Go for the Gold
Episode 9
Season 1, 1984
Introducing: a Mr. Landers runs the Audio Hut
We’ve seen Stacy doing cartwheels and backflips occasionally. We’ve also seen that the kids seem to need a lot of replacement equipment. Let’s combine the two, shall we?
It’s Fitness Week at The P*lace (they sure have a lot of theme weeks). Kids Inc. is too busy with band matters to notice Wendy and Andrea announcing a gymnastics contest, whose prize is conveniently a gift certificate to the Audio Hut. The news sends Stacy jumping for joy, however, as she’s sure that she could win the whole thing. Despite little support from her friends, Stacy still plans to enter the contest and sees her chance when their amplifier literally blows up during the next number.
The day of the contest comes and Stacy is thrilled to see gymnast Kathy Johnson warming up with the others. She spends a while being cute and irritating the contestants, but finds that being an athlete is harder than it looks.
The contest starts, and people are leaping everywhere, but Stacy isn’t impressing anyone. She crashes into other people, trips, stumbles…continuing to be cute, of course. But cute doesn’t win gymnastics contests, and Stacy runs off in disgrace. Kathy follows her and Stacy reveals that she was only trying to help her band, and now she’s let them down.
The other kids do give Stacy an A for effort, but they’re still bummed about not having any money. In comes Kathy with the news that even though Stacy lost the contest, she won the heart of Mr. Landers of the Audio Hut. He’ll fix the amp for free. Kathy then shows Stacy a gold medal and puts it around her neck. How cute.
I wasn't into gymnastics at the time, so I didn't know who Kathy Johnson was, but I'm sure Stacy was all over it. I thought it was weird how she was so smug about potentially winning the contest, since she could barely keep up in "Physical" Oh, and "Physical" is a really bad cover, the changed lyrics made no sense. I'm still amazed that they picked that song and tried to bring it to a G-rating. That’s why this episode got 3 microphones.
Guest star: Olympic gymnast Kathy Johnson (KI is mentioned on her page!)
Invention count: 0
Vocab: --
Continuity, gags and themes:
Stacy doing flips
The band always seems to need new equipment
$200 is a different amount from what they normally seem to get – it’s usually $100
New Locations:
The Audio Hut (an electronics store)
Pop culture references:
The Olympics
“Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound” is part of the description of Superman
C'monologue: Kathy
Solos:
Stacy (1)
Kid (1) = 4
Episode total: 2
Total: 21
Performance outfits:
Denim w/purple shirts
red/blue sequined
- This is the first time Renee calls Stacy her sister, and the first time anyone in the series refers to the girls as sisters (Beginning not included). Up until now, you just assumed they were, although Renee treats everyone in the same manner, so she could have been related to anyone.
- You can see the "Diamond Park" sign over the basketball court
Gymnastics scores:
Wendy - 95
Aaron - 96
Stacy - Has Potential
Two girls who were probably gymnasts as extras - 98
- The same silhouette effect used in the previous episode is used for “Physical”
- This is another episode where they begin with a song ending (“Dynamite”), have some dialogue, and then start a full song.
There's a small conflict: I Googled Kathy, and she was indeed in the '84 Olympics...but she won a bronze by herself, and a silver with the team. The medals she brings to Stacy are gold from '84.
Now, someone probably thought this would be more impressive, but isn't this contradictory to the episode's idea of "trying your best is more important than being the best"? I don't know about you, but getting any medal in the Olympics is damn impressive to me, regardless of what metal it's cast from. 5/10 point deduction, producers.
Songs:
Physical –
Cool Places – 
I’ll Tumble 4 Ya –
Go For It –
Maniac –
Back