PRODUCTION/CULTURAL REFERENCES (written 2/15/17)

-This episode was originally meant for season four, and it was one of the first ideas I came up with for the season back in 2015. It was originally a 45-minute/two-part episode called "The Christmas Dance," and I was going to use a similar plot structure for it that I used in "The Blight Before Christmas." I never actually did any writing for it so I decided to turn it into a Valentine's Day episode. However, I was lazy and a procrastinator so I never got beyond the first few scenes. What I did was keep the episode in my documents for a year, and then go back to it as a season five episode. This is the first time I have ever held over an episode from the previous season, and I plan to do the same thing with an upcoming episode.

-Had "The Valentine's Dance" been in season four, it would have actually come out on Valentine's Day.

-When I first came up with this, I really liked it because I had never tackled a school dance before. Of course, if I had done it the way I originally planned in 2015, it would have looked a lot different. One thing I loved writing was RK's constant complaining about the dance because it felt like a really in-character attitude.

-This is the third Valentine's Day episode in the series, after "The Love That Sucks" in season one and "Savin' All My Hate for You" in season two.

-Originally, Trina was only going to appear in "Buster Plays the Field" but I felt like her story with Buster wasn't done yet so I decided to continue it in this episode. If she hadn't appeared, I would have gone with a plot where Ashley starts falling for Buster after she agrees to go with him to the dance as friends.

-Lynne wasn't supposed to be involved in the Jaylynn/Anja plot. She was just going to do her usual back and forth with Jaylynn and that's it. However, I got the idea that the plot would be funnier with her involvement after I wrote her first scene.

-Sparky and Halley's plot was really interesting to write because this was one of the very few times where they fight with each other. It was a new experience for me to portray them as being at odds with each other but I felt like it gave the episode some much needed emotion.

-There are technically three plots in this episode: Sparky/Halley, Buster/Trina, and Jaylynn/Anja/Lynne. However, when I was writing it, it felt like all the sweetheart's dance stuff was merging into one big plot so it might not come across that way.

-I came up with the cold open the day after the Super Bowl, and I was considering leaving it out if the episode was long enough. However, I just decided to do it anyway. I really like it because it brings RK's newfound dislike of the Atlanta Falcons full circle, after the cutaway in "The Homework Machine." It's like RK finally lost hope with the team, and just when it seemed like they were going to redeem themselves, they screwed up one last time in the worst way possible. It was enough to send RK over the edge.

-I wrote the first three scenes literally a year ago, with everything else being new. However, I did make a few changes to them. In the scene where RK is talking to Wade in his basement, Wade was originally in the process of developing a special ooze designed to change the behavioral patterns of animals, particularly small ones like rodents. This was going to lead into "Night of the Radioactive Hamsters" a week or two later, where Wade decided to use the ooze on RK's hamster farm. However, because this episode wasn't finished, I was never able to tie the two episodes together. I do hope to tie in Wade's teleportation attempt with an episode later this season.

-RK compares Buster's return to the dating scene to Jay-Z's comeback to the rap game. He initially retired after releasing The Black Album in 2003, then returned three years later with his ninth album Kingdom Come. It's considered to be among his worst albums.

-Jaylynn refers to Sparky and Halley as Eli and Clare, after the popular characters from Degrassi.

-The "funding for this message" scene originally had the Learn to Read theme song playing in the background, but I felt like the joke was trying too hard to be funny. At one point, I thought about getting rid of the whole thing and ending with RK's line.

-Sparky saying "put the lime in the coconut" is a callback to "My Thanksgiving with the CimFam" where he said the same thing.

-Sparky paraphrases lines from the Fresh Prince episode "Papa's Got a Brand New Excuse" to talk sense into Buster. Jaylynn was supposed to do this, but I couldn't find a way to make it work.

-Originally, Sparky wondered what life would be like if he was dead. However, I felt like the joke was too dark so I changed it.

-When I first thought of the Jaylynn/Anja plot, Jaylynn was going to buy the cupcakes from a weird street vendor. However, I felt like Jaylynn would be smart enough not to buy them so I instead went with several shipments being laced with drugs around the country.

-I literally just came up with whatever stupid lines I could think of for Jaylynn, Anja, and Lynne while they were high. It reminded me of the season two episodes where Jaylynn and KG got high.

-Jaylynn and Lynne make a reference to the game show Nickelodeon GUTS when they're in the car.

-This episode is special in a way since Sparky and Halley started dating in "The Love That Sucks" four years ago. Everything comes full circle.

-Even though Lynne was high, she actually meant what she said when she said that she didn't really hate Jaylynn. While she was turned off by her personality at first, she secretly just wants to be as close to Anja as Jaylynn is. Constantly insulting her is just meant to break her spirit. "Thank You for Being an Enemy" explains this as well.