|
|
| |||
|
"Dee Dee Be Deep" | Premiere Order "911" |
"Down in the Dumps" | 
|
|
|
"Dee Dee Be Deep" | Production Order "911" |
"Down in the Dumps" |
|
| 911 | |
| Season 2, Episode 17b | |
| Episode name reference to/pun on: The emergency number of the same name. | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Air date | November 5, 1997 |
| Production number | 218b |
| Episode no. overall | 30b |
| Written by | Zeke Kamm |
| Storyboard by | Ace Conrad Genndy Tartakovsky |
| Directed by | Rob Renzetti Genndy Tartakovsky Craig McCracken (Art Direction) |
911 is the second segment of the seventeenth episode in season 2 of Dexter's Laboratory. It first aired on November 5, 1997.
In this episode, as Dexter watches an episode of Action Hank, his favorite TV show, it gets interrupted by the Emergency Broadcast System test. He then takes it upon himself to resolve any emergencies that Computer searches for. During the test, Dee Dee pretends she's watching various programs.
Plot
Dexter is in the living room watching an episode of Action Hank, engaging in the show's scenes. Just after Dr. Claw introduces three of his cronies, Action Hank throws a punch at them. The episode is suddenly interrupted for a test from the Emergency Boardcast System.
To find a way for the test to end sooner, Dexter races to his laboratory and has Computer run a scan for any emergencies. For the first emergency, which was getting a kitty out of a tree, Dexter uses the Robo-Tron to go and rescue the kitty, which then licks the windshield of the Robo-Tron as thanks.
After a successful mission, Dexter returns home to find that the EBS test is still going, so he heads back to his laboratory to scan for another emergency. For the second emergency, which was to repair a broken bridge, Dexter drives a flatbed truck and raises a stretch of the road toward the broken bridge. The school bus driver makes it over safely, but crashes into a tree immediately after.
Dexter returns home a second time to find that the EBS test is still going. After performing a third scan, Dexter heads out to help a pregnant woman inside a cab give birth to a newborn boy. Dexter returns home to see that the test is still occurring and heads out to do other emergencies, where he stops water that caused a dam to break, put out a fire at a hospital, and return a woman's son to her.
Back at home, Dexter sees Mom, Dad, and Dee Dee all watching the emergency test, prompting him to stomp back out. Back in the city, Dexter uses an invention to snare a bank robber, saves three construction workers from a falling girder, and help a lion who had a thorn stuck in its paw. Exhausted, Dexter returns home to find that the EBS test has concluded, with Dee Dee tearfully leaving after watching the "sad ending".
The broadcast then returns to the climax of the Action Hank episode. Dexter, having missed most of it due to the EBS test, starts crying profusely.
Characters
- Dexter
- Dee Dee
- Dad
- Mom
- Action Hank
- Claw
- Black Ninja
- Bertha the Barbarian
- The Wrecking Crew
- Action Hank's girlfriend
- EBS announcer
Quotes
- Dee Dee: No! No! Don't go in there! [screams] I can't watch!
- Dexter: This cannot be!
- Dee Dee: [screams]
- Dee Dee: How can he do that to Marsha?
- Dexter: Oh boy, oh boy, what did Action Hank do now?
- Dee Dee: It wasn't Action Hank, Dexter, it was Jeffrey.
- Dexter: Are you crazy?
- Dee Dee: Would you look at that? He's at it again!
- Cop: The dam's blown!
- Dee Dee: I love a sad ending. Boy, that was the greatest program ever.
Trivia
Episode connections
- Douglas E. Mordecai III, Dexter's friend who originated in the episode "The Bus Boy", makes a cameo appearance in this episode.
Notes
- This is the final appearance of Action Hank.
- Running Gag: Dexter mistakenly referring to two baby boys as girls.
Production Notes
- Final episode Ace Conrad storyboarded.
Errors/Goofs
- When the Emergency Broadcast System first comes on, the screen reads "Emergency Broadcast Signal." After Dexter returns home from solving any emergencies for a second time, the screen reads "Emergency Broadcast System" and does so for the remainder of the EBS test.
- While the episode premiered in 1997, the Emergency Broadcast System was replaced with the Emergency Alert System (EAS) on January 1, 1997. Although this was addressed in later airings of the episode, it did not include the Specific Area Message Encoder tones as any use of them outside emergencies is strictly prohibited, and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) would issue fines to those who do so.
- Not only that, a real Emergency Broadcast System test lasts for 60 seconds, but it lasted in the entirety of the episode. When an EAS/EBS test is carried out, it must clarify from the start that it is only a test.
- The test uses a 1000 Hz tone. The EBS ceased using this in 1976 with the elimination of the old CONELRAD method and the development of the two-tone attention signal that is a combination of the sine waves of 853 and 960 Hz—suited to attention due to its unpleasantness. This attention signal is still in use with the modern EAS.
Cultural References
- None known