PRODUCTION/CULTURAL REFERENCES (written 1/2/25; 1/7/25)

1/2/25

-I had the idea for this episode two years ago in January. The story was KG and his friends were on the run from a serial killer. It was supposed to be a homage to films like Friday the 13thand I Know What You Did Last Summer. I planned for it to come out on October 13, 2023 (Friday the 13th) with another Halloween episode (or two, I can't remember right now) coming on October 27. I never got started on the episode and later abandoned my plans for any Halloween episodes in 2023. I decided to give it another shot this year. For months, the episode was called "The Killer."

-The plan was to start writing the Halloween episodes after season ten, but when season ten was pushed back three months, I decided to include the Halloween episodes instead of holding them back another year. Originally, I was against it because I wanted the Halloween episodes to be standalones, but I feel like it worked out for the best and working on these episodes helped me maintain my excitement for season ten. I still wanted to write this episode, but I didn't start working on it until July.

-Listening to Eminem's album The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grace) inspired a new idea for me. Instead of KG and his friends going up against a serial killer, it became KG going up against a stalker one-on-one. I felt like my original idea needed more time because I wanted to capture the feeling of those horror films, and I was already behind on season ten, so I was losing interest in the episode. Even with the new idea, it still took me weeks to finish the episode, and it needed multiple rewrites. Episodes like these tend to exhaust me when I'm working on them and make me think they're a complete mess, but looking at the finished piece makes me appreciate them more.

-This is the fourteenth Halloween episode of the series and the first one since "Halloween XIII: The Unauthorized Tales" back in season eight (10/31/2019). I don't really do anything to celebrate Halloween, but this has literally been a tradition since the first season. Up until season nine, it was the only gimmick that I had done every year. I knew I wanted to continue making Halloween episodes when I brought the show back, but it was just a matter of picking the right time. I really wanted to make it happen in 2023 after season nine ended, but it just didn't work out. I wasn't letting that happen in 2024. It helps that all three Halloween episodes started out as ideas from the year before, so I wasn't starting from scratch with any of them.

-Season ten also marks the first time I was able to pull off the Halloween tripleheader: Three Halloween episodes in one night. Back in season three, I had plans to do a tripleheader on October 26, 2014, entitled "Satan's Stories." One of the episodes was going to be co-written by a pen pal at the time. "The Life and Times of Diana Katanova" took so much out of me, I didn't think the other two episodes could compare to it, so I scrapped them. One of them became "The Secret World of Buster Newman" in season seven, and the other one still hasn't been written to this day. In season eight, I wrote three Halloween episodes, but they all came on different days. "The Blackout from Hell" was an idea pitched by Jemania (a writer here on FanFiction) and it was always meant to come out on October 20. "Toys Have All the Fun" and "Halloween XIII" were going to be the annual doubleheader that year (I've written at least two Halloween episodes a year since season five), but that didn't work out. Even with all the problems season ten had, I was still able to pull this off.

-When I wrote for Truman, I was thinking about characters like Rick Murray (Degrassi: The Next Generation) and Frasier Crane (Frasier). The way Truman speaks, his mannerisms, all of that was me trying to create someone that was unhinged in general. Truman would still be abnormal without trying to kill KG. From the moment he starts talking, I wanted him to give off this uncomfortable feeling. KG is oblivious to who Truman really is for a while, but his friends aren't, and the minute they express that, he immediately becomes turned off by the friendship. Truman is someone with a victim complex, delusions of grandeur, and no understanding of how to interact with people. He's the kind of person that becomes dangerous whenever you give him attention, because he believes he's entitled to it as soon as he gets it.

-This is also the first episode in the entire series that Sparky, Buster, and Wade don't appear in (not counting the cold open). It makes RK the only character to appear in every episode so far. Even when I had the original idea for this episode, that was a rule I had for it. I didn't want any of the main characters in it. I found a way to include RK, but it wasn't intentional, and he's mostly a side character. I wanted to give this episode a unique style, especially since it was a Halloween episode. Not including the kids was part of that. I wasn't worried about whether or not KG and his friends could carry an episode by themselves, because there have been several KG episodes at this point. And after "These Drinks," the door's open to take more shots like this. This episode is what "16 Candles" or "16 and Good" would be without a subplot.

-I'm not referencing anything specific with the title. It just came to me. The idea that Truman isn't a human being, but this entity that can't be contained. The closest reference I can think of is the 1950 book I, Robot by Isaac Asimov. I also think Truman would use the phrase "I, Truman" to refer to himself, or he would use the word "I" instead of "me."

