"Cocoon Gables" is the 3rd episode of the second season of Pepper Ann. It aired on September 19, 1998.
Synopsis
Pepper Ann is assigned to volunteer at Cocoon Gables, a retirement home, and learns a lesson in age discrimination and respecting one's elders.
Plot
Pepper Ann wakes up early for school, much to Lydia's confusion, and reveals that for her social studies class, she needs to pick a weekend assignment. Not wanting to get stuck with picking up glass like last time, Pepper Ann rushes to school, but encounters geriatrics who slow down her progress. She eventually makes it to school, but is forced to take the only remaining job: working at Cocoon Gables Retirement Home. She asks Mr. Finky if she can get another assignment, but he turns her down; warning her that if she does not fulfill her obligation she will immediately get an F.
Pepper Ann caters to the elders, many of whom she had encountered earlier, and begins to look down on all of them and refuses to listen to anything they do. After a rough day, she goes to the pizzeria with Milo and Nicky and complains about how the elders whine and do not listen to her, ironically what she is doing. Nicky accuses her of being ageist, but she denies this, only to get mistreated the same way by everyone around her. Pepper Ann returns home to learn that Lydia hired a babysitter and comes to realize that this is how she had been treating the elderly, though Lydia says it is not because of her age, but because she filled the sink with cheesy spray.
With a newfound appreciation, Pepper Ann returns to Cocoon Gables, this time allowing the elders to do whatever they want and even takes them out to cool places so that they can have fun. At the end of the day, she tells Milicent, who was running the place, that she should respect elders. Back at home, Pepper Ann tells her mom what she learned, only for her grandparents Leo and Lillian to arrive with their constant nagging and ignorance and completely shatter her zen on elders, however Lydia assures Pepper Ann that they have always been that way and age has nothing to do with it.
Cast
- Kathleen Wilhoite as Pepper Ann Pearson
- Jeff Bennett as Grandpa Leo
- Danny Cooksey as Milo Kamalani
- Clea Lewis as Nicky Little
- April Winchell as Lydia Pearson, Milicent the Militant, Grandma Lillian
- Jess Harnell as Abe
- Don Lake as Sherman Finky
- Candi Milo as Rose
- Isabel Sanford as Bernice
Desk Gag
"All right, kiwi lip balm!"
Trivia
- The name of the retirement home, Cocoon Gables, is a reference to the movie Cocoon, about a group of geriatrics who become youthful after swimming in a pool that is affected by alien technology.
- Pepper Ann's fantasy of going to Geriatric Park, full of dinosaurs who resemble the elderly, is a reference to the movie Jurassic Park.
External links
