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Celery Night Fever is the forty-fifth episode of VeggieTales.

This feature is the parody of the 1977 American dance drama film, Saturday Night Fever.

Plot

Opening Countertop

The countertop opens with Bob and Larry as usual, but then gets interrupted when Jimmy and Jerry barge in. Jimmy and Jerry are upset that Larry ate their pie meant for three of them to share. This reminds Bob of a letter from Jason in Bangor, Maine. Jasonā€˜s brother rode Jason's bike without his consent and it got a flat tire. Jason is mad at his brother and doesn’t know what to do. So, Bob tells Larry, Jimmy and Jerry, and Jason a story about friendship and forgiveness.

Act 1

Mr. McMurray brings a film starring the Groovy Brother from 38 years ago and the class thanks him for that. Petunia announces the next grandparent is Laura's grandfather named Lenny Wilson and forces him to tell them about, but he doesn't want to talk about the band anymore and has to move on by doing magic acts for the kids because that's a long time ago that they were retired and broke up. Bruce Onion arrives to school as Steve's grandfather and explains that he's a tycoon that plans to wipe out buildings, businesses, and roads. While Bruce already buys Celery Park, he plans to build something like a mall or motel and the children were not impressed about it and insist that they want to keep this park. While Petunia gives the kids the assignment of doing a report on what Bruce should do with the park and asks them to choose their partner, Laura tells Junior that were working together on saving the park, but he's distracted with drawing pictures to her annoyance.

Later that afternoon while Laura is setting up for tomorrow, Junior made the story of saving the park from Bruce Onion and shows to his friend. Junior said maybe they can use it for our class project, but Laura doesn't want to do that because she want to do something important to save Celery Park from getting knocked down and tells him that tomorrow morning they're having an appointment to speak with Mr. McMurray and that he'll tell them the secret to Celery Park success and once Mr. Onion knows that, he'll be sure to keep this park. Annoyed with Junior's distractions and forgetfulness, Laura orders him bring his camera by tomorrow at 8:00am and tells him not to be drawing all night. That night, Junior is still drawing pictures, causing him not to sleep well.

In the morning, Laura wakes up to get ready for saving the park while singing about how she likes checkmarks, Junior wakes up to turn off his alarm and wants to sleep more which it's not 8:00am yet. When Laura is ready and checks everythings, she walks to the park and gives Junior a message on her phone. Junior wakes up once again and starts to get ready to meet Laura at the park, as he didn't want to be late or she'll be mad at him if he do.

Laura arrives at Celery Park to meet Mr. McMurray and checks everything while waiting for Junior, but she's worried that he already promised her and it's almost 8:00am. When Junior arrives at the park, he told her that he's gonna be here and Laura orders him to set his camera over here to get started. Junior realizes that he accidentally left his camera behind in his house, Laura checks up on him to see if he has camera and screams that his camera is missing. Laura is now really mad and furiously berates him for breaking her promise to bring his camera and ruining her plans, Junior wants to go back and get his camera, but Laura said she hasn't got time and asks Mr. McMurray to stay here so he'll get his camera back. Unfortunately, the airport van arrives, and Mr. McMurray says that he loves to help out with them, but they're here to take him to the airport and wishes them good luck to them with their new video. With Laura's plans ruined, Junior said that he is sorry and she decides to make another check box to no longer be friends with him, Junior begs her not to check her box, but she checks the box anyway, and angrily leaves, leaving Junior heartbroken over their broken friendship and guilty for ruining her plans.

Later at Laura's house. Laura looks through old photo books while Lanny tries to practice his magic card trick. Laura tries to remind Lanny about the importance of the park, even if he's more focused on his trick. After showing him a picture of him and his band playing in Celery Park, she gets an idea to put on a reunion concert. Lanny's dismissive of this idea, but Laura's dead set on putting this plan to action.

