PRODUCTION/CULTURAL REFERENCES (written 11/30/23-12/1/23; 12/5/23-12/6/23)

11/30/23

-This is the fifth Thanksgiving episode of the series, and the first one since "Cancel Thanksgiving" in season eight. I had a tradition of doing a Thanksgiving episode every two seasons, so this almost fits that pattern (since this episode is between seasons nine and ten, and every Thanksgiving episode took place in an even-numbered season during an odd-numbered year).

-I had the idea for this episode back in 2021 when I decided to revive Thank You, Heavenly. It was just a matter of finding the right time to do it. This year was the first time things really opened up, especially since my other standalone ideas were left behind. I knew I had to come out with something, and I knew I had a lot of ideas for Thanksgiving that I wanted to use.

-At one point when I was putting together season eight, I thought about writing an anthology episode for Thanksgiving, like I did with the Super Bowl. It wasn't something I took that seriously and I ended up coming up with "Cancel Thanksgiving," so I went in that direction. But I never forgot about it and I figured this was the time to do it. Honestly, I never thought about writing just one story for this episode, so I knew this was the best way to go. For a while, the only idea I had for a story was Buster's segment, but everything else came together this year.

-One idea I had for a segment months ago was that RK's cousin would come over for dinner, someone that looked down on RK and always tried to undermine him. RK had to prove that he was above pettiness and maintain his composure during the dinner. However, I ended up writing "Uncle Buster," so I got rid of the idea. Also, the idea of RK having someone in his life that looked down on him was dealt with in "Easter Sunday Spectacular," so I didn't want to repeat myself unless I knew I could approach it with a different angle. RK's segment did end up having traces of this, anyway, but that was a completely different idea.

-I started writing this episode in August, went back to it near the end of September, and then wrote the majority of it earlier this month. I finished it less than two weeks before it came out, but at that point, I had an idea of what I was doing with Jaylynn and RK's segments. Buster's segment was the oldest idea, but it didn't come together until I started writing it.

-Originally, the episode was supposed to be normal length. It wasn't until I was in the middle of Buster's segment that I realized this episode needed to be longer, and I wasn't in the mindset of cutting out stuff. In fact, when I did the rewrite, it just made the episode longer. It's a similar situation to "Super Bowl Story Box V," which became an extended episode during the writing. For a long time, "Dreaming of a Black Market Christmas" was supposed to be an extended episode until I abandoned the idea.

"Intro"

-I wrote the intro near the end of September. I knew the episode needed a wraparound, but when I first started working on it, I went straight to Jaylynn's segment. "Lipstick" was only supposed to be used here, but then I decided to make it a running gag, where the song finds its way into every segment somehow. Another running gag I decided to have was RK singing "Waffle House" by the Jonas Brothers or referencing it in some way (like when he tries to get Sparky's help with the lyrics).

-Like I've done with every anthology episode, I was going to come back to Ike's when it was time to transition to the next story, but I realized that it messed with the flow of the episode and it just wasted time. "Sunday Night Live" was a new experience for me because I was having all these random stories and segments, but I didn't need the characters introducing them every time they came up. I thought the intro was enough and decided to just let the episode keep going after that.

-RK praises Woody by referencing a line from "Warrior Song" by Nas featuring Alicia Keys ("Your mother's the closest thing to God that you'll ever have, kid").

-When Jaylynn introduces her story, RK references the season nine episode "For the Sake of Our Fellow Man."

"Georgie Porgie Pumpkin Pie"

-This wasn't my original idea for Jaylynn's segment. What I initially wrote was that Sabrina invited Jaylynn to Thanksgiving dinner in Milwaukee, where Jaylynn would meet Danny and Sabrina's mother (and her father's wife) for the first time. However, I started thinking the idea had potential to be an entire episode. I don't know if I'm going to use it in season ten, but I'm saving it for now.

-That's when I decided to bring back my idea for an old Christmas episode involving Jaylynn befriending a homeless person during the holidays. It was called "For the Sake of Our Fellow Man," and it was going to be a cover of the Wayans Bros. episode "Help a Brother Out." It was meant to come out in 2021, but I never finished the script and ended up using the title in season nine. I thought it made sense to bring back the idea as an original segment, with some things staying the same (John Henton as George, Anja and Lynne's roles) and some things changing (George already being one of Jaylynn's friends). This is also why RK references "For the Sake of Our Fellow Man," as a way of connecting that episode to its origins.

-John Henton is best known for playing Overton on Living Single. Usually, when a character is played by a guest actor, I have to hear their voice in my dialogue. That's what makes them a natural fit. Plus, in the original Wayans Bros. episode, the homeless man was played by Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs, so I was already looking for someone to play George two years ago. In terms of dialogue, nothing from the original 2021 script made its way into the segment, but I didn't look at the script at any point when I was writing this.

