Doug and Roger Klotz

It figures that the residential bully in this series is my next area of focus on this series of posts...

My memory is kinda fuzzy, but I’m pretty sure I didn’t like Roger as much as I do now. Not to say he’s my favorite supporting cast member. It's just much easier to read between the lines now than when I was a kid. Back then, I think I just enjoyed laughing at his expense when a scheme blows up in his face. He picks on Doug a lot through the series, but he’s not his only target. To some degree, all of Doug’s closest friends were at the receiving end of some bad joke or plot.

Quickly for some character history: according to the graduation episode, he’d repeated sixth grade three times and it had reached a point when nobody at school was afraid of him anymore. His signature look was a black leather jacket, white t-shirt, blue jeans and pointy toed leather boots. And he’s usually backed by three cronies- Boomer Bledsoe, Willie White (son of the town mayor), and Ned Cauphee.
His parents are divorced. His dad lives in Bloatsburg and he lives with his mom who works as a hairdresser.

Like with a lot of bullies, if you spend enough time with them, you find out their insistence on making other people miserable comes from their own insecurities. When I reflected on this series before doing any binge watching or additional research, I’m sure I picked up on that. But I kinda forgot how funny it was to see Roger get his comeuppance after talking up a big game to someone else.
I’ll have plenty other opportunities to talk about these moments in future entries on different topics. But for the sake of this post, I want to cover four segments that showed Roger acting out of character because I found them fascinating.



Doug Saves Roger
Mr. Bone’s nephew Percy Femur is a new student at the school. Naturally, Rogers first instinct is to use a water balloon to "welcome" him. This backfires in the hugest way possible: he meets Percy and he’s gigantic. And Roger quickly becomes his favorite punching bag.

The karma is pretty sweet, but it gets old for Doug fast.
“I know Roger can be a pain, but Percy was just plain mean.”
Out of options, Roger turns to Doug for help, which pretty much tells you he’s desperate. Doug quickly stuffs Roger into a locker (can we just appreciate that for a moment? It’s not often bullies get stuffed into lockers) to hide him before Percy can pound him for accidentally calling him a goon. After using words to dissuade him, Doug winds up being Percy’s next target.
Tension is mounting after school but Skeeter breaks it up with this funny comment.
“After Percy destroys you, what bandages do you want? The plain ones or the ones with the little bunnies on them?”

And just before the clobbering can commence, Roger gets Mr. Bone involved just in time. It’s fun to just make fun of Percy’s voice but this moment is easily my favorite.

"[gasp] Uncle Lamar..."
"So, Mr. Klotz was right. All right, mister, the party's over. I'm sending you back to your old school, PDQ!"
"But Uncle Lamar, I was just playing with him..." 

After the fact, Roger jokes that only he’s allowed to do the creaming, it speaks highly of him to ask for help. He would’ve done it for himself, but he was afraid of retailation and not being believed.


Doug Vs. the Klotzoid Zombies 

Whenever Doug assumes the identity of Quailman, it usually involves combating one of his two main adversaries- Roger and Mr. Bone.
In a previous segment ("Doug to the Rescue"), Roger kept bugging Patti to write his book report for him and her attempts to get him off her back land both of them in detention. Doug and Skeeter end up there as well for talking during the same study period. Doug imagines taking on “Klotzilla” as Quailman. (His mythologies are a little confused because Godzilla never scaled a skyscraper with a hostage: that was King Kong). In reality, Doug resolves the situation by staring down Roger like a crazy person until Mr. Bone breaks up the impending fight.
One funny comment I picked up for the first time watching it the other day: supposedly the book report is one third of the grade. Roger moans “did you hear that, Patti? One third of my grade. I can’t repeat this class...again.”

Meanwhile, in this segment, Doug is concerned because all of his friends decide to hang out with Roger after school and it seems like a gathering he'd been purposely excluded from. So he imagines that an evil scientist version of Roger used junk food to turn all of his friends into zombies. Ground zero of his scheme is a game show- Wheel of Snacks. So Quailman crashes the set to stop him. Then he makes a boneheaded move and winds up in a trap.
“Say Quailman, ever been on TV before?”

