Things Only Adults Noticed In Doug

Douglas Yancey Funnie is a shy, self-conscious kid. When he isn't drawing, playing his banjo, or working up the courage to talk to Patti Mayonnaise, he's daydreaming. Doug's world, and the cartoon that chronicles it, is hugely interior: Doug's journal, chock-full of superhero drawings and l'esprit de 'l'escalier comebacks, is the backbone of the show.

This deeply personal approach is by design: Doug was created by Jim Jinkins as a largely autobiographical take on adolescence. Jinkins tried to sell Doug as a greeting card line and children's book before a version of the character wound up in a grapefruit commercial. Ultimately, Jinkins' creation took root at Nickelodeon, in large part because of its honest, down-to-earth storytelling.

Executive Producer Vanessa Coffey had worked on cartoon giants like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for other networks, and had grown tired of their violence and commercialism. Jinkins' Doug was a breath of fresh air, and Coffey had a hunch kids would respond to it. She was right: 98% of a test group of 800 kids enjoyed Doug. "It's sad," Coffey expounded, "There are shows you can give children that are smart, that will appeal to them. Kids like to think. They don't want to be given guns and sugar." In that sense, Doug's down-to-earth spirit is something kids and adults appreciate. But only the latter group truly understands how daring the series is — especially at the time of its creation.

Patti Mayonnaise is the girl of Doug's dreams. But she's also one of the audience's first encounters with Doug's multifaceted approach to relationships and romance. Patti is kind, brave, and smart — and the child of a single father. Later, her father remarries, and Patti experiences life with a step-parent. Roger is the child of a single mom, the Dinks are married without children, Chalky lives with his dad and older brother — Bluffington features all sorts of families built around all sorts of relationships.

This openness and maturity extends to the show's portrayal of dating and romance. In "Doug & Patti Sittin' in a Tree," Doug attempts to distill dating into discrete steps ... only to learn, of course, that no relationship can be turned into an equation. The lesson hammered home over and over again over the course of the series is that love is personal, and never a game to be won or lost — a lesson many adults could still stand to learn.

But it's not all high-minded idealism when it comes to Doug's portrayal of adolescent feelings — there are more than a few sly jokes snuck into the series. For example, when Roger realizes his cat has had kittens, he exclaims that he doesn't know how to tell their sex. His mother, exasperated, says they are "way past due for a very important talk." Cue parental laughter and kid confusion.

Mosquito "Skeeter" Valentine is commonly understood to be African-American, despite the fact that he's, well, blue. Though Jim Jinkins enjoys this interpretation, he maintains that he simply thought the character looked good blue. It turns out that he was bored with normal skin tone colors in his art, and after downing several drinks one afternoon, he and co-creator David Campbell committed to the unconventional design choice.

Many involved in Doug's creation have said this was a deliberate choice, meant to dissolve the divisions between characters. Others, however, have offered a different take. Executive producer Doug Campbell had this to say: "Look, we're not black people, we're not Mexican, but we want the cartoon to speak to all groups. How do we get past the barrier of ethnicity? And [Jinkins] said, 'Let's try coloring them all different colors.'" Moreover, Nickelodeon founder Gus Hauser has admitted that the fact of Nickeolodeon's cable status was a factor — only kids from families who could afford Doug would be watching, and they took that into account.

Modern critics disagree as to whether or not Doug's literal rainbow of characters is a progressive statement or a regressive concession. This debate, however, is largely invisible to kids — until they grow up, pull up an episode, and find themselves wondering what Doug's choices mean in a world where no one is blue, but color continues to matter.

Body image is one of the great specters of adolescence, and Doug tackles it repeatedly. The episode "Doug's Chubby Buddy," sees Patti develop an eating disorder after being exposed to celebrity diet culture and weight loss supplements. The episode originally ended with Patti's voice actress Constance Shulman giving information about eating disorders, but the reruns dubbed this over with an argument between Skeeter and Roger. "Doug Tips the Scales" sees our hero deal with body anxiety himself, when he becomes obsessed with losing weight for a pool party.

It takes an adult to fully appreciate how heartfelt and honest these episodes are. Few cartoons touch on the pressure to diet with such subtlety — fewer still examine it through male and female characters. But this nuance disappeared once Disney took over Doug. Connie Benge, depicted in the Nickelodeon episodes as zaftig, becomes suddenly svelte in the Disney era. This is a disappointing choice in and of itself, made worse by the fact that she credits the change to a summer at what is implied to be a weight-loss camp. Gone was Doug's critique of the pressure to lose weight, present, suddenly, was ... well, the pressure to lose weight. This is one detail only adults grasped the full meaning of, much to their frustration.

Doug's legacy has proven to be lasting. The show spawned its own stage show, video game, movie, and even a series of mystery novels. Most important of all, however, is the impression it made upon its fans. Adults who loved the show as kids lovingly parody the cartoon, record acoustic covers of songs by Doug's favorite in-universe band, lament the changes wrought by Disney, and speculate about the property's future in ways only adults can. In this age of reboots and 1990s nostalgia, a grown-up reared on Nicktoons can't help but wonder — what does the future hold for Doug Funnie and his pals?

Disney currently owns the rights to Doug and seemingly has no interest in revisiting Bluffington any time soon. But creator Jim Jinkins has ideas for a second movie ready to go, aimed at the kids who grew up with his creation. This iteration of Doug would follow him to the big city, where he would live with Skeeter, pursue a career as a freelance artist, and cheer on his sister Judy's "off, off, off Broadway" performance art. Though it would assuredly deal with more mature topics than the cartoon, it wouldn't exactly be grim — Porkchop would stick around, as Jinkins is committed to ignoring "dogs and their real lifespans." Will it ever see the light of day? Who knows — but adult fans will be glad to know it's out there.