Down and Out in Duckburg
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| DuckTales episode | |
|---|---|
| “Down and Out in Duckburg” | |
 A bankrupt Scrooge goes ballistic. |
|
| Episode no. | Season 1 Episode 24 |
| Guest star(s) | Steve Bulen Philip Clarke Aron Kincaid (Fritter O'Way) Rob Paulsen (Robin Lurch) |
| Writer(s) | Ken Koonce David Wiemers |
| Director | Terence Harrison |
| Production no. | 17 |
| Original airdate | October 8, 1987 |
| Episode chronology | |
| ← Previous | Next → |
| "Duck to the Future" | "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. McDuck" |
"Down and Out in Duckburg" is the twenty-fourth episode of the Disney animated television series DuckTales.
[edit] Synopsis
One day in downtown Duckburg, Duckworth is driving Scrooge around while he does his errands. Scrooge’s first stop is to increase the rent on Mr. O’Flannel, a tailor who works for him, even though Mr. O’Flannel’s business isn’t doing all that well. Duckworth then chauffeurs Scrooge to the docks, where he meets up with Captain Jack, who needs money to repair his run-down fishing boat. Scrooge doesn’t agree to loan Captain Jack any money, as Captain Jack can’t put anything down for collateral. When Scrooge’s limo runs out of gas on the way home, Scrooge chooses to walk the rest of the way, while Duckworth is told to find some gas on sale. Along the way, Scrooge meets a woman asking for charity donations. But when the lowest denomination of money that Scrooge has on him as a one-thousand dollar bill, and he is unable to break it, he doesn’t make a donation.
That evening, at McDuck Manor, Scrooge, Huey, Dewey, Louie, Webby and Mrs. Beakley are all watching Lifestyles of the Filthy Rich on TV. At the end of the show, host Robin Lurch announces that he will be interviewing Scrooge for next week’s show. All of a sudden, without any warning, a brash fox by the name of Fritter O’Way comes barging into the living room, acting like he owns the place. Fritter introduces himself, and presents to Scrooge a contract, indicating that he does own the place.
Fritter explains that Scrooge’s ancestor, Seafoam McDuck was supposed to deliver a barrel of marbles belonging to his ancestor, Diddle O’Way, to the Cape of No Hope on his ship, the Golden Goose. Seafoam signed a contract without actually reading it, which stated that if he were to fail to deliver the marbles, he would owe Diddle everything he owns. When the Golden Goose sank, along with the marbles, all that Seafoam had left was his gold pocket watch. Since Seafoam refused to hand over the watch to Diddle, Diddle was never repaid for the marbles. And since the debt was never repaid, Seafoam’s closest surviving relative, Scrooge, is asked to hand over the gold watch. Scrooge explains that he sold the watch to buy his first gold claim in the Klondike, which led to his vast fortune today. As such, the watch ended up becoming everything that Scrooge owns, and Scrooge finds himself having to hand over his fortune to Fritter, like it or not.
Mrs. Beakley pleads to Fritter to not throw them out on the street, but only if they agree to work for him. Soon Duckworth is painting the walls of the mansion orange, as part of Fritter redecorating plan, while Mrs. Beakley blows up inflatable furniture. In addition to the redecorating, Fritter either throws out Scrooge’s old belongings, or has them destroyed. If that wasn’t enough, Fritter has purchased the Statue of Liberty, which has been delivered to the lawn, which Duckworth has to paint orange. Scrooge gets fed up with the way that Fritter is treating his fortune, so Fritter retaliates by kicking him out. The nephews, Webby, Mrs. Beakley and Duckworth decide to leave as well, and follow Scrooge around.
Scrooge asks Mr. O’Flannel for a job, but Mr. O’Flannel can’t afford to hire him, as Scrooge increased his rent. Later in the day, the kids are hungry, but Scrooge remembers that he has an account at Quack Maison, a fancy French restaurant. Scrooge and Co. gorge themselves at dinner, but Fritter shows up, and refuses to let Scrooge put the bill on his Fritter’s account. Unable to actually pay the bill, everyone has to wash dishes later on.