:facepalm:
You'd expect a regular person to fall for that garbage, but Quailman has intelligence as one of his super powers. Not here, apparently.
He’s only able to break free of the game wheel thanks to Quaildog’s secret weapon, the quail-tail. And the one thing that foils this whole scheme- beets.
Yep. Beets are all over the place on this show and here, they have enough nutrients to break the zombie mindset. I guess it was Nickelodeon’s subtle way of teaching kids that junk food is bad for you. Compared to a lot of “hidden” messages in media nowadays, at least it doesn’t feel like this was shoved down our throats.

At the end, Doug confronts Roger at his house.
“Well Funny face, why don’t you come inside and we’ll talk about it? Mano e Mano.”
He finds out everyone (including Roger) had thrown a surprise party for him. As nice a gesture as it was, I’m still confused about one thing. They were celebrating Doug’s one year anniversary of moving to Bluffington. But this took place at the start of season two. As far as I can tell, everyone is in 6th grade for the duration of the Nickelodeon series. The math just doesn’t add up. If it was a month anniversary, it’d be another matter. But one year? I don’t buy it...


Doug's Worst NIghtmare
This series may not have the best continuity in the world, but it’s hard to argue with comedy gold like this situation.
Up to this point in the series, Roger had been in the same room with Doug’s older sister Judy twice. Both were at the school auditorium for productions she played an integral part of. One happened to be the prior segment in the same episode where she directed/rewrote the Bluffington founders day pageant (more on that another time). But seemingly out of nowhere, Roger develops a huge crush on her. Doug may be blowing things out of proportion (it wouldn’t be the first time) but for him, the idea of two of his least favorite people coming together was a nightmare.
One genius way he tried to dissuade Roger was telling him all about Judy’s infatuation with Derrick Derrickson- a guy who regularly recites Shakespeare while ice skating.
As crazy as it sounds, Roger puts a LOT of effort into wooing Judy. If he applied that dedication to his school work, he wouldn’t be stuck in 6th grade for the third year in a row. He shows up at school dressed like he’s off to the Globe Theater, but on roller skates. His buddies suddenly get concerned because they’ve lost any shred of their former idol. Some of the comments are pretty hilarious. Like how they need to rethink what they're doing with their lives.
Later he gets a ladder to reenact Romeo and Juliet, but he goes to the wrong house. Another strange inconsistency because he was literally just there the other day. But Mrs Dink’s retort was perfect. "Nice try, Romeo, but you're about 30 years too late."

Judy’s at rehearsal so he gives Doug (one of the few times he calls him by his first name) a note for her. Supposedly, it’s a quote from "The Merchant of Venice" with an invite to the Honker Burger worked in at the end. Once there, she gives him the ultimate kiss off in typical Judy Funnie fashion. She recites a dramatic monologue about how they’d wind up poor and she dies of consumption. (It’s gotta be based on a real play or something. I have no idea).

As can be expected, Roger doesn’t take it well.

"What a loon! You never told me your sister was such a weirdo!"
Again... he saw her twice before this so he should've known full well what he was getting into. 

Then we get one last funny bit of dialogue when his friends all show up in roller skates and puffy shirts, harkening back to something he said to them earlier in the segment.
After saying they're lucky they have him to keep them in line;
"But you called us bourgeoi fleas..."
"...and pedestrians."

It's great! I still quote this to this day :P 


Doug’s Fat Cat
Just like Doug is rarely seen without his dog, Porkchop, the same can be said about Roger and his cat Stinky. Its practically a member of his gang because it either laughs at his jokes or makes a random excuse to cause torment.
But like Roger, Stinky has a soft side and Doug found about it the one time he did cat-sitting for Roger. Roger and his mom were going to a monster truck rally and their hotel didn’t allow pets. As insistent as Roger is about Doug helping him out, his parting comment of “I’m... counting on you” tells you all you need to know.

