A Babe in Toyland is the 18th episode of Season 11 of Married... with Children and the 256th overall series episode. Directed by Gerry Cohen and written by Valerie Ahern & Christian McLaughlin, it premiered on FOX-TV on March 17, 1997.
Synopsis[]
TV stardom goes to Kelly's head when she becomes a hit while subbing for a kiddie-show host after his breakdown. Meanwhile, Peggy and Al get twin beds.
Plot Summary[]
Bud gets Kelly a job as a fill-in princess on a children's television show called "Uncle Dudley's Playpen", a show she used to watch as a child. When the host, Uncle Dudley, has a breakdown on air, Kelly calms the children down and is subsequently promoted to headliner. The fame goes to her head, though, as she starts belittling the other characters on the show and making it a little more PG-rated. Things come to a head when Kelly introduces Budrick, a puppet made in Bud's likeness, then fires Bud as her agent.
Bud convinces Uncle Dudley to come back to the show. When he does, he says he's willing to share the spotlight with Kelly; however, she wants the show to herself. After cursing on air at the thought of losing her stardom, she's taken away by security, and the show is given back to Uncle Dudley.
Meanwhile, Al is having trouble sleeping, as Peggy wants to hold him in her sleep. When she asks to have a television in the bedroom, Al compromises - she gets the TV, he gets his wish and gets separate twin beds. This experiment doesn't work, as Peggy keeps finding her way into Al's bed. Al then sets up bunk beds, with him sleeping on the top bunk. Peggy kicks the bottom of the bed, flipping Al off it, through the floor, and into the living room below, injuring his neck in the process.
Guest Stars[]
- Brandon Maggart as Uncle Dudley
- Blaire Baron as Jordan
- Richard Israel as Court Jester
- Richard Taylor Olson as Bobby Beaver
Quotes[]
- Kelly: Kids, did you know that Princess Kelly has a little brother?
- [Bud, standing off to the side and looking confident, adjusts his necktie and breathes into his hand to check his breath, then brushes his hair]
- Kelly: Well, he's here with us today. Boys and girls, I'd like you to meet Budrick.
- [Kelly bring up a puppet from behind the castle tower, who looks like Bud and is dressed in a dark blue shirt, jeans and brown boots. The camera then shows the television set in Al and Peg's room with Budrick on the screen.]
- Kelly: [offscreen, in a nasally voice] Hi, kids, I'm Budrick.
- [Al and Peg are now shown, sitting on one of the twin beds watching the show]
- Peg: Isn't that sweet of Kelly? She has Bud on the show.
- Al: Seems a little stiff though, huh, Peg?
- Peg: Well, you know, Kelly is the talented one.
- Al: [nodding] Mmm.
- [Kelly is shown again on the set with Budrick]
- Kelly: [in a sad, mocking tone] Budrick is the saddest little boy in Puppet Land. None of the girl puppets will play with him so... [pauses] he has to play with himself.
- [The audience, made up of young children, burst out into laughter and point at Budrick, Bud is then shown looking bitter, but trying to keep calm]
- Kelly: So remember, kids: "Don't be a Budrick, be a Goodrick". [smiles while moving his head up and down as a piano plays them off]
- [As Peggy sits on the couch, Al is slowly walking down the stairs, holding his back]
- Al: You shouldn't have slept on top of me, Peg. My spine is cracking like a plumber's ass.
- Peg: Don't be silly, Al. You don't have a spine.
- [After being fired by Kelly, Bud seeks Al for some fatherly advice]
- Bud: [breaking down] Dad, Kelly humiliated me on the air with that puppet.
- Al: [chuckling] Yes, I know... [after a few more chuckles, changes his tone] And that was wrong, son, but it's only a puppet. The whole thing is probably forgotten by now.
- Bud: [bitterly] Yeah. They were selling these on the way home.
- [Bud holds up a t-shirt. The camera zooms in closer, revealing that it has a picture of Budrick with the text, "Don't be a Budrick, be a Goodrick".]