-Since I knew I wasn't including the main characters in the episode, I wrote a cold open where they all appear together. Including the post-credits gag in "Sanguis Res," it's also the only time in the tripleheader that you see the kids celebrating Halloween as they are in 2024. "Halloween Begins Again" is a remix episode and "Sanguis Res" doesn't reference Halloween at all, so I wanted to write something in the present day and something normal. No horror elements, nothing scary, just the kids interacting.

-This episode was the first one after "Jaylynn's Girlfriend," so the first cold open I wrote referenced it directly. I didn't think it was funny enough, so I rewrote it and decided to wait until "RK & Wade's Night Out" to advance the Jaylynn/Jasmine storyline. I had the idea of the kids all dressed as Beetlejuice (since Beetlejuice Beetlejuice came out last year) and finding out there was a misunderstanding and just went from there. One rule I had for the cold open that I thought would be funny is "Beetlejuice" can only be said twice. It's a reference to the concept of Beetlejuice appearing when you say his name three times.

-Bitch Clock confuses the guys' Beetlejuice costumes for Candyman costumes, referencing the 1992 film Candyman. Similar to Beetlejuice, the urban legend surrounding Candyman is that he appears when you say his name in the mirror five times.

-Originally, the last line was Sparky responding to Bitch Clock's question by correcting him and almost saying Beetlejuice's name a third time when the scene cuts to black, but I got rid of it. I didn't want to call that much attention to the joke.

-I really like using Eminem's music in Halloween episodes because he has many songs that have a horror feeling to them. Since the last Halloween episode, he's released three more albums (Music to Be Murdered By, Music to Be Murdered By: Side B, The Death of Slim Shady), so I felt like a kid in a candy store trying to figure out which songs I could use from those albums.

-The intro is a reference to the intro from "Thank You, Heavenly's Relapse" where lightning strikes a headstone and the episode title appears in blood. I was working on a Halloween episode in 2023 that never came out, and the intro was almost identical to this one, but instead of "Premonition," I used "Black Magic" (another Eminem song featuring Skylar Grey).

-The bully telling Truman to slam and shoving him against the locker is a reference to the Degrassi episode "Islands in the Stream." In that episode, Jay does the exact same thing to Rick.

-When I first wrote this episode, Truman didn't appear in the opening scene. He only met KG in the classroom. But when I was working on scenes later on, I mentioned KG helping Truman with the bullies and I wanted to include that in the episode, so I rewrote it.

-Trevor references the 2016 surveillance video of Sean "Diddy" Combs assaulting his girlfriend Cassie Ventura at a hotel in Los Angeles.

-Mr. Bailey references the reality series Shark Tank starring Mark Cuban, the owner of the NBA's Dallas Mavericks. Rodney then references the Boston Celtics defeating the Mavericks in the 2024 NBA Finals in five games. It was the Celtics' first championship since 2008 and 18th overall, making them the team with the most NBA championships in history.

1/7/25

-Trevor initially confuses Truman for Jim Carrey's character in the 1998 film The Truman Show.

-Truman's name is the combination of two Martha Speaks characters: Truman Oatley and Tiffany Blatsky.

-KG references the murder of actress Rebecca Schaeffer on July 18, 1989 by Robert John Bardo. Bardo was an obsessed fan and used a private investigator to track Schaeffer down and kill her. This is the second time KG's referenced her murder (the first time being earlier this season in "The Late Dr. Osborne"). Later on in the episode, KG references the murder a third time when he worries that Truman might show up to his door and shoot him in the chest, which is exactly how Schaeffer was killed.

-KG and Truman eating cheeseburgers is a callback to KG cooking them in "Raging Buster," as part of the Cheeseburger Saturday event that him and RK put together.

-I kept the tradition alive of having one canon Halloween episode and one non-canon Halloween episode. The events in this episode actually happened and will come up again in the future, unlike "Sanguis Res" which was non-canon. That's why I used this episode to further the conflict between RK and Wade while also not making it a major point.

-KG threatening to beat Trevor with a cast iron skillet is a reference to the Power Book II: Ghost episode "I Can't Fix This." In that episode, Diana beats Felicia to death with a cast iron skillet as revenge for causing her miscarriage in the previous episode "The Devil's Playground."

-KG references the "Note" storyline from season two of Jersey Shore. Jenni and Snooki see Ronnie cheating on Sammi at a nightclub and decide to write her an anonymous note describing the details. The note ends up causing chaos in the house with Sammi turning on Jenni and Snooki for writing it. At one point, Mike tells Sammi that everything in the note is true ("Whatever the note said"). Later on in the episode, Denise reads the note, believing it to be the note Truman forged until RK tells her to flip it over.

