I identified a trope in old NickToons some time ago. A lot of episodes are structured as follows: 1: A character believes there is something paranormal or ominous going on.
2: The majority of the episode is dedicated to debunking the ominous or paranormal thing's existance, or is presented as a dream sequence.
3: The last shot shows that it either WAS real, or wasn't a dream sequence. It is also never mentioned again.
This formatting either scared me when I was younger, or set me up to really like "dreamlike" storytelling in adulthood. This is such a common trope that was used in these shows that I don't see people talking about very often, so I decided to watch a bunch of classic NickToons and document and summarize every instance I find of this.
Rugrats
Rugrats S2 E 12 - The Inside Story
-TODO
Rugrats S2 E 15 - Visitors from Outer Space
-TODO
Rugrats S2 E 20 - My Friend Barney
-TODO
Rugrats S3 E 11 - The Mysterious Mr. Friend
-TODO
Rugrats S3 E 13 - Destination: Moon
-TODO
Rugrats S3 E 17 - Chuckie's Wonderful Life
-based off the popular christmas story. Chuckie says he's going to run away because people are better off without him and an angel shows him a world without him where everything is miserable. Most upsetting, Tommy is homeless and visibly starving. Played for jokes but is honestly pretty weird. Chuckie gets fed up of the world without him and asks to be taken back home, which he is. It's revealed that he was just having a dream. Chuckie looks out the window to see the angel from "his dream" is real, and drives a motorcycle into the sun, making physical contact with it. He's never seen again.
Rugrats S3 E20 - The Alien
-Chuckie's dad builds a mini house for the babies to play in, but Angelica can't fit inside it. Out of spite, she tells the babies not to go in because it's Chuckie's "mothership" and he's an alien. She knows because she broke in to the Finster property at night to see that his dad is also an alien and is giving a press conference to another alien. Chuckie's alien design has a huge zipper on his back to reveal he is a bipedal reptillian. The majority of the episode is about Chuckie trying to prove he isn't an alien using different tests, and interestingly, he fails almost all of them. Tommy says he doesn't care if Chuckie is an alien or not. Chuckie says you can't be too sure who's an alien and who's not. The closing shot shows the playhouse rocketing into space with all the babies inside.
Hey Arnold
Hey Arnold S1 E 8 - The Haunted Train
-TODO
Hey Arnold S2 E 3 - Four Eyed Jack
-TODO
CatDog
CatDog S2 E 19 - The End
-TODO