A Plot: After watching their favorite movie, Dirty Dancing, Erica and Beverly are determined to give the next school dance a Dirty Dancing theme. When Erica makes her case to Principal Ball, however, he strictly forbids it, and insists the dance be a 1950s-themed "soda pop hop" – that is, until he sees Beverly leering through his office window, and he caves to avoid a confrontation with her.
B Plot: Barry is equally determined to have a Footloose theme, insisting that it's a much better dance movie than Dirty Dancing.
C Plot: Murray, who has long resisted dancing, is convinced by Pops that he should try to learn for the sake of Beverly's happiness.
- Accidental Public Confession: When Beverly realizes how much "grinding" would go on in a Dirty Dancing-themed school dance, she backs off from her support and tries to secretly get Principal Ball to call it off. Unfortunately, Principal Ball has left the PA system on, broadcasting their discussion to the whole school.
- Angry Dance: Barry encourages Erica to do one like on Footloose, and demonstrates by doing the warehouse dance in the school gym.
- The Dog Bites Back: Principal Ball implies he left the PA system on purposely, to get back at the Goldbergs for constantly harassing him to get their way.
- Failure Montage: Adam convinces Murray that he can get out of high-movement dancing if he can just do "the lift" move from Dirty Dancing, and they practice in a pool, leading to one of these.
- Let Us Never Speak of This Again: Murray dances in private, taping himself with Adam's camera, to raise his confidence. When he shows the tape to Pops, he's asked to burn it, and Adam acts mentally scarred when he walks in and sees it.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Cut the "My God", and Beverly states this phrase when she sees the JTP getting excited to dance dirty and grind their bodies with ladies at the dance.
- Performance Anxiety: Murray admits to Pops that this is the main reason he doesn't dance in public. He tries to overcome it by taping himself dancing to see how he looks, only for Pops and Adam to act horrified when they see it.
- Whole-Plot Reference: To both Dirty Dancing and Footloose, as Erica and Barry fight over which movie to use as the theme for the school dance; the dance being temporarily cancelled is a specific reference to Footloose.
