Episode Report Card Cate: D | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Forget Me Not
By Cate | Season 4 | Episode 11 | Aired on 12.12.1999
Cocoa Puffs must be a big sponsor of this show, since this is at least the second time I've noticed them do a really obvious product placement. The Puffs even get a mention this time, as John asks Dopey what he's doing sitting around in a darkened room in the middle of the afternoon, eating -- what's that he's eating? Ah, yes, Cocoa Puffs. That's C-o-c-o-a P-u-f-f-s. Got it? Dopey says it's finally sinking in that Chickenhead is going away. Poor John has the worst lines on the show, and he always has to play straight man to Dopey's unfunny wacky guy. John says, very sensibly, that Dopey and Chicken will just have to have a long-distance relationship. Dopey says -- aah, life's too short to care what he says. Suffice it to say that he's pessimistic and depressed. And stupid. Let's not forget that.
Hey, it's more Y2Kraziness, as Ruthie tells Mary there will be no more toilet paper after January 1st. Mary just laughs and laughs as if this were amusing, rather than dull and annoying. We learn that Ruthie is getting all her Y2K info from her friend Ben, who "has a computer, and he surfs it." Oh-ho, stop with the gut-busting "Family Circus"-style jokes, writers, you're killing me! No, really, please stop. Please? Mary delivers a short PSA disguised as dialogue when she asks whether Ben's parents monitor what he looks at on his computer. Then she tells Ruthie that what she needs to do to prepare for the millennium is to stay away from Ben. ["Anyone else get the feeling Ben's older sister is giving him the same speech about Ruthie?" -- Sars]
Lucy's on her date with dreamy Brad Landers, who's got the kind of clichéd teen heartthrob looks that wouldn't be out of place on the cover of a teen romance novel, or in that pink board game where you try to win a date with the hunky guy who "talks" to you on the fake telephone. Brad's telling Lucy that he's had a crush on her since ninth grade, but that she was always dating someone. Sigh! She points out that she's single now. Brad flashes his blindingly white teeth and says, "I know." Uh-oh, the cutesy love talk is interrupted because Lucy's dorky Habitat friends are staring at them from across the room. Lucy excuses herself and goes over to talk to them, saying, "Hi, this is not what you think it is." One of the Dorks says, "You blew off the project to have burgers with some guy?" Another Dork chimes in with, "What kind of woman are you?" I'd laugh much harder at that if the writers weren't always stomping all over anything that carries even a whiff of liberalism. The Dorks storm off, and Lucy is sad.
RevCam is in his home office, doing some important RevWork, when Mary comes in to ask a favour. Hmm, could it possibly have something to do with Robbie? She says that since she's doing so well at the diversion program, she was hoping the CamRents would let them go on a date to the pool hall. I'm starting to suspect that's the only restaurant-type set the show has. RevCam says, "If you go out with Robbie and something bad happens, you could get kicked out of the diversion program and face sentencing." Mary pleads a little, but RevCam says he won't change his mind. Then Mary whines a little and leaves, slamming the door. I imagine she's going to her room to sulk and dream about The Amazing Robbie some more.