PRODUCTION/CULTURAL REFERENCES (written 5/21/17; 5/23/17; 5/25/17)

-With this episode, season five ties the record for longest season with 28 episodes.

-This is the sixth cover episode in the history of the series, beginning with "Sparky's Big Hit" (#TYH202) back in October 2013.

-I came up with the idea for this episode last December. I watched the original episode and saw potential in doing a cover after watching the ending. I then thought that Jaylynn and Lynne would be the perfect characters for this episode, mostly because of their preexisting animosity towards each other. I wasn't completely sure whether or not it would happen because there are lots of times that I come up with ideas and they just sit there for a long time. However, this episode ended up having an interesting enough idea to be the penultimate episode of the season.

-This episode is a cover of the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air episode "Reality Bites." In the episode, Will takes his little cousin Nicky to see Dougie the Whale (a parody of Barney the Dinosaur) make an appearance at the mall. However, the guy inside the Dougie costume refuses to perform because of sound issues, and when Will confronts him about it, they end up fighting. Nicky stops talking to Will who doesn't understand why Nicky believes that Dougie is real. He is about to tell him the truth about Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy and other fictional characters until Santa sets him straight in what I believe was a fantasy sequence.

-I also came up with the subplot in December, but in December 2015. I was inspired after watching Mr. Enter's review of Dan Vs. to do an episode called "RK vs. Everybody." In the episode, RK would decide to get revenge on everybody that's wronged him in the past, even for the slightest infraction. I was going to watch a whole bunch of Dan Vs. episodes to get the feel for the show and understand its world, because I saw RK and Dan as similar characters in some areas. However, the episode never happened but I still kept the idea. Because cover episodes tend to be thinner when it comes to the story, I knew I needed a subplot here. So, like I did twice this season, I took the main plot idea of "RK vs. Everybody" and made it into the B-plot for this episode. However, the difference is here, it's not influenced by Dan Vs. at all.

-I decided to put this episode near the end of the season because I had already done two cover episodes this season so I needed to space it out. Plus, I needed a breather before the season finale.

-The hardest thing about this episode was coming up with a unique title like I usually do. I was fully prepared to just call it "Reality Bites" but then, I decided to put a "III" at the end to separate it from the original episode, which is actually named after the 1994 film starring Ben Stiller and Winona Ryder.

-I had trouble thinking about an opening scene because I knew I had to set up the story in a way that made sense. I read on a message board recently that this guy was asking another guy to jump his car, which he didn't want to do. It occurred to the guy asking that he didn't know how to jump it, which inspired Jaylynn needing to owe Lynne a favor.

-I didn't want Jaylynn to be involved in the subplot so I just lampshaded it by her not wanting to be involved in it.

-RK references lyrics from Eminem's "Kill You" when Wade suggests that he take anger management classes.

-I don't remember exactly how this happened, but I once thought up a fake 1980s Pfizer commercial where an elephant named Billy was dancing around, and the updated version of it was the elephant dancing to "Cat Daddy." That's where the TV bit came from.

-At the anger management classes, RK's speech makes subtle references to Donald Trump's election win and Danielle "Cash Me Outside" Bregoli.

-In the original episode, the guy who plays Dougie asked Will who he thought he was for looking down on him when he was doing an honest day's work. I thought that had nothing to do with what Will was getting at so I referenced it in the script.

-RK compares himself to black power activist Khalid Abdul Muhammad.

-One Delicious Meal is a reference to the SpongeBob episode "One Coarse Meal."

-RK writing former Simpsons showrunner Mike Scully's name on his list is a callback to "RK's Last Stand" (#TYH314) where one of the things he wanted to do before his birthday was punch Scully in the face.

-RK yelling that he's not done with the bum yet is a reference to Braun Strowman's assault on Roman Reigns on the April 10, 2017 edition of WWE Monday Night RAW.

-I was considering two other songs for the revenge tour montage: "The Payback" by James Brown and "Drop a Gem on 'Em" by Mobb Deep. However, "Duck Down" fit the best so I went with it and plan to use "Drop a Gem on 'Em" sometime next season.

-Originally, in the scene where Jaylynn confronts Lynne for the last time, Jaylynn was supposed to say, "See, Lynne, reality bites" then briefly glance at the camera before going back to the conversation. However, I thought the joke was trying too hard to be self-aware so I cut it from the episode.

-In the original episode, Will's confrontation with Santa Claus was confusing to me because I couldn't tell if Will was imagining it or if it was actually happening. What I believe was that it actually happened because Nicky saw him too, and it was supposed to tie into the episode's message of believing in things, but it wasn't made clear. It just felt weird so I had to establish in this episode that Jaylynn dreamt up her confrontation.

-When I was thinking about Jaylynn's dream, I wanted to create some intrigue so for people who never saw the original episode, they would never guess that Santa was behind the whole thing. I knew it had to be dark in the beginning, so I chose the Jen Titus cover of "O, Death" to play in the background. I first heard the cover during the network television premiere of WrestleMania XXVI in August 2010, but most people would know it from the Supernatural episode "Two Minutes to Midnight" where Death makes his first corporeal appearance.

-The old man's quote on the sign he holds up is a reference to the 1993 Hughes Brothers film Menace II Society.

-I was thinking about ending the Jaylynn/Lynne feud in this episode, but I don't think I'm ready to do it yet. There were moments where it seemed like the relationship between the two changed ("Thank You for Being an Enemy (#TYH320)," Lynne admitting while high that she doesn't actually hate Jaylynn) but it doesn't feel like it's over. I might end up keeping them enemies until the end of the series.