One Saturday Morning aired from 1997 to 2002 (before being re-branded as ABC Kids) and was, for all intents and purposes, the successor to the Disney Afternoon of the early 90’s. And while it featured a few live-action shows like Lizzie McGuire, Even Stevens, and whatever iteration of Power Rangers was on at the time, it was mostly known for the cartoons. There were some really good ones, some really bad ones, and some mediocre ones during those four years, but I watched and enjoyed most of them as a kid. It was the only reason to get up early on a day when you had no school! So for the month of September I’m going to look back and briefly discuss each of the various animated shows of One Saturday Morning. Rather than once a week as I usually do for September Theme Month, this is going to be a seven part series on Tuesdays and Fridays covering two shows each part.
Let’s take a look at the peaks and valleys of this versatile collection of Disney cartoons that in their own words “illuminated television.”
Doug:
It’s interesting that the first show of this Disney block wasn’t actually a Disney show to begin with. Doug originally aired on Nickelodeon from 1991-94 before being acquired by Disney. But rather than rerun episodes like One Saturday Morning did for The Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show, Schoolhouse Rock and The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, whole new episodes of Doug were made for Disney between 1997 and 1999. I never watched Doug on Nickelodeon but I know there were a few big changes in the network switch-over, most notably some touching up of the animation to make it look more appealing by Disney standards, and the recasting of Billy West in the title role with Tom McHugh for some reason. The show was about the daily life of a kid in a middle American town called Bluffington with an active imagination and a journal. It followed his troubles and everyday life in and outside of school. The series may be mostly remembered for the fact that for no apparent reason, everyone in the town had different skin colours. Doug was plain boring white, but he went to school with blue, orange, pink, purple, and green kids. Was this supposed to be some kind of commentary on racial diversity? Regardless, it made the show stand out, at least for its visual sense.
As for the quality of the show, Doug was generally pretty bland. Again, this is going off the Disney run alone, but the conflicts were often not very exciting, and for lack of a better term, first-world problems. Otherwise they were typical kid sitcom plots, complete with obvious moral, but without any interesting takes on familiar tropes. The creator, Jim Jinkins, apparently based it around his own ordinary childhood, and I wonder if maybe he should have taken more creative licence than that. Because even though such run-of-the-mill plots can work, you need good characters and a great sense of humour in order to ingratiate the show to an audience. Doug and his friends are nice, pleasant, occasionally neurotic, and completely unfunny. Not one of them has any memorable characteristics. The only unique aspect of Doug’s personality is his active imagination, but at times he seems to have less creativity in his daydreams than Ralphie from A Christmas Story. Even his superhero alter-ego, Quailman, doesn’t feel all that inspired. His narration also could get really irritating due to his tendency to just state the obvious. He has a semi-anthropomorphic dog called Porkchop, and a love interest called Patti Mayonnaise, neither of whom are any more interesting; and his best friend Skeeter has inklings of a funny character to him, but is mostly just an annoying voice. The rest of the cast are just a bunch of stereotypes from the rich heiress to the goofy next-door neighbour to the bully who might have been the most promising character if Nelson Muntz didn’t already exist.
Despite all this, once in a while there was a funny joke or set-up. The overall animation wasn’t bad, in fact the character designs really reflected a kids’ sketchbook, and sometimes it could have genuine imagination. I do kind of appreciate its simple approach and innocence, but those aren’t qualities that make for good television series’, even one intended for kids. Maybe as a series of childrens’ books it could have worked better, it just doesn’t sustain much entertainment value in the medium it chose. It kind of feels like Arthur but with older characters. And my feelings towards it are about the same. The series spawned a feature film amusingly called Doug’s 1st Movie, as if they intended on making it the next Star Trek film series, but I never saw it. I never had the interest enough in the show. Maybe the original Nickelodeon run was better, but Doug just didn’t really work for me and certainly never left any impression. It wasn’t especially bad, but there were just a few too many better kids shows like it around at the time.
Jungle Cubs:
This was the only show from One Saturday Morning I have no memories of. I thought that might be due to how short-lived it was, but it actually began in 1996 before airing as part of the first One Saturday Morning line-up. Though it was in that line-up, it went very quickly. It had a pretty shallow premise, just de-ageing all the animals characters from The Jungle Book and focussing on their mundane adventures in short eleven minute plots (many of the other shows from this block would adopt that same format). Basing a show around the gimmick of child versions of established characters is rarely a good idea (I think Tiny Toons is the one time it worked). Poor Rudyard Kipling -it’s not like the Disney movie was already a great adaptation of his characters.
And these are some poor interpretations too, with barely a passing resemblance even to the film originals. The stories are mostly simple and character based, involving its cast getting into arguments and learning basic lessons about prejudice, self-esteem, and general decency. The centred characters are Baloo the cool one, Bagheera the boring one, Shere Khan the bully, Louie the goof off, and Kaa the neurotic comic relief. Jim Cummings as Kaa makes sense considering he was originally voiced by Stirling Holloway, and Cummings has been Holloway’s successor as the voice of Winnie the Pooh. And obviously, he gets this voice down too. Pamela Adlon, who you might know as Bobby from King of the Hill, does as good of a job as she can as Baloo, with Elizabeth Daily from Rugrats as Bagheera. But by far the weirdest casting choice is Jason Marsden as Shere Khan. It’s bad enough they reduce one of the best, most dignified Disney villains into a one-dimensional bully, but there’s no way in hell I’m going to believe pathetic, whiny Marsden grows into the great George Sanders. Marsden also voiced Louie initially, whom he was slightly better suited for, but was then replaced by Cree Summer. And I love Cree Summer, but she is also completely wrong for the part. The cast also includes Rob Paulsen as Haithi and Michael McKean and David L. Lander as two comical vultures. Their voices and presence are the only funny thing in the series, something which someone must have noticed because the Lenny and Squiggy pair were subsequently cast in 101 Dalmatians. The animation is also kind of sub-par and inconsistent, like many of the T.V. adaptations of Disney movies that would follow. Though I will say it never got quite as awkward as some of those other shows.
Obviously this show was made for the same reason as Muppet Babies: tike versions of popular characters are cute, and there’s nothing else to it. While Jungle Cubs is definitely no Muppet Babies, it might just be the most exploitatively pandering show of the One Saturday Morning line-up -and bear in mind, this block would eventually include House of Mouse. At least Doug had something of a human touch, this show just felt regurgitated out by a mandate. In fairness, it’s definitely for really little kids, what with its basic character morals and story structure. But the One Saturday Morning I knew was a little better than that, and most other shows definitely tried harder. The last time The Jungle Book was used as the basis for a Disney series, the result was Tailspin, a wildly bizarre but creative experiment that somehow paid off. Jungle Cubs is probably what many feared Tailspin might be; and it’s such a forgettable show it’s possible I saw it as a kid after all.
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