- “I hope I've burned half as many bridges when I'm his age.”— Louise Belcher about Clem Clements
"Long Time Listener, First Time Bob" is the nineteenth episode in Season 9, being the one-hundred-and-sixty-ninth episode overall.
Plot[]
Bob meets his personal hero - a renegade radio DJ who now works at the local bowling alley and refuses to compromise. However, the Belchers get in over their heads when they try to help him stage a comeback. Meanwhile, after a failed attempt to convince Bob to work the new "sweet potato fry" trend into the menu, Linda tries using the sweet potato surplus to make pies.
Synopsis[]
The Belchers are driving to the bowling alley for the night, but Bob’s mood is soured due to a local magazine producing its “Best Burgers on the Shore” list which did not even feature Bob’s Burgers. He is still twitchy when Linda accidentally brings up the list again, and even though he admits he has said such lists are stupid, it would still be good for business. He continues to drive and rant about how every burger place chosen is a “new trendy place” which all serve sweet potato fries, which he hates and thinks are stupid against regular fries (although he did have Linda order 50 pounds of sweet potatoes to add to the menu to be “trendy”).
At the bowling alley, the Belchers put on their shoes when the shoe rental guy tells them their lane is ready over the PA system, and Bob recognizes him as Clem Clements; Clements had been the late night DJ on WIXU back in the early days of the restaurant, who had the line “no plans and no BS”, and played whole album sides and talked about whatever he wanted, with Bob loving listening to his show on late nights in the restaurant. Linda asks what he’s doing at a bowling alley, and Bob goes to ask him, telling Clem he was a big fan while Linda asks what happened. Clem says that radio industry’s “went to crap”, as they wanted him to play “radio friendly” songs and he refused to give out prizes to “buy” listeners. SO the station fired him and switched to a”no-DJ” format with a computer-generated playlist and prerecorded stations ID’s under the name “the ‘Tude”. He was offered a job at 40-watt WOFD, but was prideful and turned it down, now working at the bowling alley.
The next day at the restaurant, “Eddie Tude” is on the radio, with Bob finding its canned faux-attitude obnoxious and disbelief that the station fired Clem for this instead. Linda is confused that there is a DJ until Teddy explains that “Eddie Tude” is a computer generated DJ. Bob gets angry when Teddy orders sweet potato fries, and after chiding him for ordering them as “healthier” with a sarcastic remark about yogurt fries, bOb take sweet potato fries off the menu and decides to head to the bowling alley to bring Clem a burger and regular fries as a “thank you’ for reminding Bob to stick to his guns. Linda tells the kids to go along to stop Bob from doing something drastic.
At the bowling alley, Clem compliments Bob on his burger, and tells him how the station manager who fired for for talking too much and playing whatever he wanted also scolded him for doing the show with his mouth full (Which Bob thought was cool). Bob says how much he would want to listen to that agin, with Louise and Gene going along with him (despite Gene not knowing what radio is). When Clem dismisses that station manager would not care, Bob suggests calling the station, but Clem doubts anyone would be there to pick it up. Bob then suggests going to the station in person, but Clem says that the station manager wouldn’t be there today. Bob then suggests that they could go in person the next day, as he is fired up, and Clem agrees to go.
The next day at the restaurant, Bob is getting into a dress shirt and explaining his plan to tell the station manager that getting rid of Clem was a bad idea to Linda, although admitting that they likely won’t get Clem his job back. As he and the kids leave, Linda states that she is going to make sweet potato pies out of the all the sweet potatoes left over, which Bob likes, and say that sweet potatoes were meant to be dessert. Bob and the kids meet Clem at the WIXU station, where he admits his distaste for the nearby ‘Tude Cruiser van, which used to be for live broadcasts but now is used for giving away t-shirts at malls, and has to be dissuaded from lighting it on fire by Bob to instead go back to talking to the station manager.
At the restaurant, Linda has made a sweet potato pie and Teddy is about to taste it when Mort enters. Teddy however, finds the pie disgusting, telling Linda it needs more sugar in it, to which Linda says there is no sugar since sweet potatoes are naturally sweet, as well as lacking other ingredients such as cinnamon. She too gags on it, and is horrified because she made ten of said pies.
At the station, Vance the manger dismisses Clem and the “randos” for walking in and demanding his job back, and tells Bob that they do in fact answer the phones (with Clem saying there is a very difficult-to-navigate menu of automated options). And because Bob didn’t rehearse what he was going to say, he started breaking into song, and all five are kicked out of Vance’s office.
In the hallway, they notice Clem’s old DJ booth and wander in, as no one uses it anymore. The kids are underwhelmed while Bob is amazed to be there. He is surprised by Patrick, the engineer who still runs the tech and didn’t leave with Clem because he needed the job. Patrick compliments Clem’s voice but says that Eddie ‘Tude is the number one drive-time DJ in their market. Bob asks Clem if he wants to sit in his old DJ’s chair, which gives Clem an idea. He lets Bob sit in the chair while his kids take a photo, but they notice Clem in the room behind them and the engineer’s booth, pushing a couch to block the door to the hallway. As Bob realizes what is happening, Clem hijacks the broadcast and stops Patrick from pushing a button to cut him off, as Bob panics, Vance tries to get in, and a gleeful Louise tells listeners they are live.
