Doug’s Christmas Story Review

Beyond good, beyond evil, beyond your wildest

imagination! Anyhow, on the brink of the best

holiday of the whole year, the worst thing that

could possibly happen happened. The trouble started

a couple of days before Christmas. Hello and

welcome to Tooncast Beyond's 25 Days of Christmas

here on the GeekCast Radio Network. I am of course,

TFJ and Mike. You're joining me once again for

Day 6. This time around is Doug Abel. Hello.

Hello. Yes. There's no pork chop here, folks.

No, I have a dog, but she's named Tinkerbell.

Yeah, that was not supposed to be funny. So,

Day 6 of 25 Days of Tooncast Beyond Christmas.

We're here to talk about Disney's Doug, Nickelodeon's

Doug, whatever the hell the series is called

now, Doug's Christmas Story. Sorry. Yeah, trust

me, I had to hear all about that. So here's the

thing, folks. I don't remember in Tooncast Classic,

I know we have not done it in Tooncast Beyond.

I do not, normally I remember every single episode

almost of every podcast I've ever done in the

last seven or eight years. I do not remember

if we've ever covered Doug as a series on either

Tooncast Classic or, you know, I know it's not

here on Tooncast Beyond, but I don't remember

if we've covered it in Tooncast Classic. So we're

going to spend a little bit of time talking about

the series. our exposure to it and everything

else. I remember watching the series, I remember

enjoying it, but I remember thinking, why is

everybody orange and pink and green and was that

for... Well, and I'm not looking at anything

and I'm not judging on anything. I mean, I mean...

No, I thought the same thing too, so... Yeah,

I was gonna say, after all, I'm not Agent Orange.

I'm not President -elect Annoying Orange here.

uh... oh my god not having a flashbacks apple

eight people apple uh... uh... after all bomb

is the pits uh... i'm sorry i'm sorry it tomorrow

i i i promise myself i wouldn't get more political

tonight uh... so the one thing about As I said,

Disney's Doug, Nickelodeon's Doug, whatever the

hell. I remember this series on Nickelodeon and

I remember thinking, why the hell is everybody

different colors? Is it because it was their

way of trying to be diversifying? I don't know.

I'm not sure. No clue. What I remember about

the series and watching it as a kid, whatever

the hell, teenager, I think this came out in

the 90s sometime, yeah, 93 or so I guess. I was

13 at the time. I was into Power Rangers. I was

not into a kid with his journal and his dog at

the time. But I remember the journal bits. I

remember the bits with the dog pork chop and

his friends and all that and everything else.

I remember one of his three alter egos. I remember

Quailman. I do not remember the other two very

much. I remember Quailman as well. What was it?

Sam Adams. I forget what the other one was. I

was like, yeah, I don't remember these guys at

all. Sam Adams. Would you like yeah, would you

like some Oktoberfest with that cartoon? I'd

rather have some winter brew instead Well apparently

Oktoberfest is the only Oktoberfest beer served

at the Oktoberfest in Germany or so I don't know

I know we're getting off the point here folks,

but Doug's Christmas story this was the 10th

episode of the fourth season It was actually

the third and last full length episode of the

Nickelodeon series. What is funny here is the,

no pun intended, is that this is the first and

last episode that all three alter egos are featured

in. This is the only episode they ever did that

out of the entire series. And basically the plot

goes something like this. Doug opens up in kind

of like a cold opening dear journal thing and

he talks about Christmas and talks about how

things start off so great and then they kind

of Spiral out of control as most holiday stuff

does You know just watch Dharma and Greg Thanksgiving

till it hurts Yeah, so As we go along we come

to find out that Doug's dog Porkchop is always

helping everybody and he's always a good dog

he's always really nice to everybody and he always

looks out for everybody and Porkchop as I'm watching

this I'm just waiting for a headset to come out

of his ear so he can talk to Doug. Like, I'll

let Inspector Gadget, you know, Penny and Brain,

because I swear to God, several times when watching

this, when seeing Pork Chop do what he does,

I swear it's a blue version of Brain from Inspector

Gadget. It is, it is. Now that you've said that,

yes. So, plot of the story here. is that Porkchop

is trying to save BB, which originally, and again,

I have not seen a lot of this series in years.

It's been 20 years since I've seen most of this.

