PRODUCTION/CULTURAL REFERENCES (written 10/16/22-10/18/22)

10/16/22

-I came up with the idea for this episode over a year ago. Originally, it was meant to be the pilot episode of That's What Friends Are For, which would have contained rewritten versions of episodes from the first two seasons of Thank You, Heavenly. I ended up not moving forward with the idea, but not before I wrote an outline for this episode.

-This is the first standalone episode of the series, and the second "remixed" episode after "The RK Feline Fiasco Remix" in season six. I tried writing a standalone back in 2019 called "Chill." It was going to be a bridge between seasons seven and eight. I barely did any work on it and it turned into "Rebirth of a Salesman." I'm actually not opposed to writing more standalone episodes in the future, especially since some of them won't end up fitting into the schedule for certain seasons. For instance, I want to write a Thanksgiving episode, but season ten won't be ready in time for November (insert year here). Making it a standalone episode fixes that problem.

-I wanted to do something for the tenth anniversary of Thank You, Heavenly for months. My first idea was having season nine premiere on June 24, but that didn't work out. Then I decided to write two episodes: "Cruel Summer" (a representation of where the show was in 2012) and a brand new episode that represents where the show is now. I had several ideas for the second episode, some of which got moved to season nine, and then I just decided to work on "Cruel Summer" exclusively because I already had the outline. I just needed the script.

-I started writing this episode at the beginning of May and I got to the scene where Counselor Barker bans Sparky, Buster, and Wade from camp activities for two weeks. It only took a few days, but because of procrastination and personal issues getting in the way, I didn't come back to finish this episode until the beginning of this month. I pushed back the premiere date multiple times, and finally stopped doing that when I realized I was interfering with my own plans for the Christmas special and season nine. Between the first writing session in May and the one this month, the script only took six days.

10/17/22

-My approach to this episode was exactly the same as "The RK Feline Fiasco Remix": Keep it in 2012 (July 2012, to be exact), keep the general plot the same, but expand on it and make it a more developed story. In the original episode, I spent almost no time on RK's fishing trip. After the guys go to camp, RK appears in literally two scenes. I was able to write an actual plot this time because RK would hate the idea of anything ruining his summer plans. RK's plot also affects the main one since his fishing trip is the reason Buster signs everyone up for camp, and RK is the one that gets the boys paranoid over what might happen when they go there.

10/18/22

-This episode was also a chance to clean up a certain scene from the original that wouldn't fly today and was tasteless even ten years ago. The original episode had the guys mention being sexually assaulted as one of the reasons summer camp is terrible, and then they get assaulted. There is no joke there, the guys just get assaulted by David, Paul, and A.J. and the episode carries on like it didn't happen. I've said multiple times that I'm not a fan of the first two seasons and they aged the worst, but I had a chance to look back recently on episodes from that era and the first season is undeniably the worse one. Not to say season two is perfect because it isn't, and there's plenty of cringeworthy stuff there, but season one is horrifying to look at in 2022. At the time, I was going for a show that was based more on gags and shock humor, trying my best to imitate Family Guy and South Park. I didn't think about how those jokes would look in hindsight, and I believed I was making the best show I could. But looking back, the show didn't have an identity ten years ago. It was just taking what other shows did and doing it worse. As I got older and started understanding what it took to write a show like this, I toned down the objectionable material significantly, but the first season will always serve as a reminder of how far the show has come and how I wouldn't think of writing like that now.

-With that being said, I was trying to imitate the style of the first season with "Cruel Summer" but in a way that's aware of itself. That's why Sparky and Wade are more prone to anger and bad decisions, and RK is a lot more impulsive and thoughtless. Stuff like him talking about how Colorado's elevation will give him AIDS, using ketchup to make his family think he has a concussion, taking on the Lobsteria Challenge when he has absolutely no chance of winning. This is the kind of episode that I was trying to write ten years ago, and the kind of episode that only works in the earlier seasons of the series when you're trying to figure everything out.

