Please attributeIf you’re a child of the late 80s/early 90s, then you probably have a cartoon in mind that made you feel something at some point. I can’t begin to explain the amount of people I’ve spoken to that say the 2002 Spongebob Squarepants episode “Graveyard Shift” featuring the infamous Hash Slinging Slasher still creeps them out.
Or how about the special holiday celebration episode of the Rugrats entitled “Mother’s Day”? The whole show basically focuses on how all of the toddlers have a mother to celebrate on the day besides Chucky, his mother passed away when he was very young. Showing this to young viewers would be a piece of cake as they wouldn’t know what’s going on. However, if you show this to a grown teen or adult, it may make them feel some type of emotional way. We are even left with a heartfelt poem that Chuckie's mother left him…
"My Sweet Little Chuckie
Though I must leave you behind me
This poem will tell you where you always can find me
When a gentle wind blows that's my hand on your face
When the tree gives you shade that's my sheltering embrace
When the sun gives you freckles that's me tickling my boy
When the rain wets your hair those are my tears of joy
When the long grass enfolds you that's me holding you tight
When the whippoorwill sings that's me whispering night-night"
And who could forget the episode of The Simpsons entitled Lisa’s Substitute. The whole show was basically about saying goodbye to someone that we love...in this case it was Lisa Simpson’s very first mentor. He teaches her that life has absolute meaning. Nothing breaks our heart more than when Mr. Bergstrom leaves on the train as little Lisa runs after it.
I grew up on cartoons like most kids. From childish ones like Courage The Cowardly Dog to more adult-esq shows like The Simpsons or Family Guy. My favorite show to watch as a kid was King of the Hill. I find that it’s always rare to find another fan of this show because it was very hard to choose over other popular Adult Swim offerings. I liked this show a lot more than your typical Robot Chicken or Aqua Teen Hunger Force.
Essentially, the show is focused on a family of Texans. That’s pretty much it. The father, Hank Hill, is a propane salesman and his wife Peggy is a substitute teacher with abnormally large feet. The two live with their video game obsessed son Bobby and their flirty niece Luanne. On their street lives the weirdest group of neighbors one could imagine. In the neighborhood, there’s Bill, Dale, Boomhauer, and Kahn. Everyone is fairly close knit in their community.
With episodes that feature Bill dressing up as his wife that left him and crashing a neighborhood Christmas party to Hank teaching a crack addict how to sell propane, the entertainment is hard to beat. There is a bit of an emotional core to some of the episodes.
One of these episodes, as you could likely guess, touched a nerve for me. The 1999 episode entitled “Wings of Dope” was one of the saddest cartoon shows I’d ever seen.
The plot is laid down like this:
Luanne is struggling with her final beauty school exam due to a stressful year. One of the worst things that happened to her was her boyfriend, Buckley blowing up and dying in a propane accident. She is also being bullied by the top students at her Beauty Academy which makes it hard for her to succeed and focus on work. Meanwhile, Hank and his neighborhood friends spot a trampoline that they want to fix up for entertainment. Early on in the episode, it’s revealed that this trampoline initially belonged to Buckley before he passed away which sparks emotions in Luanne.
That night, while Luanne is studying for her beauty exam, she looks out the window to see a stranger jumping on the trampoline. When she goes outside, she realizes it’s Buckley jumping and soon he lets her join him. Luanne is confused at first but when her dead boyfriend does a back flip, she see’s his little white wings and comes to the conclusion that he is now an angel
The next morning when she tells her family about the experience, her aunt thinks she is insane but her uncle is okaying the belief because seeing Buckley made her happy. He tells her that what she saw meant that she had a guardian angel in her deceased boyfriend. A few nights later when she calls upon him, he doesn’t show up and she grows sad and disappointed. Buckley winds up coming back to Luanne as she’s driving to her final exam, telling her he has a not from Jesus saying that she’s not meant for Beauty school but something bigger. Once she fails, she enrolls in a local community college and begins dreaming of better things. In the final scene of the episode, Buckley’s angel comes back one last time to say hello and Luanne peacefully tells him that their relationship is over. He dusts off a halo and walks down the street, permanently leaving.
This cartoon episode was rough to watch when I was little and I never understood why until I was older. This was about saying goodbye to someone, it’s about coping with the fact that someone is gone and not coming back. It’s sad to see Luanne in her room hoping that her boyfriend will come back to visit her in form of an angel. However, it’s heartfelt that he does come to visit in the first place and guide her in a new life direction.
For an animated show, it really makes you think. Do we all have guardian angels? Do they come in the people we least expect? Could they be guiding us away from something we love because it’s not the right path for us? As we grow older, we find that this is true. Sometimes we do have to let go of something we love because it’s not meant for us. This could come in the form of a toxic relationship or a wrongly decided college major.
I believe that Buckley’s angel left a sad mark in television history, saying that we can dream as hard as we want but the things we fight for may sometimes not be worth it.
