PRODUCTION/CULTURAL REFERENCES (written on 11/22/15)

-I have to start this by saying this is probably one of the weirdest episodes I have ever written. That's the best introduction I can come up with.

-This is Cimorelli's third appearance (they made no guest spots in season three) on the show and the second Thanksgiving episode of the show (after "Talking Turkey" in season two).

-This episode is the sequel to "My Weekend with the CimFam," a season two episode where Sparky is visited by Cimorelli when they need a place to stay overnight and they end up becoming annoying houseguests. It ends up being a dream caused by Sparky somehow drinking an entire bottle of Cisco. I loved working on that episode and even then, I knew there had to be another one like it. Originally, the sequel was going to come in season three, but I was getting burnt out at the time and none of the ideas I came up with were working out. One idea involved Cimorelli ruining Sparky's romantic dinner with Halley through their oblivious, thickheaded nature. Another idea was a Valentine's Day episode where Sparky meets Cimorelli on a cruise ship and becomes fast friends with them, ignoring Halley in the process. This ends up being the cause of them breaking up. Neither episode really panned out, but the Valentine's Day one was interesting because Cimorelli's guest spot would have been in the show's actual universe.

-I forgot how I came up with the idea of Cimorelli invading Thanksgiving but it was one of the original episodes I came up with for season four during the annual spring "retreat." Originally, the episode was going to be just like the first one: Sparky decides to let Cimorelli stay in his house, but things go wrong when the group ends up annoying everyone around them. The only problem was when I first wrote the scene where Cimorelli arrives, I felt like the episode was becoming too much like the first one. Then this Friday, a miracle happened. I was at the library and I just wrote most of the script in a few hours. It was odd because I literally could not remember the last time that happened. I was just getting inspiration from this unknown place and last night, the script was finished completely. The episode ended up writing itself.

-The other day, I looked back at the original write-up for the first episode and I was cringing at certain points. It felt like I was studying Cimorelli for an experiment and treating them like some kind of science project. I mean, I believe the episode turned out well, but the person that wrote "My Weekend with the CimFam" is not the same person that wrote this. I was a big fan of the group at the time and really admired them. I still do to an extent. The first episode was a devoted fan's dream come to life. This episode was reflecting on the first one while also acknowledging how jaded my worldview has gotten since then. The formula was more or less the same, but I was writing this episode as a way to close the book. I highly doubt there will ever be a third episode based around Cimorelli, but anything is possible. And I still want to meet them one day just to see if they are as cool as I made them out to be a year and a half ago.

-Originally, because this episode was going to exaggerate Cimorelli even further, it was more mean-spirited. I was never going to kill the girls or anything like that, but a lot more jokes were going to be made at their expense, especially in terms of how they look at themselves and their music. As I started writing more, it felt a little cheap and I could never find myself really bashing the group so the episode became more honest and respectful. There are still bits and pieces of what could have been like Bitch Clock saying the first time he ever heard Cimorelli was when he was drunk, but it is what it is.

-This episode was solely meant for comedy. A large portion of it was spent focusing more on the jokes and the interactions between the characters instead of the story. I hardly even realized how many scenes Cimorelli had by themselves without the kids. In the first episode, they were treated more as guest stars and actual celebrities. In this episode, they were cut down to size and treated like actual characters. This was a conscious decision because it allowed me to do whatever I wanted with them (without cursing) while still keeping them as Cimorelli. One thing I always hated about guest appearances was everyone on the show being in awe of this guy or girl or whoever because they were famous. It always annoyed me because it felt like the episode was written just to praise them, instead of satirize them or do anything interesting with them. I wanted to give Cimorelli's guest appearance some depth and make them fit into the Thank You, Heavenly world more. I think it worked out well in the end.

-Another thing I wanted to do with this episode was make sure everyone in the group had something to do, instead of just having them say a couple lines because they have to. This started out as a Sparky episode, but as it went on, it became more of a Cimorelli episode. Like, this is how I believe the group would behave if their life was a sitcom.

-The show Sparky was watching was meant to be a parody of one of those documentaries you might see on PBS or something.

-Because the likelihood of Cimorelli somehow coming to Sparky's house again was extremely low, I had to lampshade the characters' reactions to it happening a second time. Like I said before, there was a huge focus put on the comedy instead of the plot. The less time I spent worrying about the story, the more time I could spend telling jokes.

