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-> Screenplay By: Michael P. Kube [=McDowell=] & Julie Selbo
-> Story By: Creator/FrederikPohl
-> Directed By: Bryan Michael Stoller

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* ForWantOfANail: Mr. and Mrs. Bender end up under the thumb of their now-genius son, just because Margery bought the lottery's winning ticket by sheer chance. Similarly, if Johnathan didn't pick up the national section in the newspaper, his parents would've never known they won and could've avoided becoming just like the son they abused.


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* ItBeganWithATwistOfFate: Mr. and Mrs. Bender end up under the thumb of their now-genius son, just because Margery bought the lottery's winning ticket by sheer chance. Similarly, if Johnathan didn't pick up the national section in the newspaper, his parents would've never known they won and could've avoided becoming just like the son they abused.
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* DragonInChief: Kopec, the Bender's new security guard, joins the newly-intelligent Johnathan when he lives his own life, as Harlan similarly abused him like he did the kid.

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* DragonInChief: Kopec, the Bender's Benders' new security guard, joins the newly-intelligent Johnathan when he lives his own life, as Harlan similarly abused him like he did the kid.
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The Benders, Harlan, Margery, and their son Johnathan, are a dysfunctional suburban family who win the state's "Big Four" $10,000,000 lottery by sheer chance on an ordinary day. After giving their home a makeover, the family is visited by Winston "Tinker" [=McGee=], an eccentric scientist friend who evidently has an "attachment" to Margery. He shows the family pills he's invented which are able to increase a person's memory and brainpower to the point of total recall, hoping to use some of their new finances for testing and marketing of the prototype. The family member who takes the strongest interest in the pill is Johnathan, whose parents have abused, stifled, and called stupid to his face, and he aches to gain super intelligence so he can put his folks in their place.

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The Benders, Harlan, Margery, and their son Johnathan, Johnathan (Joe Carafello, Catherine Battistone, and Jason Horst), are a dysfunctional suburban family who win the state's "Big Four" $10,000,000 lottery by sheer chance on an ordinary day. After giving their home a makeover, the family is visited by Winston "Tinker" [=McGee=], [=McGee=] (Mark Blankfield), an eccentric scientist friend who evidently has an "attachment" to Margery. He shows the family pills he's invented which are able to increase a person's memory and brainpower to the point of total recall, hoping to use some of their new finances for testing and marketing of the prototype. The family member who takes the strongest interest in the pill is Johnathan, whose parents have abused, stifled, and called stupid to his face, and he aches to gain super intelligence so he can put his folks in their place.

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* AFamilyAffair: Given that family friend Tinker has a habit of calling Margery "Cuddles", how Harlan reacts with errant hostility when told he's coming to the house, and how the pair flirtatiously compliment each other when Harlan steps out of the room, it's strongly implied that the pair have feelings for one another. Harlan even reminds Margery that Tinker tried to cuckold him on his wedding night, all-but-confirming the implications are true.


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* AFamilyAffair: Given that family friend Tinker has a habit of calling Margery "Cuddles", how Harlan reacts with errant hostility when told he's coming to the house, and how the pair flirtatiously compliment each other when Harlan steps out of the room, it's strongly implied that the pair have feelings for one another. Harlan even reminds Margery that Tinker tried to cuckold him on his wedding night, all-but-confirming the implications are true.
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The Benders, Harlan, Margery, and their son Johnathan, are a dysfunctional suburban family who win the state's "Big Four" $10,000,000 lottery by sheer chance on an ordinary day. After giving their home a makeover, the family is visited by Winston "Tinker" [=McGee=], an eccentric scientist friend who evidently has an "attatchment" to Margery. He shows the family pills he's invented which are able to increase a person's memory and brainpower to the point of total recall, hoping to use some of their new finances for testing and marketing of the prototype. The family member who takes the strongest interest in the pill is Johnathan, whose parents have abused, stifled, and called stupid to his face, and he aches to gain super intelligence so he can put his folks in their place.

