Season 10 Episode 18: Spring Break (1)
February 18, 1996
Bud and his friends have saved up for Fort Lauderdale, flights booked, a hotel room overlooking the beach, the whole itinerary described in loving detail by Achmed before anyone has left the living room. Kelly and her friends arrive, establish immediately that they consider the entire group beneath contempt, and then separate them from their tickets and their reservation by the only method that has ever worked on Bud: suggesting that something might happen. The boys hand everything over. The girls go to Florida.
Al, Griff and Jefferson get there by a different route. They have been engaged to judge a bikini contest, which puts three married middle-aged men from Chicago on a beach during spring break with official credentials, and the episode is entirely clear-eyed about what that is worth to them. Jefferson has told Marcy he is away at computer camp bettering himself. The flaw in that cover story is television: a spring break special goes out, Marcy watches it in the Bundy living room while consoling Bud about trusting relationships, and Bud simply points at the screen.
What follows is the setup for part two. Marcy declares a road trip to Fort Lauderdale, Bud supplies the objective, and Achmed’s objection that there is a blizzard outside and the roads are closed gets the response the whole two-parter turns on: she drives a Benz and she is furious. The episode borrows its shape openly from Revenge of the Nerds and the teen beach pictures of the early eighties, which carries an extra joke of its own: Ted McGinley played the antagonist in Revenge of the Nerds, and here he is on the beach again.
Episode Facts
- Original air date: Sunday, February 18, 1996 on FOX
- Season 10, Episode 18, part one of two
- Overall episode 230 of the series
- Production code 10.19
- Written by Kim Weiskopf
- Directed by Gerry Cohen
- The title refers to the American college spring break, traditionally spent in Florida
- Katey Sagal appears only briefly, calling in from New Orleans
Guest Cast
- Chris Hardwick as Dan Inwood
- Shawn Michael Howard as Barney
- Dave Ruby as Hummer
- S. Kyle Parker as Achmed
- Faith Salie as Lana
- Shannon Escher as Natalie
- Tonya Watts as Scarlett
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