- Al: [grabs the shirt, looks it over] Is that an extra large? [Bud rolls his eyes, then Al and him take a seat, with Al putting his arm around him] All right, son. So you tried your best and you failed miserably. You're a Bundy. But I fully expect you to kick this curse. I have faith in you. [pats him on the shoulder]
- Bud: [upbeat] You're right, Dad. I'm not gonna end up some middle-aged shoe salesman making minimum wage.
- Al: [nods and pats Bud, in a slightly defeated tone] Okay, Bud.
- Bud: Slaving away 20 years, never getting a promotion.
- Al: [annoyed] All right, Bud.
- Bud: No respect, no raises, no reason to live, [pauses, looks at Al's hairline] no hair.
- Al: [bitter, but calm] This father-son talk is over.
- Bud: [smiling, pats Al on the leg] Yeah, it's a good talk, Dad. [gets up and starts walking to the door] I'm gonna go out, and I'm gonna sign the biggest star I can find.
- Al: [mockingly] Good luck.... [snarky] "Budrick".
Notes[]
Title[]
- The episode title is inspired by the 1934 movie, Babes in Toyland with Laurel & Hardy.
Trivia[]
- Peggy mentions that she left Kelly in front of the television to watch Uncle Dudley while she did other things. In several past episodes, Peggy also mentioned leaving Kelly in front of the television instead of taking care of her.
- Two of the scene involving Al and Peggy sleeping in separate beds were featured in the episode, "Breaking Up Is Easy to Do (Part 3)" when Peggy thinks about Al, but that episode aired before this one did.
- As the production numbers indicate, this episode was filmed before the "Breaking Up Is Easy to Do" trilogy.
- Peggy reveals that she had boys sneak into her room to make out, but Al was not one of them.
- Richard Israel, who plays the court jester that Princess Kelly argues with over purple M&M's previously appeared on MWC as Myron, a nerd that Kelly goes on a date with in the Season 4 episode, "Fair Exchange".
Cultural References[]
- After Kelly reveals her big news to Al and Peggy, he says that he wishes he "could trade my cow for some magic beans", which a reference to the children's fairy tale, Jack and the Beanstalk.
- Kelly reads a book to the kids called Curious George Converts to Judaism.
- Curious George is the name of a series of book and animated series about a monkey named Curious George, though there is no actual book from the series titled Curious George Converts to Judaism.
- Kelly complains that she didn't get all purple M&M's, before the court jester points out that they don't make them.
- This is a likely reference to the rock band, Van Halen and how they would request no brown M&Ms in their dressing room, which often led to them being accused of being divas and other bands requesting odd demands for their dressing room. Though, in realty, the clause was meant to see if the venue did read through the fine details of the contract.[1]
- Although the Court Jester was right in that purple M&Ms did not exist at the time, purple M&Ms can actually be bought in bulk via the official M&Ms website. [2]
Locations[]
- Bundy Residence
- Sound Stage
- Uncle Dudley's Apartment
Sets[]
- Bundy Living Room / Kitchen
- Al & Peggy's Bedroom
- Uncle Dudley's Playpen / Princess Kelly's Castle Set
Goofs[]
- In the scene where the dummy's head lands in bowl of green liquid and covers Bobby Beaver in it, his scream appears to be dubbed in.
- When Bud shows Al the Budrick t-shirts that were being sold, he holds it up with his left hand above his shoulder as his right hand was holding his briefcase. Then when the camera does a close up shot of the shirt, Bud's right hand is now holding the shirt at chest level.
- When Bud is talking to Uncle Dudley to become his agent, the items on the coffee table change. First, it shows what appears to be two contracts and some pens and pencils laid out as Uncle Dudley says that he scared the children and Bud reminds him that he was the same guy that showed kids how to make a hat out of a milk carton. Then, after Bud mentions Freddy Frog and his line about forgiveness, the table now has a gameboard and several colorful pieces where the contracts and pens were.
- When Al's dummy body double falls through the ceiling after Peggy kicked him off the bunk bed, it's falling the wrong way.
- Just as Peggy is about to kick Al off of the bunk bed, you can clearly see the tumbling/safety mat under Peggy and again after Peggy says that bunk beds are actually fun.