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"The Way They Were" is the fifty-second episode of Pepper Ann. It aired on February 27, 2000.

Synopsis[]

Milo, Nicky, and Pepper Ann's latest argument causes the three to split up, while flashbacks show how the trio met up in the first place.

Plot[]

One day at school, Nicky pokes fun at Milo and Pepper Ann's failed science project, Milo makes some rather crude art of Pepper Ann and Nicky, and Pepper Ann has Milo and Nicky take part in a fundraising project that ends in disaster and gets all three of them in trouble. They argue at the Greezy 'n' Cheezy until they decide to end their friendship. Lydia is shocked to hear this as they have been friends for seven years since they moved back to Hazelnut. Throughout the episode, everyone wonders about their friendship as flashbacks set up their history.

Seven years ago, Pepper Ann and very pregnant Lydia arrive in Hazelnut and move into the duplex with Janie, still in her hippie phase, Jo Jo who has just entered the police force and their son Ned. After an encounter with Trinket and Cissy, Pepper Ann exclaims that she hates Hazelnut. In Kindergarten, Pepper Ann first meets Hickey, not yet a principal, before meeting a smartly dressed and calmer Milo who is always hiding and reading. She also meets Nicky, who wears a beanie and bullies the other kids, specifically Milo whom she loves to target.

When Lydia goes to the doctor, Pepper Ann runs away with Milo, but they run into Nicky. The girls get into an argument about their siblings and they go to Nicky's house where she realizes that her bullying is the result of pressure from her sister's success and asks that she go back down a grade. Nicky thanks them and gives her beanie to Milo who is empowered to be an artist. Lydia realizes that Pepper Ann ran away and goes into labor. Jo Jo finds them and Lydia gives birth with the help of Gerta Liederhosen, whose son Dieter, nicknames the baby Moose.

Back in the present, Pepper Ann, Milo and Nicky are called into Principal Hickey's office who knows that the incident was Pepper Ann's doing and orders her to be suspended. Milo and Nicky stand up for her, so Hickey suggests all three get suspended, but Pepper Ann defends them. Hickey finally gives them a janitorial punishment, with the three, now friends again, laughing it off as it is easily avoidable. In the last flashback, Pepper Ann and Nicky see Craig for the first time with Milo forced to drag them away.

Cast[]

Main cast[]

Additional voices[]

* Marks an uncredited voice role

Other appearances[]

  • Craig Bean (cameo in present; does not speak in flashback)
  • Alf (present only; cameo)
  • Cossie Van Tuttie (present only; cameo)
  • Crying Girl (present only; cameo)
  • Lamar Abu-Dabe (present only; cameo)
  • Timid Boy (present only; cameo)
  • Timmy (present only; cameo)
  • Alter Ego (flashback only)
  • Ned Diggity (flashback only; does not speak)
  • Clowny Appleseed (flashback only; cameo)
  • Gwen Mezzrow (flashback only; cameo)
  • Wayne Macabre (flashback only; cameo)
  • Chuck Pearson (mentioned in flashback)
  • Dr. Goldfarm (mentioned in flashback)
  • Lillian Lilly (mentioned in flashback)
  • Leo Lilly (mentioned in flashback)
  • Marie (mentioned in flashback)
  • Ms. Ford (mentioned in flashback)

Desk Gag[]

(holding a plushie of herself) "A mini me!"

Goofs[]

  • Early in the episode, Principal Hickey is briefly voiced by Jeff Bennett instead of Don Adams, presumably as a temp line.
  • During the exterior of Hazelnut Elementary School, 7th and 8th grade students can be seen entering the school.
  • When Moose's face is revealed following her birth, her teeth are miscolored pink (like Lydia's robe).

Trivia[]

General[]

  • Pamela Adlon is uncredited for her single line as Moose Pearson.
  • Vera, Mr. Carter, Ms. Stark, and Stuart are the only recurring characters to only appear in present day.
  • In the French dub, the movie that Nicky and Stuart watch is in English with French subtitles, and the angry theater patron and Nicky speak English instead; between the two dubs, there are a few notable changes.
    • Nicky calls the theater patron a "complainer" in her first line instead of when she retorts in English (where she calls him a little whiner" instead).
    • The Theater Patron's French subtitles don't match with his actual dialogue; he calls Nicky a "cheeky girl" instead of a stupid girl, as per the French dialogue and English subtitles.
    • Nicky's line is changed from "Ah, go climb the Eiffel Tower you little whiner!" to "Oh, leave me alone! Go and jump in the Eiffel!" with her subtitles roughly translating to "Leave me alone and get lost!"
  • Ned Diggity is oddly not present for Moose's birth.

Continuity[]

