Doug's Lost Weekend is the first part of the thirteenth episode of season two of Nickelodeon's Doug.
Synopsis[]
Doug wins a video game due to the fact that he was the ten-thousandth customer at Computer Junkie. But once he plays it, he can't stop playing it. He can't even think about his homework.
Recap[]
Intro[]
The episode begins in three billion light years from Bluffington in space with the captain of the ship telling Doug to save the universe from the chipmunk people. But Doug explains that there is only one thing to do before attending the mission: his homework.
Main Episode[]
Doug's Journal Entry: Dear Journal, it was the most typical day ever. Little did I know, I was about to have a rendezvous with destiny. I was about to become...a ten-thousandth customer.
The next scene cuts to the shop Computer Junkie at the mall, where Doug and Skeeter are at. Doug becomes the ten-thousandth customer after picking up a video game system and wins a video game system called Super Pretendo, which includes the game Space Munks. Doug and Skeeter set it up at his house and Doug begins playing.
Doug's imagination: Doug and Porkchop are inside a rocket ship and soar in the air flying around.
Doug eventually dies on his first try, as indicated by the coffin-shaped spaceship taking off on the screen. So Skeeter gets a turn on the game and soon, he and Skeeter spend the rest of the day trying to beat the game.
Doug's imagination: Doug and Porkchop continue their mission while flying the rocket ship when they discover that a target on the tracking device is only 30,000 meters (18.625 miles) away. To prepare against his targets, Doug puts in a tape cassette in the radio slot and increases the rocket ship's speed. Just then, Ms. Wingo appears in the computer screen.
The next scene shows Doug in classroom losing concentration in class thanks to his new video game getting into his head. Ms. Wingo asks Doug to answer a question he didn't pay attention to, prompting him to look into his book and respond "the governor." Ms. Wingo reminds him that the question was what clocks up the Noodle River and Roger laughs at his incorrect answer. Doug imagines himself destroying Roger video game style and Ms. Wingo explains that the imminent class report on silt is due Monday.
When class ends, Doug runs home to beat the game. He gets a number of targets in the process.
Doug's imagination: The captain of the space ship congratulates Doug and tells him that he is being promoted to major. He adds that he has just one more thing to tell him before he takes out the other space forces, and just then, he speaks in a woman's soprano voice.
Back in reality, Doug finds that Judy has changed the channel to watch Shakespeare on Ice (as usual). The female voice that Doug heard came from a woman who is wearing stilt-like skates. So, as Skeeter leaves home to do his report, Doug decides to get started on his report right away. He tells Skeeter has a few pages, then, in narration, says, "The thing I didn't tell Skeeter was that my few pages were all blank". He has trouble concentrating on his work and starts getting imaginations of himself in the game. At three o'clock in the morning, he struggles to fall asleep. So he goes to the living room and plays the game until six in the morning.
In class, he struggles to stay awake and as class ends, he walks out and is relieved that the weekend is coming ("Finally, 87 hours later, school was over..."), meaning he would have all weekend to beat his game. Patti then comes around and offers Doug to study his report at the library with her this weekend, but Doug is too drowsy to listen to her words coherently (he visualizes several spaceships encircling her head) and agrees right before going home to play his game.
This is where his lost weekend starts and Doug loses track of time as he continues to play the game all weekend. At one point, Skeeter even comes over and Doug continues to beat the game himself. To add insult to injury, Doug struggles to get his report done every time he looks at it. As he plays the game through the weekend, he finally destroys the chipmunk mother ship, much to his delight. Since Doug has nothing else to do, he tries to get started on his report, only to fall asleep when doing so.
When he discovers that it is ten o'clock and he has overslept the next day, he wakes up and hurries off to school, only to discover that no one is outside and he is convinced that everyone was already in class. To make matters worse, his report is not finished (all he has written is
"Silt: A Report By Doug Funnie
Silt is")
and he imagines what is waiting for him.
Doug's imagination: Doug is seen wearing a brown coat and a gray fedora hat with the game's controller in his hand. He walks inside the Computer Junkie shop and asks the clerk for one more game. But the clerk tells him that he's had enough and tosses him out of the shop.
Just then, Mr. Bone walks by while carrying books. Skeeter is also there. Seeing Mr. Bone, Doug hides inside a dumpster full of papers and tells Skeeter to join him inside. He complies. Doug explains his messed-up situation to Skeeter, and that Skeeter should go to class without him. But as the two climb out of the dumpster, Skeeter tells him that today is Sunday and that Doug had lost track of time of the days due to having his mind focused on the game. Relieved, Doug finishes his report at the library with Patti. Back at the house, Porkchop is on the game, attempting to beat it like Doug did, and is later shown flying away via rocket ship.
Cast of Characters[]
Trivia[]
- Super Pretendo is a parody of the 1990s video game system Super Nintendo. Even the logo is a thinly-veiled parody.
- The game "Space Munks" may be a loose reference to the video game series Wing Commander, which was growing in popularity at the time of this episode's release.
- The plot of "Doug's Lost Weekend" is an homage to Billy Wilder's 1945 film "The Lost Weekend" starring Ray Milland. Doug's hopeless addiction to video games consumes his life, rendering him unable to focus on anything or anyone else, including his academics. He loses track of time over the course of a weekend long video game binge. This mirrors the story of Don Birnam (Ray Milland) in the 1945 film "The Lost Weekend" in which Birnam's hopeless addiction to alcohol becomes the focal point of his existence, rendering him unable to focus on anything or anyone, including his professional career. Birnam loses track of time during the course of a weekend long drinking binge. There is also a fantasy sequence in the episode where Doug is thrown out of a game shop after begging the clerk for "just one more game"-- mirroring Birnam being removed from a tavern after begging the barkeep for "just one more drink". Each character is told "you've had enough". In the scene, Doug's slovenly appearance is identical to Birnam's (with his 5 o'clock shadow and disheveled fedora and suit jacket). The episode's title is also a clear reference to the film.
- The scene in Doug's imagination where he puts a cassette tape into the tape deck of his spaceship as he prepares for battle may be a reference to the character Doug Masters from the 1985 film Iron Eagle, who also puts on music prior to engaging in aerial combat.
- Moral Lessons Can't play Video Games Too much and All The Time