Doug’s one job really was to make sure Stinky stayed on a diet. The cat was getting fat and apparently had done a lot of puking recently. After a funny scene where Stinky is singing what sounds like a drinking song with some alley cats and Porkchop sprays them with a hose like an old man screaming, “hey you kids, get off my lawn!”, Doug tries to stick to the diet without success. Stinky is set on having pizza and ice cream. And pizza and ice cream, Stinky gets.
Judy went on this whole rant about cats being awesome when Roger first dropped Stinky off, but when she finds Stinky in her trunk of costumes the next morning, she changes her tune very quickly. 

Stinky winds up with a huge bellyache, leaving Doug no choice but to go to the vet. Skeeter comes with him for emotional support. Overhearing some comments from the vet, things look really bad. Between that and Roger pleading to find out what happened, it’s a gut punch. This series has a couple of these moments, but they really get you where it hurts. (Ironically, the other instance that comes to mind also has to do with an animal: the Christmas episode. Happy ending or not, it’s still one of the most gut wrenching Christmas specials on any show).

In the end, it turns out that Stinky was a girl this whole time and had just had kittens. The vet even said the pizza and ice cream thing was exactly what Mother Nature ordered. Of course, it’s kinda funny that Roger had no idea and his mom comments that they’re overdue for a “little talk.”

One strange change I remember happening from one series to the next was Roger coming into a fortune. Apparently, the Bluffs made a good deal with the owner of the trailer park where he lives. Wikipedia also mentions a few instances suggesting Roger's feelings for Judy hadn't gone away and there's a possibilty she might reciporate them. But as the series goes on, Roger becomes more of a friend than an enemy, so it might be quite as bad as Doug thought it'd be. 

Doug and The Beets

If you watch enough of this series, you’re sure to come across Doug and Skeeter’s favorite band in some capacity. On Nickelodeon, they’ve made 3 cameos, but their songs also make several appearances. Either in the background, accompanying a montage, or being sung by any of the characters (like Patti in “Doug’s secret song”). Back in the earlier days of Nickelodeon, some of their commercials were music videos featuring songs and sequences of their series. This cross-promotion was absolutely genius. Good times.

Not counting real bands that’ve played fictional versions of themselves in various movies, The Beets are arguably the coolest fictional band ever. They’re obviously a take on The Beatles with an equally fanatic young audience. Cue up a song on the radio and every character is compelled to grab a random Beets wig, seemingly out of thin air, and rock out on air guitar.

The members include Monroe Yoder on bass guitar, Flounder on guitar, Chap Lipman on drums and Wendy Nespah on keyboards.

Back when I was watching this show as a kid, The Beets left a lasting impression. With an ear worm like “Killer Tofu”, how could they not? But I don’t think I appreciated them as much as I do now. 
Now that I’ve developed an attachment to various musical artists, I can more easily relate to Beets-Mania and the ups and downs Doug went through with them.

There are tons of memes on Facebook that stress the importance of friends that introduce you to good music. Skeeter fits that description perfectly. Doug knew nothing of The Beets when they met so Skeeter took it upon himself to give him a comprehensive education about them and their music. Anyone who has a friend or family member like that should consider themselves lucky.
One common theme that seems to repeat itself over the three episodes The Beets appear: a concert is on the horizon, but the two of them have to overcome a series of obstacles standing in their way.

Doug Rocks
They find out from Rodger about a local concert, but tickets are already sold out. They win a pair from a radio contest, but after Skeeter lets his enthusiasm get the better of him at dinner, his dad grounds him. By the time he’s “un-grounded,” he and Doug missed the concert.
But at the Honker Burger, they have a chance meeting with the band. One of the series highlights for sure.
They run into Rodger at the end when he tells about them seeing the band through his binoculars in the back row. Of course he bragged about getting closer to the band than they did- unaware of what just took place. But I’m kinda surprised he didn’t make up an elaborate story like meeting them backstage to rub it in.

