you know what's funny dug funny you know what's not funny the story of how doug went from
nickelodeon to disney they were very happy with it and on paper everything looked great but the
fans of doug didn't seem to think so today we're going to take a look at how disney was able to get
the dug franchise from nickelodeon and how they changed the show overall that led to the death
of doug oh no they didn't kill him or anything his show was just cancelled so maybe kind of the same
thing either way dug was a pretty interesting show it was a slice-of-life look into doug funny his
friendships family porkchop daydreaming the beats and mr dink on the surface compared to all the
other shows on at the same time when it premiered on nickelodeon in 1991 and being honest with you
it didn't really stand out i mean it premiered on the same day as both the rugrats and the ren
and stimpy show marking these as the first three nicktoons to exist the other two shows took more
of the spotlight for people to really attach onto but doug did have its following it wasn't as zany
and over the top like ren and stimpy nor was adventurous as the rugrats it was just chill it
created a vibe that i think really goes under the radar especially when looking back at shows movies
heck even music that fits a certain mood it's easy for the flashiness of something to be the thing
that gets remembered but when you can reflect on those in-between moments of at one point being in
the now you may just find something you cherish in a whole different way and that's how i feel
about doug so let's break down what led disney to acquire doug and how they fundamentally changed it
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this video to summarize what doug as a show is is pretty simple it follows doug in his adolescence
navigating everyday challenges one would face at that age boom print it ship it bob's your uncle
how do you know my uncle that's not important what is important is first understanding doug's
relationship with nickelodeon before disney came to homewreck first let's start with jim jenkins
hey i'm jim jenkins creator of disney's doug he worked as an actor on some earlier nickelodeon
projects like hocus pocus and pinwheel he established a nice relationship with nickelodeon
for a good while and took some time after a bit to work for children's television workshop or as we
know it today as sesame workshop but beyond all of that in between his working commercials and
advertising he would create doodles of a boy and his dog that in fact would actually incorporate
into his commercial work these characters would be the blueprint for both doug and his
dog porkchop he would later take these designs and retool them for a book he made titled doug
got a new pair of shoes hey man no need to brag i'm still rocking fake five dollar walmart vans
okay maybe i do need a new pair of shoes maybe if you hit like and subscribe since eighty percent
of you watching are not subscribed then maybe i can get fake six dollar walmart nikes instead
after the book jim took his doodles to the animation space creating a pilot for doug
is a show titled doug can't dance in which going back to his old buddies at nickelodeon
they were interested and purchased it and wow this pilot did extremely well in testing beating
out other test results from other pilots at the network during this time so jim said hey why don't
i just make a studio it won't be this massive mammoth of a company but we want it to look
larger than it is to really leave an impression so jumbo pictures was born in the summer of 1990 and
was settled in new york now producing dug for nickelodeon where it found success premiering
with two other cartoons sorry nicktoons that would all become popular in their own rights
with rugrats clearly being the bread winner for nickelodeon until a yellow dish cleaning
apparatus would take its place from 1991 to 1994 doug would span four seasons for a total
of 52 episodes with almost every episode being divided to have two segments per one episode
aside from this after rapping on doug they would work on a nick jr show called allegra's window
yes like the allergy medicine except it followed a young girl named allegra through her daily life
doing whatever i don't know i never watched it but i don't want to just brush over this whole
after wrapping on doug thing i just said as there is more to it than that originally doug
was ordered for 65 episodes very similar to the golden disney number that they love so much but
after four seasons of 13 episodes each and only ever hitting 52 of that 65 the next season of
13 was declined by nickelodeon to continue not because of the ratings or at least as far as we
know any major problems behind the scenes but for the fact that the show itself cost a pretty penny
to produce at nickelodeon especially as they were dealing with an apparent budget freeze but here is
the overall thing when it comes to jumbo pictures they held the rights to their properties they
were making meaning if there would be a split from nickelodeon or the current contract ends
stuff like doug would still be owned by jumbo nickelodeon themselves had a deal with jumbo
though where they would have two years after the end of production on doug to reverse their
decision and move forward with the show again so they wouldn't be able to do anything with this