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The Benders, Harlan, Margery, and their son Johnathan, are a dysfunctional suburban family who win the state's "Big Four" $10,000,000 lottery by sheer chance on an ordinary day. After giving their home a makeover, the family is visited by Winston "Tinker" [=McGee=], an eccentric scientist friend who evidently has an "attatchment" "attachment" to Margery. He shows the family pills he's invented which are able to increase a person's memory and brainpower to the point of total recall, hoping to use some of their new finances for testing and marketing of the prototype. The family member who takes the strongest interest in the pill is Johnathan, whose parents have abused, stifled, and called stupid to his face, and he aches to gain super intelligence so he can put his folks in their place.



* IronicEcho: Discontent with every single thing Jonathan wants to do, his parents decline every activity he suggests and insisting he read a book. He does the same to them when he becomes emancipated, even shoving his autobiography in their faces for their first reading.

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* IronicEcho: Discontent with every single thing Jonathan wants to do, his parents decline every activity he suggests and insisting that he read a book. He does the same to them when he becomes emancipated, even shoving his autobiography in their faces for their first reading.

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* AbusiveParents: Jonathan's parents constantly refer to him as being stupid among other things.
* ActingYourIntellectualAge: Any childlike behavior Jonathan exhibits is completely eradicated by the end of the episode.
* MeaningfulName: Mr.Tinker
* MySkullRunnethOver: The person who invented the pill suffers from constant headaches due to the amount of information it allows his mind to absorb. This eventually causes his death.
* NouveauRiche: Jonathan's family.
* IronicEcho: Discontent with nigh everything Jonathan wants to do, his parents decline every activity he suggests and insist he read a book. He does the same when he becomes emancipated.
* PhlebotinumPills: The pill grants the user the ability to recall anything.
* TitleDrop: Jonathan gives his parents a book bearing the title of the episode at the end.
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Mr. Tinker's mind apparently overloaded from the pill he invented.

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!! The Bitterest Pill

The Benders, Harlan, Margery, and their son Johnathan, are a dysfunctional suburban family who win the state's "Big Four" $10,000,000 lottery by sheer chance on an ordinary day. After giving their home a makeover, the family is visited by Winston "Tinker" [=McGee=], an eccentric scientist friend who evidently has an "attatchment" to Margery. He shows the family pills he's invented which are able to increase a person's memory and brainpower to the point of total recall, hoping to use some of their new finances for testing and marketing of the prototype. The family member who takes the strongest interest in the pill is Johnathan, whose parents have abused, stifled, and called stupid to his face, and he aches to gain super intelligence so he can put his folks in their place.

