Josh Runs Into Oprah

"I RAN OVER OPRAH!!!!!!"

―Josh Nichols

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Josh Runs Into Oprah
Season 4, Episode 1
Air date	September 24, 2006
Written by	Ethan Banville
Directed by	Roger Christiansen
Episode Guide
Previous: Dr. Phyllis Show (Season 3)	Next: Vicious Tiberius

Josh Runs into Oprah is the first episode of the fourth season of Drake & Josh.

Synopsis

Drake forgets that it is Josh's birthday. Realizing his mistake, Drake gets tickets for Josh to see Oprah Winfrey, Josh's idol, and a backstage pass to the show.

Plot

In the opening intro, Josh talks about how Drake gets him into a lot of problems. Drake thinks Josh has bad luck and Josh just always blames him. Drake elaborates on how he feels Josh should, at least, appreciate him for the nice things he does for Josh, including "fixing" his lamp. However, the lamp actually shocks Josh when he turns it on and shocks him non-stop till he falls.

It is Josh's birthday, and Craig and Eric walk into the room and wake up Josh to sing to him. They asked Josh if he was able to get tickets to Oprah Winfrey's show, which Josh said he couldn't as tickets sold out quickly. Drake is already up and out of the shower and Josh tries to hint Drake a reminder that it's his birthday. Drake instead says he has a dry drool on his face then says he has a "special" day planned, which is just an outing to get some new free bongos and a lunch with his girlfriend, Tabitha, a girl he has been dating for five days. Despite that, Drake feels he is getting serious with her. Drake leaves, making Josh feel hurt that Drake forgot his birthday.

Later, Josh is wished a Happy Birthday by Megan, which surprised Josh that she remembered and told her that Drake forgot. Megan assured him that it is nothing personal and Drake's head is like a black hole, as things gets sucked into his head and cannot come out. Megan then surprises Josh with a cake, which initially excites Josh but then accuse her of the cake being poisoned. Megan assures him that she would not do that on his birthday, however, when he blows out the candles, the cake blows up in his face. Megan is also playing with a virtual pet game lent by her friend who is away at camp. They overhear Drake upstairs playing with his new bongos and Josh goes up to confront him for forgetting.

Josh gets into the bedroom and walks in on Drake conversing with Trevor over the phone about a surprise planned later tonight, thinking it is for him. Drake, not knowing Josh overheard, asked if Josh is free and invites him to come to The Premiere at 8, exciting Josh. However, when Josh arrived and thanks everyone for coming and Drake for setting up the party, Drake tells everyone to hide, including Josh. The party turned out to be for Tabitha, much to Josh's disappointment. Josh angrily goes home, and Drake realized he forgot when Helen showed up to give Josh his birthday present. Josh is home and annoyed by Megan's virtual pet game asks she turn it off. Megan refuses because the virtual dog, Toby will die and her friend Jamie will never speak to her again. Josh angrily tells her off saying who cares as people just suck and Megan wonders what got him in such a bad mood. Josh vents that Drake forgets his birthday but remembers the birthday of a girlfriend he knew for only 5 days and Megan responds with just making Josh feel worse. Meanwhile, Drake realizing his mistake, comes home to surprise Josh with tickets to see Oprah with backstage passes to the show.

The next day, the brothers arrive at the studio. When Josh exaggerates about parking a distance away and parking elsewhere near the entrance to prevent sweating, Drake causes Josh to run into Oprah after fighting over the steering wheel. When they get to the hospital to apologize, they can't get past security so Drake tricks them and the whole hospital into believing that Josh has a contagious virus, which in return, causes him to get a chemical bath. Josh comes home all burned in the skin to which an oblivious Drake casually greets him. Josh ragefully tells Drake off and calls him out for his selfishness and that Drake cannot even bother making it up to Josh as it always gets Josh in emotional and physical distress. Josh then leaves tearing Drake's bongos.

In the end, Drake makes it up to an enraged Josh by throwing him a party, then presenting Josh with an autograph from Oprah (in reality a signed restraining order from Oprah) and a new motor scooter. Sadly enough, as Josh was trying out his new motor scooter, he ends up running over Helen just like he did with Oprah, only this time, he does actually run over someone himself.

During the end credits, Megan tells Toby to be quiet, and she ends up destroying it with a sledgehammer so she can sleep.