-I also decided to keep the personalities of the group the same from the first episode. Only this time, because the episode was centered more around Cimorelli than the kids, you saw a new side to Lisa and Amy: Lisa was considerably more like RK, eccentric and somehow getting into trouble while still having a softer side. Amy was more like Wade, cynical and responsible with the desire to follow the rules as much as possible.

-The original plot was based on Sparky's distrust of Cimorelli and trying to get rid of them before they overstayed their welcome again, but once they ended up being the focus of the episode, it was dropped.

-A few references were made to "My Weekend with the CimFam" including: Bitch Clock's crush on Christina, Katherine being annoyed by Christina's behavior, and Jaylynn interacting with Lauren.

-A reference is made to "Talking Turkey" when Buster gets out his drink glasses for Lauren and Dani to sign.

-The whiteboard Sparky borrowed from Wade is the same one Wade used in "The Time Machine" from season two.

-Christina's assignment of tasks to Lisa and Amy is a reference to the Everybody Hates Chris episode "Everybody Hates Thanksgiving" when Julius gives out similar assignments to Chris, Drew, and Tonya.

-Originally, Jaylynn's subplot was going to deal with her annoyance of Anja constantly asking her questions about football, but it was then spun off into her bonding with Lauren and Dani.

-I actually think after this episode that Cimorelli could work very well as actual Thank You, Heavenly characters and not just guest stars. But as said before, I have no plans to bring them back any time soon.

-Lisa calling Christina "General Crankypants" is a reference to the first episode of the Summer with Cimorelli miniseries last year, where Lisa jokingly asked Christina if she could call her that. Ironically, the way the girls acted in that series is not much different from how they are portrayed here. Of course, in this episode, Subway was not being promoted every five seconds. ;)

-Speaking of Subway, there was supposed to be a joke surrounding the group's endorsement of it somewhere in this episode but I could not find a place to make it fit. It was especially difficult once the episode shifted its focus towards the girls. The original joke was Sparky freaking out over the turkey being ruined, and asking the girls if they had any money. Katherine would have responded with "Well, we got a lot of money from all the Subway stuff we did. Then, it just snowballed from there." The joke was later changed to one of the boys asking the group why they stopped endorsing Subway. Either Lauren or Dani were supposed to have responded with "Well, our parents made us quit the deal because of...you know what," referring to Subway spokesman Jared Fogle's child pornography scandal this year.

-Originally, a running gag with Dani was her combining a word with Cimorelli to make a new word, but I felt like it would have gotten annoying very quickly so I just limited it to "Thanksgivorelli."

-Amy's inability to lie is a reference to the last Summer with Cimorelli episode where the girls have to lie to their mother about their summer plans and Amy is the only one who is incapable of doing it.

-The scene of everyone trying to keep the secret from Sparky and Christina was initially supposed to be longer and have little bits inside it (RK stuttering when he gets nervous, Amy rambling about absolutely nothing) but I thought it would have went on past the point of it being funny so I kept it short.

-Sparky lampshades the possibility of a third Cimorelli episode when he tells Christina that the group does not need to come back again.

-Lisa's thought bubble fantasy is a reference to Malcolm X when the judge sentences Malcolm and Shorty to eight to ten years in prison for a series of robberies, while the two white women that they committed the robberies with received a much lighter sentence. In this case, Buster, RK, Wade, and Katherine are the white women. Much like Shorty, Amy is unaware of what a concurrent sentence means.

-The "Live Nigga Rap" sequence was written because I was stuck on how the dream could end, much like the first episode. I decided to just go all-out crazy and do something that could have never happened in reality. Originally, the song was going to be "Up Against the Wind" by Lori Perry (the use of it was inspired by the 1996 film Set It Off), but I felt like it would have made the scene sad instead of funny.

-The scene of Testicular Sound Express introducing Music Time with Steve Songs is a reference to Cimorelli's routine of introducing themselves from oldest to youngest and then saying "And we're Cimorelli!" at the beginning of every video.

-It made absolutely perfect sense to have Cimorelli, actual musical guests, sing on the show. This was something I never did in the first episode. I thought it was a great idea to have them perform "Let It Roll" over the end credits. I could even imagine what it would sound like.