Doug’s Hot Ticket
With so many near misses and mishaps, Doug and Skeeter really went through the ringer this time.
Tickets to a concert sell out when they’re next in line, but Doug lucks into a pair thanks to his sister Judy. (She got them from a date but had no interest- go figure!)
They travel to Bloatsburg on the Beets bus, which is packed with other diehard Beet-niks. Here and other places in this segment, you learn all kinds of cool trivia about the band, including the original name of their biggest hit. (Supposedly it was changed from "Szechuan Bean Curd" because that  was too hard to rhyme). As someone who's really gotten into little known trivia of music, there was a lot of fun dialogue.

At a diner pit stop, they strike up a conversation with truck driver Charlene (kind of a cool character we only see for a few minutes). Unfortunately they’re so distracted that the bus leaves without them.
I know the DJ said it was meant to be a 10 minute break, but it was kinda irresponsible of him to not making sure two unaccompanied minors were on the bus before leaving.
Doug and Skeeter are lucky enough to get a ride from the local sheriff (whose basement hosted The Beets rehearsals before they became famous and his sock inspired their song “Where’s My Sock?”) to the venue, but somehow left their tickets behind. (Seriously? How?)
By pure coincidence, though, the stage crew arrived late and Doug offers to help them move the equipment. Not only does this land them backstage passes but they get a little more face time with the band. 

Doug Meets RoboBone
Newly elected as student activities chairperson, Doug launches a campaign to get The Beets to play a concert at their school. But after succeeding, assistant principal Mr. Bone quashes it because he doesn’t deem their music appropriate for a school function.
Would’ve been nice if he mentioned that before the petition began...
As is often the case in times like these, Doug asks himself “What would Quailman do?” Inspired by various comments made by his friends ("It's like Mr. Bone is programmed to say no to everything."/"Yeah, like a robot. The subject is closed. The subject is closed"), the alter ego of Mr. Bone in this sequence is a robot from outer space. His primary objective: boss people around. Several of Doug's classmates wind up in eternal detention for trivial offenses.
Side-note: the first time I heard the phrase “pray tell” was in this cartoon and for years, I thought it was one of those random identifiers you used for a person instead of their name.

The way Quailman wins in the end is a little too simple, but it’s hard to argue with the results. Robo-Bone and his army decide to torture everyone with their yodeling, but when Quailman suggests they sing in the same key, their sound isn’t just more tolerable, it ends up being worthy of a musical career. 
Ultimately, the solution Doug finds is striking a compromise. Mr. Bone’s complaint was that The Beets weren’t as wholesome as his group, the Bluffington Yodelers. So Doug suggests making them the opening act. It goes over really well for everyone. The Beets even get a spark of inspiration- their new song “I need mo’ allowance” (which we also hear during a montage for "Doug Inc." where Doug starts a lawncutting business with his friends) actually works yodeling into the chorus.

Between that and writing catchy songs about tofu and missing laundry, there really was nothing The Beets couldn’t do.

Except stay together, unfortunately. I didn't watch much of the ABC part of the series, but I'm pretty sure the band broke up sometime during it. I skimmed the Wikipedia page for further info and it sounds like they broke up the first time (and the next several times) over silly reasons. 

"Doug Bags a Neematoad"

I'd been mapping which story arcs I want to cover over future blog posts and realized it might take me a bit longer than I thought. Plus 5 posts :P 

So I figured the first episode would be a good place to start. 
If you want to get technical, "Doug Can't Dance" is the pilot episode. If I remember right, that aired on Nickelodeon before a single full episode did. I personally consider similiar to one of those short cartoons they show before Pixar movies.
From Nicktoon standards, "Hey Arnold!" did something very similiar when they previewed it with "24 Hours to LIve"... 
The only big difference here is the animation style and the fact Doug opens it with "Dear Diary" instead of the typical "Dear Journal".

But I digress...

The episode (and series) opens with Doug Funnie and his family moving to Bluffington from Bloatsburg. And as could be expected, there are a lot of jitters that come with being the new kid. Not sure whether you'll make friends or fit in.
One big highlight of this episode is that it introduces us to many of the main characters from the start. People who become staples throughout the series. 

