PRODUCTION/CULTURAL REFERENCES (written 3/28/17)

-With this episode, season five is now officially the second-longest season in the series, passing seasons one and three (both at 21 episodes apiece). With any luck, the record for longest season will be broken.

-I came up with the idea for this episode last October when I was on my way home from the store. Everything just instantly fell into place when it came to the main plot. I felt like the episode was appropriate to make considering all the reboots/revivals/remakes out these days (Fuller House, The Odd Couple, The Powerpuff Girls, Teen Titans Go!, The X-Files, Samurai Jack, Girl Meets World, Power Rangers, Hey Arnold!, DuckTales, Lethal Weapon, etc.) and I could find an entertaining way to make fun of the situation. What I wanted to do was go after both sides: The people who hate these newer versions of shows and treat them like the apocalypse, and the people who make these shows solely for money and merchandise, with no regard for quality or the fans of the show.

-I started writing the episode on March 14 and finished on Sunday. I came up with the subplot the day before I started and it was inspired by a personal situation. I knew giving RK an enemy that he couldn't figure out would be interesting, and it was important that Mr. Johnson was legitimately insane and disturbed. I chose Paul Ben-Victor because of how he played Coach Thurman on Everybody Hates Chris. He came off as slimy and annoying and someone out to get people he didn't like so I knew he had the perfect voice for this character.

-I was considering having someone voice Jack, but I wasn't really committed to the idea. I was imagining an old, gravelly voice.

-The main story took a couple of different directions. At one point, I thought about having Sparky and Buster watch old episodes of Cowboy Kyle's Frontier Adventures and they realize how much they sucked, but I felt like it would get in the way of the lesson, which is that the older episodes of a show will always be remembered and that the newer episodes should have no effect on your memories. I also thought about having Jack be more annoyed with Sparky and Buster and hope to be left alone because he was just interested in acting and making money. However, that would have led to them becoming unlikable and desperate. Another idea was having Jaylynn's father show up again and have Sparky and Buster beg him for the four million dollars. In the original draft, Sparky mentioned to Jack that Jaylynn's father was a billionaire and they would get the money wired to him.

-I liked the little conversation with RK, Wade, and Jaylynn at the beginning because it reminded me of the opening scene in the first episode. I wrote that bit about The Cosby Show because the day before, I saw it on TV and was surprised at it being shown again.

-A while back, I read a story about a black man in some European country drowning and some white people in a boat refusing to help him. Instead, they mocked him and let him die. It made me sick so I decided to include a similar story in this episode, while also making fun of Bitch Clock's hypocrisy.

-The creator of Cowboy Kyle not being contacted and instead being humiliated is a reference to Powerpuff Girls creator Craig McCracken never giving his blessing for the reboot last year, and Tara Strong (voice actress for Bubbles) stating that her and the voice actresses for Blossom and Buttercup (Cathy Cavadini and Elizabeth Daily, respectively) were never asked to return.

-Lankford being replaced by Dooley and Schwartz is a reference to Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic being tapped to showrun Teen Titans Go!, despite them admitting in an interview that they were unfamiliar with the original series and they had never watched an episode prior to taking the job.

-RK's description of Mr. Johnson's breath was actually how I felt about the breath of a teacher I used to have when I was in junior high.

-The "Jaylala" bit was actually going to be in "The Undesirable Cognitive Redaction of Anna Revia," but once I turned it into "Buster Plays the Field," I couldn't use it anymore so I had to save it. What RK wrote was actually "Jaylynn's a bitch" or something along those lines, but I decided not to reveal it in the episode. It was going to lead to a joke where Jaylynn realizes that RK wrote it not for the plan, but two weeks ago since it was dated. However, I felt like it would make RK unlikable.

-Originally, Jaylynn was just going to stare at RK when he called her "Jaylala" a second time, but I felt like it would have been too predictable.

-I was really on the fence about Sparky and Buster robbing Sanna, but then it felt like everything had been building up to that point where they felt like they had no other choice.

-The joke about Principal MacGregor being referred to as "Alvin" is a callback to the same joke from "You're Welcome, Hellish." That wasn't my intention (I thought I was using a different name) but I went back and checked and realized that I used the same name so I just kept the joke in.

-RK references the Hulk Hogan sex tape that was leaked in 2015 where he went on a rant against the African-American community, including several uses of the n-word and admitting to being "racist, to a point."

-Next to Mr. Johnson's name was Mein Kampf, Adolf Hitler's 1925 autobiography.

-Originally, Sparky was swayed not to rob Sanna by looking at a picture of her and her family in Pakistan, but I felt like it wasn't good enough so I instead used the locket.

-Originally, as a joke, Sanna was just going to cut the boys a check for $4,000,000 once she found out what they were up to, but I felt like it would have been too ridiculous so I decided not to use it.

-Buster references G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero and the "Knowing is half the battle" PSAs that would play at the end of every episode.

-Buster and Sparky make a reference to the lessons constantly used on Full House and the music that would play in the background when conflicts are being resolved.

-RK references the fourth season of The Boondocks which was criticized for reusing past concepts in multiple episodes, and in one episode ("Stinkmeaner 4: Begun The Clone War Has"), Stinkmeaner even says at the beginning that the show will "do some shit we already did, and just pretend you didn't see that shit the first time."