Ever heard the saying “When the cat’s away, the mice will play”? When this episode (which uses the first half of the phrase for its title) sees Flip leave abruptly and put Eric and Kenny in charge; disaster soon strikes.
Incidentally; this marks the last episode of Season 7 where either of the male band members is the central focus of the episode’s plot.
Our story begins with a performance of “Step by Step” (note the video filters used in the clip) before we see Flip, seemingly relaxed reading a restaurant supply catalog. The deceptively serene appearance causes Kenny and Eric to think running the P*lace is a breeze compared to juggling their responsibilities at home, school and the band. Ana then comes to Flip’s defense before the kids return to the stage (though not before Kenny and Eric make another jab); setting up “Let the Good Times Roll”.
When that song ends, Flip has interesting news for the boys; as he’s been called to a meeting at a supply house that afternoon and asks if they’ll hold down the fort, which Kenny and Eric - thinking Flip has it easy - quickly agree to. The guys still think it’s easy street…until other kids start arriving (the girls, not so much, as Haylie is struggling with bringing supplies in while Robin and Ana are swamped with the day’s orders; ultimately resulting in Haylie dropping a box with plates and uttering a cleaned-up version of Howard Beale’s famous line from the movie ‘’Network’’. Eric, for his part, gets himself entangled in an argument with the girls, who are ticked off over being roped into Kenny and Eric’s shenanigans and have little patience for Eric insisting they’ll do things his way. All of this while the customers are getting restless and hostile (“Here We Go (Let’s Rock and Roll)” - which sees Eric flirting as the song begins while the others work and the increasingly hostile kids throwing food at the band members; a punk rocker wannabe girl dancing on a table and another boy rollerskating in the P*lace).
While all this is happening, Flip calls the P*lace from a pay phone to check on things, with Kenny trying to claim things were going well despite the evidence clearly showing otherwise, to which Flip says he’ll be gone the rest of the afternoon but will come back that night. After hanging up; he turns to the side as if to signal he knows what’s really going on, adding “I hate to do this, but they’ve got to learn a lesson”; in the process revealing the “meeting” as a ruse. Eric then flees the P*lace and sees Flip, leading to Eric and Kenny realizing that they should have appreciated the work Flip did there, setting up “All Work and No Play”.
Flip then walks into the P*lace to a seemingly startled Eric, who tells him what happened - with Eric’s choice of words (such as mentioning a “fire” and “flood”) momentarily freaking Flip out. Happily, all this was to set up a surprise party to show Flip their appreciation…and that they were on to the “meeting” ruse, presenting a large bowl of ice cream in Flip’s honor as his “afternoon work”, setting up closing song “Rhythm of My Heart” (which has the K-I-D-S banner last seen in the Season 2 finale drop down at the end).
Songs performed in this episodenote :
- “Step by Step” (New Kids on the Block cover; lead vocals by Eric and Kenny)note
- “Let the Good Times Roll” (Louis Jordan and his Tympany Five cover; lead vocals by Eric, Haylie, Ana, Kenny and Robin)
- “Here We Go (Let’s Rock and Roll)” (C+C Music Factory cover; lead vocals by Kenny, Robin and Eric)note
- “All Work and No Play” (Kids Incorporated original; lead vocals by Kenny and Eric)
- “Rhythm of My Heart” (Rene Shuman covernote ; lead vocals by Kenny)note
Tropes associated with this episode:
- An Aesop: Here, the kids learn the hard way that running a business isn’t as easy as it looked..
- "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: Eric and Kenny realize that they could have avoided the chaos they found themselves in had they recognized how hard Flip was working instead of assuming he didn’t do much work.
- Shout-Out: Haylie utters a cleaned-up version of Howard Beale’s “I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore” like from Network in frustration after dropping a set of boxes containing plates.