Her name is BB Bluff. I thought her name was

Phoebe. The whole time I'm listening to this,

I keep hearing all the characters call her Phoebe,

and I don't know why. Because I know it's not

Lisa Kudrow. Voicing that character new anyway,

um, you know It's a bad That's a bad friend's

joke. And if I really want to bring it around

we can always call her Ursula because she was

Ursula in math anyway so BB gets Bitten by pork

chop now pork chop. Everybody really every Doug

knows everybody's supposed to know that pork

chop would never really hurt anybody He was doing

this in order to save BB from the thin ice on

the lake And I'm sitting here thinking What if

where have I seen this before? All right, I know

what I've seen this before Grandma got run over

by a reindeer. Oh god. Yes, which we will talk

about later this year in 25 days to against me

on Christmas here 2016 but seriously if you look

at the plot of this and You look at the plot

of the animated version of grandma got run over

by a reindeer It's basically the same damn thing

folks You know it really really is yeah, I mean

pork chop bites Phoebe they then you know the

father gets the lawyers involved They try to

sue Doug they try to sue pork chop or no. They

don't try to sue Doug. I'm sorry I misspoke they

try to sue pork chop the dog they throw him in

the pound They do all this stuff you know under

very very very bad dogs yeah yeah it's like who

knew the pound was you know had had very very

very very very bad I mean like like when Doug

went went into the pound and I'm like what is

this is Tom Cruise gonna come out of the ceiling

here what the hell is going on this is should

not be mission impossible here You know, I expected

to see pork chop with a tin cup and, you know,

rattling it along the cage and doing boob -a

-dee -nose. That's a rubble I've seen. Yeah,

you know? I... I don't know. So, as it goes along,

they have a trial. They put the dog on trial

for biting her and everyone just immediately,

Doug tries to go and petition everybody and some

sign it, some don't because, oh, that's that

dog on the news. And one lady is like, it's Christmas.

This should be fun time. Save that legal stuff

for the first of the year. And I'm thinking,

what the hell am I watching? And then at one

point, I think either during the trial or during

the recess of the trial. At some point, in the

middle of the trial part of the episode, Doug

flashes back to the first Christmas with Porkchop,

where somehow Porkchop got some money to give

Doug a journal, and then Doug gave Porkchop something

and whatever else. So that was kind of an interesting

part of the episode. His alter egos are weird.

The inside of Doug's mind... Is just strange.

I mean, it's stranger than anyone named Doug

living in California. Hey, hey, hey, just for

that, I'm gonna make you eat carne asada fries.

No, you're not. Talk about trumping the pence.

Oh, man, you're getting worse. You're getting

worse. I've been saying this. since then we can

see for the floor man. I've been saying Trump

in the pen since they that they announced them

running mate but anyway as this goes along everybody

comes to realize their mistake everybody comes

to realize because they go back to the lake and

and porkchop shows you know tries to show them

what was happening and and Phoebe or BB as BB

goes off and you know she's trying to show them

what happened and then all of a sudden Doug realizes

it's thin ice and then hey she falls in and of

course that's when pork chop has to break his

leash from the from the police officers and goes

and dives in and saves her everybody realizes

hey he was trying to save her the whole damn

time gee you think it was reindeer nip sorry

yeah it was it was dog nip that's what it was

I like seeing all three alter egos together I

think it's a little strange that they did that

but I do enjoy that part of it I like seeing

the fact that it's a boy and his dog and they

would essentially do anything for each other

and the fact that as even before they went out

to the lake Doug pointed out to almost everybody

that was in the courtroom you sir pork chop did

this for you you ma 'am pork chop did this for

you that so he's showing the judge hey look my

dog would not have bit BB if it wasn't something

that he was trying to avoid her from having to

do kind of thing. And I enjoyed it, but this

is another one of those Christmas specials that

I'll probably never watch again. Yeah. What about

you? What are your thoughts on this? Well, OK,

I like Doug. I love Billy West. I love the fact

that, you know, he is Doug and he's Roger, which

that was kind of odd that they left Roger out

of this episode, but whatever. But no, I I've

always loved this cartoon is, you know, even

though it is annoying to have people come up

to you and go, hey, it's Doug. And then sing

the theme song to you. It was fun. It was, you

know, as you said, it was reindeer. You know,

grandma got run over by a reindeer and instead

of reindeer nip, it was BB falling through thin

ice. But same damn thing. Same plot. Save the

person at the last second and get exonerated.

