“We’d already done a hundred and fifty some-odd stories, so our writing team was
[while] watching or listening to something [on YouTube]. I couldn’t believe my
looking for a way to restart,” says Jinkins. “The changes were my doing. I wanted to
eyes—almost every one of them was watching Doug.”
shake it up.”
A quarter of a century on, Doug’s influence can be felt in shows like Adventure Time,
Following the conclusion of the show, it seemed Doug might live on as a film
Steven Universe, Over the Garden Wall, and Bob’s Burgers—programs full of genuine,
property, but critics didn’t take well to the big screen debut, and Doug’s 2nd
weird, and, above all, kind characters. And while Jinkins wouldn’t rule out the
Movie wasn’t to be. Disney closed down Jumbo, and Jinkins and producer David
possibility of returning to the world of Bluffington one day, he’s content to know
Campbell founded Cartoon Pizza, which has produced JoJo’s Circus and shorts for
that his show has impacted so many kids and creators in its embrace of vulnerability
Sesame Street.
and open-heartedness.
As Doug came to an end at the dawn of the 2000s, the show’s innocent tone seemed
“People come up and tell me, ‘Thank you for making a show that taught me how to
to have fallen out of favor. Big animated hits like SpongeBob SquarePants and Dexter's
treat people,’” says Jinkins.
Laboratory had emerged, picking up more from Ren & Stimpy’s farcical style.
And according to West, you never know quite how the average Doug fan is going to
But as Doug continued in reruns, its influence grew. Kaplan says that while working
look, act, or appeal.
as a supervising producer on Cartoon Network’s Clarence in 2014, she was blown
away to note Doug’s influence on the young animators.
“I was at a convention and this big biker came up [to me] with the whole complement
of leather jacket, boots, the works,” says West. “He’s got this big handlebar mustache,
“I was working with a very young creator and a very young crew,” Kaplan says. “I’ll
and he comes over and he goes, [adopts gruff voice] ‘Brother, Doug was my whole
never forget walking around the [studio] and noticing the kids would be working
childhood.’ He just seemed like he was a little boy again.”
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