-The title references the "Georgie Porgie" nursery rhyme, and also ends up referencing Jaylynn's nickname for George.

-RK quotes the opening lyrics from the Who's the Boss theme song when he criticizes Jaylynn. RK references the series later on in his own segment, so that ended up being another running gag.

-Overton used "shorty" constantly on Living Single, so I wrote that in for George.

-George's sign is a reference to a line from the song "Why" by Jadakiss featuring Anthony Hamilton ("Why be on the curb with a 'Why lie? I need a beer' sign?")

-In an actual episode, I would have addressed Anja's feelings towards homeless people, but for the sake of the segment, it's just there as a way to separate Jaylynn's attitude from everyone else's.

-George references the 1937 film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

-Lynne saying "Deadline" instead of "Dateline" (a reference to the newsmagazine series Dateline NBC) was actually a typo, but I decided to keep it in and reference her messing it up later.

-George's apron is a reference to the season five episode "Raging Buster." RK owned an "Eat the Cook Out" apron, but it only said "Eat the Cook" and he expressed his disappointment that the word "Out" was now faded and no longer visible.

-George references R. Kelly's longstanding history of sexual abuse scandals, specifically with underage girls.

"Memories in My Cup"

-This wasn't a hard segment to write necessarily, but I didn't have most of it figured out until I started writing it. For months, the idea was that Buster would get nostalgic for previous Thanksgivings and drink out of the old glasses, which would end up giving him hallucinations since they were old and unwashed. At some point, I decided to incorporate Wade into it and give it a sci-fi element, which led to Buster getting hallucinations from the pills. The only specific idea I had was the reference to "Suspect" during the montage, but I came up with literally everything else during the writing.

-The thing about this episode in general was all three segments had potential to be actual episodes. At one point, I was seriously considering the idea of having all of them run at the same time as their own plots, but that was when I had the original Jaylynn idea and when I changed it, I kept the anthology format.

12/1/23

-Buster's "ultimate challenge" was inspired by an experience I had on Thanksgiving in 2011. I ate way more food than I should have and ended up with a stomachache for the rest of the night.

-Sparky thinks Buster's plan is similar to the premise of Futurama, which was Fry ending up one thousand years into the future after accidentally being trapped in a cryogenic chamber. However, since Buster has never watched the show, he believes it was about a kid getting lost in time.

-Buster guesses Wade's next invention by referencing previous episodes: "Girl Meets the Express" (teleportation device), "The Homework Machine" (a tiny, sentient robot that helps you with your homework), and "The Fourteenth Year" (a formula meant to alter the aging process).

-Jaylynn telling Buster to eat lunch is a reference to the Sopranos episode "All Due Respect." Tony tries going to Uncle Junior for advice on how to handle his cousin Tony B, but because of Junior's dementia, he can't provide any assistance. Tony ends up leaving early and tells Junior to make sure he eats a lunch today.

-Jaylynn announcing that she's having an episode is a callback to "The Birthdays from Hell," where she pretends to be sick in an attempt to leave Sparky's birthday party early and go to Ashley's party (since both are on the same night).

-Wade telling Jaylynn that he knows the Heimlich maneuver and Jaylynn avoiding him is a reference to the Degrassi episode "Against All Odds," where Spinner is choking and refuses to be touched by Marco despite the fact that Marco knows the Heimlich. In the case of "Against All Odds," the context is different since Marco recently came out of the closet and Spinner is uncomfortable being around him.

-Just like Lynne messing up the Dateline reference, Wade misspelling "memory" was a typo, but I immediately decided to keep it, have Buster question it, and then come up with a backstory as to why Wade did it (which I added during the rewrite).

-I thought about Buster singing the correct lyrics to "Pon de Replay," but then I thought it would be funnier if he messed them up, while still keeping the song's rhythm.

-In 2016, the Detroit Lions won their Thanksgiving game against the Minnesota Vikings by a score of 16-13. They haven't won a game on Thanksgiving since then.

-It was fun to go back to previous Thanksgiving episodes and have Buster comment on them since he knew everything that was going to happen.

-To refresh his memory on what year it is, Buster realizes "Look What You Made Me Do" is playing in his head. It was the lead single off of Taylor Swift's 2017 album Reputation.

-Buster claiming that he owns Lynne now that he knows the truth is a reference to the Power Book II: Ghost episode "Need vs. Greed." Cane finds out his father Lorenzo accidentally killed his cousin Zeke and uses that against him as leverage.

-"Best Song Ever" was the lead single off of One Direction's 2013 album Midnight Memories.

