The Venture Bros./Careers in Science

Careers in Science
Season 1, Episode 2
Airdate	August 14, 2004
Production Number	102
Written by	Doc Hammer Ben Edlund (story)
Directed by	Jackson Publick
← 1x01 Dia de los Dangerous	1x03 → Home Insecurity
The Venture Bros. — Season One

Careers in Science is the second episode of the first season of The Venture Bros., and the third episode overall.

Guest Stars: Christopher McCulloch (Filmstrip Narrator), Terrance Fleming (Col. Bud Manstrong), Nina Hellman (Lt. Anna Baldavitch, Woman on Cell Phone)

Plot Overview

Brock, Dr. Venture and the Boys head out to his father's old space station, Gargantua 1, to fix a mysterious "Problem" light that that has lit. Once on the station its resident astronauts give a status update and also pass along a ghost story to Hank and Dean.

Arc Advancement

Happenings

• Dr. Venture is summoned up to Gargantua 1 to repair a problem. The nature of the problem is completely non-obvious until Dr. Venture finds a melted plastic figurine on some of the wiring. He removes the figure, fixing the problem.

• Dr. Venture leaves a spacesuit soaked in his own urine (he thought it had a waste-collection pouch when it did not) on one of the consoles onboard Gargantua 1. The urine drips into the circuitry, causing a problem.

• Hank and Dean spend their trip to Gargantua 1 in fear of "Phantom Spaceman". They meet no such ghost.

• Brock has sex with Lt. Baldavitch, making Col. Manstrong jealous. When Col. Manstrong tries to reconcile with Brock, he accidentally angers Brock and gets his ass kicked.

Characters

• Col. Bud Manstrong and Lt. Anna Baldavitch have been alone aboard Gargantua 1 for six years. In that time, Col. Manstrong has fallen completely in love with Lt. Baldavitch, but has not made any advances past hand-holding with her. She is frustrated.

• This is the first time we see Dr. Jonas Venture, though merely as one of Thaddeus Venture's hallucinations. It appears that the younger Venture did not like his father very much.

• Dr. Venture's nickname as a kid was "Rusty". He stopped using the name in college.

Trivia

Behind the Scenes

• This episode is co-outlined by Ben Edlund, creator of The Tick, a show Jackson Publick wrote a large portion of. Edlund was originally supposed to write this episode with Doc Hammer, but after production delays, he had to return to Fox to write a pilot and later Point Pleasant and The Inside.

Allusions and References

• Sharky's Machine: When Col. Manstrong tells the story of Phantom Spaceman, he mentions that the crew's final movie night featured the film Sharky's Machine starring Burt Reynolds. Sharky's Machine is a 1981 movie about a cop investigating the murder of a prostitute. The "machine" mentioned in the title refers to Sharky's web of allies and contacts that he used to assist with the investigation.

• Skylab: Dr. Venture sarcastically remarks that Gargantua 1 should have fallen out of orbit like Skylab did. Skylab was the United States' very first space station, launched in 1973 and in use through 1974. The station suffered heavy damage at launch, losing the station's micrometeoroid shield/sun shade and one of its main solar panels. Though major repairs were undertaken during the first Skylab mission, increased solar activity caused the station to reenter Earth's atmosphere in 1979, where it crashed down in Western Australia.

• The Smurfs: Col. Manstrong asks Lt. Baldavitch if Brock has a Smurf living in his penis. The Smurfs were a species of small blue creatures that lived inside giant mushrooms deep in the forest. They first appeared in a Belgian comic strip but were later popularized via an animated series produced by Hanna-Barbera.

• Mr. Mouth: Col. Manstrong tells Brock that Lt. Baldavitch's father invented the Mr. Mouth game. Mr. Mouth was a game manufactured by Milton Bradley consisting of a plastic frog head that opened and closed at regular intervals. The frog head was on a platform with four spokes attached. Each spoke had a small spring-based catapult on it. Players would place small plastic flies on the flippers and attempt to launch them into the frog's mouth. The player who got the most flies in the mouth was the winner.