PRODUCTION/CULTURAL REFERENCES (written 5/9/23)
-I came up with the idea for this episode in the fall of 2021. It was inspired by another episode that's coming up this Sunday. My original idea actually ended up very similar to the finished product. It was about the boys hanging out with Manny and getting into trouble at iCarly Elementary, because they didn't like junior high. They wanted to go back to a time that was safer and easier for them. It took some time for me to be committed to the idea and want to turn it into an episode, but once I figured out how it would work, it became exciting. It just felt like an RK thing that he wouldn't receive his diploma and not know that he was entitled to it. Maybe he heard that you have to pay for it from other kids and he refused to. It made it easier to justify having a reunion with all the elementary school kids.
-Since everyone goes to different schools now, characters won't appear as much as they used to. Or they will, but it seems like they won't because I chose to not write as many episodes this season. I thought it would be fun to have all the kids back together for an episode and have them play off of each other again. Sanna and Ashley are Jaylynn's friends, but they're not the people she would go to if she had a problem. She would go to the guys first, or Anja, and now, Lynne. This isn't their last appearance, but it took them a long time to show up because there had to be a reason for it.
-Since this episode was inspired by the next episode, it's hard for me to talk about certain things now because they're connected. That wasn't my intention at first, but it's something that working on season nine allowed me to do. Not to the point where everything is serialized and you have to read every episode in order, but something could happen in one episode and it won't get followed up on until later. I didn't really give myself a chance to do long-term storytelling in the first eight seasons because I had no time for it. Episodes were written quickly and they could get delayed or put on the shelf, so I was constantly changing plans and having to move things around. That's also why the scheduling was always so reckless. I'm saying this because the next episode picks up where the final scene of this episode left off, and that's something I rarely ever do with this show.
-This might be one of my favorite episodes of the season, mostly because all the elementary school kids and faculty appear in it. I also didn't run into any major issues writing it and didn't have to spend a lot of time editing it. I always felt like I knew where things were supposed to go in terms of the plot so the scenes came together quickly.
-The episode title is a reference to the Bon Jovi song of the same name.
-Back in season two, when Gilcania made her first appearance, she was introduced as a friend of Buster.
-When Sparky sat on the couch, I actually forgot that wasn't his house, so I wrote in the joke about Sparky and RK acknowledging they went in the wrong direction.
-I really liked including Robert, because he's just a regular kid that likes collecting buttons. There's also the continuing gag of RK not knowing him well and not understanding what his deal is.
-Jaylynn compares Anja's position in their friend group to Redman's association with the Wu-Tang Clan. Despite not being an official member of the Wu-Tang Clan, Redman has collaborated with them multiple times, specifically Method Man.
-I included "Hey Baby" at the last minute, because I realized there were no songs being played at McDonald's when I did my last run-through of the script.
-Ashley references that both her and Sanna dated Buster previously. Ashley and Buster were a couple in the last few episodes of season six, while Sanna dated him briefly in the season seven episode "The Secret World of Buster Newman."
-Sanna references Le Chateau de la Nourriture, the French restaurant the guys went to in the season six episode "Table for Five."
-Sanna's daydream is a reference to the Sopranos episode "Full Leather Jacket." In that episode, Furio goes to Matt and Sean's place to collect Tony's cut for a safe-cracking job. He then demands $1,000 for himself. That scene is one of the most memorable in the series, known for its use of the song "Up 'N Da Club" by 2nd II None featuring AMG and DJ Quik.
-Manny insults RK and Will's friendship by referring to them as Fanboy and Chum Chum, the characters from the Nickelodeon series of the same name.
-When Sparky and Shane talk, multiple episodes are referenced: "There's a Conspiracy Among Us" (the police targeting the guys, Officer Park's cocaine use), "Fourth Grade Friday II: Our New Arrivals" (the fourth graders decide to go after the fifth graders before Fourth Grade Friday), and "These Drinks" (Bitch Clock's drunk pronunciation of aguardiente).
-For a while, I was thinking about getting rid of Jaylynn's dialogue regarding what to do about Gilcania. It was a reference to the Family Guy episode "Carny Knowledge," where Chris says that his idea was to suggest something halfheartedly and then immediately back down like a beta. Peter says that they should go with his idea and Chris instantly agrees. The scene kept making me laugh and I couldn't think of anything better, so I kept it in. It was also funny enough that I included it later on with Robert thinking about using the beta approach.
-RK makes an indirect reference to after-school specials. These were television films aimed at younger audiences and meant to tackle serious subject matter in a dramatic way. ABC created the term and popularized it, with the ABC Afterschool Special running from 1972 to 1997.
-Buster references the "You're Not You When You're Hungry" Snickers ads when he wonders why Jaylynn is tense.
-Jaylynn references the R. Kelly sexual abuse scandal. It was reported a couple years ago that Kelly would often go to McDonald's and pick up underage girls, which he was asked about in his 2019 interview with Gayle King.
-From seasons two to seven, Jaylynn had her own group called the Masters of the Universe, which included Anja, Halley, Ashley, and Gilcania. The group decided to split up in "Master of Her Universe" but remained friends. This is the first time all of them decided to meet together since then, but in this case, Gilcania was replaced by Sanna.
-Buster and Jaylynn reference the scene in Rocky III when Rocky's trainer Mickey dies from a heart attack. In that scene, Mickey has accepted that he's dying and tells Rocky they did everything right, but Rocky refuses to believe it and tells Mickey they have more to do.
-Sparky references the season five episodes "KWWE" (where the kids start their own wrestling company) and "The Little Salesman That Couldn't" (where RK becomes obsessed with selling chocolates door-to-door and adopts the moniker of "The Chocolate King").
-Jaylynn references the fairytale "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" when RK tells her that he's the mama bear of the fourth grade team.
-I already planned on having the next episode be about the tension between Jaylynn and Gilcania, but the last scene was just something I wrote and thought would be a perfect way to transition into it. I wanted to give it some buildup ahead of time so it didn't come out of nowhere. At the same time, I didn't want it to overshadow the main plot.