Doug (TV series)

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This article is about the series. For other uses, see Douglas (disambiguation).

Doug
File:Doug Cartoon Title Card.jpg Title card of the first series
Genre	Comedy
Created by	Jim Jinkins
Developed by	Jim Jinkins and Joe Aaron
Written by	Jim Jinkins
Directed by	Ken Kimmelman Carol Millican Yvette Kaplan Adam Pennington
Voices of	Billy West (first series only) Tom McHugh Fred Newman Chris Phillips Constance Shulman Becca Lish Alice Playten Doug Preis Greg Lee
Narrated by	Billy West (1991-1994) Tom McHugh (1996-1999)
Theme music composer	Fred Newman
Composers	Fred Newman Dan Sawyer
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	7
No. of episodes	52 (first series) 65 (second series) (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers	Jim Jinkins David Campbell David Martin Christine Martin
Producer	JoEllyn Marlow
Editors	Bruce Knapp Alysha Cohen Meredith Jeffrey
Running time	24 minutes (11 minutes each episode)
Production companies	Jumbo Pictures Nickelodeon Animation Studios (first series) Ellipse Programmé (1992-1994) Walt Disney Television Animation (second series)
Original release
Network	Nickelodeon (first series) ABC (second series)
Release	First series: August 11, 1991 (1991-08-11) – December 16, 1994 (1994-12-16) Second series: September 7, 1996 (1996-09-07) – June 26, 1999

Doug is an American animated sitcom created by Jim Jinkins and co-produced by his studio, Jumbo Pictures (now known as Cartoon Pizza). Doug centers on the surreal and imaginative exploits of its title character, Douglas "Doug" Funnie, who experiences common predicaments while attending middle school. The series lampoons several topics, including puppy love, bullying, and rumors. Many episodes center around Doug's attempts to woo fellow classmate Patti Mayonnaise (Constance Shulman).

Doug originally aired on Nickelodeon in the United States. It, along with Rugrats and The Ren & Stimpy Show, comprised the original three Nicktoons, premiering simultaneously on August 11, 1991 and ending in December 1994. Following the acquisition of the former Jumbo Pictures by Disney in 1996, a second series was produced and 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 original series became syndicated on TeenNick's then newly-debuted The '90s Are All That block..

Plot

Doug Funnie and his family (which consists of parents Theda and Phil, sister Judy, and anthropomorphic 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 a fictional town located in New Hampshire.

Production

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's 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. The creator of the show, Jim Jinkins, named the main character Doug after his godson, Doug Eckhardt, currently an art history major at the University of Pennsylvania. 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.

First series (1991–1994)

The first series of Doug premiered on Nickelodeon on August 11, 1991 where it continued until December 16, 1994, and was aired in reruns until 2003, being the first Nicktoon. Doug premiered in reruns on The N on April 2002, where it continued until February 12, 2003, and was in reruns again until September 2006. As of 2009, Nickelodeon's Doug airs reruns on MTV Tr3́s affiliates bb KBEH and KMOH-TV (as an E/I program) in the US and on Nicktoonsters in the UK.

In the first episode, Douglas Yancey Funnie and his family (Phil, Theda and sister Judy) arrive in a new town called Bluffington after moving away from their former residence in Bloatsburg. There, he meets Skeeter, Patti, Roger and Beebe, and his new life in a new town begins.

John Kricfalusi, the creator of The Ren & Stimpy Show, stated on a DVD commentary for his show that among the three original Nicktoons (Rugrats being the other one), Nickelodeon was banking on Doug to be its major hit. This, however, was not the case; Rugrats would go on to be the biggest hit of the three original Nicktoons, going on to have the longest run of any Nicktoon to date and still airing on the channel as of 2011, where as Doug (in its Nickelodeon incarnation) had the shortest run of the three.

During the course of the show's run, it won two Kids' Choice Awards (one in 1992 and one in 1995).

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. Reruns returned to TeenNick on September 26, 2011.

Second series (1996-1999)

In 1996, the series was picked up by The Walt Disney Company after Jinkins sold off his animation studio Jumbo Pictures to the aforementioned corporation, and the rights to the mentioned show with it. Disney ordered new episodes of Doug to be produced (renamed Brand Spanking New! Doug, and then later Disney's Doug) which was in production from 1996–1999.

Several differences between the Nickelodeon and Disney shows exist. The musical style switched from a cappella to an orchestrated style (meaning that a new theme song was made), though cues from the a cappella style were taken. Doug was also voiced by McHugh now and Roger by Phillips, who was already the voice of various other characters, due to West refusing to return because of payment conflicts with Disney (West would later say that he hated the Disney series, citing his thoughts of McHugh's performance as Doug.). Many changes were addressed in Doug's Last Birthday, the first episode of the Disney series.

