Cultural References
Batman
When Steve breaks the trophy case with one Debbie's political signs and says to her competition, "You wanna get nuts? Come on! Let's get nuts," he is referencing the 1989 Tim Burton movie Batman when Bruce Wayne (Michael Keaton) says the same thing to the Joker (Jack Nicholson).
The title of this episode
“Escape from Pearl Bailey” is a take off of the title of the 1996 action movie
“Escape from New York”, that starred
Kurt Russell (1951-)
Some elements of the plot of “N.Y.” are present in this episode as well, i.e., trying to get out of an area where everyone is trying to stop the main character(s).
Snot: “We've narrowed our choices down to viper pilots from Galactica, pre-crime cops from Minority Report or ...”
Snot is referring to the scifi show
“Battlestar Galactica” (1978-1978)(2003-2009) and the 2002 science fiction/action film starring
Tom Cruise (1962-) and
Colin Farrell (1976-),
“Minority Report” Biology Teacher: “Student council shifted money from the science department so they could hire a pricey Hollywood buffalo groomer.”
The pricey buffalo groomer is none other than
Tim Gunn (1953-), who provided his own voice for this episode.
Tim may be best known for his role of Fashion Consultant on the Bravo network's
(and now Lifetime's) show
“Project Runway” (2004-Present) Debbie: “I may not understand your obsession w/ a 30 year old British TV show”
The show in question is the longest running scifi show in history,
“Doctor Who” (1963-Present) Nurse: “Doctor! Frankie Muniz is on line one”
Best known for his role of “Malcolm” from the FOX series,
“Malcolm in the Middle” (2000-2006),
Frankie Muniz (1985-) is mentioned in this episode.
Snot: “Who would win in a fight? The Death Star or Carl Sagan's spaceship of the imagination.”
The Death Star is an
(obvious) reference to the
Star Wars trilogy and
Carl Sagen (1934-1996) was a famous American astronomer and author.
his
“Spaceship of the Imagination” was simply his conveyance to explore the universe is his TV shows & specials.
Visual: “Peter Pan”
One of the drama students that tries to attack Steve and his friends is dressed as the character “Peter Pan” created by J.M. Barrie (1860-1937) in 1902
Visual: Boat painted “Anything Goes”
The boat cutout with the words “Anything Goes” painted on it is a reference to the 1934 Broadway musical “Anything Goes” and the title song of the same name.
Steve: “Hey Evan, I found your portrayal of Conrad Birdie to be entirely too contrived.”
“Conrad Birdie” is the title character in the 1960 Broadway musical (& 1963 film) “Bye Bye Birdie”
Snot: “It smells like a Depeche Mode concert.”
The British group
Depeche Mode (1980-Present) is mentioned in this episode.
They may be best known for their songs, 1984's
“People Are People” & 1989's
“Personal Jesus” Debbie: “You shall not pass”
Debbie uses a quote the character “Gandalf” says to the balrog in the first movie of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, 2001's “The Fellowship of the Ring”
Steve: “If we're lucky, we might even take a few of them with us”
Steve's quote may be a reference to a line made by the character “Lando Calrissian” from 1983's “Return of the Jedi”. Lando's line is “We'll last longer than we will against that Death Star and we might just take a few of them with us.”
The episode ends with a freeze frame of Steve, Snot, Barry and Toshi jumping from the bus and turning a sepia tone.
The DVD commentary for this episode reveals it is an allusion to the 1969 film,
“Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid”, starring
Robert Redford (1937-) &
Paul Newman (1925-2008)