*TMPaSS intro plays*
*Mr. Peabody and Sherman enter via their normal routes, Peabody stumbles down the steps a bit, but recovers. They both finally reach their places.*
"Hello everybody, and welcome to the Mr. Peabody and Sherman Show!" Peabody exclaimed to the audience.
Sherman stands next to Peabody, holding what looks like a robot, but he looks at it dejectedly, like it's broken.
"What's wrong Sherman?"
"My robot I made for my robotics club doesn't work, and our competition is in a week, I can't fix it that fast!"
"Well, I could-" But Peabody is cut off by a loud banging on the elevator.
It opened to reveal a young man, about 27 years of age, wearing a lab coat. He was holding what looks like a robotic dog, about Peabody's size, with black cameras for eyes, and silver metal plates for fur.
"Oh! Wade Saunders, you're just in time, come on in." Peabody ran up to him and pulled him into the studio.
"Everyone, this is Wade Saunders, he works at the big startup robotics company down the street and he wanted to show me his latest prototype for a…what do you call it?"
"A 'Realpet', with only the very latest in robopet technology." Wade said with a wave of his hand.
"Whoa cool!" Sherman ran up to it and looked it all over, his robot forgotten.
"It can do all the usual stuff, fetching sticks, newspapers, and barking at squirrels, it can even speak, like a real human." He looked at it. "Speak." He commanded.
"Hello. How are you?" It said in a robotic voice.
"But can it change a babies' diaper?" Peabody asked as he crossed his arms with a smirk on his face.
"Huh? Why on earth would it want to do that?" Wade asked him.
"Mm, no reason." Peabody said in a singsong voice. "Anyways, you're just in time, Sherman here needs a little help with his robot." he said, indicating Sherman with a paw.
"Oh really?! Let me see." Wade threw the robodog up in the air and Peabody gasped as he watched it but it twisted in the air and landed on all fours, perfectly unharmed.
Peabody glared at it.
"ANYWAYS, while Wade is helping Sherman, let's get on with the show. Today our time travel story is about a very interesting person who was actually known as the 'father' of robotics, Joseph Engelberger. I just need to grab the time travel envelope over on my chair-"
And before Peabody could say anything else the robodog had rushed up the stairs and grabbed the envelope off of Peabody's chair in his teeth and rushed back to Peabody, wagging his mechanical tail and barking.
"Well, thank you- um, Wade, what do you call it?" Peabody took the envelope from the robodog's mouth and looked over at Sherman and Wade, who were deep in the conversation pit discussing Sherman's robot.
"Oh, nothing yet, and by the way, that's one of its higher functions, proactive response, it analyses your voice and speech pattern and even your body language and determines what you want. In this case, the envelope." Wade said as he and Sherman left the conversation pit and walked over to Peabody.
"As for its name, you can name it whatever you want and change it to anything whenever you want. Like this:" He looked at the robodog. "Your name is Spot."
'Spot' barked once and said: "My name is Spot."
"That's so cool!" Sherman said. "Hey, Mr. Peabody, I have a great idea! Why don't we have a competition? A dog challenge!" he said, waving his arms in excitement.
Peabody blanched. "Um, I don't think that's necessary Sherman. Besides, I think we all know the answer to the question of who will win it." He wiggled his eyebrows at the camera.
"But it's just a friendly competition, to see who's really the better dog. Dog, or machine? We could have 3 challenges: A tail chasing challenge, a tracking challenge, and of course, a fetch challenge!" Sherman excitedly counted each off on his fingers.
Peabody gave in. "Well, I guess it couldn't hurt."
"Yes!" Sherman yelled. "We can use the Showpro 6000 to make the needed set changes!"
Sherman ran over to it and Wade followed him, eager to see more of Peabody's tech.
"While Sherman and Wade get the challenges setup, here to validate that the time travel story contained in this envelope is all true, please welcome Mrs. Arugula Hughes!" Peabody stretched a paw out to the left side of the screen and Mrs. Hughes came rolling into sight, the bored expression on her face as present as ever.
Before Peabody could do anything Spot grabbed the envelope out of his paw, ran over to Mrs. Hughes and placed the envelope on her desk.
Mrs. Hughes looked at the camera like she was on The Office, shrugged, and stamped the envelope. She rolled out of sight again and Spot brought the envelope back to Peabody.
"That is quite the advanced algorithm you have." Peabody said as he took the envelope from Spot's mouth again and walked up to his seat and sat down.