• The episode takes place a year after the Nickelodeon series, making everyone a year older. As such, Doug is now twelve years old instead of eleven, though he was eleven throughout most of the episode.
• Patti, whose skin tone was now darkened and was starting to wear earrings, decides to change her wardrobe, and also gets a new hairdo. She is also being schooled at home during mornings.
• Judy's hair is no longer shaved on the sides.
• Skeeter gets a new shirt that is identical to his older one, except with a zero instead of a thunderbolt and a slightly brighter color. He also gets new shorts that look similar to his old ones and is normally shown with a purple vest.Also,his blue skin is lightened.
• Connie had lost a considerable amount of weight.
• The Beets (A loose parody of the Beatles) had broken up.
• Honker Burger (A parody of the real-life In-N-Out Burger) had gone bankrupt, leaving Mr. Swirly (A likely loose parody of Friendly's) becoming the new hangout for most of the characters (Mr. Swirly was a character that appeared a few times during the Nickelodeon years).
• Beebe gets her bangs cut.
• Roger's mother suddenly becomes rich, and she and Roger had moved out of their trailer and into a mansion. As such, they get new wardrobes and hairstyles.
• Doug is the last character in the episode to get changes, growing an extra hair (Now having nine instead of eight) and getting a new shirt and pair of shorts, both of which are identical to his older ones but longer. Skeeter also mentions that he sounds different, a direct reference to McHugh now voicing Doug instead of West, though McHugh was still perfecting his voice for Doug during the episode.

The next episode, Doug's New School, 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 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, in which every episode focused on Doug with him narrating, the Disney series had several episodes that focused on several other characters, usually without any narration at all.

On March 15, 1999, Disney premiered a new musical stage show, "Doug Live!" at Disney's Hollywood Studios (at the time known as Disney-MGM Studios) at the Walt Disney World Resort. The show ran until May 12, 2001. Additionally, a theatrical feature-length film, Doug's 1st Movie was released on March 26, 1999, before production on the television show ceased. During this time, meet-and-greet costumed versions of Doug and Patti were seen in Disney World. The characters have been retired, but sometimes make appearances (usually if another character cannot make it to their meet-and-greet). Following the stage show, a version for Game Boy Color was released in 2000, titled Doug's Big Game.

During the course of the show, Doug was nominated for at least two Daytime Emmy Awards.

Disney aired Doug 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. 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.

In the Disney version, every episode was a full-length episode of about 22 minutes, split into three segments. In the Nick version, 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.

Characters

• Douglas Yancey "Doug" Funnie (Voiced by Billy West in the first series and by Tom McHugh in the second series): Doug is the title character, a shy, extremely insecure, somewhat clumsy, 11½ (turns 12 in the second series) year old boy with a large imagination a talent for writing, and a love for music. Doug's favorite instrument is a banjo, and uses it 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 and spy film character Smash Adams. Doug is left-handed.

• Theda Funnie (Voiced by Becca Lish): Doug, Judy, and Dirtbike's mother, generally portrayed as a housewife, but sometimes a working mother too. Her skin is slightly brighter than Doug's, her hair is blue, and is shown to be rather meek and somewhat clumsy.

• Phil Funnie (Voiced by Doug Preis): Doug, Judy, and Dirtbike's father, a photographer for a department store. His personality is friendly, outgoing, and sometimes clumsy. His skin has a hint of orange, and he can be seen giving Doug advice, most of which is mostly, if not completely, useless.

• Roger M. Klotz (Voiced by Billy West in the first series and by Chris Phillips in the second series series): Roger is Doug's rival and the neighborhood bully. Roger and his divorced mother lived in a trailer park in the first series; in the second series, Roger's family become wealthy after a real-estate deal struck between the owner pf the trailer park and the Bluff family. As the bully, Roger always tries to poke embarrass 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, sometimes acting more like a friend.

• Patricia "Patti" Mayonnaise (Voiced by Constance Shulman): A brown-skinned blonde athlete, with a southern accent who Doug has a crush on. Her physical talents include: basketball, baseball, ballet, bowling, weightlifting, and the fictional Beetball. She notes that for all her talents she is unable to cook. She seems to like Doug to a certain degree throughout the series, but it is unclear whether she fully reciprocates his feelings (though in one episode she does reveal that, of all the friends she has, she considers Doug the one she likes spending time with most). Her father, Chad, uses a wheelchair to get around, and her mother is deceased, as we learn in one episode after Doug causes her old house to cave in by throwing rocks at it. In some episodes of Disney's Doug, she has a super heroic persona named "Supersport".

• Porkchop (Voiced by Fred Newman): Doug's semi-anthropomorphic dog who, while not able to talk, helps Doug in certain situations. He lives in an igloo in the Funnie family's backyard and a tepee in the Disney series. Porkchop makes typical dog sounds. His personality is similar to that of Snoopy.