Cast

• Drake Bell as Drake Parker
• Josh Peck as Josh Nichols
• Miranda Cosgrove as Megan Parker
• Alec Medlock as Craig Ramirez
• Scott Halberstadt as Eric Blonowitz
• Yvette Nicole Brown as Helen Dubois
• Summer Bishil as Tabitha
• Unknown as Trevor (voice only)
• Ben Hermes as Bodyguard #1

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Transcript

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Trivia

• This is the first episode featuring Josh with a significant weight loss and is almost as skinny as Drake.
• Starting with this episode, new episodes have been moved from Saturday to Sunday night.
• Though mentioned, Audrey and Walter do not appear in this episode.
• The running gag of this episode is Drake continuously trying to make it up to Josh for a previous mishap that Josh was involved in but only leading into another mishap.
• Megan is nicer to Josh in this episode and makes him a cake for his birthday. Though she admits to making it explode, she says she would not deliberately poison him on his birthday. However, she does make him feel a little worse after he vents his anger with Drake to her.
• This is the only season premiere where Walter and Audrey do not appear.
• This is the first episode where Ethan Banville is credited as a writer.
• When the cinema is shown, one of the movies is "Hungry Girl", a series made by Dan Schneider's wife, Lisa Lillien-Schneider.
• This is the first episode where Josh has normal hair.
• This is the first episode of the second and current generation.
• The plot of this episode is similar to an episode of "The Simpsons Season 2 "Bart Gets Hit by a Car" when Mr. Burns accidentally runs over Bart with his luxury car.
• Helen received some form of karma by getting run over by Josh on the scooter at the end of the episode, for mistreating Josh.
• It was originally scripted for Josh to kiss Drake on the cheek. Josh Peck may have inadvertently kissed Drake Bell on the lips.
• Drake and Josh kiss for the third time in the series. The first time was in Smart Girl, when Drake kissed Josh on the cheek. The second episode was in We're Married? when Josh kissed Drake on the cheek twice for giving him a good idea.
• The way Drake said, "Did you just stun me?" to the bodyguard sounded similar to how Monica said, "Did you just flick me?" to Rachel in "The One After the Super Bowl, Part 1" from Friends.
• This is the second time Drake desires to save Josh from something dangerous and harmful but is distracted by something he craves. The first time was in Theater Thug.
• The doctor that said Josh had a big head and that he needed a chemical bath was the same doctor who helped Zeke Braxton in Football.
• When he comes home from the chemical bath, Josh's skin is slightly tinged with orange.
• The clip of Drake playing the bongos from this episode appears in the Season 4 opening, as well as the clip of them hitting Oprah.
• A (now defunct) Borders Bookstore is seen when Drake and Josh are driving.
• The “Radcliff Studios” parking lot is really the Nickelodeon on Sunset parking lot.
• Although Josh does not get to meet Oprah, he does get her autograph at the end of the episode via a restraining order.
• Josh Nichols was in jail for stalking Oprah Kirk said in FOX's Grandfathered episode The Biter, so it is likely that he violated his restraining order.
• This episode is only Josh (the character's) birthday, which is September 24, Josh Peck's actual birthday is November 10.
• When Josh accidentally hits Oprah, he also accidentally hits Helen with the scooter Drake got him for his birthday at the end of the episode. It seems that Josh hit 2 people in this episode.
• When Drake comes into him and Josh's bedroom after his shower, his spiky hair is kind of back again from Season 1 except it's because he's a little wet.
• The idea of Josh obsessing over Oprah came from a small internet animated series known as "The Other Ones" by Jcomix98.
• This episode is called "Josh Runs Into Oprah", the name of it could also be known as "Josh's Birthday".
• Drake asks Josh "K what up with the 'tude?", it actually means "K what up with the attitude?".
• This is the first episode Drake is back to having his bowl cut hair again from Season 2 and Josh with his Season 1 and 2 hairstyles again.
• This is the first episode in which Josh doesn't have his long curly hair anymore.
• There aren't any episodes about Drake's birthday.
• Zero Gravity's 'Over My Thumb' is a reference to the Rolling Stones' 'Under My Thumb' released in 1966.
• This is the first episode that has a widescreen version. Seasons 2 and 3 were filmed in widescreen but mastered in 4:3 only.
  • Season 1, however, was filmed in 4:3.
• Josh kissing Drake is cut out in some countries.
• It is unknown what happened to the scooter after this episode as it never seen or mentioned again. It could have likely been sold to cover Helen's injury or Walter demanded it returned since it was charged on his credit card by Drake without permission.
• The opening sequence features new scenes of Drake performing the theme song in a foggy concert.
• Moral:
  • Always keep a distance from a celebrity unless they will give permission to do so.

