A Plot: Beverly and Mr. Glascott conspire to turn a traditional Quaker ceremony sending off the senior graduates into a Fame-inspired celebration, with Adam as the director.
B Plot: Erica and Geoff worry that they've become boring and disconnected from their party-attending college peers, so they seek Barry and Joanne's help to be cool again.
- Blood Sport: Invoked. When it's unclear who will run the school while Principal Ball is out, Coach Nick suggests they "Thunderdome" for it.
- The Bore: Barry and Joanne think being engaged has made Erica and Geoff boring, and are missing the real college experience. Erica and Geoff try to prove them wrong and find another engaged couple on campus. Unfortunately, the one engaged couple they find, Trip and Dawn (or "Drip and Yawn", as Joanne calls them), turn out to be boring as hell.
- Embarrassment Plot: Although they vastly improve their dancing skills thanks to Adam, the school staff still decide to resist Beverly's plans because Mr. Glascott overheard some students ridiculing their celebration idea and they don't want to publicly humiliate themselves. They only come around when Adam states it would've shown how much they cared about their students
- Not So Above It All: When the school staff decides to go through with the Fame celebration and start dancing outside of the school, the seniors contemplate openly mocking it like they said they would, but are more interested in joining in and sharing the fun.
- Saw Star Wars 27 Times: Mr. Glascott has seen Fame 18 times. The ticket girl at the theater thinks he's mentally unstable.
- Spontaneous Choreography: Two famous examples from Fame are parodied.
- The Goldbergs do their own version of the "Hot Lunch" scene; Bev and Glascott's attempt to do the same at the teachers lounge results in Principal Ball breaking his hip.
- In the end, the teachers attempt to do the climactic rendition of the title song sequence, dancing on top of cars as best they can. Even Ball, still in crutches, does his best to join in.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: It turns out that Erica and Geoff are fine with themselves being boring, but they're worried that they're dragging down their partner; Erica because she isn't the popular musician that Geoff initially courted, and Geoff because he assumes Erica wants to still be a popular musician but can't because of him. When the Wild Teen Party gets out of hand, they take a moment to clear things up with each other, and agree that they both prefer a more domestic lifestyle.
- Wild Teen Party: Thanks to Barry and Joanne's goading, Erica and Geoff end up hosting one of these at their apartment, with events such as someone trying to sell Geoff's clothing to other people and someone else throwing their couch out of a window.
- You Are in Command Now: While trying to put on a performance for the other teachers and convince them to do something more theatrical, Mr. Glascott accidentally injures Principal Ball; combined with the Vice Principal's absence, the school charter states that the next in succession is...the Quaker Warden, AKA Beverly, allowing her to go through with her Fame plans. In The Tag, Ball amends the charter to make sure that Beverly can never take charge again, putting everyone from a one-armed crossing guard to the eighth grade valedictorian in line before her.