• Stinky (Voiced by Fred Newman): Roger's arrogant cat and Porkchop's rival. Thought to be male in the Nickelodeon series until Doug's Fat Cat, where she gave birth to a litter of kittens. Both Doug and Roger are shocked about this (Doug asks Roger why he never told him this, and he responds with "Well, how was I supposed to know?".).

• Cleopatra "Dirtbike" Funnie (Voiced by Fred Newman): The baby sister of the family, born in the Disney show's Christmas episode. She gets her name from Judy snatching Doug's Christmas list and making fun of the names of what was on it and then sarcastically making relevant suggestions, one of them Cleopatra. In the end, Theda, who had been present at the time, says that she took a name suggestion from each of them. The name was decided via a Disney Adventures contest, with the winner receiving a drawing of himself with Doug and his friends.

• Mosquito "Skeeter" Valentine (Voiced by Fred Newman): Doug's lanky, electric-blue-skinned best friend. He is famous in both versions of the series for the "honk honk" sound he frequently makes. Skeeter comes from a family who has lived in Bluffington for quite some time. He has a mischievous ten year old brother, Dale, who gives Doug a hard time when Doug babysits him in one episode. Skeeter initially helps Doug order food from the popular Bluffington restaurant "Honker Burger" (which is later demolished in the Disney version) in the series premiere (resulting in their friendship), and later helps Doug learn how to dance. He has a superhero alter-ego, whom he calls "The Silver Skeeter", based on The Silver Surfer from Marvel, and is the equal of Quailman, Doug's superhero alter-ego. It is revealed that Skeeter is highly intelligent (much to Doug's discomfort), later gaining the respect of geeky twin brothers Al and Moo. In the Disney version, the three become obsessed with catching the Lucky Duck Lake monster.

• Judith "Judy" Anastasia Funnie (Voiced by Becca Lish): Doug's tan-skinned older sister, and the oddball of the family, she is obsessed with the works of William Shakespeare, and is a wanna-be actress and artist who attends a special art school (Moody School) for gifted individuals. She is a rather intelligent person, but at times is embarrassed by the banality of her family. She and Doug have normal bouts of sibling rivalry, but usually team together when faced with a problem. Her usual attire consists of her signature red hair, purple beret, an over-sized purple sweater with no sleeves, black shirt and pants, purple boots and on occasion sandals, and black sunglasses. She is a stereotypical beatnik.

• Buddy "Bud" Dink (Voiced by Fred Newman): A slightly eccentric, purple-skinned, retired neighbor of Doug Funnie's. Doug frequently goes to Mr. Dink for advice (somewhat used as a reference to when Tim "The Tool Man" Taylor goes to Wilson for advice on the live-action sitcom Home Improvement), particularly in the Nickelodeon episodes, but the advice Dink gives usually ends up making the situation worse for instance, in an episode where Doug fears he is going through premature male pattern baldness, Mr. Dink "assures" Doug that his own full head of hair was a toupée and that he had been bald since age 13. He is often seen with various outrageous gadgets, claiming them to be "very expensive", which is one of his signature phrases.

• Tippingdale "Tippi" Dink (Voiced by Doris Belack): Bud's sarcastic and normally monotonous, but generally well-intentioned and friendly, wife. Near the end of the Nickelodeon series, she defeated White in election as mayor. This role, which toned down her sarcasm, continued into the Disney series.

• Lamar Bone (Voiced by Doug Preis): Assistant/vice-principal Lamar Bone is the stereotypical "mean principal" of Bluffington Elementary School during the Nick-era episodes, then transferred over to Beebe Bluff Middle School for the same job in the Disney-era episodes. Mr. Bone is generally uptight and serious about his job. In his personal life, he enjoys yodeling and clog dancing which have earned him many accolades and trophies -- some of which he kept at Bluffington Elementary. He, like Roger, also has a number of villain alter-egos in Doug's Quailman comics, such as "The Rulemeister" or "Robo-Bone". Mr. Bone's speech mirrors that of Don Knotts character "Barney Fife" from The Andy Griffith Show.

• Mayor Robert "Bob" White (Voiced by Greg Lee): The mayor of Bluffington; a stereotypical fast talking glad-handing politician who's sole concern is being continually reelected as mayor of Bluffington. He is best known for his campaign slogan "Vote for me!" and is overweight, is almost always shown wearing a grey suit and tie, and his white hair is always styled. In the episode "Doug's Monster Movie", Mayor White, in response to public concern he launched a "Beautify Bluffington" campaign which caused more litter than it removed. He is eventually voted out of office in favor of Mrs. Dink, after which he takes the role of middle school principal (and Bone's superior) in the Disney version, a role he uses (somewhat unethically) to campaign for his old office back.

• Beebe Bluff (Voiced by Alice Playten): A stereotypically spoiled heiress to the Bluff family fortune. Beebe is the 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 version, 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. She has a crush on Skeeter, but ended up having her first kiss with Doug.

