For some strange reason, CatDog is one of my favorite shows of all time, nostalgic, unique, not terribly cringe. But like every show ever, it has its share of clunkers, it's just that people are taking their sweet ass time singling them out. So, I've decided to single out what I consider to be the worst CatDog episode
The Ballad of Ol' 159
As most of you may know, this was one of six CatDog episodes that were never broadcast on Nickelodeon, a and b segments included, at least in the United States. If you want my opinion on the rest of those episodes, Vexed of Kin and Meat Dog's Friends are the only ones that are decent, the former because you get to see CatDog's parents one last time, the latter being an episode by Steve Banks, who had been with the series longer than anyone, and perhaps its pseudo-horror tone toward the end was better than CatDog in Winslowland's whatever.
A bulk of the later era CatDog episodes felt kinda off. Not just because of their sudden switch to digital ink and paint, but because most of the episodes there felt like they were being played a bit too straight, as in, it is more directly established who is the good guy and who's the bad. Either this is done to set up a moral, or they couldn't bring much life to an idea and thus had to take a more direct approach to it. When it comes to CatDog, my tell for it is when Cat is directly portrayed as an antagonist and Dog the protagonist, with Cone Dog being a good example for what I mean.
Not to say older CatDog episodes didn't do this, but I can't say I'm the biggest fan of a majority of Dean Stefan's episodes; Dog's Strange Condition, but even then it fits with Cat's obsession with money, and not to say straightfoward episodes always suck, it all boils down to everything in-between.
For this episode, let me describe a particular framework and fill in the pieces from there.
Someone likes something
Someone creates something that threatens the existence of that something
The other someone attempts to save the something from the other something
The something is saved.
And now let's get into the premise.
Dog likes a garbage truck, Ol' 159
Cat creates the garbage guzzler that threatens the existence of Ol' 159
Dog attempts to save Ol' 159 from the garbage guzzler
Ol' 159 is saved.
So right out of the gate the premise of this episode is incredibly basic. I'm sure other CatDog episodes had basic plots, but they managed to rise past this by having more to them. Here, it's played far too straight for its own good. About the only interesting thing this episode had was Mr. Sunshine showing more emotion than he normally would. You could argue his outburst upon finding out about what happened to his acceptance letter to Clown College was just, until you realize anyone could've been in that spot. That to me suggests they just had a basic premise with CatDog characters inserted into it.
But it's not just the premise that sucks for me, it's the kind of story that really gets me. You know those TV show episodes where the protagonists attempt to stop the demolition of something old, or lose something they love? If you need an example to know what I'm talking, refer to the Hey Arnold! episode The Old Building.
Episodes like these are played straight almost every time, with some exceptions these episodes always end with the old thing managing to be saved, no matter what. Look, I'm a history enthusiast myself, and advocate for preservation, but I know a cliche when I see one. I'm up for a change.
But cliches and simplicity aside, those wind up making minor details even worse, like the motivation behind the premise. With that Hey Arnold! episode you can understand demolition slates, but for this episode, Cat made the garbage guzzler because he was tired of being dragged around while Dog chased garbage trucks. He's not suffering, but after so many years, quite literally too as Dog has been chasing that truck since he was a baby, he'd get sick of it. It's the kind of episode where if you overthink it, you'd just feel worse for it, and it gets worse when you realize that this episode came out closer to the end of the series; if a show ends with a bad episode, well, a journey is only as good as its destination, if the destination sucks then the journey would've felt worthless, because the end is the end no matter what.
Not to say the episode is unsalvageable. A few tweaks could've made it work. For the big one, don't have Cat make the garbage guzzler. Rancid Rabbit would make it so he wouldn't have to pay the garbage men. Cat would take it well because that means Dog won't be able to chase garbage trucks anymore. Dog tries to stop Rancid to save Ol' 159 from being demolished and after it seems Dog won't be able to succeed, Cat would somehow be swayed into helping, the truck is saved, back to square one.
Other ideas I have include the truck winning the race, but it was destroyed by the guzzler and thus nobody really wins. Or to try and keep with the spirit of older episodes, have it where while there're no more garbage trucks to chase, there're plenty of meat trucks. Or if they wanna go the straight route, have the garbage guzzler turn out to be more trouble than the garbage trucks, thus a need to destroy it.
But the episode as is just doesn't work.
Now, if you intend to bring it up, what do I think about the Pete the Polecat scenes? Fistful of Mail handled the concept better, with a comedic song suiting the tone of that episode better, whereas we just have a country singer getting struck when he tries to sing. It's not bad but it gets old, especially compared to the Fistful example where it's heard sparingly.
There're other CatDog episodes that feel flat, or are played straight, but the problem with the Ballad of Ol' 159 is that it's not only played too straight but has other elements that make it seem worse.
But what would you consider to be the worst CatDog episode?
