PRODUCTION/CULTURAL REFERENCES (written 9/30/24-10/1/24)
9/30/24
-I've had the idea to write an episode about KG turning 16 for almost three years, but I wasn't thinking about it being the focus. In January 2022, when I first started writing season nine, one of my initial ideas for the season premiere was KG's 16th birthday. RK would be put in charge of planning it, and at the party, he and Buster would be served a lawsuit from Dr. Osborne for emotional distress (after the events of "Heavenly Life"). I didn't get past the opening scene, and I abandoned the idea.
-Months later, I was thinking about season ten and KG's 16th birthday was on the table again. When it was, I didn't think about anything else opening the season besides that. This time, however, the focus would be on KG and his birthday, instead of just being the backdrop like it would have been in 2022. I want to say that this episode was set up as the season premiere as early as May 2023. I just knew it was the only choice.
-This episode is the sequel to "14 Candles: Up All Night," the season three premiere and the 50th episode of the series. Much like that episode, KG is determined to have a great birthday party and move up in the world as a man. However, this episode keeps the focus on KG and how he personally feels about getting older. In "14 Candles," KG is a complication for RK and the guys because he uninvites them from his party, and they can't hang out with Jaylynn because she's hosting a girls-only sleepover, so they have to find something else to do. I looked back at the episode last week and I was surprised to find out that I was consistent with KG's characterization. He sees himself as a man in training and doesn't want anything potentially immature that could ruin his 14th birthday. This episode does the same thing, but to a greater extent. Now, KG sees himself as a man and plans to do whatever he can to show that he is one. He's no longer a complication like he was ten years ago, but a fleshed out character. I'm able to spend more time with him and explore his behavior from his perspective.
-Another benefit of KG being more developed is that he now has his own circle of friends that can carry an episode. I never planned on excluding the main five from this episode, but I knew it wasn't their story. For a season premiere, that's a risky move because I've never opened a season with a show about a recurring character. "The Fourteenth Year" was about KG, but the story was also being told from RK and Wade's perspective. Almost all of KG's scenes are shared with the main characters and they help drive the story. Now, Denise, Rodney, and Trevor can pick up the slack and push things forward. It's one of the reasons I think it's easier for me to write KG episodes now, because not only is he a fully realized character, so are his friends.
-This episode is also meta because it acknowledges that KG isn't acting out of character. This is his default response whenever he's trying to prove something. RK coins it as "Crazy KG" because he has now experienced his brother going overboard with something multiple times. KG is getting into comedy, so he goes on the radio and tries doing shtick hoping that RK is listening. KG tries to prove he's a role model, so he does something ridiculously stupid like eating an entire unpeeled banana in one go. KG decides to quit comedy and become a businessman, to the point where he keeps RK from watching TV and wears nothing but suits. I've moved away from portraying KG like this for one reason or another, but when I think about the earlier episodes, this is who he was at his core. It would get old writing KG this way all the time because he still has to behave like a human being, but at the same time, he's RK's older brother. RK had to get it from somebody and this episode is a reminder of that.
-I believe I came up with the subplot not that far from when I started writing the episode. It definitely wasn't its own story, and it was me pulling from my own life. The FitnessGram is an actual test, and it definitely includes the PACER along with testing push ups, curl ups, and the sit and reach. Unlike this episode, it doesn't take place early in the school year. The PACER was a big deal and I remember all the boys being excited about it, from elementary school to high school. Initially, I was going to keep the focus on Jaylynn, but after I wrote that scene at the water fountain, things changed and she ended up sharing the plot with Buster. I believe that made things funnier, but I think it would have turned out just as well if it was Jaylynn by herself.
-The episode title is also a reflection of how things have changed with the series. "14 Candles: Up All Night" is a combination of two things: KG's birthday party and Jaylynn's sleepover. With this episode, KG gets top billing and nobody else. He believes his 16th birthday to be his introduction to manhood, and falls flat on his face trying to prove it, but it's still his story and his decisions move it forward.
-When I decided to move season ten to the fall, I knew it was going to premiere on the last Sunday in September. I looked at the calendar and saw that September 28 fell on a Saturday. It was going to mark exactly ten years since "14 Candles: Up All Night." I thought about pairing this episode with "Met Her Last Night" as a doubleheader on the 29th, but I knew this was an amazing coincidence and I had to take advantage of it. Had I not decided to push back season ten, this wouldn't have happened, so it's a blessing in disguise.
10/1/24
-I had the idea to use the HBO Boxing theme months before I started writing the episode. In the first draft, KG enters the boxing ring to the HBO theme. However, when I did the rewrite, I felt like it made more sense to have "Throne" as the entrance music. That way, I could tie it in to KG's entrance at Athena. He tries to recreate this huge moment he had in his dream, and it backfires.
-Buster references the holiday of Festivus, which was first introduced in the Seinfeld episode "The Strike." One of the Festivus traditions mentioned in the episode is the airing of grievances, when you tell your loved ones all the ways they've disappointed you over the past year.
-RK's plan to make people think you're crazy is a direct reference to the Wayans Bros. episode "Ted's Revenge." In the episode, Shawn is being audited by the IRS, and Pops tells him the exact same story which helped him get out of an audit. Later on in the episode, Pops also gets audited and he uses the plan successfully.