Doug is sent out on a mission to grab some fast food for his family. First, he runs into his eccentric next door neighbor, Mr. Dink. He insists that Doug sit through a little of an introductary video called "Bluffington Proud," led by Mayor White. We hear briefly about Bluff Co. Industries, owned by the town's founding family, the "urban legend" (my words, not theirs) of the neematoads and the fast food joint/local hangout, the Honker Burger.

Once there, Doug runs into a hiccup at the counter because apparently, there's a special way you need to order from the menu. 
I don't know why this is even a thing... it's never brought up again through the entire series. But it's a good segue to bring in Skeeter Valentino who easily rattles off Doug's order:
"The new kid wants 3 moo cows, 1 no cukes, 1 no stinkers, 1 wet one, 4 cubers and 4 from the vine"...
Yeah... it's a weird way of saying 3 hamburgers, one without pickles, one without onions, a fish sandwich, 4 french fries and 4 grape sodas... I actually found this under quotes on imdb and it was the first time I ever understood what Skeeter was saying :P 
Also, a salad from the salad bar, but there's no famous local dialect for that. Go figure.

Doug and Skeeter get acquainted and become really fast friends. But on his way to grab his order, Doug manages to make the worst first impression with another regular on the show. He accidentally slides on a ketchup packet and it winds up on the shoes of resident bully, Roger Klotz. He subsequently meets Roger's 3 cronies and yes-men, Boomer, Ned and Willie. 

Herein comes the reason for the episode title: Roger tells Doug he'll do him a favor by telling him how to become a local hero, by bagging a Neematoad. 
In hindsight, I can't help but wonder if Roger put any other new kids through this hazing ritual or this was a special occasion because of the ketchup incident... 

Anyway, fast forward to the next day: Doug sets off to Stinson's pond to get a neematoad. Luckily, Mrs. Dink intercedes on behalf of her husband (who was totally game to sit him down for the video again) to give him directions. If it wasn't already abundantly clear, this scene kinda shows Mr. Dink is a little off his rocker and his wife has the voice of reason with a touch of dry humor. 

At the pond, Roger tells Doug how to attract a neematoad, by doing a mating call. 

It was so funny watching this scene again because I remember us quoting it all the time. 

After his whimpy first attempt at it, Roger jibes, "a little more feeling, Funnie. This is supposed to be a mating call. You sound like you're dying."
I don't know why, but I always found that hilarious :P

It becomes clear to Doug within a few minutes that this is a huge set-up to make him look like a complete dork. But thanks to his dog, Porkchop, he's able to get back at Roger. I'm not entirely sure if Porkchop fell in by accident or if he did it on purpose, but he comes out of it completely covered in pond scum and slime. And he completely freaks out Roger and his gang. Doug comes out on top and leaves with Porkchop and a spring in his step.
Not to be shown up, Roger insists he's going to catch one that'll make this one "look like a Neema-tadpole"

Just to be real for a second: while Neematoads remain one of the town mascots (along with beets), we never actually see a real one. 
And actually, real nematodes are nothing like the illustrations in Doug. I'm not sure if they were used in Spongebob several years later to show people who they REALLY look like... but for one episode, they literally ate Spongebob out of his house and he had to bunk out with Patrick for a night.

Anyway, Doug tells Skeeter the whole story and despite his attempts to convince him otherwise, he completely falls for Porkchop being a neematoad. 

Finally, we cut to something that's been hyped up all episode. Doug has seen his future love interest, Patti, around throughout his first few days in Bluffington and he finally gets to meet her. Not without its hiccups, though. First, we have a case of deja vu with a stray ketchup packet, but this glob miraclously ends up where it needs to be: on Patti's burger.

And so that character arc offically begins: Doug being in love with Patti and he writes about it (among other things) in his journal.

The final part of his daily entry covers everything that had occurred, namechecking various characters. 