-The original episode also turned into a full-on retelling of the Martha Speaks episode "Camp Truman" after David, Paul, and A.J. decided to make Sparky, Buster, and Wade leave. I didn't really do anything with the material other than have it done exactly how Martha Speaks did it. I kept that part of the episode in this one, but it has more of a reason to exist here. I also went back and watched "Camp Truman" for the first time in years and it was exactly how I remembered it.

-For a moment, I was considering bringing back "Another Me" by PeroxWhy?Gen as the theme song for this episode. I used it as the theme song for the first two episodes of the series, then switched to "Let It Roll" and never looked back. I wasn't really sold on the idea of using "Another Me" again, so I decided not to do it.

-This episode is labeled as the first episode of season zero because it is the first standalone episode of the series, and has the "AF" production code to indicate that it is between seasons eight and nine. The upcoming Christmas episode will also have it, but any standalones between seasons nine and ten will have the "BF" production code instead. It will just keep going in alphabetical order, and it also helps me differentiate the one-off specials from the regular episodes.

-This episode contains the running gag of KG reminding RK that he has to knock before he enters his room. I didn't start using this joke until season three at the latest, but I thought it would be funny if I established that RK has had issues knocking since the first season.

-To manipulate KG into not going on the fishing trip, RK directly references dialogue from the Boy Meets World episode "Brother, Brother." KG's responses (and his line about RK needing to look at the good) also reference the episode, but in a less direct way. This goes back to what I was saying about imitating the style of the first season. Back then, I would write scenes like this and just play them straight. No irony, no awareness that this is a reference, just take what the original show did and rip it off. Sometimes, I would literally insert scenes from shows and have the characters respond to them as if nothing strange just happened. This time, because I know the characters and how they would act in situations like this, I get to have some fun. RK doesn't want to go on this trip, and uses his love of sitcoms to try and make KG feel guilty about the "fact" that they don't hang out. KG eventually catches on, realizes what RK is doing, and even calls him out on referencing Boy Meets World when it doesn't make sense for him to do it.

-In the original episode, the summer camp was named Camp Winnetka, which is a direct reference to "Camp Truman." Buster even says the camp's name in the same way Milo did on Martha Speaks. I didn't want to use the same name for obvious reasons, so I changed it. "Ongowongobinga" is actually a reference to the My Wife and Kids episode "Calvin Goes to Work." In that episode, Claire uses Franklin to give her answers through a headset while she gives a presentation on cold fusion. When Michael finds out, he takes the headset and uses it to give Claire nonsense answers like "ongowongobinga."

-The junk food party was something I actually did in junior high, but only for myself. On the last day of school, I would take all the money I saved and use it to buy my favorite snacks and drinks. "Isn't Summer the Worst?" also referenced this party, but this time, I wanted to depict it as an elaborate and important event.

-When I was younger, a lot of my summers were spent sitting around eating and watching TV all day. I have memories of watching Disney Channel at three in the morning and eating turkey sandwiches with mayonnaise.

-Even though Jaylynn wouldn't have appeared on the show this quickly, I still wanted to mention her so she had some kind of presence. Then when it was time for her to meet the guys, it wouldn't come out of nowhere because the audience would be waiting for her to finally show up.

-RK mistakes Camp Ongowongobinga for Camp Cucamonga, which is a reference to the 1990 made-for-TV film of the same name. The movie starred a lot of popular actors of the day, such as John Ratzenberger, Jaleel White, Candace Cameron, Sherman Hemsley, and Danica McKellar. It even featured Jennifer Aniston in one of her first roles.

-The guys becoming paranoid of being molested because of The Summer Where No One Told was part of the outline. It was important to me to take scenes from the original episode and flip them around or give them more of a reason for existing. Sparky, Buster, and Wade blindly accusing the camp of aiding in/committing sexual assault because of a movie they saw is an actual story, and has potential to be funny unlike them just being sexually assaulted for the sake of a joke.

