Cricket’s First Date(?) and A Homemade Reality Show Take Over This Week’s “Big City Greens”

Celebrating Valentine’s Day in Big City, Cricket and Gabriella go on their first not-a-date, and Gloria and Gramma Alice get engrossed in reality TV in the latest episode of Big City Greens.

Date Night

Cricket and his girlfriend, Gabriella, are set to hang out now that she’s back in town from Montreal. But it’s not a date! None of that mushy stuff. Tragically, her parents won’t let her see Cricket without a chaperone so he recruits his Dad to take them to see the new “America Rat’ movie. The only thing Bill was doing anyway was getting rid of the spoons he has that don’t spark joy.

Bill now has taken on the responsibility of chaperoning their first date, vowing to make it the best first date ever. However, Cricket reminds him it’s not a date. It’s just a boyfriend and a girlfriend hanging out. Cricket goes on to immediately regret the decision to ask his father as soon as he pulls up in his pick-up truck dressed to the nines, and preps his son by spraying his neck with breath spray and his face with cologne.

They pick up Gabriella and Cricket tries to talk about the movie with her when Bill cranks up the volume on a country song, drowning out their conversation. Excitedly approaching the theater, Bill detours the truck for a quick bite to eat. The kids are excited for some Burger Clown but Bill has something else in mind, taking them to the towering, fancy, rotating restaurant.

Clearly out of place, Bill tries to make the fancy place great for the kids’ first date, ordering the food improperly, and getting the classical music to change to the song from the truck. The kids, still adamant that it’s not a date, decide that they are gonna prank the rich people in the restaurant. Prank they do, even tying shoes together with pasta (and it was al dente!). Cricket spots the lever to control the speed of the rotating restaurant and makes his way over there, proclaiming how easy it was to get away with this right before his dad catches him.

Bill sits the two down and invokes his authority as chaperone, telling them how to conduct themselves to make it a proper date, and leaves the pair alone. From afar, he sees how miserable the kids are, especially Cricket, and reaches for the lever that controls the speed of the restaurant. One of the employees says that doing that will ruin their date, to which Bill says what Cricket has been saying all night….”It’s not a date!” And thrusts the restaurant into its fastest speed, turning the eatery into a giant centrifuge.

Pinned against the wall, father and son have a heart to heart saying he just wants to be a kid and not get bogged down with all that date stuff. As the restaurant slows, Gabriella reveals that she had a great time and that Bill was the best chaperone ever, but Cricket still would prefer that he just drop them off next time.

The Room

Gloria is watching a trashy reality show, “Snug Lil’ Room” when Gramma Alice walks in and asks what she’s watching, inevitably getting sucked into the trashy reality television. Cricket and Tilly want to know what they’re watching, and Gloria explains the drama is so good because of what happens when people share a space and go crazy. Tilly and Cricket disagree. They’ve been sharing a room since they were babies, and they haven’t had any conflict!

Back in their shared room, Tilly talks with Sackson about how silly the notion is that a brother and sister would ever butt heads. A draft blows through the room and Tilly discovers Cricket's secret entrance to the room, when Sackson suggests that she do something about it. She boards up the entrance, and an argument ensues when he comes back and smashes his head into the new boards.

Out in the living room, Gloria and Gramma Alice are invested in their show when the wind blows the cable out. Gramma threatens Bill and makes him go fix it, but until then, Gloria and Gramma are without entertainment. They hear the kids arguing across the house and delight that they now have a dramatic reality show playing out in front of them. They even start interviewing the kids in a brilliant parody of most reality show confessionals.

Gloria and Gramma get up to get some popcorn, only to come back and find out they’ve split the room down the middle, except different, with Tilly getting the top half of the room, and Cricket getting the bottom. Gloria asks Gramma if her grandmother duties allow them to do this, with Alice replying it will help build their character before she states she’s Team Cricket, with Gloria adding that she’s Team Tilly because “she’s savage.”

The fight between the kids continues, and Gloria happens to walk through them thinking they went to bed, promising to return with a cup of coffee. Gramma comes in to find Gloria watching the kids destroy her house, and realizes they let things go too far. Back in the interview room, Gramma reveals they must now do something, much to Gloria’s disappointment until she realizes they need a dramatic finale.

Borrowing the rose from The Bachelorette, Gloria says whoever gets the rose will be able to stay in the house, and the other must leave. The kids panic, not wanting to separate or have to move out, when Gramma appears behind Gloria with her own rose, promising they won't have to leave, but will instead move into the basement with Gloria (betrayal!). Gloria panics and realizes reality TV is bad, and shouldn’t exploit the emotions of others and retreats to her basement alone. The kids realize that they can compromise and still live in harmony together, sharing their room.

Bill restores the cable, only to come home and find a partially destroyed house, with the only explanation as to what happened there was “Good TV.”

Good TV in the form of Big City Greens can be seen now on the Disney Channel, and on the DisneyNOW App.

Tony Betti
Originally from California where he studied a dying artform (hand-drawn animation), Tony has spent most of his adult life in the theme parks of Orlando. When he’s not writing for LP, he’s usually watching and studying something animated or arguing about “the good ole’ days” at the parks.