The 90s Are All That Recap, Part Three: Hey, Dude

Hey Dude (Theme song!)

Children of the 90s: Hey Dude did so much for children growing up in the 1990s: it romanticized the notion of working at a Dude Ranch, it oversimplified the plight of Native Americans, and perhaps most importantly,  it taught us girls could be named Brad. Oh, and the theme song wisely pointed out that I should probably better watch out for those man-eating jackrabbits…and that killer cacti. Good tips, overall. I have yet to be eaten by a man-eating jackrabbit and have yet to encounter any killer cacti, so I’d say it worked for me.

The show brought us to Tucson, Arizona to the fictional Bar None Dude Ranch run by the bumbling Mr. Ernst and his ranch hand Lucy with their attractive young staff: Melody, Ted, Brad, and Danny. Like in so many Nickelodeon shows, a cast member inexplicably left for an indeterminate amount of time and returned with little viable explanation. In the case of Hey Dude, Ted left the show briefly and was replaced by Mr. Ernst’s drumming nephew Jake.

Jake must have been kind of a dud, because he was swiftly replaced by the slightly more interesting Kyle. Then with only some halfhearted explanation about being away at summer school, Ted was back again and rumbling with Kyle for Brad’s attention. Nickelodeon clearly wasn’t too heavily invested in character development and continuity, but they at least usually they could slap on a snappy theme song and call it a day.

WildARSChase: Nickelodeon, it’d be a crime not include this show. It’s one of your very best. The episode when everyone works together to scare Ted by convincing him his bunk is haunted? Fantastic. The one where Buddy runs away because he’s a little jerk and he gets all parched in the desert? Actually, you could have killed him off. Nobody liked him.

I liked how Melody ended up being Ben Stiller’s wife. Mr Ernst ended up being a doctor on ””E.R. And Ted ended up being on “Sabrina the Teenage Witch” with Clarissa.

You’re right, Jake came out of nowhere and then disappeared. Can you imagine that happening in a show now? Barney disappears off “How I Met Your Mother.” House disappears off “House.” Simon Cowell disap… nevermind.

Children of the 90s: My favorite episode is where Melody convinces Mr. Ernst to send a ranch representative (as I’ll assume is customary?) to the Miss Tucson pageant so Melody and Brad have to go head to head in the Bar None preliminary pageant. All I really remember from that episode was that Brad’s talent was packing a suitcase, which people ended up liking more than Melody’s vocal rendition of “Home on the Range.” I feel like maybe it gave me hope that even the talentless among us (like me, for example) can flourish. And let me just say, I pack a mean suitcase.

And I never got that into the later years of Sabrina the Teenage Witch, so I’d forgotten all about Ted’s dalliances with the former Clarissa. Melissa Joan Hart gets to play against all the good 90s guys: first Sam, then Ted, now Blossom’s brother Joey? She’s got everyone.  I’m impressed.

WildARSChase: I wonder what Brad looks like now. She was secretly sexy, but didn’t have to show it off all the time.

I’ll say this about Hey Dude’s impact on me. When I first watched “Die Hard” years after it came out and heard Bruce Willis’ famous “yippee ki ay” line, I thought, “Oh, just like in the Hey Dude theme song! Like the cowboys say!” P.S. I’m a nerd.