History Series / HeyDude

* DefyingTheCensors: Nickelodeon must have had loose guidelines in the early '90s because they somehow let Jake get away with saying that the Ernst family motto is "we like meth" in the episode "Jake's Fight".

* AbandonedSet: This show ended in 1991, and is in a desert, so it got it bad. if you were to visit the ranch right now it'd be full of fallen props and even fallen wood from the ceiling, in general it'd look like a depressing shell of its former self.

* OperationJealousy: Ted asks Melody out in "Double Date" to get to Brad.

* WomenAreWiser: Played with a bit most of the time. While the girls are generally closer to Earth than most of the guys, Brad is only slightly closer, and Danny is typically closer than either girl [[NobleSavage (probably because he's a Native American)]]. Played straight in the BattleOfTheSexes episode, where the guys are [[IdiotBall suddenly incompetent]]. It's also played straight with the adults: Lucy the ranch hand has more common sense and knows a lot more about ranch life than [[BunnyEarsLawyer Mr. Ernst]].

* NotSoDifferent:
** Ted and Brad are both extremely competitive.
** Part of the reason why Brad has a problem with Kimberly from "The Good, The Bad, The Obnoxious" is because of this.

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** Her acquaintance Kimberly Carroll from "The Good, The Bad, The Obnoxious" was a more clear-cut case.

* BelligerentSexualTension: Brad found Ted annoying but they had a lot of chemistry, so her sniping at him comes across as this.

* BettyAndVeronica: Melody and Brad fit the character types, without the romantic rivalry. Melody and Ted have more of a LikeBrotherAndSister thing going.

* CaptainSmoothAndSergeantRough: Mr. Ernst is approachable and easy-going, if prone to daffy ideas; Lucy is knowledgeable and the main disciplinarian, with NoSocialSkills.
* CaptureTheFlag: The ranch's traditional method of choosing the head staff member (Ted) is to have the job go to the winner of the annual game.

* CookingDuel: In one episode where Ted and Danny compete with Brad and Melody to see which gender is better at certain tasks, Buddy is selected to be the judge of the cooking contest. The 'muffin' served by Ted and Danny is practically inedible, but the girls cook a meal containing fish, to which Buddy is allergic, resulting in a draw.

* EnfantTerrible: One episode gives us a young tweenage girl who commits some random acts of cruelty and theft around the ranch, pinning it all on Buddy. When he finally confronts her, she briefly gives a FreudianExcuse before sneering that she does it because she enjoys it.

* HypnoTrinket: Buddy orders one from a comic book, and tries it on Jake while he's eating a bowl of cereal. Jake pretends that it works, interpreting Buddy's command to pour the cereal "over your head" to mean "over ''your'' (Buddy's) head". Later on Buddy demands that he pour it "over ''my'' head" and again gets it dumped on him.

* MagicalNativeAmerican: Actually Danny is an aversion (most of the time) and while closer to Earth it's because he's more laid-back than the rest of the staff at the ranch. He even becomes exasperated when Mr. Enrst tries to invoke this for a promotional video.

* MistakenForSpecialGuest: One episode had the staff on the lookout for a guidebook writer who was expected to be coming to review the ranch...only to have them realize that the person in question had just checked out.

** In another episode, Danny gets a comic strip but cancels it by the end of the episode because it causes too much friction between his friends.

* ParentWithNewParamour: In "Teacher's Pet," one of Ted's teachers visits and shows not-unrequited interest in Mr. Ernst. Both he and Buddy are confused by the idea of teachers and parents dating and resort to hilarious sabotage to break up the couple.

* PutOnABus: In Season 3, it's discovered that Ted didn't pass all his classes the previous school year, so he had to leave the ranch for summer school. He made a later guest appearance in Season 4 (in which he sneaked back to the ranch because he missed everyone). He returned for good a little while later during the same season.

* RealLifeWritesThePlot: A minor example -- in the beauty contest episode, Melody states her hometown as being Allentown, Pennsylvania, which is Christine Taylor's RealLife hometown.

* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: A subversion. Jake joined the cast to fill the temporary vacancy left by Ted, but even after Ted returned, Jake stayed on the show.
** Not to mention Kyle, who joined even later in the series. Since Jake lacked the will-they-or-won't-they chemistry that Ted had with Brad, Kyle was brought in to fill the void.

* WillTheyOrWontThey: Between Brad and Ted. Although she usually thinks he's childish, there are lots of hints that she really likes him. Ted succeeds in getting her to date him once, or maybe twice, during the series, and when he leaves for his school-related hiatus she's in tears and kisses him on the cheek. Kyle fills in when Ted leaves the show.

