Hug N' Bugs

### Also

Violet, Wayne, Jesus, Mayor Webb, Charles, Jimmy, Randy, Brenda, Leonard, Linda, Norma, Binh Ly, Bobbie-Nell

## Broadcast Details

### Premiered

September 29, 2019

"**Hug N' Bugs**" is the broadcast premiere episode of *Bless the Harts*.

## Plot

Jenny discovers a secret of Betty's that may help her pay off the family’s overdue bills. Meanwhile, Wayne, Jenny's boyfriend, is hurt when he discovers that Jenny's daughter Violet is featuring her biological father in her comics. Wayne is determined to show how much he cares about Violet by building her the treehouse of her dreams.

## Full Story

Norma tells Jenny that her water bill is due in 3 days. As Jenny goes through the bills, her mother Betty tells her to come in and see a "me-me". Jenny corrects her and tells her it's a meme, when she questions the storage bill she saw earlier. Betty tells Jenny that she has a storage unit there, and Jenny threatens to remove it because the water in the house is going to get shut down. But Betty says Jenny can't do anything without the key.

Violet's room is full of the family stuff as Wayne, Jenny's boyfriend, comes in and does the laundry, since the laundry was broken at his place. While he's waiting, he sees Violet drawing and asks her what the drawings symbolize. Wayne is shown as a tree stump. Thinking in his head, he sets off to be a better father figure to Violet. He sees a picture of a building of Violet's drawings, which Violet says is called Fort Indigo.

Jenny finds the key while going through some stuff and heads down to the storage unit, where she finds out that there are a lot of old toys called Hug N' Bugs that swept the nation 20 years ago. She then calls her mother, who says they can make tons of money selling these. At the Last Supper, Brenda warns Jenny to be mindful of reflections, as when she sold something on Craiglist, everyone saw her rear end. Jenny's figment of imagination Jesus comes out of the painting and Jenny tells him that she's gonna make cash from selling the leftover toys to pay the water bill. Jesus tells her that's a fad, but when they're talking, EYay (a parody of Ebay) notifies Jenny that her toy sold for $150.

As Jenny keeps racking up EYay sales on the toys, the toys keep coming back because Betty keeps buying them back, setting them back to nowhere. At this point, their water gets shut off. They both go down to the water district to try to sell them a Hug N' Bug toy, when the employee says they will never sell for that price.

Wayne and his friend Leonard finish a building and show VIolet it is Fort Indigo. Amazed, she goes inside to get her stuff, eager to move in. While she's gone, a building inspector tells Wayne the building has to come down at the end of the week because it violates many codes. He goes to the city hall to try to get a permit, but Mayor Webb denies it. Wayne tells Violet it has to come down and apologizes, but Violet tells Wayne that he didn't finish looking at all her visuals and that Fort Indigo explodes at the end of her story, revealing that the stump shows the girl (a caricacture of Violet) her way home. When Betty goes next door to try to trade a toy for 10 minutes of water, Wayne tells her to tell the neighbor not to smoke around the toys beause they will explode, which gives Violet an idea.

Jenny and Betty insert the highly flammable toys that were worthless to destroy Fort Indigo, but Jenny sells a toy on EYay at that moment, a Colin Powell Hug N' Bug. Wayne rushes into the fire to save the toy and succeeds. Jenny asks Betty if she bought the toy, which she did not. The family gets their water back on and Jenny thanks whoever bought the toy. The collector, Colin Powell himself, is shown putting Betty's toy on his collectors shelf.

## Notes/Trivia

* This was the first episode to air despite being the third produced.
* The episode got 1.8 million views on FOX on airdate.
* This episode was screened on September 26, 2019, at a Fox Animation Domination drive-in screening in the parking lot at The Grove, Los Angeles ahead of its broadcast premiere on September 29, 2019.
* Hug N' Bugs is an obvious reference to Beanie Babies and Funko Pops.
* Because the copyright on this episode was filed before the incorporation of the new Fox Corporation, the copyright stated on this episode (and the next four episodes in production order) at the end credits is only "Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation". Starting with "Pig Trouble in Little Greenpoint", "Fox Media, LLC" on the credits is added as a second copyright holder. According to the Catalog of Copyright Entries, Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation owns half and Fox owns half of *Bless the Harts* regardless what the original credits said, thus Fox and 20th had to recopyright the first 5 episodes again in November 2019 to reflect this change (they were going to do it for a DVD release anyways).
* Though each future episode has the 2019 20th Century Fox Television fanfare, this episode has the adbridged 1997 TCFTV fanfare first seen on *American Dad!* episodes dating back to 2005. This fanfare is still used on *American Dad!* episodes in 2020.

## References

1. ↑ https://www.eventbrite.com/e/foxs-animation-domination-drive-in-screening-tickets-73042898275

## External links

* "Hug N' Bugs" press release via The Futon Critic
* "Hug N' Bugs" at the US Copyright Database
* "Hug N' Bugs" on IMDb
* "Hug N' Bugs" script via TV Show Transcripts