Really Big Shrimp (''Drake & Josh'')

"Really Big Shrimp" is the series finale of the Nickelodeon sitcom Drake & Josh. The episode first aired on August 3, 2007. It was Nickelodeon's highest-rated television event at that time, with 5.8 million viewers.^[1] The episode was aired during a Drake & Josh marathon called Drake vs. Josh weekend. Despite being the series finale, it was not the last episode to be aired, as both Helicopter and Dance Contest aired afterwards.

Although Nickelodeon promoted this episode as a "film", it is actually the one-hour series finale episode^[2] as it contains the show's usual laugh track.

Plot

The episode opens as Drake and Josh begin their prologue as they did in the pilot. Josh tries to fix the corn dog rotisserie at the premiere, but can't. Mindy, however, fixes it in ten seconds. Drake performs his new song called, "Makes Me Happy" for a music deal from Alan Krim (mentioned in the show's first television film) and he succeeds. While at Spin City Records, they agree to put Drake's song in a commercial that will air during the Super Bowl. Meanwhile, Helen is getting married and her grandmother, Lula, comes to stay at Drake and Josh's house for a week, forcing Megan to share the boys' room.

Helen then announces the new assistant manager, who turns out to be Mindy. Josh is very upset that he didn't get the job, and accuses Mindy of constantly trying to one-up him, which she denies. While at the recording studio at Spin City Records, Krim gives Josh a contract. Josh doesn't read the contract at all, mesmerized by massive shrimp (prawn), and inadvertently signs away the creativity rights to Drake's song. Krim remixes—and completely ruins—Drake's song, turning it into, as Drake puts it, "horrible bubblegum pop garbage-y badness". Furious with Josh for this mistake, Drake fires him as manager, then hatches a plan for revenge: planting fruit flies in Alan's car. While criticizing Josh for always playing by the rules he tells Josh that, "when people play dirty, sometimes you have to play dirty back."

Still trying to fix his mistake, Josh returns to Spin City Records. After being told there is no way the company will use Drake's original version, Josh decides to take Drake's advice and switches the ruined song with the original song as it is being picked up. The plan succeeds, and Drake's version of "Makes Me Happy" plays on the commercial, much to Drake's delight, and he forgives Josh for this, but Josh's action comes with a price. Right after the commercial airs, Josh receives a call from Krim who explains that by switching the songs, Josh has broken the contract, and not only is the record company planning to sue the boys for $5 million; the two could also go to prison.

While at work, Mindy runs out of a wing in the theater and Crazy Steve had gone completely insane. She had made the mistake of scheduling him on a Monday, and, according to Helen, "You can't schedule Crazy Steve on a Monday, Monday's his bad day!". After calming him down with milk and the folk song "She'll Be Comin' Round The Mountain When She Comes," Josh realizes that Mindy did not take the job as assistant manager because she needed the extra money; she did it because she wanted to spend more time with him as they had broken up long before. Then, Drake and Josh go to Spin City Records, and just as they think they are going to jail, Drake is told by Matteo that his song has become a number one hit, as downloads of his song crashed Spin City's server. They are free of all charges and Krim is fired for trying to ruin Drake's song. Matteo even tells him that Drake and Josh had to scam them; otherwise, if the song was ruined, Drake wouldn't be popular. Krim doesn't take this well, and says that he can't be fired because their wives play golf together. Matteo still dismisses him saying, "Your wife cheats," so therefore, Krim furiously storms out in a huff.

At Helen's wedding, midst a few small disasters (a fire caused by a faulty plug), Josh and Mindy get back together. Mindy has quit her job and Josh becomes the new assistant manager. Drake also rehires him as his manager. Then, Drake performs his number one hit song to the whole crowd.

Drake and Josh later return home to find shrimp sent over from Nick Matteo. Megan and her friends have eaten all but one, which causes Drake and Josh to fight over it, paying tribute to a popular scene from The Amanda Show, featuring Drake Bell and Josh Peck which is shown during the credits – thus ending the series.

Cast

• Drake Bell as Drake Parker: step-brother of Josh and brother of Megan. He is working on his debut album in this movie.
• Josh Peck as Josh Nichols: step-brother of Drake and Megan. He is also Drake's manager.. He switches the labels of Drake's song.
• Miranda Cosgrove as Megan Parker: sister of Drake and step-sister of Josh. She moves into Drake and Josh's room while Helen's mother is staying. She takes up most of the room decorating it in pink and other girlish stuff.
• Nancy Sullivan as Audrey Parker-Nichols: mother of Drake and Megan and stepmother of Josh and Wife of Walter.
• Jonathan Goldstein as Walter Nichols: stepfather of Drake and Megan and father of Josh and husband of Audrey.
• Allison Scagliotti as Mindy Crenshaw:Josh's girlfriend and the assistant manager at the premiere. She takes the job because she wanted to spend more time with Josh. She later quits when Helen gives Josh the assistant manager gold-vest.
• Jerry Trainor as Crazy Steve: A crazy employee known for shouting and fast talking. He is taking anger management in this movie.
• Yvette Nicole Brown as Helen Dubois: A bride to be and the Manager of the premiere. She gets married later in the film and gives Josh the assistant manager job.
• Scott Halberstadt as Eric Blonnowitz: Craig's best friend. He is mistaken for Craig by Drake frequently. He and Craig videotape Helen's wedding.
• Alec Medlock as Craig Ramirez: Eric's best friend. He videotapes Helen's wedding with Eric.
• Cathy Shim as Leah: An employee at the Premiere. She is frequently scared of Crazy Steve due to his anger and tempers.
• Alysse Cepeda as Molly: a friend of Megan who finds Josh cute. She tells him to call her to which Megan and the rest of her friends exclaim "Ewww!!"
• Brenda Vivian as Collete: A worker in Spin City records.
• Joseph Will as Alan Krim: The main antagonist of the episode. He ruins Drake's song and plans to send it off to Super Bowl commercials. Josh switches the song and Alan threatens to send them to jail for it. But the song is sold to a million hits and Alan is fired and he angrily walks out the door.
• Jay Bontatibus as Nick Matteo: The CEO of Spin City Records. He wants to make Drake's song a hit. He fires Alan for ruining Drake's song.

Production

The episode aired on August 3, 2007 during Drake & Josh weekend and was intended to be the series finale. However, Nickelodeon did not air the final episodes chronologically, "Helicopter" and "Dance Contest" were aired in the wrong order somehow.

Music

Drake Bell made a music video to Makes Me Happy, and it became the single for the episode.

Reception

Laura Fries of Variety was mostly positive on Really Big Shrimp, stating that "...Drake and Josh perfectly embody the goofy, unabashed fun that too few remember..." and complemented the two leads on their appeal, but complained that "...[Miranda] Cosgrove's sister Megan is an immensely irritating character."^[3]

It was the most watched television event on Nickelodeon up to that time, with 5.8 million viewers.^[1][4] It was the most watched Nickelodeon program until iCarly: iGo to Japan broke the record. The record was later broken again by Merry Christmas, Drake & Josh.

References

External links

• Drake vs Josh weekend