"Yes, we worked on that the longest." Wade said haughtily.
"Well, onto our time travel adventure." Peabody said to the audience. "Oh! This is a good one."
*Camera fades to black and Peabody and Sherman are shown in the WABAC flying through time*
Sherman and I arrived in 1983, Danbury Connecticut, where Joseph Engelberger was about to found his very first company, Transitions Research Corporation, where he would go on to introduce the HelpMate, amobile robothospital courier, as the flagship product of his new company. He hoped to kick-start a new industry for in-home robots.
Peabody and Sherman exited the WABAC into a modern looking city, right in front of a gloomy looking balding man sitting on the bench right in front of a building with the sign of his company right above the door.
"Is that him Mr. Peabody?" Sherman asked.
"Indeed it is Sherman, but I don't know why he's looking so dejected." Peabody frowned at the man.
"Let's ask him! Hey Mr. Engelberger!" Sherman said as they both walked up to him.
Joseph Engelberger looked up. "Oh, hello." He said without much enthusiasm.
Sherman sat down on one side, Peabody on the other.
"What's wrong?" Sherman asked.
"It's my robotics company I want to start, I have everything except the business licenses and permits."
"Well what's stopping you from getting them?" Peabody asked.
"My competitors, Robotech" Joseph said simply. "They already put in their licenses and permits to use this very building. And I don't have enough money to get another one. And I have to be out in 3 days."
"Well why don't you ask them if they can move?" Sherman asked.
Joseph brightened. "That's a great idea!"
And so we made our way to Josephs competitors temporary space and asked them if they would be so kind as to move to a different venue, but they proved very disagreeable and booted us out without so much as an explanation.
"What are we going to do Mr. Peabody?" Sherman said in dismay as they all sat on the ground. "If Mr. Engelberger doesn't start his company, there won't be any robots in hospitals to help people!"
Peabody tapped his chin as an idea came to him. "I have an idea Sherman, but we'll need some of Joseph's robotic parts. Joseph, do you have any robots we could use?"
"I sure do!" Joseph said excitedly as he got up. "Back at my place, come on!"
And so we followed Joseph back to his soon-to-be company building where I set to work creating a robot that would help us.
"Mr. Peabody? How's a robot going to help us?" Sherman asked as he and Joseph stood watching Peabody.
"Quite simple Sherman, I'll use this robot to infiltrate and sneak into the county records building and change the business records for this building from Joseph's competitors to him."
"Ooooh, hehehe." Sherman cackled as he rubbed his hands together. "We'll be like secret agents."
*The camera fades back to Peabody sitting in his chair.*
"And we'll hear more about how that turned out later in the show." He said.
"Now it's time for-" But he was interrupted as the elevator opened again, revealing Christine, their downstairs neighbor, who was carrying her dog, Prince Puddles.
"Hey Mr. P. Hey Sherman." She said as she waved to them both.
Spot immediately ran over to her and started barking.
"Aghhh!" She screamed in surprise and held Prince Puddles higher. "WHAT is THAT?"
Peabody rushed over, waving his paws in the air.
"No! No! Spot, Christine is a friend! Sit!"
Spot sat down and stopped barking.
"Sorry Christine, this is Spot, he's Wade's robodog that he brought over to show us." Peabody said.
"Ohhhh, that's so COOL!" Christine put Prince Puddles down and him and Spot started barking and chasing each other, clearly having already become fast friends.
Sherman and Wade joined them.
"Yeah, and we're having a competition to see who's the better dog!" Sherman said excitedly.
"Cool! You know who I'm rootin' for, Mr. P." she said as she winked at Peabody.
Peabody gulped.
"Alright! Let's start!" Sherman said. "Mr. Peabody and Spot will now do the tail chasing challenge!"
"The rules are quite simple really, you can use any method necessary to chase your tail, the first dog to successfully catch and stop spinning while holding onto their tail is the winner." Wade said as he held up a stopwatch.
Peabody gulped as he and Spot walked up to the center of the studio and got ready.
"I'm rootin' for you, Mr. P!" Christine said.
"On your marks, get set, go!" Sherman yelled as Wade started the stopwatch.
Both dogs began spinning; biting and snapping at their tails, each earnestly trying to be the first to catch theirs.
"I got this….I…got…this" Peabody was having a hard time concentrating, he was getting dizzy.
