The long running era of the Saturday morning cartoon has officially ended, but no one can stop you from fulfilling your true weekend calling. Cartoons and Saturday mornings were made for each other and no one can tell us otherwise. It is to that end that we maintain vigil, bringing you animated selections each Saturday morning until the internet dies, or until we run out, good thing there’s always reruns.
“Doug” Episode 4.8 “Doug’s Brainy Buddy” Created by Jim Jinkins; Directed by Ken Kimmelman and Curtis Crawford; Starring Billy West and Fred Newman; Originally aired on November 27, 1993.
“Doug” was based on drawings Jim Jinkins did in a notebook over the course of the 80’s and was inspired by Jinkins’ own life. While the show employs scenes that take place only in Doug’s imagination and are almost always larger than life, the show is autobiographical in nature and effortlessly recreates the fears and challenges of growing up in a suburban town.
Through the lens of Doug’s mind the show can explore bullying, relationships both platonic and romantic, fear, jealousy, mystery, and adventure in the way that only a kid does. Even when an episode takes a turn for the fanciful it always feels real, the fantasy always mirroring what a real kid might actually be feeling. The show begins with Doug moving to the fictional town of Bluffington where he’ll have to make new friends and navigate the local social structure and culture.
In the episode “Doug’s Brainy Buddy” Doug and his classmates receive the results of an intelligence test they had taken the week before. Doug’s best friend Skeeter remarks that he had not known it was a test and he was glad because he always freezes on tests. Doug receives and is happy with an average score, until Skeeter reveals that he received a perfect score.
Doug is unintentionally kind of a jerk about it as he insists that there must be some mistake, that those test scores can’t possibly be accurate.
Removed from the text anxiety that usually plagues Skeeter he reveals to everyone that he is in fact a genius, a fact confirmed when Doug visits Skeeter’s room and finds that his shelves are filled with books like “A Critique of Pure Reason” and “Principia Mathematica.”
Doug borrows one of Skeeter’s books and stays up all night studying it, determined to prove that he’s just as smart as Skeeter but when he gets to school the next day Skeeter isn’t there. When he finally arrives his peers tell of rumors that he had gone away to college. Skeeter confirms that he is considering leaving his school to attend college and had spent the day touring the campus.
Confronted with the fear of losing his best friend, Doug snaps in a fit of jealousy telling Skeeter that he doesn’t care if he leaves since he’s too good for them anyway. Skeeter, frustrated with Doug’s behavior, rubs his intelligence in Doug’s face.
When Doug gets home he gets rid of everything he owns that reminds him of Skeeter, treating the events like a bad breakup, when he has finished his room is completely barren.
Quickly Doug realizes that he’s just being jealous and goes to apologize to Skeeter but when he opens his front door Skeeter is standing there. They apologize for being jerks to each other and make up because they’re best bros. Skeeter decides he can’t relate to anyone on campus and isn’t going to leave school.
Aside from everything always wrapping up in a nice little bow, the show provided an analogue for kids who were coming of age at the time. Almost any episode of “Doug” would provide at least one moment when you could say “Yeah, I get that, I’ve felt that feeling.” Or “I’ve been through something similar.” I don’t know of any modern cartoons that fill the same role.
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