• Al and Moo Sleech (Both voiced by Eddie Korbich): Smart twin brothers, both of whom have light purple skin. Doug looks to them for help whenever needed. In the Disney series, they skip the middle school grades and end up going to high school, but their relationship with Doug and others are still intact. They are each shown to have a crush on Judy.

• William "Bill" Bluff II (Voiced by Doug Preis): Beebee's father, the richest man in Bluffington, and the descendant of Bluffington's founder. He tends to be somewhat greedy and can be the main antagonist, such as in the movie. He is fairly close with Mayor White, suggesting that Bluff uses White as a pawn through lucrative campaign contributions.

• Larry (Voiced by Chris Phillips): A rather fat and pink-skinned friend of Doug's. Shown to be somewhat meek and shy, but can have a hot temper, such as when he first encountered Doug.

• Willie White (Voiced by Doug Preis): Bob's son, and a member of Roger's gang. He is short, has light brown skin, and has purple hair. Willie is much less inclined to politics than his father (in fact, the one time he ran for class treasurer, his father controlled the entire campaign), and is extraordinarily stupid.

• Boomer Bledsoe (Voiced by Chris Phillips): Another member of Roger's gang. Has orange skin and green hair and is shown to be more nice to Doug than rude.

• Ned Cauphee (Voiced by Fred Newman): The other member of Roger's gang. Has ten brothers and twin sisters and two different-looking eyes. He is the smartest and most vocal of the gang.

• Skunky Beaumont (Voiced by Fred Newman): A typical slacker surfer dude, with a voice that is reminiscent of the Fast Times At Ridgemont High character Jeff Spicoli. In the Nickelodeon series, he was commonly mentioned, but never seen nor heard.

• Guy Graham (Voiced by Guy Hadley): A purple-skinned schoolkid appearing only in the Disney series, a selfish and rather inconsiderate kid. He is editor-in-chief for the school newspaper and is Doug's rival, most especially for Patti's love. In Doug's Quailman fantasies, he has the villain identities of Golden Salmon, Rupert Schmupert, and an unnamed space slug.

• Connie Benge (Voiced by Becca Lish): A naive schoolgirl. In the Nickelodeon series, she seemed to have a small crush on Doug. This relationship with him remains in the Disney series, though she also tries to develop a similar relationship with Roger, despite having been annoyed by him in the Nickelodeon series, such as in Doug Throws a Party, where he successfully exposes her bad haircut, only to have everyone unhappy with him...and himself punched hard in the stomach by Connie. Although she was rather heavy-set in the Nickelodeon series, she lost weight between the two series and got a new wardrobe and hairstyle after visiting a beauty farm, making her look quite different in both shows. The Disney series also shows her trying to be a singer and songwriter.

• Chalky Studebaker (Voiced by Doug Preis): A surprisingly friendly and helpful school jock with light green skin, who wants to follow the footsteps of his older brother Cliff.

• Ms Wingo (Voiced by Doris Belack): Doug's teacher at Bluffington Elementary, with a personality of both nice and stern. In the Disney series, she is only seen in the finale.

• Coach Spitz (Voiced by Jeff Bergman): Bluffington Elementary's coach. He has a bad temper and is shown to be sexist towards females.

• Emily Kristal (Voiced by Fran Brill): Doug's happy and somewhat energetic middle school teacher, appearing only in the Disney series. Near the end of the series, she gets engaged with Patti's father, and the series finale focuses on their wedding.

Home video release

Sony Wonder released a series of videos of the first series between 1993 and 1996. Walt Disney Home Video released four videos of the second series in 1997; each collection featured two episodes.

In 2008, Nickelodeon partnered with Amazon.com to allow new and old programming to be made available on DVD through CreateSpace. As part of the deal, Amazon.com is responsible for producing the discs (on one time burnable media) on-demand as well as cover and disc art. Seasons 3 and 4 of Nickelodeon's Doug were released on DVD on December 8, 2009, and December 22, 2009, respectively.

Season 4 was supposed to be released as a complete season, like its previous editions, but Nickelodeon was unable to locate two episodes from the final Nickelodeon season of the show, and opted to rename the DVD release "Doug: The Best of Season 4". The two missing episodes of Season 4 are available at iTunes Store .

Nickelodeon episodes are available from video on demand services such as iTunes Store (all seasons) and Zune Marketplace (all seasons).

Nick DVD name	Release date	Discs	Episodes
Season 1 (1991)	August 29, 2008	3	13
Season 2 (1992)	August 29, 2008	3	13
Season 3 (1993)	December 8, 2009	3	13
The Best of Season 4 (1993–94)	December 22, 2009	3	12

External links

• Template:Tv.com
• Doug at IMDb
• Disney's Doug at IMDb
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