Dewey and Louie suggest that they can stay with Launchpad or Gyro, but Scrooge assumes that they were only his friends when he was rich. With no real place to go, Scrooge leads everyone to underneath a bridge, which will serve as their new home. In the meantime, their clothes turn to rags.
The next week, Robin Lurch interviews Scrooge and his family on Lifestyles of the Filthy Rich. Mrs. Beakley prepares cream of wheat in tin cans over a fire, while Duckworth explains that everyone is living in cardboard boxes. The nephews try to keep warm by burning newspapers, while Scrooge wrestles with a dog over a bone. Turns out that the whole interview was just a nightmare, but Scrooge has lost his mind, and runs around town, begging for money. Scrooge wants his fortune back more than anything. The nephews realize that Scrooge could get his fortune back if the marbles were to get delivered. Duckworth and Mrs. Beakley then remind Scrooge of how he made his fortune in the first place, and that finding a barrel of marbles would be nothing in comparison.
Scrooge is taken to Captain Jack, who Scrooge is afraid to ask for help, as he didn’t help Captain Jack when he was the one who needed help. But, since Captain Jack is a nice man, he agrees to let Scrooge use his boat anyway, and they all set off towards the Cape of No Hope. When they arrive, Scrooge puts on an old-fashioned diving suit and goes underwater to find the marbles. While Scrooge explores the wreckage of the various sunken ships, he encounters sharks, one of which bites his line. Unable to pull up Scrooge, everyone else thinks that he must have died.
Scrooge ties up the bit of line that he still has, and discovers the barrel, which still contains the marbles, but has trouble bringing the barrel to the surface. Mrs. Beakley reveals that she was the Duckburg High swimming champion of the year 19-whatever (she apparently forgot the actual year), and dives in after Scrooge. Mrs. Beakley passes the air line down to Scrooge, which he uses to give himself more air, and to raise the barrel to the surface.
Just when Scrooge is ready to head back to Duckburg, the boat starts to leak. Scrooge exclaims that Captain Jack should’ve fixed the boat, but remembers that he never lent Captain Jack the money to do so. To make matters worse, a hurricane approaches, so Scrooge has to radio for help. Scrooge’s story quickly makes the news, and when Fritter finds out, he sets out to make sure that Scrooge stays lost at sea. Fritter locates Scrooge in his yacht, and he blows a hole in Captain Jack’s ship, sinking it. Everyone on the ship retreats to a life boat, while Fritter is knocked off the yacht by a large wave.
Fritter, who can’t swim, begs Scrooge to let him on the life boat. Scrooge offers to give Fritter the marbles in exchange for a space on the boat. Unable to get back on the yacht, Fritter reluctantly agrees to accept the marbles, but not without signing a contract for Scrooge, giving the old duck his fortune back.
After getting back to Duckburg and settling back in, Scrooge is interviewed by Robin Lurch for real. Instead of impressing Robin the traditional way, Scrooge donates a one thousand dollar bill to charity, without asking for any change. Scrooge then takes Robin to see Captain Jack, where he presents to him the deed to his yacht. Lastly, Scrooge forgave Fritter for his actions, under one condition; Fritter needs to scrape all the orange paint off of the mansion by hand.
[edit] Trivia
- This episode's title is an allusion to Down and Out in Beverly Hills.
- This episode is a retelling of the Carl Barks story The Horseradish Story. However, a few things were changed for this episode:
- Fritter O'Way is based off of Chisel McSue.
- Diddle O'Way is based off of Swindle McSue.
- The marbles in this episode were horseradishes in the original story.
- In the original story, Seafoam was heading for Jamaica, not the Cape of No Hope.
- In the original story, the Golden Goose sank because Swindle McSue sabotaged it.
- The pocket watch in the original story was made of silver, not gold.
- Lifestyles of the Filthy Rich is a spoof of Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.
- Robin Lurch is a spoof of Robin Leach.
- The Cape of No Hope is a spoof of the Cape of Good Hope.
- The dog that Scrooge fights with bears a rather uncanny resemblance to Pluto.
