Season 11 Episode 18: A Babe in Toyland

March 17, 1997

Published 03/17/97

Uncle Dudley, the children’s television host Peggy used to park Kelly in front of, has a breakdown on air and frightens his audience, which leaves his programme without a presenter. Kelly takes over as Princess Kelly and is an immediate hit, and the stardom works on her the way stardom always does in this house, fast and badly. Bud, who negotiated the arrangement and installed himself as agent, discovers the limits of his position when his sister introduces a new character to the show.

The character is Budrick, a puppet in a dark blue shirt and brown boots who looks exactly like him. Kelly explains to the studio audience of small children that Budrick is the saddest little boy in Puppet Land, that no girl puppet will play with him, and what he therefore has to do instead, and the room erupts. Bud watches from the side of the set with his tie straightened and his hair brushed, having come expecting a tribute. The show’s sign-off slogan, don’t be a Budrick, be a Goodrick, is on merchandise by the time he gets home.

The second plot has Al and Peggy sleeping in twin beds, then bunk beds, which produces the two clips that had already turned up in “Breaking Up Is Easy to Do (Part 3)” two weeks earlier. The production numbers confirm this episode was filmed before that trilogy, which is how a montage of Peggy’s memories came to include footage from an episode viewers had not yet seen. Al’s comfort to his son after the humiliation, that he tried his best and failed miserably, is the warmest thing he says all season.

Episode Facts

Original air date: Monday, March 17, 1997 on FOX
Season 11, Episode 18
Overall episode 256 of the series
Production code 11.15, filmed before the “Breaking Up Is Easy to Do” trilogy, though it aired after it
Written by Valerie Ahern and Christian McLaughlin
Directed by Gerry Cohen
The title plays on the 1934 Laurel and Hardy film Babes in Toyland
Neither Marcy nor Jefferson appears