-The Summer Where No One Told is a parody of after-school specials from the 80s and 90s, alongside instructional films on the dangers of pedophilia produced by the Boy Scouts of America. Those movies have some of the worst acting you'll ever see in your life, and they should still be on YouTube at the time I'm writing this.

-To entice Wade into watching the movie, RK mentions that Kellie Shanygne Williams (known as Laura Winslow on Family Matters) has a role.

-From what I've seen of 80s and 90s movies like The Summer Where No One Told, they always have the creepiest, darkest background music possible. It makes you feel like you're watching a horror film, so I wanted to mention that in the episode.

-Buster insults Wade by calling him "Mr. Paterno," a reference to the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal. In 2011, Sandusky was arrested and charged with 52 counts of sexually abusing young boys over a 15-year period (1994 to 2009). It is alleged that Joe Paterno (who Sandusky worked under as an assistant coach at Penn State) was aware of the abuse and tried concealing the evidence, which led to Penn State terminating his contract as head coach.

-RK references the 1983 made-for-TV film Adam, which is about the kidnapping and murder of Adam Walsh (son of America's Most Wanted creator/host John Walsh).

-RK references former quarterback Peyton Manning signing to the Denver Broncos in March 2012. The Broncos went on to win the AFC West every year Manning played for them, and made it to two Super Bowls (including Super Bowl 50, which they won in 2016).

-The boys' cabin was named after Prince Adam in the original episode, but in 2012, I just threw that in as a reference. Here, Buster doesn't understand why it was named that, and Wade doesn't understand why Buster named his cat after the LPC (Lakewood Pride Committee), a reference to the Arthur episode "The Pride of Lakewood."

-In the original episode, after the boys get assaulted, Sparky references the Miami Heat winning the 2012 NBA Finals as a way to show that David, Paul, and A.J. are just as evil as them. This is another way of flipping the original scenes around. Here, Wade forgets that the Heat won the Finals that year and mistakenly believed that they choked like they did in the 2011 Finals.

-RK references the NFL's controversial history with concussions. In 2012 alone, Ray Easterling, Junior Seau, and Dave Duerson all committed suicide, and it was discovered through autopsies that each of their brains showed signs of CTE.

-I thought about using "Right Here" at the end of the episode, and it most likely would have been if I released this in June, but when I went with "Welcome 2 Hell," I tried finding another place to use this song.

-Buster references the child molestation allegations surrounding Michael Jackson, believing in his innocence and shaming Counselor Barker for thinking he has a similar story.

-In the outline, David, Paul, and A.J. were going to show Sparky, Buster, and Wade a good time so they could see what Camp Ongowongobinga was really like. However, when I went back to finish this episode, I realized it didn't make sense after what happened at the mixer. The campers would want a reason to get revenge, so I changed it to them trying to drive the guys away. This helped connect the episode more to "Isn't Summer the Worst?" and give the "Camp Truman" references a reason to exist, while also giving the campers a better motivation to be antagonists.

-A.J. playing the Inspector Gadget theme song is a reference to the original episode, which featured an Inspector Gadget parody as the Homage to Classic TV.

-In the outline, RK's challenge involved eating a large seafood platter, but I needed something easier to describe so I changed it to him needing to eat the lobster.

-Buster makes a vague reference to the longstanding pedophilia allegations surrounding Dan Schneider, best known for being the creator of several Nickelodeon shows in the 2000s and 2010s. The allegations are admittedly more widespread now, but I want to believe they were still a thing in 2012.

-Every activity David forces the boys to do is a direct reference to "Camp Truman." The scenes also play the same as in "Isn't Summer the Worst?," just with better dialogue and characterization.

-Buster's performance of "I've Been Working on the Railroad" is a reference to the Drake and Josh episode "Two Idiots and a Baby," where Josh performs the song in an identical way.