Upon hearing it, though, I had a scary deja vu moment of my own. 

I started keeping a journal because of this series and I sporadically wrote in it until I was 13. But I literally have an entry that borrows some of the words and phrases he used, but for my own friends. The few neighborhood friends I did have at the time. 

Early on in my life, we had a small sense of community on my street. My folks were friends with our neighbors to the right of our house as well as across the street. Then on our left lived my best friend for several years. After they moved away, we'd more or less lost touch for vaious reasons. With everyone else I played with in my neighborhood during the elementary years, I had a small sense of what Doug had with the other kids. At school, though, it took a long time for me to have any substantial friendships.

Finally, the episode ends with Doug wondering: "Gee, I wonder what happened to Roger."

And we cut to him in the pond, flies swirling around him, doing the mating call. 

"Come out, Neematoads... it's your pal, Roger!..." 

...another thing I've noticed in the episodes I've seen so far: Roger has pulled all kinds of stunts, hoping to embarass Doug in front of everybody. And it almost always backfires on him in some way. Some results are more hilarious than others :P 

Doug (1991-1994)- Introduction

Along with Ren & Stimpy and Rugrats, Doug was one of the three original Nicktoon shows. Not only is it my favorite of those three, but it's one of my favorites from the entire network. To this day, I still look back on it fondly and various references still crop up in my head from time to time. 

It's a very simple concept: Doug is an 11 year old boy who's the new kid in Bluffington. And the show takes us through episodes of his day to day life. Problems he encounters and resolves are the same ones a lot of kids deal with, whether it's bullying, first crushes, peer pressure, school woes. Some of the same subject matters also occur in "Hey Arnold!," which came out a few years later. (Another of my all-time favorite Nicktoons, but more on that at a much later date).

Another recurring theme in "Doug" is when he imagines himself as some of his fictional heroes and they go on to resolve predicaments that parallel his own. Quailman (who proudly wears his underwear over his pants) is his version of Superman, Smash Adams (James Bond) and Race Canyon (Indiana Jones). 
But Quailman is the one who makes the most appearances and what most people who'd seen the show probably remember. 

(along with his faithful companion Quaildog)

Before going too far, the next few posts that follow will focus strictly on the Nickelodeon version of the series. Once it went over to ABC and the cast changed, I completely lost interest. It just wasn't the same anymore. (I've stopped watching many TV series I loved for this one reason- voice actors really can make or break a show and I'm extremely loyal to original cast members in most cases). 
There was also a movie called "Doug's 1st Movie," and that was also a bit of a disappointment. It focused on the mythical monster of Lucky Duck Lake, whom Doug and Skeeter disguise as a student to protect it. Patti was also mad at Doug for the majority of the movie for various reasons, so that killed it a bit for me. 
I did get two things out of it, though.
1) it was the first time I heard the name Hermione so when I started reading Harry Potter, I knew how to pronounce her name without any difficulty
2) the producers answering questions about the series was very entertaining, especially when they ran away because they were afraid to answer the question: "When is Doug gonna kiss Patti?" 
As far as I know, they never did... which sucks because much of the series was rooting for them to get together. 

Hmm... that's another reason why "Hey Arnold!" had such a huge pull for me. Helga's huge crush on Arnold and all the shenanigans she went through to keep it secret from him. Again, more on that later.

***

As I listed all of the scenarios I remembered from the series, hoping to single out some highlights to talk about, I realized that I'd retained A LOT. 

Of the 100 or so segments, I remembered all but at least 25 of them from memory. 

So it might be best to break them down into themes. One involving Doug interacting with certain characters. A couple that have to do with sports. And several "how'd I get into this mess?" instances because he'd found himself in over his head a few times through the series. 

I found a channel on YouTube that has several episodes, so I might revisit a few of those over the next few days. 

TV nostalgia: But first... a few honorable mentions

 For a few weeks, I'd been compiling notes about some of the TV shows I grew up with and I've come to a point where a Word document isn't enough to contain it all.

