This episode marks the first appearance of a Special Guest portraying themselves.
We start off with the band finishing "Dynamite"note before Riley (lugging prop weights) emphasizes that this was "Fitness Week" before introducing the next song; which is a surprisingly non-Bowdlerized version of "Physical"note . Once the song finishes, Wendy does some flips to illustrate U.S. Olympic gymnast Kathy Johnson would be at the P*lace to host a gymnastics competition (the other dancers, plus a very impressed Stacy, sign up) - though Stacy's attempts to get the others to join in fall flat (top prize: A gold certificate for The Audio Hut worth $200) before the band returns to the stage for "Cool Places". By sheer happenstance, just as that song ends the band's amplifier blows up (to make matters worse, the band was scheduled to perform at a dance Friday night).
Outside; the other participants are warming up when Stacy arrives and introduces herself to Kathy Johnson; and her entrance gets off to a rough start (nearly pulling a muscle, accidentally spritzing Kathy with water) and doesn't get any better as we go into "I'll Tumble 4 Ya" (colliding with several contestants and scoring a "Has Potential" while two other contestants are shown getting just shy of a perfect 10). Following the event, Kathy then meets up with a very dejected Stacy (feeling she let the other band members down by performing so poorly) before encouraging her not to give up and keep working at her goals ("Go For It").
Turning our attention to the others, Riley mentions he would have to get another band for the dance if the amp couldn't be replaced, while the others were kicking themselves for not trying out. Soon after Stacy walks in and expresses her remorse that she couldn't get the top prize. However, Kathy returns with good news; as apparently Mr. Landers, owner of The Audio Hut, had seen the competition and got such a laugh...and more importantly saw Stacy's determination and was so impressed by the latter he was willing to fix the amp for free. Kathy then gives Stacy a special gift: one of her medals from the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angelesnote , setting the stage for closing song "Maniac".
Songs performed in this episode:
- "Physical" (Olivia Newton-John cover; performed by Renee and Kid)note
- "Cool Places" (Sparks and Jane Wiedlin cover; performed by Mickey and Gloria)
- "I'll Tumble 4 Ya" (Culture Club cover; performed by Gloria)note
- "Go For It" (Kids Incorporated original; performed by Stacy)
- "Maniac" (Michael Sembello cover; performed by Kid)
Tropes associated with this episode:
- As Herself: 1984 Olympic gymnast Kathy Johnson guest-stars as herselfnote .
- Bowdlerize: As mentioned in the notes for "Physical"; this was the first example of where this trope was applied rather inconsistently in the series.
- Hold Up Your Score: During the competition, we see one contestant get a 9.6 score and another get 9.8. Stacy, in contrast, could only muster a "Has Potential" score.