  • Going by production order, this episode would've been the series' introduction to Becky Little.
  • Being that the series is set in 1997-98, the flashbacks in this episode most likely occurred in 1990-91.
  • Nicky is revealed to have been a bully (albeit only briefly), and is shown with a tooth gap, in contrast to The Amazing Becky Little, which portrays her to be mild-mannered and nice.
    • "The Amazing Becky Little" was produced after this episode, so it's likely that the latter's flashback was meant to occur prior to the events of this episode's flashbacks.
  • In the episode's flashbacks:
    • Clowny Appleseed is revealed to have a daughter (Muffy), and at one point, was homeless.
    • Trinket is shown to be friends with Marie since kindergarten.
    • Lamar Abu-Dabe is shown pulling Constance's pigtails, implying that he used to be her bully.
    • Shelf McClain is shown to be cantankerous even as a kif, although ironically being upstaged by Nicky Little as the school bully. His strange "friendship" with Pink-Eye Pete is also foreshadowed.
    • Pete is shown to have pinkeye far before Pepper Ann arrived at Hazelnut, which contradicts a later flashback in "Dear Debby".
    • Ned inexplicably used to be friends with Wayne Macabre.
    • Dieter moved to America with his mother in accordance with an obstetrician exchange program.
    • Craig is similarly implied to be a new student, joining 1st grade after Nicky is assigned back to kindergarten, much to her chagrin.
  • It's revealed that Pepper Ann's love of Fuzzy comes from her cousin Ned and Aunt Janie; they gave his collection of Fuzzy comics to her as he was growing out of them.
    • Pepper Ann's use of "Fuzzy" as an exploitive also came from Aunt Janie.
  • This episode reveals that Milo got his hat from Nicky, although "Crunch Pod" and "The Sellout" imply that his current hat is not that same one, despite sharing the same design.
    • Milo gains his artistic personality after Nicky gave him her beanie. However, in "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Milo", he claims to have gotten inspired after visiting the supermarket with his mother and seeing the frozen foods section.
  • Moose's nickname was inspired by Dieter's affection for chocolate Mousse, which Aunt Janie had brought for Lydia during birth.
    • Said love for Mousse also influenced Dieter's sometimes-unhealthy admiration for American cuisine.

Allusions[]

  • The title of this episode is a twist on the title of the 1973 film The Way We Were.
  • Hickey's "ICE ICE" chain is a reference to the Vanilla Ice song, Ice Ice Baby.
  • Pepper Ann tells Milo and Nicky "this looks like the beginning of a beautiful friendship," a famous line spoken in Casablanca.
  • The funky disco music that plays during Craig's appearance in the ending is a homage to Yello's song Oh Yeah.

External links[]


v - e - d
Media
Pepper AnnPepper Ann Main ThemePepper Ann (song)
Characters
Pepper Ann PearsonAlter EgoNicky LittleMilo KamalaniMoose PearsonBecky LittleDieter LiederhosenTrinket St. BlairCissy RooneyTessa and Vanessa JamesPink-Eye PeteAlice KaneGwen MezzrowStuart WalldingerShelf McClainConstance GoldmanLamar Abu-DabeCraig BeanSketchCrashLydia PearsonChuck PearsonJanie DiggityJo Jo DiggityNed DiggityCrying GirlBrendaMean GirlEffie ShruggAbriola StarkCarlotta SneedRoland CarterCoach DooganBronte BladdarSherman FinkyVera Groober-SchwartzPrincipal HickeyHazelnutians
Episodes
Season 1: "Ziterella" • "Romeo & Juliet" / "Food Barn" • "Old Best Friend" / "Crunch Pod" • "Psychic Moose" / "Doll & Chain" • "Megablades of Grass" / "Family Vacation" • "Sani-Paper" / "The Big Pencil" • "Uniform, Uniformity" / "Snot Your Mother's Music" • "The Environ-Mentals" • "In Support of" / "Nicky Gone Bad" • "Soccer Season" / "Crush & Burn" • "Thanksgiving Dad" • "Have You Ever Been Unsupervised" / "The Unusual Suspects" • "Sketch 22" / "Manly Milo"

Season 2: "Quiz Bowl" / "License to Drive" • "Cocoon Gables" / "Green-Eyed Monster" • "Hazelnut's Finest" / "Cat Scan" • "An Otterbiography" / "Greensleeves" • "Vanessa Less Tessa" / "Peer Counselor P.A." • "A 'Tween Halloween" / "Mash into Me" • "Framed" / "Radio Freak Hazelnut" • "Presenting Stewart Waldinger" / "P.A.'s Life in a Nutshell" • "Like Riding a Bike" • "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Milo" / "The Sisterhood" • "Impractical Jokes" / "Cold Feet" • "Doppelganger Didi" / "Pepper Ann's Day Off-Kilter" • "A No Hair Day" / "That's My Dad"
Season 3: "Burn, Hazelnut, Burn" / "The Wash-Out" • "G.I. Janie" / "Miss Moose" • "Pepper Shaker" / "Flaw and Order" • "Def Comedy Mom" / "Career Daze" • "Baggy Bean Buddies" / "The Spanish Imposition" • "The Beans of Wrath" / "Effie Shrugged" • "The Velvet Room" • "One Angry Woman" • "The Sellout" / "The Tell Tale Fuzzy" • "Dances with Ignorance" / "Girl Power" • "Sammy's Song" / "Permanent Record" • "Live and Let Dye" • "Remote Possibilities" / "Considering Constance" • "You Oughta Be in Musicals!" • "Beyond Good and Evel" / "One of the Guys" • "The First Date Club" / "Unicycle of Life" • "To Germany with Love" • "A Valentine's Day Tune" • "Bye Bye Trinket" / "P.A.'s Pop Fly" • "My Mother, Myself" • "The Amazing Becky Little" • "A Kosher Christmas" • "The Untitled Milo Kamalani Project" / "Guess Who's Coming to the Theater" • "Single Unemployed Mother" / "Mom Knows What P.A. Did Two Nights Ago" • "The Great Beyond" / "Jaybirds of a Feather" • "The Way They Were"
Season 4: "The One with Mr. Reason" / "Sense and Senselessness" • "Dear Debby" / "Reality Bytes" • "Complimentary Colors" • "Searching for Pepper Ann Pearson" / "Forging Ahead" • "Carmello" / "Too Cool to Be Mom" • "The Word" / "The Perfect Couple" • "The Merry Lives of Pepper Ann" • "Strike it or Not" / "Moose in Love" • "Two's Company" / "A is for Average" • "That's My Mama Destructo" / "Unhappy Campers" • "The Finale" • "Spice of Life" / "Alice Kane Went Down to Calcutta" • "T.G.I.F." / "Zen and the Art of Milo"

Locations
Hazelnut Middle SchoolPepper Ann's House
See also
House of Mouse