Movie
Summary: Buzz, a traveling
thug, stops at a diner somewhere in the Nevada nuclear
testing grounds and meets Michele, who wants to be a dancer.
He suggests she accompany him to Los Angeles, claiming his
sister Joan is a famous hoofer. After drunk dad slaps her
around, Michele concludes that life with Buzz may be a
quarter-step up, so she agrees. Prologue: Crow wears a "WWBSMD" bracelet -- 'What Would Buffy St. Marie Do?" His answer to a hypothetical moral dilemma: Write a folk song. An odd shift to the castle: Pearl warns she's about to become a fully-accredited mad scientist. Segment One: Pearl tries her darndest to act like a mad scientist, as a mad scientist inspector is visiting. She shocks Bobo, gives Brain Guy a latex hump, and talks Mike and the 'Bots into overreacting to the movie. When she starts hitting Brain Guy, the inspector nods approvingly. Segment Two: Crow dresses as Buzz, Servo as Michele; Crow tries to exact revenge (for what? Who knows?) on Mike by making Mike pour beer on his most prized possessions, as in the movie. Those turn out to be Mike's beer stein and then Crow himself. Segment Three: Crow's legs are all that are visible as he dances provocatively, wearing gold boots, apparently sporting a tiny bikini. Mike's outraged; the 'Bots accuse him of being uncomfortable acknowledging Crow as a sexual creature. Segment Four: Mimicking the film, Mike sings a folk song in front of a window as it rains. Crow keeps appearing, telling him that the water has caused a fire. Mike's oblivious and sings; Crow and Servo finally extinguish the fire. Segment Five: Everybody on the SOL dresses like Leo; they're embarrassed. In the castle, the inspector concludes that Pearl's experiment is a failure -- until he sees Brain Guy in a dress, dancing. He accredits Pearl as a mad scientist, "conditionally." Stinger: Joan: "Oh God, I wish I had my pretty mind back." Reflections:
The whole mad scientist
accreditation sub-plot has an interesting history. Our
overseers at Sci-Fi, both of whom are long gone, fooled
themselves into thinking that if we were somehow able to
build an over-arching plot into our show, people would start
watching it. We didn't like the idea, since the new shows
are usually presented several weeks apart and then never
again shown in order; and we seem to write better when we
don't have to pay attention to stuff like plot. But, we had
to do it. It seemed sort of sad, really, because by this
time we were already pretty sure we were writing the last
season.
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