You know typical Christmas stuff. It's it's always

feel good make you feel warm type of thing What

I watch it again, you know what if it was on

as part of a Christmas thing yeah, I'd watch

it, but it's It's not something. I would actively

seek out yeah as you said you know we enjoy the

series for what it was we enjoy the characters

and the voice acting is great I think the voice

acting is very well done obviously Billy West

is Doug and and all that is is interesting but

overall I just don't think that This is one that

is classic enough. And when I say classic enough,

I don't mean like a Charlie Brown Christmas caliber,

but you know, you look at some of these other

ones, you know, that we've looked at so far.

You look at the Dexter episode, you look at the

Johnny Bravo episode, you look at A Year Without

a Santa Claus, and you look at Santa Claus is

Coming to Town, that kind of stuff. This just

doesn't kind of hold the mustard, or it doesn't

hold the... the mistletoe or whatever you want

to call it. I don't know. It's just one of those

things where maybe I'm wrong? If I'm wrong, please

let me know in the comments, folks. You know,

as I said, I found all these Christmas cartoons

and I wanted to go back and explore them. And

I don't think I need a lot of context for the

series of Doug to know. what's going on in this

episode i can watch this episode normally i would

have to watch the whole series to figure out

you know but i remember enough of nickelodeon

dog disney dog whatever the hell it's called

because it's two different it's listed under

two different names at one point or another so

that's going to do it for today as far as ratings

are five stars i'd probably give this uh... Three

it's kind of middle ground. It's not like it's

not super awesome. It's not Horrible what about

you? Yeah Yeah, I would say three three is a

good a good thing It's not you know like you

said not horrible not not spectacular But you

know something that if you watch that you get

that feel good and be like okay I feel good about

this and move on Alright, so tomorrow coming

up on 25 days to cast me on Christmas. We've

got day 7 Ren and Stimpy a scooter for Yaxmas

the first and only time I have ever Covered written

simply on either to cast classic or to cast me

on and it will be the last time because I Loathe

that show. Oh, come on. We know love John Christopher

Lucy No, not at all has nothing to do with the

voice acting has nothing to do with the comedy

of the show It's the animation the the group

the overall gross animation it No, I would rather

watch all Nightmare on Elm Street movies then

watch Ren and Snippy ever again You don't know

what you're missing I'm glad I don't know what

I'm missing. So Where can the people find you

online sir? You can find us out at my generation

podcast calm You can check us out and see all

of our episodes out there for talking about my

generation You can also find us out on Facebook

at talking about my generation Leave us some

comments out there. Tell us what you think. If

you want to hear something specific on the show,

let us know. Awesome. You can find me at TFDOMike

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on Facebook. Head on over to the website geekcastradio

.com where we've got so much content folks just

head on over there check it all out and Tune

in tomorrow as I said for a scooter for Yaxmas

Yeah, yeah Well, I think I'm ready to render

a verdict your honor Doesn't Porkchop get to

tell his side of the story? And how is he going

to do that? Does anyone here speak dog? Your

honor, he's been trying to tell me something

about the lake. If we could just go out there.

No, no, no, no, no. Out of the question. I'm

not about to haul this entire - Please, your

honor. May I remind you, young man, that it is

Christmas Eve. We all have families waiting.

That's just what I've been trying to say. Porkchop

is part of my family, just as much as BB is to

the Bluffs. But he's just a dog. Yes, but...

but he's a part of our community, too. Like everybody

here. Well, maybe not the biggest part, but...

I mean, isn't Christmas when we're supposed to...

to show how much we care about others? Show how

much we care about everybody in the community?

Mrs. Wirtz, when you went to Peakville to visit

your Aunt Maxie, who babysat little Jimmy and

Jeffy? Porkchop. And Mr. and Mrs. Larkin, when

your house burned down, who was there the next

morning with hammer and nails and a big batch

of cookies, too? Porkchop. He lent me 20 bucks.

He helped me fix my transmission. She saved my

hair. Hmm. And Judge Peterson, who was there

after your daughter got in that accident? Who

taught her to walk again? Well... I helped a

little. Your Honor, now Porkchop needs our help.

Shouldn't we at least give him a chance to explain

what happened? Young man, we had better find

something out there. Court will reconvene at

Lucky Duck Lake. So, I was skating along here,

and he bit me. Where were you exactly? Do you

remember? I don't know. Around here someplace.

we've seen enough please there's got to be some

reason what is it what do you want to show me