Disclaimer: I do not own DuckTales, or any familiar characters, places, or otherwise. I only own Papa Bear, Islander, and The Grand Relay and The Grand Relay's host.
"Tara, Andrea," the show's host, Bill Pelican, said solemnly, "you are the last team to arrive. I'm sorry, but you have been eliminated from The Grand Relay."
Dewey pouted, slouching on the couch as he watched the two parrots onscreen began their closing statements and footage of them in the race played. "Ah man, I was actually kind of rooting for them." Bitterly, he tossed a handful of popcorn in his mouth.
"Me too," Louie agreed as he took a sip of his Pep soda. "Which is strange, because their voices reminded me of those kelpies we saw in Moorshire."
Webby looked at the triplets. "Ottoman Empire, and now The Grand Relay? You guys really like your reality shows, don't you?"
"Guilty as charged," admitted Huey, who was jotting down notes on a clipboard about the episode they watched. "There's not a lot we can do on the houseboat, and whenever Uncle Donald didn't want us going out, we'd sit down and watch some shows. Shows like these usually take an hour, so they're really good time killers."
"We each also have our own favorite reality show." Dewey reached into the bowl in his lap, only to find he had emptied it. He set the bowl aside, and looked at Webby. "My favorite is The Grand Relay. It's like the adventures we go on. Flights, exotic places, and insane tasks, what's not to like?"
Huey set his clipboard aside like Dewey had done with his bowl. "My favorite reality show is Islander. It's got survival elements, mysterious game-changing twists, and they have a panel of eliminated contestants that vote on the winner at the end. I especially love the survival elements; thanks to everything I learned from the Junior Woodchuck Guidebook, I would do pretty well at those."
Louie shrugged, not yet finished with his soda. "I like Papa Bear better. You're not running around the world, or trying to survive in the wild on that one. You're in a house with others, the challenges aren't as difficult, and it's a game that requires a good social game. I could do that."
"They all sound so interesting. Is Islander or Papa Bear on next? I wanna watch them too." Webby grabbed the TV remote to check the guide.
"They're not going to be on. They're probably making the next seasons right about now, and they won't air until they're finished. At least, that's how it works for Islander and The Grand Relay. Papa Bear airs while the season is in production. It's a different set-up from the others," Dewey answered, gently stopping Webby from pointlessly searching.
"But," Huey interrupted, "we can go onto the request services, and watch an episode from an earlier season. We'd have to ask Uncle Donald and Uncle Scrooge first. I'm pretty sure most shows on request services cost money to bring up."
Louie sniffed in dismissal, and snatched the remote from Dewey and Webby, pressing a few buttons. "Let's just go for it. An episode only costs six bucks, and if we show Webby one episode from each show she hasn't seen yet, that should total twelve dollars. Between the four of us, we can pay Uncle Scrooge back easily."
"He's got a point," Dewey said, pumping his fist. "Let's start with Islander. That's next best to The Grand Relay."
Huey smiled widely. "Oh yeah! Let's show Webby the seventeenth season. That one was great!"
"Yeah no," Louie replied, "I'm the one with the remote, and I say we start with season sixteen of Papa Bear."
Huey and Dewey started to argue with Louie, causing Webby to shake her head amusedly as she watched them.
"You know what? Fine. Let's settle this rock-paper-scissors style!"
"It's two to one. How is that fair?"
A brief argument came and went between Huey and Dewey, and Dewey ended up playing against Louie. Despite being the lazier triplet, Louie quickly outplayed Dewey, securing control of the remote's next use.
"Papa Bear it is." Wearing a smug smile, Louie scrolled through the selections for his show.
Dewey sulked at his defeat. "Evil triplet…"
Webby nudged Dewey in the shoulder. "It's starting!"
As the next show began, Huey snagged the empty popcorn bowl and ran out of the room. "I'll get a refill!"
"Bring me another Pep!" Louie shouted, not daring to move from his seat.
So this is my first thing for DuckTales. It's just a little thing I thought of that wouldn't leave me alone. I figured since the boys enjoy watching Ottoman Empire, they might enjoy reality TV game shows, specifically the DuckTales version of what I like to call 'The Reality TV Triangle' which consists of Survivor, The Amazing Race, and Big Brother. From there it made sense to give each triplet a favorite of those three shows. Huey is a Junior Woodchuck and knows lots of survival skills so he got the Survivor counterpart (Islander); Dewey likes adventures and crazy stunts so he got the Amazing Race counterpart (The Grand Relay); and Louie can't go without much luxury and is a skilled liar so he was a natural fit for the Big Brother counterpart (Papa Bear). The name of Papa Bear came from TaleSpin as it sounded like a good equivalent of Big Brother in an animal-populated world. The host for The Grand Relay is meant to be an expy of The Amazing Race's host, Phil Keoghan, with the lamest bird pun name I could think of, and Tara and Andrea is a reference to the voice actors that voiced the kelpies.
Review in the box below, and remember, reviews are awesome!