PRODUCTION/CULTURAL REFERENCES (written 11/6/16)

-This episode was meant to be written as the 11th of the season, but I had no interest in working on it after the opening scene so I just moved on the episode that's coming next week, finished that, and went back to this one. I feel like this method of working has really helped me become more productive this season.

-Originally, this episode was called "Jennings on Strike," and was going to revolve entirely around RK protesting iCarly Elementary. However, I ended up getting bored with that idea after a few scenes and I decided to make it a subplot instead. I felt like it worked better that way because the original episode was going to be a little bit more serious, but here, it was more based on comedy to contrast with the main plot.

-A couple months ago, I was reading the latest post from a hip-hop blog on WordPress that I go to frequently. What the author of the blog does is go back in time and review various rap albums. He started with the 1984 albums six years ago, and he is currently on 1993. Anyway, I was reading the latest post which was about an album by the rap group Young Black Teenagers. Their gimmick was adopting all of the stereotypes associated with rap culture while being white. They said that blackness was just a state of mind and genuinely believed they were black. I thought it was absolutely stupid how someone could believe they were another race, and came up with the idea for this episode sometime after that.

-I was initially planning to do this episode next February after the midseason break, but when I had problems with the main plot, I moved it up and decided to make it the 11th episode of the season.

-One idea I had was having Tyrone's parents make an appearance when Tyrone invited Wade to his house to meet them. They would come to Seattle for a visit and praise Wade for being Tyrone's friend, because he had trouble making friends in the past due to his belief that he was black. However, I scrapped that and just had Tyrone tell Wade directly that he was black.

-Another idea I had was merging the two plots near the end, but that didn't work out so I just kept them separated.

-Originally, in "Jennings on Strike," Mr. Robertson was actually going to confront RK and get him to go back to school. However, since this was just a subplot, his role was much smaller.

-The episode title is, of course, a reference to Young Black Teenagers.

-While talking to Wade on the phone, RK references the season two cover episode "Quadruple Date," which marked the first appearance of Diana, Adriana, and Anna.

-Wade makes a meta-reference to other fourth graders in the school that have never talked or made appearances on the show.

-RK compares his situation with Tyrone to former quarterback Drew Bledsoe's near-fatal injury in the second game of the 2001 NFL season, which forced him to give up his position to Tom Brady who ended up leading the New England Patriots to victory in Super Bowl XXXVI. Bledsoe never regained his starting job.

-At the time I wrote this, Charles Barkley was in the news for certain things he said about the police so I decided to put it in the episode.

-RK constantly wearing a purple bandana after he started striking is a reference to rapper 2Pac, who constantly wore bandanas during his life and addressed social issues regarding the black community in his music.

-During RK's live protest, he references Gil Scott-Heron's 1971 poem/song "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" and Marvin Gaye's 1971 album What's Going On.

-RK's protest song was inspired by a joke in the Everybody Hates Chris episode "Everybody Hates Minimum Wage," where Chris thought about having a sit-in so his boss could start paying him in minimum wage.

-The Full House episode Buster was talking about is the season three episode "Fraternity Reunion."

-The gag of RK watching various programs related to school was meant for "Jennings on Strike" before I rewrote the episode. I wrote up a different gag here but I didn't think it was funny enough (it also reminded me too much of a joke I had made before) so I just erased that and used the original gag I had planned. By the way, the commercial RK watches before he turns off the TV is a parody of the Everest College commercials that used to air constantly.

-RK references the episode number (98) when talking to Wade.

-RK references the wardrobe malfunction that took place at the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show involving Justin Timberlake and Janet Jackson. While Jackson caught a lot of heat from the incident, Timberlake chose to disassociate himself from any responsibility.

-The episode of Unsung Tyrone was watching actually exists, and focuses on actor Richard Roundtree, the star of the 1971 blaxploitation film Shaft.

-When Tyrone threatens Wade with the gun, he references the famous hook to "Run's House" by Run-D.M.C.

-I actually didn't know what song to play during the end credits until last night when I looked through the episode again, and decided on "Accident Murderers."