-A.J.'s Al Sharpton impression is a reference to an MSNBC commercial from 2011, where Sharpton compares the Republican Party to himself when he was a kid, having eaten his mother's blueberry pie and trying to deny it even though the pie was all over his face. I always thought the commercial was hilarious, and went back to watch it while writing this episode, but Sharpton actually pronounces "blueberry" correctly. Buster's impression starts off as Sharpton, then randomly turns into Bill Cosby.

-I started realizing that writing out everything the guys were doing was going to make the episode longer than planned, and I still had to go back to RK's plot so I included most of the remaining activities in the montage. Originally, I was going to use Tyler James Williams' "Don't Run Away" (featuring IM5) like I did in 2012, but then I realized it was lazy so I chose a different song.

-RK references the controversy regarding Barry Bonds' home run record, due to his association with steroids. When I wrote this scene, I was referring to Bonds' all-time record of 762 home runs, but I was also inspired by recent claims from critics that Aaron Judge should have the single-season home run record. Judge recently broke the American League record set by Roger Maris in 1961, but Bonds still holds the overall record with 73 home runs in 2001.

-Lobsteria is a portmanteau of "lobster" and "hysteria."

-The Man v. Food parody was part of the outline and first draft, but I rewrote it to make it closer to something Adam Richman would actually say back when he was hosting the show. I was a big fan of Man v. Food when I was a kid, and thought about referencing it for years before including it here.

-Originally, when I wrote "In the Middle of It Now" into the script, the full song was supposed to be used, but I changed it to the instrumental version. If this episode was actually on TV, the vocals would clash with Adam's voiceover.

-The Denver Health Medical Center is an actual hospital. I'm really into using real-world locations for scenes like this.

-The Chris Brown/Drake fight was an actual event that took place in June 2012, but in the original episode, it just got a quick mention when the guys were in the kiddie pool.

-In the original episode, David reveals his plan to the boys and they just decide to leave the camp. Then the episode ends with Sparky, Buster, and Wade recapping while RK is still on the fishing trip. Ever since I outlined this episode, I knew the ending had to tie both plots together since they were connected for most of the episode.

-In the outline, I wrote that RK "kidnapped" the guys and saved them from the camp by rushing them out. This is also what I wrote in the first draft. However, I wasn't a fan of it because the guys were having fun, and would have fought back if RK and KG tried to make them leave. I changed it to KG lying about RK being in the hospital, which gave the guys a reason to leave, made RK see himself as the hero because the guys wouldn't have seen him until they were already in the car, and also kept the ending of RK being assaulted intact.

-When I outlined the episode, my plan was to play "Welcome 2 Hell" at the end. It was going to come out on June 20 last year, around the same time as the ten-year anniversary of Hell: The Sequel. Months later, when I decided to write this episode, "Right Here" was my new choice. Then it changed to "Windows Down" by Big Time Rush (a song I actually used in 2012), then "Nasty" by Nas, then for a while, I had nothing. I finally remembered "Welcome 2 Hell" was my first choice as I was finishing the first draft.

-One of my biggest issues with this episode had nothing to do with the episode itself. It had to do with announcing that Thank You, Heavenly is coming back with new episodes. I was trying to think of cool ways to do it, but I couldn't get it right. It was a big deal since ending the show initially took a lot out of me, and I had to scale back my plans for the tenth anniversary. I just went with the kids talking about the idea of reboots (which has gotten way worse in the last couple years) and their feelings on it, which would transition into the announcement of the revival and the Christmas special.

-The "Show Goes On" message is a reference to the Lupe Fiasco song of the same name, and the fact that Thank You, Heavenly will keep going. 192 episodes over eight seasons is a lot, and I have no idea how much longer the show will continue. I didn't think I would be here ten years later writing any of this. But I will say that I'm blessed to be here writing this, and I'm not thinking about writing another series finale for a long time. I'm just happy I have more stories to tell.