"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