Much Ado About Scrooge
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| DuckTales episode | |
|---|---|
| “Much Ado About Scrooge” | |
 Louie tries to compromise with Filler Brushbill. |
|
| Episode no. | Season 1 Episode 11 |
| Guest star(s) | Charles Adler (Filler Brushbill, Pluck) Victoria Carroll Will Ryan |
| Writer(s) | Karen Willson Chris Weber |
| Director | David Block |
| Production no. | 18 |
| Original airdate | September 21, 1987 |
| Episode chronology | |
| ← Previous | Next → |
| "The Duck in the Iron Mask" | "Spies in Their Eyes" |
"Much Ado About Scrooge" is the eleventh episode of the Disney animated television series DuckTales.
[edit] Synopsis
The residents of Duckburg are on full alert, as the super-duper door-to-door salesman Filler Brushbill is doing his rounds. Filler shows up at Scrooge’s house, and Scrooge won’t let him in, because the last time Filler came, he sold Scrooge a ton of useless junk. Scrooge uses his secret salesman repellent system to try and get Filler to leave, but his attempts fail. Finally, when Filler offers Babe Duck’s baseball bat does Huey disable the system, letting Filler enter the house.
Once in the house, Filler persuades everyone, including Scrooge, to buy his junk, as he claims that they’re bargains. $444,444.08 worth of junk plus a pair of four dollar glow-in-the-dark socks later does Filler finally leave. One of Scrooge’s purchases turns out to be the complete works of William Drakespeare. In one of the books, Scrooge discovers an old note, written by Drakespeare himself, which reveals that Drakespeare had finished writing a lost play. Drakespeare had hidden the script in his castle for his mother to find, as he felt that it was his worst work ever, and that no one should ever know about it.
On their way down to the docks, Scrooge explains that despite the play’s supposed poor quality, the play will be worth millions just because Drakespeare wrote it. When they pass by Filler on the street, Scrooge stops Louie from telling him about the lost play, but they don’t realize that the note goes flying out the window and into Filler’s hand. When Scrooge and the boys take off on a boat, Filler stows away, bringing his valise of merchandise with him.
Scrooge tells the Captain to head for Great Written, which the Captain claims is haunted. But Scrooge doesn’t care, and they head there anyway. Scrooge and the boys arrive at the island of Great Written at night, and Filler follows them without their knowledge. Before they get a chance to dock in their rowboat, Louie gets separated from his brothers and Scrooge, who get washed ashore, and meet up with Filler. Scrooge and Dewey go one way to search for Louie, while Huey and Filler go the other.
Meanwhile, Louie, who had been washed ashore elsewhere on the beach, is startled by three witches with a cauldron. Just then, Filler shows up, and sells the witches products that would interest them (cauldrons, brooms, etc…). Afterwards, Filler leaves, and Louie is astounded at how he managed to sell so much stuff to the witches. Scrooge and Dewey run into a nobleman and two guards, who manage to toss the two ducks back into the sea.
Later on, Scrooge, the boys, and Filler meet up on the beach. Scrooge wants to repay Filler for saving them, and reluctantly agrees to give him fifty percent of the profits made from the lost play. In the morning, Scrooge, the boys and Filler run into a satyr named Pluck, who welcomes them to A Midsummer Duck's Dream. Scrooge asks Pluck for directions, and manages to get them. The path leads them into the woods, where they encounter living trees. The trees try to surround them, but Filler scares them off with chainsaws, which Scrooge ends up ordering two dozen of for his lumber company.
Once they get to the castle, Filler decides to split up to look for the play, but Scrooge insists on sending one of his nephews along with him, if not to keep an eye on Filler, then to carry his valise. Louie agrees to go, explaining that he might become a door-to-door salesman himself one day. The two groups search around the castle for the play, but come up empty-handed. Scrooge, Huey and Dewey enter the castle’s theatre, where they discover a raised statue of Drakespeare, and Scrooge recalls that the note mentioned that shaking Drakespeare’s hand was the key to finding the lost play, just as Filler and Louie arrive.
Since the statue is high up, Filler has to use suction cups to climb the walls and hang down from the ceiling in order to reach it. When Filler shakes the statues hand, it opens up a panel in the floor, which does indeed contain the lost play. Meanwhile, the characters from Drakespeare’s plays show up, claiming that the play belongs to them, as they are really actors, and descendants of Drakespeare’s original acting troupe.
Scrooge explains that everyone can share profits from the lost play, which is titled McDuck. Scrooge concludes that the play might even be about his ancestors, and has the actors perform the play for him. It turns out that the play is a disgrace to the McDuck family name, portraying the main character as a greedy miser. When neither the actors nor Scrooge want anything to do with the play, they almost put it away, but Filler steals it, hoping to sell it all for himself.
Filler tries to escape the castle, but everyone else manages to chase him into a tower over the sea. Filler highly considers jumping out of the tower with the play, but Louie reminds Filler that his reputation could be ruined if he sells a lousy play to everyone. Filler reconsiders, and gives the play back
Afterwards, Scrooge agrees to turn Great Written into a tourist attraction, where the actors can perform Drakespeare’s plays (excluding McDuck) for profit. Filler, who will sell tickets to the plays, thanks Louie for convincing him to not sell McDuck. When Louie asks if he has what it takes to become a super salesman, Filler explains that if Louie doesn’t have what it takes, he can always sell it to him.
[edit] Trivia
- Filler Brushbill is a play on the "Fuller Brushman", a traveling salesman who sold brushes for the Fuller Brush Company in the early to mid 20th century
- William Drakespeare is an obvious parody of William Shakespeare.
- Several of Shakespeare's works are spoofed in this episode.
- This episode's title is an allusion to Much Ado About Nothing.
- Romeo and Julieduck is a spoof of Romeo and Juliet.
- A Midsummer Duck's Dream is a spoof of A Midsummer Night's Dream.
- Pluck is a spoof of Puck. Puck, however, was not a satyr.
- The nobleman whom Scrooge and Dewey encounter makes indirect references to Henry V and As You Like It in some of his quotes. He is also strikingly similar to a Roman, which may come from Shakespeare's play, "Julius Caeser."
- The three witches in this episode are an allusion to the witches from Macbeth.
- The play McDuck is a spoof of Macbeth.
- Great Written is a spoof of Great Britain, even though it has nothing to do with the actual country.
- Babe Duck is a spoof of Babe Ruth.
- At one point, Filler speaks the line "I am not a crook", which was coined by Richard Nixon.
- Filler's valise appears to contain some sort of hammerspace, as it can hold a seemingly endless amount of items, some of which are bigger than the valise itself.