property until that decision time has ended during this time however they were being poached by other
networks and they were using it as leverage to push nickelodeon into hurrying their decision
to green light the fifth season of doug this is a common business tactic that can both work or
fall back in your face depending on your perceived overall value to the company you're dealing with
in this case it's a bit of both you've got his name doug doug doug doug doug turn it up
doug's back it's now 1996 and the two-year window is coming to a close for nickelodeon
to make a decision it really felt more like they were being strung along for the sake of
just squatting on the ip rather than nick truly feeling like they were hard at work thinking
about what they want to do with doug clearly the leverage angle did not work and once the
timer of waiting came to an end abc who had been trying to poach them was purchased by the one
and only walt disney company and disney wanted to follow through with going after jumbo pictures
this multi-million dollar deal wouldn't just be for doug of course i'm coming back for everything
but mainly they just wanted doug this deal would be far more lucrative from the jump giving jumbo
pictures a five-year contract stock options executive roles and access to executive bathrooms
the disney difference beyond this disney would purchase the trademark of doug so that all future
merchandise sales would solely go to them and not have to be shared in any sort of way they
did however let nickelodeon keep the rights to the four seasons of doug pryor that were made
for them and still use them to their discretion this is where the real change began for doug
so now in 1996 doug would be making its big comeback later in the year the first
big thing that happened was that the work on doug would be transferred from new york to los angeles
this would set up some problems like rather than the voice actors being in studio together
to record they would now be doing so privately and remotely this is a dynamic that can greatly impact
the authenticity of a performance without directly having the others in the cast to bounce off of
billy west famous for every voice you've ever heard did not return to voice doug himself
as well as roger as he had done so in the original show for disney billy west was too famous and too
expensive at this point we like to look at disney now and be like oh you got money like money money
but they are a business and have to calculate if it's worth the price for something many shows
already do sometimes and that's changing some voice actors disney themselves had a lot riding on
doug it was a roll the dice in order to see if the fan base would still be there with the addition of
having to tune in to a new network to watch it but to their credit they did come out swinging with 65
episodes over the next few years from 1996 to 1999 for three full seasons beating out the amount of
episodes the original show had and even more stuff after that but let's not get ahead of ourselves
right off the bat things were different for one doug now would be full episode length stories
rather than two shorter segments to fill in a full episode's run time with doug already
being at a chill pace at a shorter run time the problem the show faced with fans and me personally
is that it felt a lot slower to make it through an episode sure stories can be more fleshed out
and more time can be given to character interactions but something just feels off
another thing you'd immediately notice is the title when first being on abc after the
acquisition the show before being known as disney's doug went by brand spanking new dug
which has to be in the top 10 greatest ways to say hey look we did it better come over here to
our channel now and watch this you don't want that gross stinky dug you want this immaculate
brand spankin new duck well i appreciate the confidence it's very hard to get past your
own personal nostalgia it's almost inherent that i myself who loves the nickelodeon doug
will instantly shun away what disney had to offer with the property but i also feel
justified in those opinions because disney didn't just change a few things here or there
it breaks down to the core fundamentals of the show itself let's talk about the characters the
thing that the original show did so well and spent so much time making each character feel
like a real character doug himself for the most part is the same perhaps a bit more questiony of
things in the world in his direct life but aside from a few slight details being different in his
character design he's pretty much the same but let's also talk about connie a more side character
from the original show but just as unique apart from anyone else where she was drawn to be a bit
more heavyset but disney reintroduces her as this yeah okay sure but it's really the explanation why
that makes it weird and that's because in the show they explained that she went to a makeover camp
over the summer which is uh well no pun intended carries more weight than what it feels like on the
surface level patty manny's also got a new look you know everyone had to change their hair styles
over the summer come on they gotta stay hip with it i just said hip with it i'm old right skeeter
