PRODUCTION/CULTURAL REFERENCES (written 4/16/17)
-This episode has been in the making since the beginning of the series. I wanted to do an episode centering around Sparky's birthday and his fear of getting older in season one. However, I was a lot less patient and attentive to the show back then so the episode never happened. I ended up using the "fear of getting older" premise for part two of Buster's three-part birthday episode (never even finished part three). As the series went on and the other main characters got birthday episodes, I noticed that Sparky still hadn't received his own. I knew weeks ago that this episode had to happen now, because it would come on the day of my 19th birthday and I share my birthday with Sparky anyway.
-The one problem I knew I would run into was the plot. With the other birthday episodes, there was a story surrounding the event: Halley got jealous of Jaylynn and Sparky's friendship, RK felt depressed because he felt he hadn't done anything special in his life, Anja realized that Jaylynn was throwing her the party she wanted for herself. In Sparky's case, it was hard for me to come up with a story other than just it being his birthday. That's where Ashley came in. Once I realized there could be a conflict between the two with their parties on the same night, "Sparky's Birthday" became "The Birthdays from Hell."
-I also knew once I introduced the element of Ashley's birthday, Jaylynn would have a conflict of interest since she's Sparky's friend and the leader of the Masters of the Universe. The plot wrote itself so I didn't have to do too much thinking.
-Originally, the restaurant RK and Wade wanted to go to was Checkers, but since there is no Checkers in Washington state, I decided to create a new location for the episode. Home Fries from Outer Space just sounded like the kind of place a kid would think is the greatest thing in the world when it's really not.
-For a while, I was thinking about Sparky and Buster having car trouble which would prevent them from going to the party but it started feeling cliché so I decided to use that plot turn for Halley as a gag.
-Ordinarily, with birthday episodes, I like to have musical guests on the show but the only act I had in mind was Big Time Rush. I thought about having them guest star, but I still have the idea for a potential crossover with them that I might want to use later on. Instead, I just decided to tease the idea of them showing up.
-Home Fries from Outer Space is named after the short-lived UPN sitcom Homeboys in Outer Space.
-At RK's house, Buster references the Boy Meets World episode "Wheels." I was thinking about having a scene where Sparky and Buster go on their birthday drive, but I didn't have time for it and I really wasn't sure where it would go.
-RK uses Roman Reigns' catchphrase "I'm not a bad guy, I'm not a good guy, I'm the guy" to describe Home Fries from Outer Space.
-I actually wanted to use the vanilla Zingers joke in "Cowboy Kyle's Comeback Tour" but I couldn't find a place to put it.
-Wade's line about reverse psychology was originally Jaylynn's, but it didn't make sense for RK to agree with her and then insult her so I changed the character saying it.
-At Sparky's house, Buster references the Boy Meets World episode "Sixteen Candles and Four-Hundred-Pound Men."
-I thought it would be funny to have a bit of continuity from "Jaylynn, Anja, and Halley" last week.
-I've made fun of Family Guy before, so I decided to have Sparky acknowledge the cheap shot.
-During RK's phone call, the lady he's speaking to jokes that Big Time Rush is signed to Rape'n U Records, a reference to a skit from The Lox's 2000 album We Are the Streets.
-I wish I saved what Bitch Clock said in English because I originally just typed whatever vulgarity I could think of on Google Translate and put it in the script. What he said was along the lines of, "You little dirty piece of shit. Shitting on me, you stupid motherf***ing f***."
-For some reason, I've always had trouble blowing out the candles on my birthday cake so I decided to make it into a Buster joke. If anyone would have the same problem, it would be him.
-I liked writing RK's reaction to Jaylynn's plan because it just felt like a very realistic response.
-Buster references the Disney Channel series Hannah Montana and makes a callback to the episode "You're Welcome, Hellish" where he has trouble keeping Wade's secret about the clone he created.
-At the restaurant, Buster makes a reference to the Bernie Mac Show episode "Go Bernie, It's Your Birthday."
-A reference is made to the season two running gag where everyone thinks that Sparky sounds/acts like the titular character from The Secret World of Alex Mack.
-When I first wrote the episode, I actually forgot that dolphins are mammals and don't breathe underwater so I made it into another Buster joke.
-I used "This Is How We Do It" because they play that song at parties all the time and I had literally nothing else in mind.
-Next week's episode will be pretty interesting. That's all I'm going to say.
