Annoyed by Fred Lerner's green TV, the eco-villains launch "Operation Sweeps Week", a hostile takeover of the studio, with plans to give the viewing public the more violent and pollution-friendly fare they supposedly want. Unfortunately for them, the viewing public includes the Planeteers, who launch a swift counterattack.
This episode includes examples of the following tropes:
- Author Avatar: Eco-conscious TV tycoon Fred Lerner is clearly the in-universe version of Ted Turner.
- Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: When the team arrives, Nukem unsuccessfully tries to blast them.Skumm: Haven't you ever heard of target practice?
- Is This Thing Still On?: As the villains' stolen TV station returns from commercial, they're still bickering over the microphone. MAL has to poke his monitor in to tell them that they're live.
- My Little Panzer: One of the advertisements the eco-villains launch is for action figures (Soldier Sam and His Sadistic Slammers) that will damage anything that moves in the house.
- Shout-Out: The Planeteers dress in The Flintstones attire while getting into the studio.
- Take That!:
- A particularly bizarre one; one of the low-brow programs the Eco-Villains put on is a studio pro wrestling show akin to the ones Ted Turner relied on for viewership in the 80s and 90s. Given that Ted Turner at the time owned World Championship Wrestling and had repeatedly rebuffed efforts from Turner executives to remove pro wrestling, it's either tone-deaf or a rather subtle form of Self-Deprecation.
- The episode also launches an attack at Beavis and Butt-Head. The Eco-villains produce a parody during "Operation Sweeps Week." It's also this particular advertisement that causes Wheeler to comment that the programming has gone too far. Turner infamously hated the show, to the point of making a thinly-veiled rant against it in a 1995 speech to Congress.
- Terms of Endangerment: Dr. Blight calls Mr. Lerner "Freddy boy" as she and the others invade the studio and Duke Nukem calls him "pal" while damaging most of the TV monitors.
- Who Would Want to Watch Us?: Ted Turner avatar Fred Lerner proposes making a series about the central pollution-fighting hero team. Wheeler replies, "It has a nice ring to it."
