3. Doug
Series Run: 1991-1996 (52 episodes), 1996-2000 (65 episodes)
Networks: Nickelodeon for its first run, ABC/Disney for its second
Theme Song: A great song, but it's no "Bangin' on a Trash Can" 4.5/5. Doug Funnie is an eleven year-old kid with a big imagination, and with his clever dog Porkchop and best friend Skeeter he maneuvers around reality to get to the world of his day dreams. Created by Jim Jinkins, Doug is really a coming-of-age animated show with the added benefit of having a protagonist who doesn't really age. The show made the jump from Nickelodeon to ABC in the middle of 1996 after Disney purchased the rights to the show along with Jinkins's animation studio. In my opinion the original show is superior, but both versions feature excellent animation and fleshed out characters. A suitable live-action counterpart to Doug would be the fantastic Freaks and Geeks created by Paul Feig, both shows center around children of a middle class family and traversing through the sometimes terrifying "real" world. Doug's cute relationship with Patti Mayonnaise is fortunately not as disgusting as her name; a perfect pre-adolescent unconsummated relationship. The school bully named Roger Klotz (voiced by the same actor who plays Doug, Billy West) is uncommonly layered in the Nickelodeon show. He lives in a trailer park with his single mother and the show gives plenty of evidence that he bullies people to make up for his troubled upbringing. It's rare to give multiple dimensions to the bad guy in a kids show (and his family becomes rich in the Disney series), but that's what makes Doug so memorable. It doesn't look down on its audience and say that Doug's problems aren't real, the fact that he narrates the show allows him to be in control of the narrative.