* WriteWhoYouKnow: In-universe: Danny starts a comic called "The Dud Ranch," using thinly-veiled [[{{Expy}} expies]] of his friends, and plays up the worst of their personalities for humor. It's a hit with the readers, but Danny eventually realizes the friction in his personal relationships isn't worth it.
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* ParentWithNewParamour: In "Teacher's Pet," one of Ted's teachers visits and shows not-unrequited interest in Mr. Earnst. Both he and Buddy are confused by the idea of [[ParentsAsPeople teachers and parents dating]] and resort to hilarious sabotage to break up the couple.

* CopyProtection: In the beauty contest episode, Melody plans to sing for the talent portion, but discovers that because of the contest's copyright rules, she can only sing a song which is in the public domain. As a result, she serenades the judges with "Home on the Range."

* DemotedToExtra: There wasn't much for Kyle to do after Ted came back. As a result, he only appeared in a handful of episodes before the show ended.

* FrozenInTime: During a 2014 reunion panel at ATX, writer Lisa Melamed confirmed that the entire series did, [[WordOfGod in fact]], take place over the course of one single summer.

* FrozenInTime: Played with. The first two seasons appear to take place over one summer (though according to available air dates, there was no hiatus between them, anyway). Season 3 clearly takes place during a different summer, though, due to Ted having failed some courses and needing to leave the ranch to go to summer school. Time does slow down again, though, for the rest of the series.

%%[[caption-width-right:350:Someone familiar with the show, please add character names from left to right.]]

* Brad, the horseback-riding instructor, who has rich parents and occasional snobbish tendencies, but also works hard and can take care of herself.

* Melody, a bubbly blond lifeguard. She isn't exactly TheDitz, but generally shown to be closer to TheIngenue than the rest of the staff.

* Buddy, Mr. Ernst's son, who is not part of the staff, but usually is a part of the plot. He is basically a younger version of Mr. Ernst, except he doesn't see any romance in Western life and constantly whines that he wants to go back to New York.

* WomenAreWiser: Played with a bit most of the time. While the girls are generally closer to Earth than most of the guys, Brad is only slightly closer, and Danny is typically closer than either girl [[NobleSavage (probably because he's a Native American)]]. Played perfectly straight in the BattleOfTheSexes episode, where the guys were suddenly incompetent at everything. It's also played straight with the adults. Lucy the ranch hand has more common sense and knows a lot more about ranching than Mr. Ernst.

* BeligerentSexualTension: Brad found Ted annoying but they had a lot of chemistry, so her sniping at him comes across as this.

* CaptainSmoothAndSergeantRough: Mr. Ernst is approachable and easy-going, if prone to daffy ideas; Lucy is knowledgeable and the main disciplinarian, with NoSocialSkills.

* NiceToTheWaiter: Subverted in an episode where Melody falls for a rich guest. She thinks they have a connection, until she turns out to be "the help" and not another well-off guest.

* TakeOurWordForIt: Due to budget constraints, if there was a giant mural painted on a barn wall or a big rock display that depicted a man on a pig... er, horse, the show couldn't actually show it.

* Brad, the horseback-riding instructor, who has rich parents and occasional snobbish tendencies, but also works hard and can take care of herself when need be.

* Melody, a bubbly blond lifeguard. She isn't exactly TheDitz, but generally shown to be a bit more naive and immature than the rest of the staff.

* ChainedHeat: Brad and Ted get handcuffed together in the well-remembered "Arm Spasm/Leg Cramp" episode. The episode even [[DiscussedTrope discusses some tropes]] from ''Film/TheDefiantOnes''.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/hey_dude.jpg]]

''Hey, Dude!'' was a sitcom that aired on {{Creator/Nickelodeon}} during the late 1980s and early 1990s. It followed the misadventures of the teenage summer help at the Bar None Ranch in Arizona, as well as its owner, the rather clueless Benjamin Ernst. Mr. Ernst, after years of being a nebbish pencil-pusher, gets the urge to be a cowboy; so he buys the Bar None and becomes its manager. Since his only qualifications (if you can call them qualifications) are his enthusiasm for bolo ties and ten-gallon hats, he's quickly in over his head. Consequently, he has little time to supervise the young staff, who leap on the opportunity to romance each other and concoct schemes... in the most wholesome possible way, of course. The staff are:

* EnfantTerrible: One episode gives us a young tweenage girl who commits some random acts of cruelty and theft around the ranch, pinning it all on the local jerk friend. When he finally confronts her, she briefly gives a FreudianExcuse before sneering that she does it because she enjoys it.

* MostWritersAreAdults: Are these really supposed to be teenagers? Judging by the way they talk and act, you'd think they were thirtysomething-year-old adults at a family reunion.

* TokenMinority: Danny.

* BeserkButton: Don't insult Danny's heritage.