Goofs

• Despite the episode premise, Oprah Winfrey does not play herself in this episode. Likely they could not get the real Oprah to appear in the episode.
• In the beginning of the episode, Craig and Eric sing "Happy Birthday" to Josh, followed by an argument between the two, at one point where Eric says to Craig "You want a pop on the chop?!", implying that he wants to start a physical fight, but in the episode Eric Punches Drake, it is revealed that Eric is a pacifist, someone who refuses to fight or start a fight. Maybe that was just sarcasm.
• A crack used to split the bongos apart can be seen before Drake breaks them.
• In the episode, Paging Dr. Drake, Josh says he's afraid of hospitals, but he appears in a hospital in this episode without being afraid by any means. Maybe he's only afraid if he goes due to an illness or injury he might have.
• When Josh hears Drake talking on the phone about the surprise, Trevor says he will come to the party. But when they are at the party, Trevor is not there. And even if he was there, he would be talking to Drake since they are best friends. It can be likely that Trevor later called saying he was unable to make it or maybe he did come probably just to stay for the set up although Drake said to come to the movie theater early.
• Josh says that Drake has been dating Tabitha since Tuesday however at Josh's supposed birthday party at the Premiere he says to Helen that he has known her for five days. However, if Drake started dating Tabitha on Tuesday, it was four days not five.
• The police officers were seen at the scene of Oprah's injury, but oddly, when Josh was being attacked by a bunch of women, the officers who saw it happen didn't do anything to stop the attack and arrest them. So, in reality, they could get fired for neglecting to save Josh from being attacked. However, if you look closely in the background, you can see that one of the police officers pulled out a walkie talkie and talked into it while looking. So, it's highly likely that they were trying to intervene but needed more backup and the police did stop the fight sometime after the scene ended.
  • Also, if they would have been stopped and arrested, they could be charged for assaulting a minor (Josh).
• Josh would've needed to have his signature in order to acknowledge the restraining order.
  • Also, it’s currently unknown what happened to the restraining order after it expired sometime after the episode.

• Drake and Josh were tased by stun guns and wouldn't have been able to recover as quickly as they did.
• After Josh breaks Drake's bongos, he walks out of the room, and he walks normally. But, when he walks into the room, he walks oddly, because he was bathed in acid. However, it's likely that the pain from the acid wore off.
• This episode is called "Josh Runs Into Oprah" but Drake was with him when they ran over Oprah with the car and Drake made Josh hit her so this episode should really be called "Drake and Josh Run Over Oprah".
• Josh says Drake forgot his birthday but didn't tell him. In the scene where Drake gives him tickets to see Oprah and for Josh to change his attitude right away, it's his birthday. In the next scene where Drake and Josh arrive at Radcliff Studios and accidentally run over Oprah, Josh mentions it's still his birthday and that he's having the worst birthday ever. At the end of the episode, Drake plans a surprise party for him at The Premiere where he had his girlfriend's birthday party. It's impossible how he has his birthday for the whole entire episode when the days change every scene. However, the whole episode may have been referring to those birthdays as a belated birthday.
• In the intro, Josh says he does not have bad luck, but he did have bad luck in previous episodes.
  • However, in "Mean Teacher" and “Josh Is Done”, he has good luck in most of the episode.
• Technically viruses cannot "eat your flesh". All flesh-eating diseases are bacterial.
• Megan destroys Janie's virtual pet game, but in later episodes, the two are still shown to be friends, it's very unlikely the two would resume their friendship since small consoles like that are expensive.
• Drake gets Josh a new motor scooter for his birthday, and when he tests it out, he accidentally hits Helen with it, it's unknown what happened to the scooter because Josh never had it in other episodes.
• Josh mentions that Drake used Walter's credit card to get him the scooter, it's unknown if Drake even asked Walter, so wouldn't Drake have gotten in trouble for using Walter's credit card without permission and if the scooter was expensive to get, how would Walter have paid it off if his credit card was overcharged after purchasing the expensive scooter like that?