PRODUCTION/CULTURAL REFERENCES (written 2/22/18)

-This episode is a combination of three different ideas: One that had to do with a character's fear of death, a funeral for an old friend, and another one involving characters fixing up a car.

-When I was putting together the first half of season six, I had plans to do an episode last November called "The Death of Ryan Kennedy Jennings," which would have dealt with RK developing a fear of death after he takes an online quiz predicting his demise in the next few years. I only wrote the opening scene and I got bored with it easily, so I just moved on. Months later, I decided to give the episode another chance, but with Jaylynn in RK's role instead. I also decided to change the motivation for the thanatophobia, with Jaylynn being triggered by the events of the funeral.

-There was another idea I had for an episode where a former friend of Sparky, Buster, and RK dies, and all three are invited to the funeral. RK initially wants nothing to do with the funeral and constantly expresses his disdain for his friend, but then later breaks down and says that he didn't want to go because everybody always compared him to the dead friend, and it would be like seeing himself in the casket.

-The third idea was actually an unrelated subplot that I was just looking to use for a future episode. In it, Sparky, RK, and Wade find an old car that the owner is looking to sell. The boys decide to fix up the car themselves and resell it, but then they clash over who keeps the money. All I did was replace Wade with Buster.

-Adding Sarah to the episode was more of a last-minute decision. I like her to appear at least once a season and I realized after her last episode ("Going Back to Portland"), she was great at playing off of Jaylynn.

-The episode title is a reference to the Family Ties episode "'A,' My Name is Alex." I had only heard of the Family Ties episode (and still haven't seen it), so when I came up with the title, I didn't know the plots were so similar until I looked it up before I started writing. The title only made more sense after that.

-The argument in the opening scene was just something I came up with in my head one day and thought was funny, so I put the whole argument in the script and then shortened it during the rewrite.

-Jaylynn makes a reference to rapper Kendrick Lamar losing Album of the Year at the Grammy Awards for the third time in his career, this time to 24K Magic by Bruno Mars.

-Jaylynn makes a reference to author Sylvia Plath, who died at the age of thirty from carbon monoxide poisoning after sticking her head in her oven.

-"Tu pequeño pinchazo" means "you little prick" in Spanish.

-Sarah makes a reference to the episode "The Karma Machine" (#TYH315) where she came from Portland to assault Jaylynn as revenge for bullying her in the past. RK references the episode later.

-I was having trouble thinking of where to go with the story after Jaylynn develops a fear of death, and I knew I didn't want to do an emotional scene where she decides not to go through with the stunt so I made it a joke scene where she comes to her senses on her own, but still gets in trouble with the boys.

-I was going to write an additional scene after the boys talk to Jaylynn where she gets the car, but I thought it was unnecessary so I put it all in one scene and tried to end on the best joke I could come up with.