!! Tropes:
* AbusiveParents: Jonathan's parents (Harlan, especially) constantly refer to call him as being stupid among other things.
and forbid him from doing anything that resembles fun.
* ActingYourIntellectualAge: Any childlike behavior previously Jonathan exhibits exhibited throughout the episode is completely eradicated by once he becomes a genius.
* AFamilyAffair: Given that family friend Tinker has a habit of calling Margery "Cuddles", how Harlan reacts with errant hostility when told he's coming to the house, and how the pair flirtatiously compliment each other when Harlan steps out of the room, it's strongly implied that the pair have feelings for one another. Harlan even reminds Margery that Tinker tried to cuckold him on his wedding night, all-but-confirming the implications are true.
* AsideGlance: The final shot has Margery and Harlan sharing one to each other as they stare at their now-genius son's autobiography.
* AssholeVictim: Johnathan's parents are abusive to him, and his father often forces him to do the housework instead of doing it himself. The tables turn near
the end of the episode.
episode, where Harlan and Margery are taken down several notches and become timid and docile shells of their old selves thanks to their now genius-son, who becomes their legal guardian via court order.
* MeaningfulName: Mr.Tinker
* MySkullRunnethOver:
BigScrewedUpFamily: The person who invented Benders as a whole are incredibly dysfunctional, as the pill suffers from constant headaches due parents are lazy, flirtatious, and abusive bums, the son shows chronic misbehavior, and their scientist friend is borderline certifiable.
* BottleEpisode: The bulk of the episode is set in the Benders' living room.
* BreatherEpisode: The previous two episodes were respectively [[Recap/TalesFromTheDarksideS3E1TheCircus more horrific]] and [[Recap/TalesFromTheDarksideS3E2ICantHelpSayingGoodbye greatly upsetting]] than usual, so this episode brings the series back
to the amount realm of information it allows comedy so the viewers can laugh again.
* {{Catchphrase}}:
** Harlan's repeated declarations of "Stupid kid!" to
his own son.
** Tinker's repeated declarations of how his pills can help Harlan and his family conquer/be given "the world!".
* ChildProdigy: Johnathan becomes a genius who whips his parents into shape when he ingests Tinker's pills.
* DeadpanSnarker: Harlan and Margery in response to Tinker's ludicrous ramblings about being a super-genius.
* DenserAndWackier: A rambunctious and dysfunctional family wins the lottery by sheer, unrelenting chance, and the outrageously nutty scientist friend of theirs tries to bilk some of their lottery money out of them for his experiments.
* DisproportionateRetribution: Harlan is a fan of punishing his "stupid kid" Johnathan for rather petty things, such as telling him to go to his room when he wants to read the newspaper's sports section instead of the national news.
* TheDogBitesBack:
** Johnathan is abused and essentially made to play butler to his incredibly lazy parents, so he cuts them down to size when he ingests Tinker's pill and becomes a genius, as well as ''their'' legal guardian.
** Kopec, the security guard who Harlan also abuses, sides with Johnathan when he gains his intelligence boost.
* DragonInChief: Kopec, the Bender's new security guard, joins the newly-intelligent Johnathan when he lives his own life, as Harlan similarly abused him like he did the kid.
* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Johnathan is introduced tossing his basketball in the house instead of taking out the garbage like his father asks him to. This is followed by his ball knocking over Harlan's beer and landing in his chip bowl, to which the angered father grouses "Stupid kid!"
* ForWantOfANail: Mr. and Mrs. Bender end up under the thumb of their now-genius son, just because Margery bought the lottery's winning ticket by sheer chance. Similarly, if Johnathan didn't pick up the national section in the newspaper, his parents would've never known they won and could've avoided becoming just like the son they abused.
* HoistByHisOwnPetard:
** Tinker's
mind apparently overloads from the pills he invented, as Johnathan speculates that the drug isn't fatal on a younger, still-developing brain like his.
** Harlan slaps Tinker's jar of pills out of his hand and onto the floor, and Margery forces Johnathan
to absorb. clean them up instead of doing so herself. This eventually causes gives the boy the chance to ingest them, turning him into a genius who browbeats his death.
* NouveauRiche: Jonathan's family.
parents into being just as childish and timid as he once was.
*** Furthermore, they're too distracted on rebuilding their relationship after Tinker's visit to pay attention to Johnathan swallowing one of Tinker's pills, far too late to stop him.
* IronicEcho: Discontent with nigh everything every single thing Jonathan wants to do, his parents decline every activity he suggests and insist insisting he read a book. He does the same to them when he becomes emancipated.
emancipated, even shoving his autobiography in their faces for their first reading.
* LargeHam: The Benders are notably over-the-top, but Tinker spends the whole episode acting like Jim Carrey on speed, even shrieking the rough-necked grouse's mating call during one of his rambling monologues to Harlan, and doing an impression of an agitated monkey when he gets one of his spikes of headache pain.
* LazyBum: Margery and Harlan expect Johnathan to do everything around the house, on top of stifling his desire to have fun and calling him stupid.
* MadScientist: Tinker invents miraculous intelligence-boosting pills, but he's more "mad" in the "straitjacket and padded cell" sense than the "discredited doctor performing depraved experiments" sense.
* MeaningfulName: Winston, who calls himself "Tinker", is an eccentric scientist who invents pills capable of bestowing incredible intelligence to anyone who consumes one.
* MotorMouth: Tinker hardly ever stops talking when spouting his scientific drivel, likely a side effect of his intelligence pills.
* MySkullRunnethOver: Tinker suffers from constant headaches due to the amount of information his mind absorbed after ingesting his pills. This eventually results in his death.
* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Kopec, the security guard that the Benders hire after winning the lottery, is likely based on Creator/HenryWinkler, given that he randomly speaks in the voice of Winkler's [[Series/HappyDays most famous character.]]
* NouveauRiche: Jonathan's family, who win the lottery by random chance and are approached by Tinker for extra funds for his research.
* PhlebotinumPills: The pill pills that grants the user the ability to recall anything.
* PrettyInMink: Margery dreamily tells her husband, after learning that her lottery ticket was the lucky winner, that she wants a fur coat to wear when she goes shopping for frozen foods, which Harlan refuses to buy her.
* RunningGag:
** After winning the lottery, Harlan and Margery end up getting hassled by salesmen trying to sell them things over the phone, which they leave off the hook and hide in the couch cushions.
** After Johnathan is sent to his room in the first act, he spends the rest of that act, as well as a good chunk of the second, asking over the new intercom if he can come back down, to which his parents scream "No!".
* ScreamDiscretionShot: An exterior view of the Bender house is shown over Tinker screeching like a grouse, showing that he can be heard up and down the street.
* SesquipedalianLoquaciousness: Tinker frequently uses complex words in his scientific ramblings.
* ShoutOut: Kopec, for whatever reason, talks like [[Series/HappyDays Fonzie]] whenever he says a line.
* StockSoundEffects: Electronic beeping is heard as Tinker expounds about maximizing the potential of "the human computer", before he gives more obscure facts to Harlan.
* SuperIntelligence: The pills Tinker invents grant immense brain power and memory on anyone who swallows them.
* TimeSkip:
** After the opening act, the episode shows that the Benders have cashed in Margery's winning ticket and spruced up the house, even hiring a security guard to keep their mooching neighbors away from their door.
** The ending of the episode takes place sometime after Johnathan started treating his now meek and docile parents how they treated him, where we learn that Tinker died from his pill-induced knowledge overload and that the boy's become a celebrity with his own autobiography.
*
TitleDrop: Jonathan The newly-super intelligent Johnathan gives his parents a book bearing his autobiography, which bears the same title of the episode, as reading material in the final scene.
* WorldOfHam: Everyone in the
episode at goes nuts with chewing on the end.
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Mr. Tinker's mind apparently overloaded from
scenery, as the pill he invented.Benders have no indoor voices, Kopec inexplicably talks like Fonzie, and Tinker delivers monologues at lightning speed like a drugged-up Jim Carrey.
-----
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* ActingYourIntellectualAge:Any childlike behavior Jonathan exhibits is completely eradicated by the end of the episode.