-There is a meta joke of KG mentioning that he barely remembers anything about turning 15, since he never actually celebrated his 15th birthday on the show. The only time I could have written an episode about that is in season eight since KG was in ninth grade.
-Trevor references wedding traditions that he mistakes for 16th birthday traditions, such as having a best man and tying tin cans to the back of the car that the newlyweds drive off in after getting married.
-When I started writing this episode a year ago, Colin Kaepernick had recently sent a letter to the New York Jets management asking to be a member of the team's practice squad. This was after Aaron Rodgers tore his Achilles in his first game as the Jets quarterback, ending his season prematurely.
-I thought about getting rid of the Kaepernick jokes because too much time had passed between then and now, but not that long ago, I read an article stating that Kaepernick was still training to be a part of an NFL team. I thought it made the jokes relevant again, so I kept them in.
-Jaylynn also references the fact that Kaepernick was blackballed from the league after he protested police brutality and racial injustice by kneeling during the national anthem. Kaepernick later sued the NFL and its owners for colluding to keep him from playing, but reached a settlement and dropped the case. His last game was on January 1, 2017.
-Another line I thought about changing was KG talking about Chris Brown's last album. At the time I wrote it, Brown's last album was the 2022 album Breezy, which was 80 minutes. A month after I started writing the episode, Brown released his next album 11:11, which was noticeably shorter than Breezy. I thought the joke wouldn't work anymore, but I decided to keep it since Brown is known for releasing longer albums than most artists.
-Jaylynn references attorney Thomas Mesereau, who has represented high-profile celebrities such as Michael Jackson, Mike Tyson, and Bill Cosby.
-RK references the 2012 teen comedy film Project X.
-KG getting condoms from Mr. Ansolabehere's friend is based off of an actual event that happened to me last year. I was turning 25 and buying balloons from the 99-cent store, and the employees there tried giving me condoms when they found out how old I was turning.
-Jaylynn references RK's request to Buster to stop reading The Onion, which was from "Wade the Wunderkind" last season.
-Buster references two teen drama series: Degrassi: The Next Generation and All American.
-In the scene where RK and Trevor give their presentation, the original song playing was "Rosa Parks" by OutKast. I changed it at some point because I thought it made more sense to have a TLC song in the background if the guys were dressed like TLC.
-The table where the triple-layer cake was going to be was named after De La Soul's 1989 album 3 Feet High and Rising.
-RK references LeBron James' speech at the Miami Heat press conference in July 2010 after he signed with the team, creating the Big Three with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. He declared that the team would win at least eight championships ("Not one, not two, not three...").
-Trevor makes a callback to the season eight episode "Body Language." In that episode, he proposes that KG have sex with Denise's sister Danielle to get back at her, and advises him to eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich beforehand to improve his stamina (confusing peanut butter and jelly with KY jelly).
-Originally, Sparky and RK's lines were the other way around (Sparky said "performance anxiety" and RK said "yips," with Sparky replying he knows the slang), but I thought it worked better the way it is now.
-Buster saying that what he's doing is a joke is a reference to the Sopranos episode "Mr. & Mrs. John Sacrimoni Request...," specifically the scene where Vito is spotted at a gay bar by New York associates making collections. His reply when he sees them is "I was here, it's a joke."
-Buster makes a reference to the dink and dunk, a technique quarterbacks use to gain first downs and kill time by making very short passes to receivers.
-When we were doing the PACER, music always played, but it was never licensed music. It was instrumental music specifically designed for the test.
-In real life, our gym teacher never told us the rules for the PACER. They came prerecorded with the test music, but Buster's response only works if someone is actually explaining the rules aloud.
-Rodney makes another Sopranos reference when he says "Speak," which was Johnny Sack's catchphrase whenever someone called him.
-The end of Rodney's speech that KG dictated references lines from the Puff Daddy song "All About the Benjamins." I was going back and forth on keeping the lines because I wrote them in January, and Diddy was already in legal trouble at the time. Since then, video has come out of him assaulting his then-girlfriend Cassie Ventura in 2016, his properties have been raided, and he was indicted last month by a federal grand jury. In fact, he was arrested two weeks ago. I realized it made it funnier because KG was so far gone, he thought it would be appropriate to reference Diddy in his coronation speech.
-KG uses Roman Reigns' "Acknowledge me" catchphrase when addressing the crowd at Athena.
-RK references the ending of Triple H's WrestleMania 22 match, where he tapped out to John Cena and failed to win the WWE Championship. This is RK taking a shot at KG's costume since KG was inspired by Triple H's outfit from the event.
-Trevor's anger that people were doing cocaine at KG's party is a reference to the season eight premiere "Fourth Grade Friday II: Our New Arrivals." Trevor hopes that him and the gang become popular in high school and get invited to parties so he can use cocaine for the first time.
-I changed the end credits song multiple times and eventually settled on "Money Over Bullshit." I still might want to use those songs in future episodes, so I won't mention them here. This was absolutely unintentional, but this marks the fifth year in a row that I ended the season premiere with a Nas or Jay-Z song (Nas in seasons six and seven, Jay in seasons eight and nine).