And I figured with some of these series, it'd be cool to use this platform to talk about the impact they had on me, including various inside jokes and quotes I still bring up to this day. 

So to give a quick preview: 
There are at least a dozen series I'll be going into. Some of which, I'll have to break into separate posts by season just because there's too much. 
And all but one are animated... for some weird reason, as a kid, I didn't like watching any live action shows. The one exception has a talking dog as the main character :P 
The majority will be Nickelodeon shows and I'll be going through those first. The rest are from PBS. 

As for the purpose of this post, there are a bunch of shows I won't be devoting a lot of time to simply because my memory isn't as good as it used to be. And some are series that I wouldn't necessarily consider my favorites... yet certain quotes and references will spring to my mind whenever the opportunity presents itself. 

In no particular order: 

Kablam

This was a fun series. Henry and June were the hosts that would lead the audience from one cartoon short to the next. Various shenanigans ensue during their segments, which usually ends up with Henry being the butt of the joke. I think this series was cutting edge at the time because the shorts were created using many kinds of animation, from hand-drawn to computer to stop-motion. 

No joke, the first time I ever heard the word "fondue" was from the short: Sniz & Fondue. The one cartoon I remember was when they wanted Sniz to learn how to tell time. So they actually scribbled on his forehead "don't tell me time" so nobody would help him and he had to figure it out for himself.

But I'm sure everyone remembers Action League Now and Prometheus and Bob a lot more. 

It's kinda funny that my dad isn't really big on any of the shows we watched as kids, but even he remembered both of these segments existing. I think "Action League Now" even got its own show for a bit, but it was short-lived. To this day, I still remember the introduction of the four characters. 

And running gags like Bill the Lab Guy muttering deadpan during every dire medical situation that comes up: "There's nothing I can do."

 

And "Prometheus and Bob" had no dialogue other than the intro and the final screen "End"... but it was brilliant. The alien kept trying to teach the caveman how to operate a wheel or play sports like tennis, but he either wouldn't grasp it or there'd be this random monkey that gets in the way to screw it all up. 

Ren & Stimpy

One of the original Nicktoons. To this day, I'm not sure if I even liked it all that much. Some of it was over the top hilarious, but mostly, it was over the top. Usually on the gross and inappropriate side. That's the main reason why I don't feel like spending too much time talking about it. But for all the negatives I could say, the show is a pop culture success because it's memorable. 

Aside from "Happy Happy Joy Joy," the ones that come to mind (without going too far into Stimpy donating the fat cells from his butt so Ren could have spectacular pecs or putting nerve endings under pillows for the tooth fairy... it gets a lot worse, trust me) are when the two of them spend the night in the pound and Ren learns about "the big sleep" and when the two of them disguise themselves to be firehouse dogs. 

And on their first day, they have to save this huge lady and her menagerie of pets from a burning building. One of them was Mr. Horse, who was a recurring character throughout the series. They did a horrible job breaking his fall, so he winds up dragging himself across the street. Out of nowhere, a reporter comes up to him and asks how he felt about that fall. He then answers with what becomes his signature catchphrase: "No sir, I didn't like it"

The Wild Thornberrys

This show had a cool concept: it followed a family that travels around the world to film their animal TV documentary series. And the younger sister Eliza has the ability to talk to animals. The writing was a little more mature than the shows I was watching at the time so I think a lot of it went over my head. But if I watched it now as an adult, I'd probably get more out of it. 

Even then, we still got some good inside jokes out of it.
The one that springs to mind immediately took place in Australia. It was one of those rare times Debbie, Eliza's older sister, got to hang out with other people her own age. Most of them were surfers and they kept calling her Sheila.
Prompting her to ask: Who's Sheila? 
Their answer: You are, Sheila. That's what we call girls.

But there comes a point where she has to come to Donnie's rescue, she grabs someone's surfboard and says "Give me that board and don't call me Sheila"... after that, they got the message. They carried her back to camp on the board like she was Cleopatra, chanting her real name.