-In "Talking Turkey," Buster assures Jaylynn that the food is coming soon, and it will be amazing like the dragons on the HBO series Game of Thrones. At the time, I was referencing the South Park episode "A Song of Ass and Fire," which made multiple references to Game of Thrones and George R.R. Martin's writing style. Buster uses this as a way to mock the series for its earlier episodes, which involved more blatant reference humor and were directly inspired by shows like South Park and Family Guy. I've been clear about the fact that Family Guy, South Park, and Arthur were big influences in the creation of Thank You, Heavenly, but the influence was even more obvious back then.

-Buster references the controversial eighth (and final) season of Game of Thrones which aired in 2019. It was universally criticized by fans and critics, and is widely seen as causing permanent damage to the series' reputation.

-I thought it would be funnier if Buster knowing everything the others would do and say would end up turning him into more of an asshole, because he had to wait for everything to happen and then decided to take it upon himself to "spoil" it.

-Buster makes fun of RK for his crush on Ashley, which was a storyline in season two.

-When Buster meets Memory Guide Sparky, he compares him to Jiminy Cricket, who acted as Pinocchio's conscience in the 1940 film Pinocchio.

-Buster references the Sopranos episode "Whoever Did This," where Tony believes that Ralph burned their racehorse Pie-O-My to death and made it look like an accident in order to collect the insurance money ($100,000 for both Tony and Ralph) for his son Justin's medical bills.

-Buster references a running gag from the Nickelodeon series Kenan & Kel. At the end of every episode, Kenan would come up with a new scheme, tell Kel to collect three random objects and meet him at a random location, and then give him a random nickname as he left the stage.

-This episode continues the tradition of every Thanksgiving episode in the series either referencing or using a song from Nas' 1996 album It Was Written. I had the idea to use "Suspect" months ago, but thought the montage would be Buster hallucinating random things, including the wedding in the mystical church. The moment where Buster and Memory Guide Sparky end up at the wedding references lyrics from "Suspect" ("The wedding of a freak and a beast/Seven heads got the righteous threatened").

-Buster announcing that this is the best Thanksgiving ever and that he would memorize it, then immediately forgetting what he just said is a reference to the Malcolm in the Middle episode "Thanksgiving." Malcolm was drunk and said he would memorize this Thanksgiving so he wouldn't forget it, and then repeated it seconds later.

-I started thinking it was funny how characters would promise never to do something again, even though they had no way of predicting that and would most likely continue doing bad things, so I had Buster make fun of that.

"DVD Interlude"

-I came up with this segment in October. At the time, all I had written was the intro and I still hadn't decided to come up with a new story for Jaylynn. This was inspired by "1-800-Nas-&-Hit," which appeared as the closing track on Nas' 2023 album Magic 3. The song starts by sampling a line from an 80s infomercial advertising the compilation album Hey Love: The Classic Sounds of Sexy Soul. The album featured several R&B/soul songs from previous decades, and you could only buy it through ordering it on TV. At the end of the commercial, the guy who bought the album gets asked by his friend if he could borrow it, and he replied with "No, my brother, you gotta buy your own." The phrase (and by extension, the commercial) became famous, and Nas also uses the phrase in the song.

-All of this gave me the idea to write an old-school commercial promoting the DVD release of the ninth season of Thank You, Heavenly. At this point, shows are available for streaming everywhere, and any DVD releases for TV shows (if they even get them) are done quietly with no commercials. Many things about this segment are inherently ridiculous, like the idea that KG can't just stream the episodes and that he had to pay hundreds of dollars for VHS tapes in 2014, years after DVDs replaced videotapes and streaming was already widespread.

-I actually wrote out this entire segment after coming up with it and included it as is when it was time to go back to the script. It's similar to two segments from previous episodes: Adriana and Anna promoting the DVD release of the fifth season of TYH in "The Blight Before Christmas," and RK and KG's banned Butterfinger commercial in "The Heavenly Tapes II."

-KG having to pay $200 for videotapes containing season two episodes is a reference to a story from the Boy Meets World podcast Pod Meets World. Rider Strong, Will Friedle, and Danielle Fishel (Shawn, Eric, and Topanga, respectively) never watched the show until the podcast, and at the time of filming the series, it was difficult to get episodes from the producers so they could watch them. At one point, they were sold videotapes of episodes for hundreds of dollars since that was the only way they could watch them on demand.

-I used "1-800-Nas-&-Hit" not just because it was the inspiration for the segment, but the song itself is also set up like an 80s informercial, advertising the six Nas albums produced by Hit-Boy from 2020 to 2023 (King's Disease, King's Disease II, Magic, King's Disease III, Magic 2, Magic 3) as a collection you have to call in to order.

12/5/23

"An RK Jennings Signature Thanksgiving"

-I had this idea for months, but it didn't start with RK. At one point, Jaylynn was going to be the host with Anja and Lynne's help, but I wasn't really committed to it. Plus, this plot is a classic example of RK showing his insecurities and vulnerability underneath his confidence and ego.

