If you are over the age of 20, I’m pretty sure you should remember the hit Nickelodeon show ‘Doug.’ Remember, the main character Doug Funnie, his dog Pork Chop, BFF Skeeter, the neighborhood bully Rodger Klotz, Patty Mayonnaise, etc etc. Well, do you remember that ALMOST every character was a different color? Skeeter was blue, Patty was brown(ish), Rodger was green, and so on. But the weirdest thing about it? Doug (and his family) were white. Was there any possible hidden racism from this show being that they made the MAIN character a normal white boy and the rest multi-colored? Find out what Nickelodeon’s reasoning was for the color choices after the jump.
Jazlana
One of the original founders of Nickelodeon, Gus Hauser, had a rather blunt explanation as to why they cast Doug Funnie as white and the rest of the characters another color. He basically said that at the end of the day, they were catering to a white audience. Hauser said in “Slimed!: An Oral History of Nickelodeon’s Golden Age,” that “the others didn’t get Nickelodeon. Children who couldn’t afford cable were getting some children’s programming from PBS. Sure, it brings up issues of diversity and income level.” Ouch.
The executive producer of the show, Doug Campbell, gave some more reasoning for the multi-colored characters. Campbell said “look, we’re not black people, we’re not Mexican, but we want the cartoon to speak to all groups. How do we get past the barrier of ethnicity? Let’s try coloring them all different colors.”
What do you all think about the ‘Doug’ racial drama? Did the show cast Doug Funnie as white to give the message that only white people can prosper and earn leading rolls? Of course we know that is not true, but do you think Nickelodeon was guilty of portraying that message? Let us know!