to:

* ActingYourIntellectualAge:Any ActingYourIntellectualAge: Any childlike behavior Jonathan exhibits is completely eradicated by the end of the episode.



* MySkullRunnethOver:The person who invented the pill suffers from constant headaches due to the amount of information it allows his mind to absorb.This eventually causes his death.
* NouveauRiche:Jonothan's family.
* IronicEcho:Discontent with nigh everything Jonathan wants to do, his parents decline every activity he suggests and insist he read a book. He does the same when he becomes emancipated.
* PhlebotinumPills:The pill grants the user the ability to recall anything.
* TitleDrop:Jonathan gives his parents a book bearing the title of the episode at the end.
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Mr. Tinker's mind apparently overloaded from The pill he invented.

to:

* MySkullRunnethOver:The MySkullRunnethOver: The person who invented the pill suffers from constant headaches due to the amount of information it allows his mind to absorb.absorb. This eventually causes his death.
* NouveauRiche:Jonothan's NouveauRiche: Jonathan's family.
* IronicEcho:Discontent IronicEcho: Discontent with nigh everything Jonathan wants to do, his parents decline every activity he suggests and insist he read a book. He does the same when he becomes emancipated.
* PhlebotinumPills:The PhlebotinumPills: The pill grants the user the ability to recall anything.
* TitleDrop:Jonathan TitleDrop: Jonathan gives his parents a book bearing the title of the episode at the end.
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Mr. Tinker's mind apparently overloaded from The the pill he invented.
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Added DiffLines:

* AbusiveParents: Jonathan's parents constantly refer to him as being stupid among other things.
* ActingYourIntellectualAge:Any childlike behavior Jonathan exhibits is completely eradicated by the end of the episode.
* MeaningfulName: Mr.Tinker
* MySkullRunnethOver:The person who invented the pill suffers from constant headaches due to the amount of information it allows his mind to absorb.This eventually causes his death.
* NouveauRiche:Jonothan's family.
* IronicEcho:Discontent with nigh everything Jonathan wants to do, his parents decline every activity he suggests and insist he read a book. He does the same when he becomes emancipated.
*PhlebotinumPills:The pill grants the user the ability to recall anything.
* TitleDrop:Jonathan gives his parents a book bearing the title of the episode at the end.
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Mr. Tinker's mind apparently overloaded from The pill he invented.

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