Silly Song

see Perfect Puppy

Act 2

After getting his old costume back on, Lanny's interviewed by Laura, being asked about him and the band. He's nervous, but he does tell Laura that he knows where one of the members are at the moment. That night, Laura and Lanny visit the Benny Ha-Ha's to see the drummer, Stix. He puts on a show for the customers showcasing his drummer skills with chopsticks and prepares the crowd's meals. After the song, he notices Lanny and agrees to join his band. As they leave, Lanny finds Bruce wearing a hat wanting to speak with him. He tries to bring up old wounds, but Lanny leaves before things go too far.

Stix tells Laura in an interview his side of the breakup without directly saying what happened, and also tells them where Big Daddy Al is. They make their way to the town theatre where Alister and the Philharmonic Orchestra are practicing. Bruce and his band of Turnips are outside the theatre, having a laugh about the Groovy Brothers getting back together. Inside, Alister and the orchestra see the visitors wanting to speak with Al. The orchestra's amazed to not only see the Groovy Brothers there, but to learn that their conductor is Big Daddy Al himself. Alister is hesitant to return to his past, until his players ask him to teach them to play disco. He lets them "get funky" with their instruments, and Al accepts returning for the concert. He also tells them where Dennis is at.

The next day, they visit Dennis over at a studio where he's filming a commercial. Bruce sends one of his Turnips to watch them. Dennis and Lanny meet for the first time in years and converse. After learning that Dennis is there to film a commercial for a reverse mortgage, they tell him about the show to save the park. Lanny tries reminding Dennis of how things used to be, and Dennis lightens up. However, Dennis remembers how the band broke up and starts to turn on Lanny. When the band was at their peak, Lanny turned his back to the group, leading to the group's demise. Dennis refuses to go back because of this. The group leave in despair.

Meanwhile at Celery Park, Junior's sulking near the park Ice Cream stand, drawing him and Laura in his pad. Bruce and his onions enter, and Bruce reveals his plans for the park. Instead of "saving the park," he plans to destroy it and turn it into a parking lot. Junior's horrified by this, and runs off to try to warn Laura. Back at Laura's house, Lanny tells the story of what happened. The fame and adoration basically got to Lanny's head, and he eventually became a solo act. He regrets what he did, and doesn't know what to do without Dennis. The band feels the same way as things aren't going well backstage. Technical issues, the manager quitting, and one member missing. Even when Junior's trying to warn Laura of what he knows, she still refuses to listen to him, causing him to turn away.

Right before the show can start, what's left of the band has had enough and decide to walk away. Lanny accepts that this is his fault, but still manages to go on-stage to put on a "show" for the crowd. He somberly plays "Together" with his woodblock all alone, until Laura comes on and sings with him. Stix and Alister return to play along with them, and even Dennis makes his return to stage, forgiving Lanny. They play their song, all while Bruce and his turnips are trying to sabotage the show. Their attempts fail, and the band conclude their song. Lanny and Dennis make tell the crowd about what happened and publicly forgive each other. Backstage, Laura realizes what she's done to Junior, and starts to change.

Bruce has had enough, however, and tries to put an end to the reunion. When he tells them why the show was truly put on in the first place, not only is the band okay with this, but Laura's teacher gives her an A for bringing back the Groovy Brothers. Lanny then recognizes Bruce as the guy who played tuba many years ago. It turns out that Bruce was supposed to play a solo act, but the crowd wouldn't let the Groovy Brothers leave the stage. This made him bitter, and he took that bitterness into his plan to destroy the park. The band then offer him a chance to play on-stage with them, and he accepts it. The band along with Bruce playing sousaphone play "Together" once again. Backstage, Junior and Laura reconcile and forgive each other. And since Bruce is having a good time, he decides to take the money he got from buying the park and decides to use it to save the park. The band continues to play until the story concludes.

Closing Countertop

Back on the countertop, Jimmy and Jerry don groovy outfits and express how much they enjoyed the show. After boogying out to a disco rendition of the "What Have We Learned" song, they forgive Larry for eating their pie. Larry forgives them, and tells them that he made a pie in the green room. Bob and Larry then read the verse from QWERTY and expresses the moral: because God forgave us, we can forgive others. Larry, Jimmy, and Jerry end the show with a dance party as Bob and Larry bids the viewers farewell.