give it up there's cleopatra oh sorry cleopatra dirt bike doug and judy's new baby sister
don't worry one of those names i just said is a nickname you can figure that one out roger is now
rich it all honestly feels like disney wanted to change so many little details to separate
the two versions of the show but instead these what i guess they thought were little details
really transitioned the characters we knew and loved into the exact opposite i neither know
them nor love them but what about bb bibi bluff's so rich she can't afford to change
there's even the music the original doug theme song was a work of art okay sorry let me not
be so dramatic with my wording it was a solid intro theme that had a fun rhythm as opposed to
the new doug theme song where it's uh well it's all over the place it feels less like the chill
catchy vibes from the og and more like a scattered mess of various instruments and sounds
in short i do not like it also the beats the best non-banned band to ever exist
if you disagree you're wrong don't at me didn't ask they deleted them from existence well they
forced them to break up now we'll never see them again i need more allowances
sorry it does feel like the show went out of its way in the first episode to explain every
little change and how to deal with and understand the things changed it's that rather than going
with the flow it felt like the show was trying too hard to make you forget the original show
and dismiss it as the old as we need to be in with the new show just accept it and move forward hey
sometimes advice like that can apply nicely in real life but here it feels like it's not in favor
of the show's experience but more in favor of the company's pettiness to mess around with things
especially things that don't need to be messed around with or maybe i'm just an adult who can't
let go about pointless cartoon politics who's to say but to give credit where credit is due
the show used themes of change throughout its entire series run on disney from 1996 to 1999
for seasons five to seven with the final episode ending the journey doug has taken in his time here
so far in bluffington with the completion of his journal and the start of his new one we even see
him getting asked out by patty and the beginning of puberty for him ending the show itself on
a rather nice bookend closing this chapter in doug's life and at the same time ours as well now
everything behind the scenes wasn't all sunshines and rainbows though all of the changes made to the
show under disney had original dug staff members claiming that this new dug was inferior to the
original dug jim was not as involved as he once was in the production of the disney version and at
some point he was even quoted as saying i mostly agree with doug fans who think the original 104
eleven minute doug stories made for nick were the best now before the show would wrap up in
june of 99 disney would release doug's first movie and his only movie at least when pokemon did it
they were confident like really confident doug's first movie revolves around a monster in a lake
a corporate cover-up friendship love pollution and a whole bunch of questions about the direction
the film took the film was reviewed pretty poorly citing script issues and bad character development
a lot of other problems most many find in the new version of the show in general carried over
from that into the film but there was some good sprinkled in there that even i can't deny it's
not awful but it's not great and in reality that's a fair way to consolidate my thoughts
from this video to a tldr or i guess a tldw but aside from the remaining episodes that premiered
for a few months past this film's release this would be the finale to doug i guess the show's
ending though was a lot better but hey that's just me disney was not done just there though oh no no
they needed to make this property more worth the value they paid so on top of the show and the
movie we also got a video game for the gameboy color titled disney's doug doug's big game and
when you hear the original title of doug quailman to the rescue you just see how even more stupid
this name is anyways the game was your standard fare for tie in handheld based video games you
walk around familiar show based environments speak to the characters you know and love and then wait
yo hold up this is dope you could you could fly around the screen for boss fight yo this is sick
no i'm just sick that's too much motion to be fair to the game the quailman boss fight segments are
pretty cool oh also disney ran a stage show at disney world from 1999 to 2001
called doug live it was a musical and it was about doug oh my it's the beats
cool well that's how disney changed dug they still own the rights to the show as of today and sadly
they have no plans to do any sort of revival for it but in a day and age where everything is coming
back after many years i wouldn't be surprised if they wanted another exclusive series to disney
plus hey maybe even doug can get his second movie who knows but what i want to know is your thoughts
on doug in general and which version do you prefer nickelodeon's original doug or disney's
doug let me know in the comments thanks so much for watching make sure to hit the like button
and subscribe for more content like this i'll be back soon with another video but until then later
you