-I actually had some ideas kicking around for this segment before I wrote it (Bitch Clock as Big Bad Biker Daddy, the "Delicious" montage, Bitch Clock trying to make RK crack), so it was more pre-developed than the other two segments. I actually thought about Wade needing to "babysit" Bitch Clock so he can leave RK alone and even came up with dialogue, but I never used it. I might save it for season ten when the opportunity comes.

-Up until RK asks to host Thanksgiving dinner, everything before that was taken directly from an unfinished version of "Dreaming of a Black Market Christmas" that I wrote in 2021. The original script had Sparky refusing to host Christmas dinner, then in the cutaway, he takes the cookies out of the oven and they don't look like they're supposed to. I just replaced a little dialogue (like Jaylynn asking about the food instead of eggnog).

-Sparky makes a reference to the talk show Tamron Hall.

-I wasn't expecting to reference Buster's toast so much, but "Thanksgiving, biotch!" was just really funny to me, so I went as far as incorporating this random, unseen Thanksgiving into the plot of RK's segment (Buster only succeeded as host because Sparky was assisting him).

-RK makes another reference to Who's the Boss, stating that the boss of the dinner isn't Tony, Angela, or Mona (three of the series' main characters). Buster doesn't catch on and thinks that RK is implying that Jonathan was the "boss" of the show the whole time, despite Jonathan being the least important main character.

-Bitch Clock riding his motorcycle and calling himself Big Bad Biker Daddy is a reference to the Full House episode "The Miracle of Thanksgiving." In that episode, D.J. and Stephanie introduce Michelle as "big bad biker mama" and Michelle comes riding into the kitchen on her baby-sized bike.

-RK mocks Bitch Clock by stating he's doing Undertaker cosplay. In 2000, The Undertaker rebranded himself as a biker character called the "American Bad Ass," and constantly rode around on his motorcycle. "Rollin' (Air Raid Vehicle)" was one of his entrance themes during this era.

-RK refers to the longstanding tradition of Goodyear blimps flying over stadiums during football games.

-Jaylynn references a 2005 McDonald's commercial that advertised the Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese. A guy bought several of them to serve during a game, but his friend complained that they weren't hors d'oeuvres like his girlfriend Samantha wanted.

-Buster makes his own reference to "The Miracle of Thanksgiving" by making a trumpet sound and stating that the "miracle of Thanksgiving" will ensure that RK pulls off hosting the dinner. In the original episode, a running gag was Joey making a trumpet sound and encouraging the family that they'll accomplish their task thanks to the "miracle of Thanksgiving." At one point, he asks the family if they can feel it like Buster does.

-Sanna's experience with the Ed Sheeran song is based off of real life. For months, I kept hearing "2step" in various places, but I couldn't figure out the song. I had a feeling it was Ed Sheeran singing, but I couldn't confirm it and all I knew was part of the hook. It wasn't until I went to the store one night and heard Lil Baby on the song that I was able to figure it out, because he was on the remix.

-RK makes fun of Drake's longstanding ghostwriting allegations.

-RK references a 2020 interview that Melle Mel had with VladTV, stating that he would beat Eminem in a battle and it would be the easiest thing he ever did because "I know how to write it" and "I put it down, it's gonna stay down." Earlier this year, Eminem ended up responding to other comments Mel made in a feature verse on the Ez Mil song "Realest." Mel responded with his own diss track, but it was universally mocked and criticized.

12/6/23

-The "Delicious" montage was inspired by "The Miracle of Thanksgiving" when the family was preparing dinner while dancing to "Get Ready" by The Temptations. I was actually considering using "Get Ready" at one point.

-RK starts his toast by referencing the "Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears" speech from the Shakespeare play Julius Caesar. When it doesn't get a reaction, he references the Full House episode "Five's a Crowd" when he says "Finally, vindicated after twelve long years (the original line was spoken by Danny to celebrate what he thought was Wake Up, San Francisco winning an award, but it was four long years, not twelve)!"

-As RK's speech continues, he makes references to the Big Sean song "Blessings" featuring Drake (Kanye West appears on the single version). He then quotes the Eminem song "Survival" with the original lines being "I must be a-llergic to failure, 'cause every time I come close to it, I just sneeze/But I just go 'a-choo,' then a-chieve!"

-Sparky and RK's conversation was also influenced by "The Miracle of Thanksgiving" because Danny and Jesse had a similar conversation in Jesse's room, and the scene was also framed the same way with them speaking in the room, then outside and back inside.

-Bitch Clock claims that his least favorite movie is the 2006 film Aquamarine. Later on while he's stuck to the couch, "Connected" by Sara Paxton (one of the movie's stars) starts playing since the song is featured in the movie.

-Since I came up with the idea for this episode, I always wanted to use "Soul Food" at the end.