series premiered on Nickelodeon in 1991, where it ran until 1996. The episodes shown on Nickelodeon were produced during 1991-1994. In 1996, Disney produced new episodes following its takeover of Jumbo Pictures. It ran on ABC from 1996-1999, as part of Disney's One Saturday Morning block.
| Doug | |
|---|---|
| File:Doug cartoon.gif Doug and his dog Porkchop | |
| Created by | Jim Jinkins Joe Aaron |
| Starring | Billy West Fred Newman Constance Shulman Becca Lish Alice Playten Doug Preis Greg Lee |
| Narrated by | Billy West (1991-1994) Thomas McHugh (1996-1999) |
| Country of origin | United States |
| No. of episodes | 117 (98 11-minute episodes, 67 22-minute episodes, and 1 theatrical feature-length film) |
| Production | |
| Running time | 22 minutes (11 minutes per segment) (approx. per episode) – Doug: The Series 22 minutes (approx. per episode) – Disney's Doug |
| Original release | |
| Network | Nickelodeon (1991-1994) ABC (1996-1999) |
| Release | August 11, 1991 – December 16, 1994 (Doug: The Series) – September 7, 1996 – June 5, 1999 (Disney's Doug) |
- For nickname "Doug", see Douglas.
Original series
The series takes place in the fictitious town of Bluffington (where Doug and his family have moved from Bloatsburg) and deals with the life and imagination of title character, grade-schooler and diarist Douglas Yancey "Doug" Funnie, his dog Porkchop, good friends Skeeter Valentine and Patti Mayonnaise (with whom he is secretly smitten), and his nemesis, Roger Klotz, the school bully. Most episodes start with Doug writing in his journal about recent events in his life, with the main action of the episode being a flashback of the events as Doug narrated them.
Doug's older sister, Judy Funnie, is a constant source of conflict. She is a dramatic actress (arguably a beatnik) who always wears a purple beret and sunglasses, especially in the house. Doug is the supposed bane of her existence, as his childlike interests annoy her very much.
Doug's (and many others in Bluffington) favorite band is The Beets. Killer Tofu is his favorite song.
A theme in the series is Doug's alternate comic book personality, Quailman. He has a belt worn around his head, towel cape and briefs over his pants, but is otherwise identical to Doug. Porkchop's character is Quaildog, sidekick to Quailman. Skeeter has an analogous character named the Silver Skeeter (a parody of Marvel's Silver Surfer). Doug has other alternate personalities including adventurer, Race Canyon (an obvious spoof of Indiana Jones. Skeeter often appears as Race's compainion, Skitari) and secret agent, Smash Adams (an homage to James Bond). There is also Doug's shady alter ego, Jack Bandit.
Doug's imagination, as he reacts to various situations in his life, helps to provide premises for the stories, à la Walter Mitty. One episode dealing with a visit to his dentist, for example, contains homages to Goldfinger and Marathon Man.
Another theme in the series regards Doug's feelings for Patti, with whom he falls in love upon first setting eyes on her. Some episodes focus on this and also involve either Doug attempting to get closer to Patti or his frantic attempts to stop her from discovering his feelings. The story ends on an optimistic note for the two when Patti asks Doug out on a date.
Notable in the series' character design is the frequent use of unusual names and skin colors. Doug is of Caucasian tone, whereas his father is orange, his mother is pink, his sister Judy is tan, neighbors Mr. and Mrs. Dink are purple, Skeeter is blue-green, Patti is orange, and Roger is lime green. Race does not seem to come into play at all in this show. The use of scat singing and vocally-derived melodies (for the starting theme and other instances like the recurring theme for Patti Mayonnaise) and erratic sounds and noises for various characters (particularly for Skeeter) further expressed the unique and eccentric design of this cartoon series.
The television series was produced by Jumbo Pictures and Ellipse Programmé for the Nickelodeon cable channel, and aired from 1991 to 1994 with over 52 episodes produced.
Series creator Jim Jinkins was in production for Disney's Stanley, currently airing on The Disney Channel's Playhouse Disney block in re-runs.
Disney's Doug
In February 1996, Disney bought Jumbo Pictures, and ordered new episodes of Doug to be produced (renamed Brand Spanking New! Doug and then later Disney's Doug). The new episodes featured a new theme song and brought a new baby sister for Doug as well as a change in age to 12½ years old. It also brought a new haircut for Patti, more money for Roger, weight loss for Connie, and much more. This included a change of clothes for everyone and a brand new middle school. These episodes aired on ABC's One Saturday Morning cartoon block from September 1996 to September 9, 2000. In March of 1999, Disney introduced Doug: Live! to its Walt Disney World theme park. This musical stage show based on the television series ran at Disney-MGM Studios until May of 2001. After 65 additional episodes and a theatrical feature-length film, Disney's Doug went out of production in 1999. During the course of the show, Doug was nominated for 4 Daytime Emmy Awards[citation needed]. Since the end of production, also featured on Toon Disney, but due to scheduling changes and the addition of JETIX, it has vanished completely off the network. Along with a number of other shows it was removed from schedules in November 2004 and has not been seen since. It is unknown if it will ever return, and Disney currently has no plans to release the series on a DVD set. The sale made Doug the only Nicktoon to ever be sold to a non-Viacom company (Ren & Stimpy was picked up by Spike TV in 2003 as the Ren and Stimpy Adult Party Cartoon).
The television series was produced by Jumbo Pictures for Walt Disney Television, and aired from 1996 to 1999, producing 65 half-hour episodes and 1 theatrical feature-length film called Doug's 1st Movie. Disney's Doug was unfamous unlike Nickelodeon's Doug (1991-1994)
Specials
- Doug's Halloween Adventure (1994)
- Doug's Christmas Story (1994)
- Doug's Secret Christmas (1996)
Characters
Episodes
Nickelodeon's Doug (52 episodes; 4 seasons) featured two eleven-minute stories with a commercial break between. ABC's Doug (65 episodes; 3 seasons) had a single theme the whole episode. Disney also produced a full-length movie (Doug's 1st Movie).
It is unlikely that all of the Doug episodes ever made will appear in a season-or-volume-form DVD box set, with Nickelodeon still owning the rights to the original episodes, and Disney owning only their episodes.
Copyright claims
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Three parties lay claim to Doug:
- Disney for all episodes produced since 1996.
- Nickelodeon for all episodes produced for that channel, 1991 to 1994. However, Nickelodeon owns the distribution rights only for North and South America.
- Groupe Ellipse, the co-producer of the Nick version, has distribution rights for other parts of the world.
Popularity
The popularity of Doug spawned merchandise such as clothes, toys, and a number of books. It is available on home video, but it has not yet been released on DVD due to the copyright claims. Unofficially licensed sets of DVDS of the complete series of Nickelodeon Doug, however, have recently been spotted on eBay.com. A video game called Doug's Big Game was also released in 2000. Even a live 30-minute musical stage performance called "Disney's Doug Live!" was created and performed at Disney-MGM Studios in Orlando, Florida. The show ran from March 15, 1999 to May 12, 2001.
Richmond
Several times throughout the series, references are made to locations in Richmond, Virginia, where creator Jim Jinkins was born and raised. These include the Moody School which Doug's sister Judy attends, analogous to Moody Middle School in Henrico County, and the Four Leaf Clover Mall, analogous to the Cloverleaf Mall in Richmond. Several street names from Richmond's West End are also included. As well, the Honker Burger is supposed to be a reference to Roy's Big Burger, a popular burger joint in Richmond's Lakeside area. The neighboring city of Bloatsburg is a reference to Blacksburg.