The TIFF

### Starring the Voices of

Michael Benyaer, Kathleen Barr, Jesse Moss, Tony Jay, Shirley Millner, Michael Donovan, Phil Hayes, Garry Chalk

### Game(s)

*Starship Alcatraz*

"The TIFF" is the fifth episode of Season 1 of *ReBoot,* and the fifth episode overall. It originally aired on November 11, 1994 on ABC and November 26, 1994 on YTV.

## DVD Log Line

An argument leads Dot and Bob to break off their friendship, but Enzo is determined to get them back together. —*ReBoot: The Definitive Mainframe Edition*

## Synopsis

Dot is waiting in the Diner for Bob to fetch Enzo from ~~memory~~ school. They arrive late because they stopped off to do some circuit racing. Dot's entire schedule, including taking Enzo to his Ancient Language class, has been thrown off as a result. This leads to an argument between Dot and Bob, who is in favour of a less structured approach to life. Enzo tries to make peace between them, but Bob storms out, vowing not to return, which Dot declares is fine with her.

Enzo vidwindows Bob while the latter is working on his car, and tries to persuade him to return to the Diner. Bob refuses to budge, claiming to have "so much going on that I don't know where I'm gonna find the time to get it all done." In fact, he is seen sitting around his apartment, extremely bored.

In the Diner, Dot is similarly resistant to Enzo's pleas to make up with Bob. A tear bursts out of a piece of equipment; Enzo says they should call Bob, but Dot insists she can handle it herself and tries to push the tear outside with a stool, causing it to explode instead. Enzo decides that reconciling Bob and Dot is now urgent.

Enzo, at the head of a group of similarly worried sprites, goes to Phong for advice. Mike the TV increases everyone's concerns by suggesting that Bob might leave Mainframe entirely. Phong tells them that "broken friendship is best mended by tragedy or apology." Enzo has an idea.

Bob, working on his car again, receives another vidwindow from Enzo, who says that Megabyte has captured him and is holding him hostage at Pearson's Data Dump. Bob promises to come rescue him. As the call ends, we see that the whole thing was staged and is being directed by Dino De Horrendous. They make a similar call to Dot, who is likewise taken in.

Enzo has the "viral" binomes tie him to a conveyor belt leading to an incinerator (more like an outright vaporizer, actually), for a properly melodramatic rescue. Bob and Dot arrive, the binomes start the conveyor belt, and Enzo starts calling for help. Dot and Bob encounter each other before reaching him, and get so caught up in arguing that they neglect to actually rescue him, forcing Frisket to do it instead.

"Tragedy" having failed, Enzo tries for "apology" next. Bob and Dot both receive hologram greeting cards, purportedly from each other, apologizing and asking to meet in Floating Point Park.

(to be continued)

## Computer References

* TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) is a raster image format.
* First National Databank: A databank is a repository of information on one or more subjects, organized to facilitate retrieval for the purpose of numerous and frequent queries.
* Fiche & Chips Industries: "Fiche" is short for microfiche, a document reproduction medium. Chips, as usual, are of the integrated circuit variety.
* "Daisy wheels" refers to a type of impact printer which was common before the more versatile dot matrix printers.
* COBOL (Common Business-Oriented Language): a programming language designed in 1959.
* Fortran: a programming language developed by IBM in the 1950s.

## Cultural References

* Holomark refers to Hallmark greeting cards, and "When you care enough to project the very best" is a parody of their slogan, "When you care enough to send the very best."

## Trivia

* The episode itself presents the title in all caps, and both the clapboard gag (see below) and the Season 1 press pack capitalize it as "The Tiff". However, the fandom has generally favoured "The TIFF", which is how it is capitalized by Shout!Factory, on the grounds that this is ReBoot and the more blatant the pun, the better.
* The line graph behind Dot at the beginning is labelled "MICRO-CHIP BUDDY STATISTICS".
* That binome is still in the jukebox. At least he seems to be enjoying himself?
* The group of sprites who go to see Phong includes Al's Waiter, Dino De Horrendous and his camera crew, Jean-Luc, numerals 5, 7, and 8, and a data sprite with the Rasta Mon model (although this one is purple, whereas the one in "Quick and the Fed" was crimson).
* **Production number gag:**      9404 (the 4th episode produced in 1994) can be seen on the clapboard, along with the episode title, the name Phil (Mitchell, presumably), and a joke on the acronym WYSIWYG, "what you see is what you get."

## External Links

* episode at Shout!Factory TV
* Québécois episode on YouTube
* French episode on YouTube