One of the more poignant moments involved Rebecca, an elephant Nigel Thornberry saved from poachers years earlier. Eliza got the chance to meet her and her herd before she passed away of old age. It was a great circle of life kind of moment because shortly after, her daughter Zito is made the new head of the herd.

Another one we still remember is when they go to Transylvania to do a segment on vampire bats. And they're meeting a Dr. Spinoza and Debbie does a weirdo impression of him, hoping to freak out Eliza. He seems like a kooky dude that might give Bela Legousi a run for his money. It turns out the weirdo was the real doctor's assistant and he has more than a few screws loose. 

It also bears repeating that this show was my first time getting acquainted with Tim Curry. Before I saw him in "Rocky Horror Picture Show" or even "Home Alone 2," I knew him as Nigel Thornberry. Smashing!

The Angry Beavers

There were several of these Nicktoon shows where I remember the first season really well and I lost my interest shortly after that. 
Norbert and Daggett are brothers that are living out on their own for the first time and dealing with all of the difficulties that come with that. The running gag is that things would always come easy to Norbert without him even having to try. And Daggett tries his hardest to beat him and things never work out his way. 

Three episodes come to mind immediately:

"Beaver Fever" where the two of them have a one-hit wonder with a disco song. (Funny enough, we recently got the compilations Pure Disco I & II, so we were listening to a lot of similar music around the time this episode aired).  But fame and fortune proves trickier than they thought it'd be. Daggett makes a comment after seeing a recent poll: "yeah, we're bigger than sliced bread." And suddenly enraged sliced bread fans are coming at them with torches and pitchforks. Ultimately the whole thing falls apart because they don't know how to write a second hit song. Easy come, easy go. 

"Long in the Teeth"- they previewed this episode like crazy during the behind-the-scenes segments Nickelodeon used to do. Basically, Norbert decides to stop chewing and gets all kinds of attention from the other animals. So Daggett gives in and does it too, but it doesn't come as easily to him. In the end, it gets the best of both of them. 
There's even a documentary they watch, telling them that rodents need to chew or else their teeth will eventually pierce through their brains. 

"Box Top Beavers"- this is a fun artifact to look back on. Box tops were all the rage in the 90's, where you'd collect them and send them in for toys. These guys took it to the extreme. Daggett would only get the toys from inside the box and got jealous of Norbert, who always got bigger and better toys. So he tells him about the box top thing and Daggett gets on that gravy train. 
My sister and I still quote this one to this day.
"Patience... and you'll get that street sweeper."
"It took you so long to collect all those box tops that the street sweeper offer's expired."
So they go to the cereal factory to get the street sweeper, only to wind up in a cereal box. 
"Mom, I got beavers again! Ew!"
"Well, you should've been patient and clipped the box tops instead." 

Rocket Power

Another one I didn't watch a lot of, but got a little into over time. It was about a group of friends that liked to surf, skateboard and do all of those X-Game sports. 

One episode involved snowboarding and Reggie made fast friends with another female snowboarder. They find out after hanging out for a bit that she has a prosthetic leg. (It's a bit more commonplace now, but for me, that was the first time I learned that was a thing...so this show was a little ahead of its time in some cases). Then in the race they're competing in, the other girl gets mad at Reggie, thinking she threw the race because she felt sorry for her. 
It didn't look that way to me at first, but after they did a few instant replays, it was pretty obvious. Ultimately, it taught a really good lesson.

Another that was kinda funny was when Sam, the newest member of the group, designed a video game with his friends as characters. And it made him out to be the protagonist who has Twister for a best friend and taught Reggie everything she knows about sports. And apparently if you mess up Otto's hair, you lose 50 points. 
So when his friends play the game themselves, they get a little bent out of shape because it seems like he's trying to rewrite history. Sure, he was the butt of the joke at times so he deserved that satisfaction, but sometimes you can take those things a little far. 

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Going forward with the next few series, I'll probably start each with a post on the overall premise and memorable characters. Then over various seasons, I'll break it down into memorable episodes... and hopefully it won't take a dozen blog posts to get through each show :P