PRODUCTION/CULTURAL REFERENCES (written 3/7/20)

-Fun fact: This is the 200th story I have ever published on FanFiction. Not the 200th episode of Thank You, Heavenly, but since I joined this site in July 2010, along with episodes of the show, I have published 19 other unrelated stories.

-I had the idea of covering "Doing Things the Hemingway" for a long time. I believe I came up with it sometime during season six. For a while, it was referred to as "Walk This Hemingway," but I don't know how serious I was about the idea at the time. I can't remember when this happened, but I thought that "The Wizard of Evergreen Terrace" would make a good cover and I put that idea down also. Eventually, I realized that both episodes had similar themes and decided to cover them both at the same time, creating the first ever double cover episode of the series.

-Originally, the subplot was going to feature RK pursuing his life goals after being inspired by the work of American poet Walt Whitman. However, after the death of Kobe Bryant on January 26, I changed it so RK had more of a personal reason to achieve things in his life. I started calling RK "The White Mamba" after finding out that Kobe called himself "The Black Mamba." I finally revealed the reason behind RK's nickname in "Brothers & Basketball" to bring it full-circle. And after Kobe's death, I knew I wanted to address it on the show somehow. I didn't want a rehash of "I Lost My Mind in San Diego," so this was a way to keep the comedy while honoring Kobe's legacy.

-Even though "Walk This Hemingway" came first, I thought the Buster plot had potential as the main story so the majority of the episode is centered around him becoming an inventor. However, near the end, the focus shifts entirely to the subplot because I needed scenes of RK and Jaylynn climbing the Columbia Center. This was the only real struggle I had with the episode since both plots could have been their own episodes and they both needed enough time.

-This episode also dealt with multiple delays. Originally, it was scheduled for February 9. However, I ended up procrastinating that week and couldn't finish in time. I left off at the scene where Wade suggests ways to improve the Gutter Cupper and I came back a few weeks later to finish the episode. I was still doing edits last night before releasing the episode, but it was mostly towards the beginning because it was having a few problems. There were two other episodes meant for February that ended up being pushed back, and I'm still working on the schedule to prevent more delays for the rest of the season.

-I had the same issue with the title for this episode that I did with "Sparky the Fabulist" last season. I was looking for an interesting word that describes Buster as an inventor, because I didn't want to call the episode "Buster the Inventor" or "Buster the Creator." And just like with "Sparky the Fabulist," I found a new word. A neoteric is someone that advocates for new ideas and has modern thinking, so I knew it was perfect for the title. For months, I was just calling the episode "Walk This Hemingway/The Wizard of Evergreen Terrace."

-The original opening scene in this episode was actually the second scene. The kids are discussing Kobe Bryant's death, which leads to Wade looking up the life expectancy in the U.S., which begins Buster's paranoia over his life not having any meaning. I didn't like the scene because I felt like things weren't flowing the way I wanted them to, so I wrote a new opening scene where Buster finds out about the life expectancy on TV. I cut out certain dialogue from the lunchroom scene, added new dialogue, and rewrote dialogue that already existed.

-Sparky references previous episodes of the series where Buster did something interesting: The two-part season three episode "Slice of Fantastica" (Sparky and Buster create their own animated series for Nickelodeon), the season four episode "The Trouble with Militants" (Buster seeks revenge against PepsiCo after getting a stomachache from a can of Mountain Dew), and last season's episode "The Ringer" (Sparky, Buster, and RK's Little League baseball team finally wins the state championship).

-Buster references professional wrestler Braun Strowman winning the Raw Tag Team Championship at WrestleMania 34 with a ten-year-old boy named Nicholas (the son of referee John Cone). Nicholas became the youngest champion in WWE history. Buster also references Billie Eilish winning the Grammy for Album of the Year, becoming the youngest person to ever receive the award. Finally, Buster references environmental activist Greta Thunberg being named the 2019 "Person of the Year" by TIME magazine, becoming the youngest person to be given the title.

-In "The Wizard of Evergreen Terrace," Homer learned so much about Thomas Edison that he talked about him nonstop to his family and friends. Since Buster does the same thing, I made sure not to include any information that the original episode already covered.

-RK references Kobe Bryant's sexual assault case from 2003, where Bryant was accused of rape by a 19-year-old woman who worked at a Colorado hotel that Bryant was staying at. The case was later dropped after Bryant's accuser refused to testify, and a subsequent civil case against Bryant was settled out of court.

-Jaylynn references her love for rock musicians Kurt Cobain and Janis Joplin, who both died at the age of 27.

-In "Doing Things the Hemingway," Kenan's goals were to save someone's life, declare his love for a girl, and climb something really tall like Mount Everest.

-RK references controversial statements made by Chick-fil-A's chief operating officer Dan T. Cathy in the summer of 2012 expressing his disapproval of same-sex marriage.

-This wasn't my intention when I was writing the scene, but RK giving an RKO to Manny is an indirect reference to the season five episode "KWWE." When the guys start their own wrestling company, RK begins to believe that Sparky is undervaluing and mistreating him as a performer. As a result, RK gives him the RKO multiple times throughout the episode.

-In "Doing Things the Hemingway," Kenan decided to combine two of his goals by climbing with Kel to the top of the Sears Tower so he could declare his love for a girl named Brianna.

-Buster making his own Reese's cupcakes was inspired by my disappointment in the Reese's cupcakes I bought a couple weeks ago. The package advertised actual Reese's peanut butter in the cupcakes, but they ended up having a generic, predictable taste.

-Buster's company is named after the nonprofit food company Newman's Own, founded by actor Paul Newman and author A.E. Hotchner in 1982.

-When Sparky gets a big smile on his face from the cupcake, Buster compares him to the Dr. Seuss character The Grinch.

-I was considering a scene where RK announces his plans to climb the Columbia Center with Jaylynn at school, but then I thought that if the others heard about the idea, they would try convincing RK not to do it, and later attempt to stop it. I decided to go with RK and Jaylynn climbing the building in secret.

-This is the first mention of the kids' senior trip being held in Washington, D.C. I'm interested in writing an episode centered around the trip later this month.

-When RK reaches the top of the Columbia Center, he references Michael Cole's commentary from WrestleMania XXX after Daniel Bryan won the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.

-In "Doing Things the Hemingway," Kel ends up causing Kenan's banner to rip as they attempt to hang it, so it says "KENAN ❤ BRIAN" instead of "KENAN ❤ BRIANNA." The two also end up stuck on top of the building until the fire department comes to rescue them. I was going to include these scenes in the episode, but it was running long, so I just decided to have RK and Jaylynn realize they were stuck, then have RK yell at Anna to get help within the same scene.

-The ending was me trying to include a lesson and a joke at the same time, where things become so awkward, Sparky forgets what the lesson was supposed to be entirely.