- “Just imagine yourself inside the planetarium, having an amazing climax.”— Gene Belcher to Bob Belcher
"The Laser-inth" is the eighteenth episode in Season 7, being the one-hundred-and-twenty-fifth episode overall.
Plot[]
Gene accompanies Bob on the last-ever rock-and-roll laser show at the planetarium, but the night takes an unexpected turn. Meanwhile, Linda takes Tina and Louise out to see Gretchen at her new job at a Special Girl store and Louise has a surprise revelation.
Synopsis[]
In the Belcher kitchen, it is Bob’s birthday. Although t underwhelmed by Linda’s breakfast of “muffin soup” (made an incidentally without flour), he is shocked to read in the newspaper that the planetarium is having this last ever rock and roll laser show, that night. And he’s excited because the laser light show will be doing the album he considers the best one, General Inzanity by Zentipede, which he went to several times as a kid and loved. Bob suggests that they could all go see it, but only Gene is interested. Linda also suggests that while the boys are out, they all have dinner with Gretchen.
That night, Bob and Gene are driving to the show, with Gene unaware that Zentipede is the band. Bob has brought the General Inzanity CD but decides not to play it and give too much away.
At the mall, Linda and the girls find that Gretchen’s new job is doing hair for dolls in the salon area at a Special Girl doll store. Tina is unnerved at the sight of all the dolls. Gretchen explains that she was going to use her employee discount, so they eat at the Special Girl restaurant in the store.
At the planetarium, Bob notices that the building is being renovated, when they are approached by a scalper selling tickets (along with tube socks and slap bracelets). The ticket taker/security guard tells them that there are no ins or outs as they go in.
At the restaurant, the girls find out that to dine there, they need a “dinner doll” with a backstory to have next to them to dine with, unnerving Tina further.
At the planetarium auditorium, Gene is loving the reclining seats and fog machines. However, when the loud rock music comes up, Gene’s senses are overwhelmed and he covers his ears and screams, telling a concerned Bob that he wants to leave right now. Outside in the hall, Bob tries to calm a hyperventilating Gene and asks him if he wants to stay or go home. Gene hesitates since it is Bob’s birthday, but Bob says he won’t enjoy it if gene won’t, and when it is clear Gene can’t be walked through it, the two leave.
In the planetarium parking lot, Bob and Gene get in the car, with Bob noting that he saw the show when he was 16, so 11 is probably too young. Bob asks if Gene at least found the music great, but Gene says he couldn’t tell what it was when it was so loud, and Bob offers to play a song or two off the CD as they drive home. He puts on the album, and explains to Gene the storyline for the rock opera, or “Rocks-sperience” as they tried to call it at the time: General Inzanity, an evil robot general takes control of America in the year 2007, and starts cracking down on rockers. One rocker named “the Rebel” writers a song that inspires people to rise up against General Inzanity called “Let My people Rock, Part One” (which Bob skips ahead to). Bob air guitars and mouths to the song, then leans their seats back and explains with a laser pointer more of the story: General Inzanity arrests the Rebel, and sentences him to hard labor, pushing rocks from a quarry up a mountain to build the general a new lair. A group of rebel fighters show up to help the hero, but are trapped on the mountain by a robot army, when the Rebel gets he idea to roll boulders down the mountain to ram into the robots. As Gene puts it, he rolls a rock to save rock and roll. Gene is amazed and Bob describes the climax of the album as incredible, which Gene says he now wants to see, even if it means going deaf and peeing his pants a little, for Bob’s birthday.
At the restaurant, the girls are seated and looking at the menu, with Gretchen telling the waiter that she hopes the complimentary cinnamon buns are free. Tina is scared to check if her doll is looking at her. The waiter tells them that the dinner dolls must stay in the restaurant before walking off. Linda and Louise read their doll’s card backstories; Tina also reads hers, Francine, who is described as a ballerina and early Cold War spy. Louise is intrigued, and Tina readily swaps dolls with her.
The security guard tells Bob and Gene that they cannot go back in, and cannot buy new tickets as the show is sold out. Bob sees the scalper, and rushes to try and get tickets, but he is out. The scalper however tells them for 25 dollars a way to get into the laser show: he gives a peice of paper with a phone number direct to the concession stand inside. Once Bob says the pass phrase, whoever is at the stand will let him in. The scalper tells him there are two guys named Nick, one who is cool and one who is uncool; the uncool one knows what hey do and may try to trick them. Bob is exasperated by how undescriptive the scalper is before he runs off.
At the restaurant, the waiter tells Louise that the Francine doll is being discontinued, which Gretchen explains is when a doll is no longer produced and usually the remaining stock are given to poor kids. However for dinner dolls, which get dinged up, they are put into a giant chipper-shredder device and the material is then put into the mats in the play area (with Tina and even Louise disturbed by Gretchen’s description of how sometimes an eye is not shredded and winds up in the play area).
Outside the planetarium, Bob calls the concession stand and reaches a guy but is unable to tell if it is the cool or uncool Nick. Gene is unable to help, and Bob tells the passphrase, “the moons of Uranus are on fire.” The concession guy named Nick figures it out and explains that he gets bored there and pretends to be two different guys named Nick just to mess with the scalper. He tells Bob to go around the back door with 20 dollars in three minutes, and he will open the door, but will not wait for them. The two see the back is far, and after some hesitation, the two start running.
Louise is upset about the “only cool doll” is going to be shredded, and wonders if they can buy it, to Tina’s concern., Louise asks the waiter about buying the Francine doll, but is told that dinner dolls are not for sale due to being used. Louise tries to convince everyone to run with the doll out the door, but Gretchen refuses as she cannot lose the job. However, she comes up with a disguise plan for the doll.
Bob and Gene are winded but reach the door early, and see that a model of Pluto is in the garbage bin for the renovation. As the door opens, Bob is about to go when Gene sees the security guard making his rounds with a flashlight and hide behind the trash bin. Nick starts to close the door as he doesn’t see them, but Gene gets on a box and with Bob’s help, starts pushing the Pluto model out of the bin. The manage to push it out, causing it to roll towards the employee parking lot, with the security guard rushing after it as they get to the door. Bob is excited that Gene used a “rock to save rock and roll” before giving Nick the money. They head in, but inside bob borrows a napkin and wads it up to make crude earplugs for Gene. The laser show finale amazes Gene, who cheers with Bob as the fortress of General Inzanity is destroyed. On the drive home, Gene says he loved the show, but Bob’s hearing is shot from the loud music and mishears him.
Gretchen explains that they have to sneak the doll to her salon station and make it look like a doll not being discontinued. Linda distracts the waiter by asking for him to pretend to box up the doll’s plastic food, while Gretchen takes the doll, and Louise goes to get Sabrina doll and accessories to complete the masquerade. Gretchen does her work to make the Francine doll look like a Sabrina doll as Tina and Linda keep an eye out. The plan works, and they walk away with the Sabrina doll now a dinner doll, and the Francine doll in the Sabrina box. Louise is worried if Sabrina gets disco tuned, then the dinner doll will be shredded, but Gretchen says that the Sabrina’s will never get discontinued, as it’s the most popular doll line. Linda suggests buying the doll, but with Tina scared, Louise decides to leave the doll there. But Tina decides to help Louise be happy and they buy the doll.
As the end credits roll, Bob and Gene air guitar on the ouch as Louise plays with her new doll and Tina nods along, while Linda brings in a malformed birthday cake.
Video[]
External links[]
- "The Laser-inth" on IMDb
- "The Laser-inth" press release via The Futon Critic
- "The Laser-inth" script via Springfield! Springfield!
- "The Laser-inth" review at The A.V. Club