Clem puts more furniture on the couch to stop Vance getting in, and continues the broadcast with the kids saying their names, but Bob goes to open the door before Clem takes him aside and gives the kids the mic. Clem tells Bob to not open the door as “this is what we wanted” in getting him his job back, but Bob points out that it’s not getting his job back, it’s barricading and hijacking a broadcast. Clem doesn’t listen and goes back to plug his iPod playlists into the broadcast.
At the restaurant, Linda gets off the phone, the animal shelter refusing to take the pies. She and Teddy continue to try and eat the pies to get some flavor, when Speedo Guy comes in with a boombox and tells them Bob is on the radio. Clem tells the listeners that there is a security guard pounding on the door and Bob telling him they could get arrested; after hearing Gene’s voice, she realizes the kids are in there too.
At the station, Clem asks Patrick on-air about working with the “robots”, and Patrick admits that only he and Vance work there now (taking the fun out of secret Santa). As Clem plays some sound effect tracks for the kids, Vance calls Patrick’s booth and tells him to shut it down, but Patrick tells him that if he hits the shut-off button, they can come in and push it again to turn on the broadcast. Vance is furious, as corporate headquarters are at “code red” and told him to handle it quietly, but he is not sure how to so he may call the cops. However, Vance finds out that Clem put his call on the air, but falls for Louise telling him they are off the air, causing him to admit to Clem he doesn’t know how to handle it (right before being told they are in fact still on the air).
With Bob having turned his phone off, Linda and Teddy head in Teddy’s truck to the radio station, with Teddy taking one of the pies under the belief it might somehow taste better in the truck. They scream in fear at Bob on the radio and drive faster.
At the station, Bob points out that Clem won’t be getting his job back at the station and asks where he is goin with the hijack. Clem says that it is basically to sit back and keep playing music until the door is busted down (and it is a “Serious” door). However, Louise needs to use the bathroom urgently. Clem moves the furniture and makes a deal with Vance: they’ll let Louise out, Vance and his security guard stay in the hallway. But as Clem opens the door, Vance pushes his way in and gets it open. As Louise rushes out (and only finds some paper cups), Vance tells Clem that the ‘Tude is a hit while Clem is a weird “moldy oldie” (while also confirming that he will be at the bowling alley the next day for his son’s birthday party).
Outside the station, Bob tries to tell Clem that Vance didn’t mean what he said, but admits that Vance did mean it, and Clem says Vance was right. But as he leaves in defeat, Bob suggests they take the ‘Tude Cruiser, but they don’t have keys. But Patrick does, who walks to them, having been fired for helping them during the hijacking. Patrick, Clem, Bob and the kids take the station van and drive off. Bob lays out his plan: they stop somewhere to set up and broadcast, and open the phones to listeners, as there probably were some who the stunt got through to. however, there are no phones in the Cruiser; however, Clem suggests that Bob hold up his phone to the mic. Bob is hesitant to give out his cell number, but goes along once they see a spot to park: outside Heat ‘N’ Heifer, one of the restaurants in the “Best Burgers on the Shore” piece (which he keeps folded in his pocket). He goes along further once hearing that the broadcast will be enough to annoy the trendy people having lunch.
At the station, Linda and Teddy leave, having been told the family had left, but the station wagon is still parked there, before heading back in the truck. They overhear Clme on the car radio, and try to figure out where Bob and the kids are.
At the “trendy” restaurant, Bob yells at people eating sweet potato fries. Patrick sues the restaurant WiFi to access the ‘Tude transmitter site and hack the audio encoder (helped by the fact that the encoder never had a password set up). Clem goes back on the air, but the phone lines are mainly Vance and robo-calls. The next call is Linda, who is echoing due to having the car radio on the same station, and Bob admits they might be at one of the restaurants on the list, which she exasperatedly tells him to let go, which is not helped when Tina says he is yelling at people eating sweet potato fries.
Linda tells Bob over the phone that trendy stuff is just trendy, and that he cares about what he does, and being stubborn that means sometimes some people won’t like it, but that some will, and that is who he does it for, not “some dumb list”. Bob thanks her for it, before “the ‘Tude” comes back over their speakers, and Patrick is locked out. Clem apologizes for dragging Bob and the kids into this, butt hat Bob does seem to have a lot, loving family, loyal customers, etc, while the Belchers have trouble saying what he has. Suddenly, Bob’s phone starts buzzing, with multiple callers wanting Clem back over The ‘Tude, and Dan at WOFD saying their offer for a DJ job still stands, and Clme take sit as long as they take Patrick along (to Patrick’s concern, as it is a midnight-to-8 shift). But the mood shifts as they have to dismantle the setup before the cops arrive.
Videos[]
External links[]
- "Long Time Listener, First Time Bob" on IMDb
- "Long Time Listener, First Time Bob" press release via The Futon Critic
- "Long Time Listener, First Time Bob" script via Springfield! Springfield!
- "Long Time Listener, First Time Bob" review at The A.V. Club