-One thing I came up with early in the writing was Truman doing intel on everyone, but barely finding out anything about Rodney to the point where Rodney is legitimately upset by it.

-KG references the scene from Shrek where Shrek allows Donkey to stay with him, and Donkey declares that he can make waffles in the morning. However, Truman is completely lost by the reference.

-Truman thinking that he's friends with KG and the crew, and then thinking their popularity will skyrocket is a reference to part one of the Degrassi: The Next Generation episode "Time Stands Still." In that episode, Rick makes peace with Jimmy and believes that he, Jimmy, Emma, and Toby are a group now. Out of delusion, he tells his mother that they've become inseparable and him and Toby will be running the school pretty soon.

-KG saying that Truman can't hang out with his friends anymore, and Rodney implying that KG needs to stop hanging out with Truman is a reference to the Sopranos episode "Live Free or Die." In that episode, the Jersey mob gets confirmation that Vito is gay and wonders what to do with him. Bobby says that Vito can't be part of their social club anymore, and Carlo replies with "Social club? He's gotta go."

-Loosely translated, Rodney says "Understand, my brother?" in Spanish. KG uses the same phrase later on when telling Truman to leave him alone.

-Truman saying that KG used him as a pet project and toyed with him is another reference to "Time Stands Still," specifically part two. Rick puts Emma on his list of targets when she rejects his romantic feelings, and as he's about to kill her, he says "You flirted with me. I thought you liked me, but...that was something else."

-I wrote the scene where KG tells RK that he's not friends with Truman before I wrote a lot of the earlier scenes. I knew there needed to be a confrontation where KG realizes that Truman is unstable, but I didn't have any ideas yet. The rest of the scenes that followed until KG's friends go to see RK were also written earlier.

-Rodney references Tommy's catchphrase from Martin: "Cole, you stupid."

-I wasn't planning on having Officer Shanahan and Officer Park in the episode, but it just happened naturally when KG talked about going to the cops. Most of the time, I don't plan to have certain characters in an episode, but if the writing calls for it, I end up going in that direction.

-KG telling Truman he doesn't want to hang out with him anymore, Truman saying he wants to hear it from his lips, and KG's response is a reference to the Friends episode "The One Where Eddie Won't Go." Chandler wants Eddie to move out of his apartment and the dialogue is almost identical. Including the book KG's reading, this scene is like a mini-tribute to Matthew Perry who died on October 28, 2023.

-Before I started writing the episode, I had an idea for a scene where KG records an emotional voicemail for RK, believing he's about to die. Everything he says to Truman is what he would have said in the voicemail, but the moment is undercut when he realizes he forgot to record it. I thought it would be funny, but I realized Truman would never give KG a phone since he could use it for help. I just went with KG giving Truman a speech about letting him go so he could be with RK.

-Truman being disgusted by KG's speech and wanting to kill him more because of it is a reference to the pilot episode of The Cosby Show. Theo tells Cliff that he should accept the fact that he's a regular person because he's his son, and he doesn't have what it takes to be successful in school. Initially, it seems like Cliff is moved, but he then says "That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard in my life! It's no wonder you get D's in everything!"

-Initially, I wasn't going to have RK in the climax of the episode. Besides dealing with Wade, his last appearance would have been him wondering why KG came home early. But I didn't think it made sense for him not to be included since he wouldn't hesitate to find KG if he thought he was in trouble.

-I couldn't figure out a scenario where Rodney, Trevor, and Denise don't ask RK for help, so I kept him around, but left him out of the fight entirely as a joke. He goes to the cabin, plans to torture and kill Truman, and immediately gets taken out before he has the big moment where he saves his brother.

-I had wanted to use "Lies" on the show for at least two years now. At the time, I was also working on "Sanguis Res" and the fight scene between RK and Bitch Clock was planned. I can't remember if it was fully written, but I knew I didn't want both fight scenes to feel identical. It came down to picking the right song, and "Lies" was more mellow and atmospheric. It felt like it matched the energy of the fight, which wasn't as intense as the one in "Sanguis Res" but still dramatic.

-I kept Truman alive specifically so I could bring him back at some point. I don't know if I'm even going to write any Halloween episodes this year, but a Truman sequel episode is definitely something I'm thinking about.

-Even though all three Halloween episodes are separate from each other, I wanted them to feel connected in some way since these were the first in five years and they all came out on the same night. That's why all of them start with "Premonition," end with Eminem songs, and there's a follow-up scene to the kids celebrating Halloween at the end of "Sanguis Res." "You Gon' Learn" was one of the earlier songs on Music to Be Murdered By, so I knew it had to close the first episode of the tripleheader.