There hasn’t been a new episode of Nickelodeon’s teen Western Hey Dude — the network’s first live-action series! — produced for 20 years now, but today, the series finally gets its proper due with a much-anticipated season 1 DVD release. You heard me right: Now you can relive all the hormonal ranch antics from the late ’80s/early ’90s once again via your DVD player. (Yes, the sitcom’s first two seasons have been on iTunes for nearly two years now, but, well…I didn’t know that.)
The series was a favorite of mine as a young child, maybe because it was on during the years where I was about age six to eight and I was obsessed with all things Nickelodeon — and of course, all things that were beyond me in age. This was a series about teenagers, and yet, I was, comparably, very young while watching. (But then again, I always was watching things beyond my years: I started watching Beverly Hills, 90210 in second grade.)
It’s funny, though, because I can’t remember that much about what the series was about — just that I loved it dearly. I have fuzzy associations with it, and only vaguely remember that there seemed to be a cast of characters who worked at the Bar None Dude Ranch somewhere in the Southwest and they were — yes, you guess it! — always sort of getting into some sort of trouble. Shenanigans! I haven’t gone back to watch it yet, but I have a feeling that if I did — and will I really? let’s get real: probably not — it likely wouldn’t hold up as much as it does as a gleeful, frothy memory in my mind. Maybe I’ll just leave it that way.
Anyway, I had fond associations of this series and thought maybe some of you out there would, too. Do you remember Hey Dude? Do you care that it’s getting a second life here on DVD? You know what is still totally great, of course, is the show’s corny opening credits. “Hey, dude!” Indeed! Watch here:
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