He saw his tail get closer and snapped. He may have snapped a little too hard as he felt a sharp pain travel up his back but he held on.
He stopped spinning and said triumphantly through his teeth: "I got it!"
"Sorry Mr. P," Sherman said sadly. "Spot stopped spinning a few seconds before you did. He won this challenge."
Peabody let go of his tail and stood up on his hind paws. "Oh." He said disappointedly.
He walked up to Spot and held out a paw. "Good game." He said.
Spot shook it. "Good game." He repeated.
"Well, while Sherman and Wade prepare the next challenge, let's get back to our time travel adventure." Peabody said as he sat down in his chair once more.
*The camera fades back to their time travel adventure*
As you recall, Sherman and I were building a robot to help Joseph Engelberger create his robotics company.
"Joseph, what kind of security does the county records building have?" Peabody said as he turned to him.
"Only the very latest in laser grid technology protecting the server room." Joseph replied.
"That shouldn't be a problem." Peabody replied.
And so, after waiting for nightfall, Joseph, Sherman and I snuck over to the county records building. I placed the robot right inside the door, and we hid in an alley next door and I controlled it remotely from a controller I had thrown together from parts in Joseph's building.
"Sherman, you keep watch out for anybody coming down that end of the street, and Joseph watch the other end." Peabody said.
They both did so and Peabody looked at the screen of his remote controller, controlling the robot under the laser grid to the right records.
"Come on, come on." He muttered to himself. He gently raised the arm to the server and extended its USB arm into one of the ports.
"I'm in the server. Now to change the right record." He quickly searched for Josephs competitors record and changed the address and permit to a different address and Josephs to his current building.
He was almost done when Sherman came running up to him.
"Mr. Peabody! Hurry up, a police patrolman is coming!"
"I'm almost done, Sherman…just a few more things."
Sherman looked again. "He's getting closer!"
Things were looking down and we were almost sure to be caught.
*The camera fades back to the studio, with Sherman, Spot, Wade and Peabody standing in the middle*
"Welcome back everyone! Up next is the tracking challenge!" Sherman said. "Wade and I have hidden two things in the penthouse and Spot and Mr. Peabody need to track them using their expert dog noses. The first one back with their item wins the challenge. May the best nose win!"
"What are the items?" Christine asked.
Sherman smirked as he winked at Mr. Peabody. "I've hidden my favorite stuffed animal." Peabody smiled as he realized that Sherman had essentially handed him this challenge on a silver platter.
"And I hid a dog toy" Wade said. "I've already programmed the smell into Spot's olfactory processor."
Sherman held up the stop watch. "On your marks, get set, go!"
Both dogs shot off in opposite directions, Peabody to the left, Spot to the right.
Peabody ran on all fours, trying to get a whiff of Sherman's scent; apart from the one that already hung in the room from his presence.
He caught it a few seconds later and quickly honed in on its position. He ran behind the elevator and looked in the ancient vase that stood there. He smiled as he looked in and saw Sherman's old orange stuffed dinosaur, the one he gave Sherman when he was just a baby.
He quickly grabbed it and ran around the elevator right to where Sherman and Wade were still standing and was elated as he noticed Spot was still nowhere to be found.
"I found it!" he yelled triumphantly.
Sherman quickly stopped the stopwatch. "And Mr. Peabody wins this challenge with a time of 12.7 seconds!"
Spot came running toward them a moment later, carrying the dog toy in its mouth. He dropped it and Wade picked it up and put it in his pocket.
"Ooooh, way to go Mr. P!" Christine squealed.
"Yeah! Way to go dad!" Sherman said.
Christine gasped. "This means 2 outa 3, the next challenge you just have to win!"
"Yes, well, why don't you setup the last challenge while I conclude our time travel story." Peabody said smugly as he walked over to his chair.
*The camera fades back to their time travel adventure*
When we last left off, Sherman, Joseph and I were about to be caught in the middle of our plan to get Joseph Engelberger's company started.
"Got it!" Peabody said.
All 3 of them pressed up against the alley wall, opposite the policeman, who passed without seeing them.
They all breathed a sigh of relief as Peabody maneuvered the robot out of the building and he scooped it up and they ran back to Joseph's building.
"Thank you so much, Mr. Peabody." Joseph said.
"Now you will be able to start your company." Peabody said.
The next day, Joseph's competitors came to his building and asked us why we weren't gone yet. We told them that of course, we had the proper permits and business licenses. They went to the county records office and saw that Joseph did indeed have the proper permits and licenses to start his company. Needless to say, they weren't able to do anything.
