The Cast of Hey Dude Reunited and It Was Everything We Hoped It Would Be

It's a little wild and a little strange, when you make a home out on the range! If you grew up in the '90s, you certainly remember Hey Dude. The teen-centric comedy Western aired on Nickelodeon from 1989 to 1991 and followed the staff of the fictional Bar None Dude Ranch as they dealt with guests, chores, and each other amid a dusty desert backdrop full of man-eating jackrabbits and killer cacti. (OK, that last bit is only true with regard to the show's legendary theme song, but before you click, I must warn you: It's still just as catchy now as it was then, and you're likely to be singing it for the next four hours.)

Hey Dude's cast recently reunited at the ATX Festival in Austin, Texas, to discuss the show's influence, their favorite episodes, and whether or not anyone hooked up during filming (they pled the fifth). On the panel were stars David Brisbin (Mr. Ernst), Debrah Kalman (Lucy), David Lascher (Ted), Christine Taylor (Melody), Geoffrey Coy (Kyle), Jonathan Galkin (Jake), Josh Tygiel (Buddy), and writers Alan Goodman, Lisa Melamed, Graham Yost (whose post-Hey Dude credits, as you likely already know, include Justified and The Americans). Kelly Brown (rich-girl Bar None staffer Brad) was unable to attend, and Joe Torres (Danny) was MIA (more on that in a second), but the rest of the group more than made up for their absence as they set off on a horseback ride down memory lane. Here are the 10 most important things we learned at the panel.

'90s Stars: Where are they now?

1. Joe Torres wasn't present at the reunion because "no one really knows where he is"

 The cast lost touch with Torres, who played Native American staffer Danny Lightfoot, after the series wrapped. "I have no idea if it's true because I read it on the Internet," Goodman said, "[but] there was a rumor for years that he had died, there was a rumor that he was selling cars in New Jersey, [and] there was a rumor that he still hangs out around Tucson and is kind of a pool shark in a bar [there]." No one has been able to confirm any of these things, however. "I think some of us have casually looked and tried to find him," Goodman continued, "Because there are different groups of us who [were] a little bit in touch through all this time, and he hasn't been one of them. I think sometimes people turn the page and they move on. And I have a feeling he's turned the page and moved on. I don't think anyone really knows for sure."

2. The entire series took place over one summer

 Sixty-five episodes of Hey Dude were filmed over the course of two years, but they aired over three years and five seasons. And all of that was supposed to be during just a single summer at the ranch. TV magic!

3. Christine Taylor initially auditioned for the part of Brad, but she was apparently too nice

Melody might be the nicest character on TV, and when asked if that was written on the page or if it was something Taylor brought to her character, she copped to the fact that her room at the Ramada where the actors stayed during filming was covered with motivational posters of cats and Glinda the Good Witch. She then admitted she actually auditioned for Brad originally, but didn't get it. "It was funny, because I remember thinking that Brad had a very specific point of view in the pilot, and she came from a specific place, and Melody was sort of just everybody's friend and loved being on the ranch," Taylor said. "I went in and auditioned and just tried to be myself." Over the course of the series, Taylor said the writers got to know the actors and began catering story lines to serve who they were as people. So basically the implication is that she was way too nice to play Brad.

Get more scoop from ATX Festival 

4. Ted left for summer school because David Lascher wanted to do another show

"I knew this would come back some day and I'd have to explain this," Lascher joked. "I had an opportunity to do a show for NBC at the time." Called A Family for Joe, the show was canceled after just nine episodes, Ted came back to the dude ranch and everyone was happy.

But his departure allowed for the opportunity to introduce new characters, including Jake, who was the nephew of Mr. Ernst, and Kyle, the son of Lucy's boyfriend. Yost joked he was trying to get the "bad, awful taste of Lascher" out of his mouth when Jake was created. "We weren't going to go for the heartthrob again... the idea was basically, as I recall, let's get somebody funny, make him a relative so it's not hard to get an in. And he's got some Ernstian qualities to him." Enter Jake.

5. Kyle's last name was Chandler

Bar None forever?

6. The show tackled heavy subjects before it was cool

 Over the course of the series, Hey Dude tackled such serious issues such as alcoholism, children with special needs, sexism, elitism, and Native American culture and politics. When asked if the writers felt they had a responsibility to do this because of the age of their audience, Yost joked, "We set out to change the world!"

Melamed had a more serious answer. "I've actually had people come up to me in the last few years as our audience is aging in to our workplace," she said. "I start a new show every year or so and I walk in and some wide-eyed assistant will pull me to the side having IMDB'd me and they've said thing like, 'You changed my childhood.' It's an amazing thing to hear. And I think we did. I think what was so great about this show... we didn't really follow a lot of rules so we were able to toggle back and forth and could do Brad teaching a kid with special needs how to ride and then we could do the handcuffing [episode]."

"It had some serious stuff," Goodman agreed after describing a particular plot involving Danny challenging Ted that he couldn't go a day without using something from the world of the Native Americans. "But there was also Ted without a shirt."

7. The fashion is worse than anyone remembers

 "The level of denim was staggering. I didn't realize they could make that many different styles of denim," Taylor said with a laugh. "I don't even think that was cool then! Like, I don't remember pleated khaki shorts belted with [that] shirt and a bolero being cool. Even for people who lived on a dude ranch!"

PHOTOS: Summer TV eye candy

8. Everyone's favorite episodes are the ones they were in the most

 Kalman was a fan of "Stick Around," because it was Lucy-centric, while Lascher was partial to the episode in which Ted was handcuffed to Brad for the entire show. Yost actually wrote the episode and also loved it. "The fun of that is that ... Hey Dude was writers boot camp. We got to rewrite the classics with no irony," he said. Melamed and Taylor were both partial to the episode in which Brad and Melody were pitted against one another in a beauty pageant. Taylor also enjoyed the double date episode. "We went on location to the mini golf course ... it was a location shoot and that was a big deal!"

9. Only Kelly Brown and Debrah Kalman knew how to ride horses

 Did you hear that? Television is made up of lies! "I didn't realize that there would be anything dangerous about it, we just got on," Lascher said, before adding that there were horse wranglers around to help the actors. "It's so funny," Taylor said, "because I don't ever remember there being a horse wrangler or anybody who knew what was really going on. It was always like the sun was setting and we just had to quickly run on the horse and pretend like we knew what we were doing."

10. Graham Yost proudly still owns this T-shirt with Christine Taylor's face on it from the episode "Our Little Champion"

Melody was training to be an Olympic swimmer. Naturally.

If you're suddenly feeling nostalgic for the good old days of the Bar None, you can watch old episodes of Hey Dude right here.