Goodbye 2018, Hello 2019

by Clubhouse Treats

When RK finds out that Buster's condo has been restored, he tries to keep it from Buster so he could convince him to stay in the Jennings house. Meanwhile, Sparky and Halley become convinced that Bitch Clock is planning a terrorist attack on New Year's Eve, and Wade and Jaylynn compete against each other to see who can stay up the longest after midnight.

2. Goodbye 2018, Hello 2019 Backstage Pass

PRODUCTION/CULTURAL REFERENCES (written 1/1/19-1/2/19)

-This marks the official end to the first half of season seven.

-This episode is the first New Year's episode since "Goodbye 2016, Hello 2017" back in season five, and the fourth in the history of the series. Originally, I wanted to do a New Year's episode last season, which involved Sparky having dreams of an apocalyptic event taking place on New Year's Eve. He would take Buster and Halley with him to Times Square to prevent the event from happening. However, the script ended up unusable. I just couldn't release the episode because of the overall quality, so I decided to cancel it. However, I kept the script just in case I decided to use it for season seven. I also took elements of this episode and transferred them to the season six finale, "The Simpsons Movie: Thank You, Heavenly Edition."

-What I ended up deciding on last summer was to make a completely different New Year's episode, focusing more on the characters than an absurd situation. This episode ended the ongoing storyline of Buster living with RK and KG, which initially started in "Welcome Home, Mr. Newman" after Buster's condo caught on fire.

-The B-plot was me resurrecting last season's cancelled episode. This is how I realized that the episode worked better as a smaller story that didn't need to be taken seriously, instead of its own standalone version. The C-plot was just me wanting to write something directly related to New Year's.

-The day after Halloween, I seriously saw a Christmas commercial on TV. It was the Sprite Cranberry commercial starring LeBron James and DRAM's cover of "The Most Wonderful Time of the Year" in the background. Also, when I was shopping for Christmas cards, I was shocked when I saw a Jonas Brothers card sitting there. I included both of these things in the episode.

-This is Pete's second appearance in the series, after "The Roommate from Hell" back in season three.

-I've been watching a lot of Mom episodes over the past few months, and I figured that not only would Bitch Clock hate the show, but he would prefer Two and a Half Men to it due to that show using alcoholism for comedy.

-The scene with the multiple cutaways of RK disowning the outgoing year was the first one I wrote for the episode.

-Wade references the season two episode "No Sleep 'Til RK," where him, Sparky, Buster, and Jaylynn competed against each other to see who was the lightest sleeper among them. Jaylynn was the first to fall asleep, and Wade outlasted Buster to win the contest.

-KG references the theme song to the British children's series Bob the Builder.

-Jaylynn wanting to use Folgers crystals is a reference to the Everybody Hates Chris episode "Everybody Hates the New Year." In that episode, Tonya and Drew made a bet to see who could stay up later, and to help her win, Tonya swallowed Folgers crystals.

-RK references the negative reaction to Mariah Carey's previous appearances on Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve.

-DJ Crazy Guns was a character that was supposed to appear in the cancelled New Year's episode from last season. Initially, he would be the one to help Sparky stop the apocalyptic event in Times Square, but then reveal himself as the antagonist that was in on it with plans to kill Sparky, Buster, and Halley after midnight.

-The final scene was meant as a bookend to the storyline of Buster living with the Jennings, because at the end of "Welcome Home, Mr. Newman," Buster realized he was where he needed to be and entered the house the exact same way. I had this scene planned for weeks.

-One of the hardest things I dealt with in this episode had nothing to do with the episode itself. At the end of every New Year's episode, I like to play popular songs from the outgoing year. With the previous three episodes, I played pop songs that were either Billboard hits or just songs I really liked. I was going to do the same thing here, but I wasn't able to because some of the songs I was considering (like "The Middle") had already been used in previous episodes. Plus, the majority of the songs this year didn't feel right to play. "The Games We Play" was a last minute choice.