"Yeah, now people will have robots to help them in the hospital!" Sherman said.
Peabody paused. Then he said: "I would make a pun, but I don't find health-related puns funny since I started suffering from an irony deficiency." He wiggled his eyebrows at the camera.
Sherman groaned "I don't get it."
*The camera fades back to the studio, a crazy looking obstacle course spanning the middle of the studio, with Christine, Wade, Spot and Sherman standing on the sidelines*
"Well, that was quite the adventure, and it's all true." Peabody said. He gasped as he took in the obstacle course the Showpro 6000 had implemented.
"Sherman? I thought the next challenge was just fetch?" He said as he walked down the steps and joined them.
"Yes, but I thought since it's 2 out of 3, we'd make it even MORE of a challenge, an obstacle course!" Sherman said as he indicated the obstacle course, which consisted of two rows of typical dog obstacle course items; hurdles to jump, tires to jump through, tunnels to crawl through, and stairs to climb up and down.
"These Fetchmate 9000s will fling a ball all the way to end of the course. The first dog to go through the course, retrieve their ball, and come back through the course wins the challenge, and thus the competition." Wade said as he pointed to two catapult looking devices that were sitting at the beginning of the course.
Spot and Peabody walked to their starting places at the beginning of the course.
Wade put two hands on each of the buttons of the Fetchmate 9000s and Sherman raised the stopwatch. "On your marks, get set, go!"
Wade pushed the buttons and both dogs were off.
Peabody vaulted the first hurdle, crawled through the first tunnel, and ran up and down the steps. When he got to the next hurdle he jumped over, but one hind paw caught on the edge, causing him to fall to the ground. He quickly picked himself up.
He could hear the cheers of the audience and Sherman and Christine as they rooted for him. He HAD to win this one, what would Sherman think if he lost?
He quickly overcame the last two obstacles and found his ball that had fallen near the wall of the right side of the studio.
He took it in his teeth and ran back towards the course. Spot had already found his ball and was slightly ahead of Peabody. He decided to just focus on going as fast as he could. As he weaved his way through the course, he could see Spot out the corner of his eye effortlessly threading the tunnels and vaulting the hurdles.
He was closing in….so close..
Just as he reached the beginning again, Spot burst through the first tunnel and Sherman stopped the stopwatch.
"And Spot wins the challenge… and the competition with a time of 34.8 seconds." he said rather unenthusiastically.
"Yes!" Wade pulled a victory fist and Spot high pawed him.
"Hmph. I still think Mr. Peabody is a better dog." Christine said with a scowl.
"What do you think Sherman?" Wade turned to him.
"Well, I….uhh" Sherman looked at both of them, sweating nervously. "Well, Spot won….but, uuuh."
He suddenly ran over to Mr. Peabody and hugged him profusely. "I can't choose Spot. Mr. Peabody tucks me in and kisses me goodnight. Spot doesn't do that; he doesn't have a personality."
There was a collective 'aww' from the audience.
"Oh, thank you Sherman," Peabody smiled at him as he hugged him back. "I'm sorry you weren't able to fix your robot. I was going to say before at the start of the show that I would help you and take a look at it."
"Really? Thanks Mr. Peabody!" Sherman said.
"I guess I'll make a personality for the robopets next on my list." Wade said. He looked at his watch and inhaled. "It's 9:47, I need to be somewhere. Thank you for the competition, goodnight everyone!"
He waved and beckoned Spot to the elevator.
Christine gasped. "Kathleen and I were going to meet for drinks at the bar at 10! I need to go too!" She grabbed Prince Puddles and followed Wade into the elevator and it closed.
"And now it's time to say goodnight to Sherman." Peabody said.
"Awww, but Mr. Peabody, you made this show to spend more time with me!" Sherman frowned at him.
"Yes, I did Sherman, just like the WABAC. But just because I made this show for you doesn't mean you get to shirk your bedtime."
Sherman sighed and lets his arms fall. "Oook" he said as he slowly walked off the screen.
"Goodnight Sherman. I love you. Don't forget to brush your teeth." Peabody called after him.
"I love YOU too, Mr. Peabody..." Sherman said from somewhere off screen.
The audience collectively 'aww'ed again.
"Well that's our show for tonight ladies and gentlemen!" said Peabody.
*Peabody starts waving as the credits roll and the episode ends*