Characters

Major

Minor

Cameo

Throwback Cameo

Songs

Other Languages

  • Selleri disco feber (Norwegian)

Home Media

Main article: Celery Night Fever/Home Video

Features

Trailer Appearances

Fun Facts

Moral

  • Everyone makes mistakes sometimes, so we need to forgive them and make up for it.
  • Don't unforgive others when someone apologizes.

Trivia

  • This is the first (and only) episode of a few things (specifically for Laura):
  • This is one of the few VeggieTales episodes not to have music composed by Kurt Heinecke.
    • That being said, it is also the only main episode to not have Kurt involved at all.
  • Guessing that the events the Groovy Brothers broke up happened in 1975, and it was 38 years ago at the time, then the episode takes place at least in 2013, which is about a year before it was released.
  • There are a few differences between pre-production and the final product:
    • Lanny was originally going to have a brown wig.
    • As shown in the teaser, Bruce Onion was originally going to have a different voice actor (likely Brian Roberts), who would have given him a Brooklyn-esque accent.
  • An animator at Huhu Studios created a joke animation featuring many characters from the episode, including Larry dressed up as Lenny, dancing to the Harlem Shake, a popular meme at the time of the episode's production. It was shown at the wrap party for the episode as a prank in place of the actual opening countertop before playing the actual episode.[1]
  • This episode is dedicated to Eric Garner.
  • This was released exactly 11 years after The Ballad of Little Joe.
  • The topic of forgiveness had been previously discussed in God Wants Me to Forgive Them!?! and The Little Drummer Boy.
  • This is the last episode for several things:
    • The last episode where Lisa Vischer voices Junior, as well as the last episode where Cydney Trent voices Petunia; they were succeeded in both roles by Tress MacNeille starting in Noah's Ark until The Best Christmas Gift, when Vischer returned to the role of Junior and Kira Buckland succeeded MacNeille as Petunia.
    • The last time when Tim Hodge voices Khalil, as confirmed in a tweet he made.
    • The last appearance of Grandpa George, Piano Scallion, Little Nate, and Old Woman on the Beach to date.
    • The last episode to have someone else singing the What Have We Learned Song.
    • The last episode to feature Jimmy and Jerry on the countertop.
    • The last episode where Junior wears his signature hat until Little Things Matter.
    • The last episode of the original series to feature Junior with clothing.
    • Miss Achmetha's last appearance until A Lifetime Supply of Joy.
    • The last episode to feature the voices of Tim Hodge, Brian K. Roberts, Lisa Vischer, Cydney Trent, Gigi Abraham, Michael K. Nawrocki, Elijah Wall, Juliette Wall, etc.
    • The last Big Idea production where Laura and Petunia have separate voice actors.
    • The last episode to be released on Netflix.
    • The last episode where Cameron Chittock worked on.
    • The last Big Idea production where Annie wears her outfit from Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie.

Remarks

  • Despite Phil Vischer's wishes not to use magic on the show, Lanny did perform some in the episode.
  • This is one of the few episodes the Silly Song appears in one-third of the run.
  • The drawing Junior drew of Laura, in the beginning, was in her previous design.
  • The DVD cover states that the episode is around 45 minutes. But the entire episode runtime is 52. However, if you remove the runtime from the opening, Silly Song, and credits altogether, it's actually 45 minutes.
  • The DVD cover has lesson in said "forgiveness" which it supposed to be said the power of forgiveness.

Inside References

Real-World References

  • The episode's title is a spoof on the 1977 dance drama film Saturday Night Fever.
  • The second record album in the credits is based on the Beatles' Abbey Road.
  • The song Together is a parody of the two songs Wannabe by Spice Girls and Stayin' Alive by The Bee Gees.

Fast Forward

Reference

Episode Transcript

Credits

Gallery

VeggieTales episodes