Elroy comes home from a scout meeting which didn't go over well, mainly due to their substitute scout leader. Elroy needs help learning to tie knots so Jane decides it would be alright to bother George at work about it, since he himself was a space scout many a year ago. So they bug George, Elroy asks if he'll be scout leader, or big buddy, for their upcoming camping trip to the moon. George vehemently declines and goes back to working up the courage to ask Spacely for some vacation time. Speak of the devil, Mr. Spacely comes in and asks George to be scout leader to his son Arthur's troop, 54. Same as Elroy's. Finding he had little choice in the matter, George reluctantly accepts and so on Saturday, they board a fast and furious shuttle to the moon to start their camping trip. Once there, they hop to the campsite and George assigns everyone a buddy, and gets Arthur Spacely for his. They hike to a crater where one of the boys falls in, and they soon find themselves lost. Worse yet, Arthur has separated from his big buddy, so the big doofus goes looking for him. He finds Arthur, but at the same time finds them both lost. They go back looking for the other boys, but find them gone too. Apparently they had found a way back to camp and even tore up the map in little pieces to follow, rather than just leave them the whole map with what direction they've taken written on it, or just leave them footprints to follow. Anyway, they don't get far because a surly garbage man vacuums up the remaining pieces. George decides to build a large, signal fire. So he commits an act of vandalism by stealing signs to burn, but finds that you can't start a fire without oxygen, something you won't find on the moon. Luckily, Arthur came prepared, like a good scout should. He fires a skywriting flare into the air, which even comes equipped with a spell checker! News of Arthur and George going missing quickly reaches Mr. Spacely and Jane. Spacely doesn't mind being insensitive and berating George in front of a grieving Jane. But all is not lost. The moon park ranger phones them to say George and Arthur have been found. Spacely commends George for his efforts and gives him a vacation. Jane has already packed beforehand, because the wife (and mother) of a space scout is always prepared.
Good episode. The first time we see RUDI, who would reappear off and on in the 1980s reboot. There are many flaws in the writing, but it's still a decent script for what it is. Spelling out HEPL instead of HELP is priceless, as was the 'getting lost without a license' bit. Check it out. One more thing, I love the artwork on the video box: it shows George, Elroy and Astro in the woods, having been chased up a tree by a bear. Yeah, because that totally happened in the episode, right? Then again, just a picture of George and Arthur all alone on a barren moon would've looked pretty dull.
Good episode. The first time we see RUDI, who would reappear off and on in the 1980s reboot. There are many flaws in the writing, but it's still a decent script for what it is. Spelling out HEPL instead of HELP is priceless, as was the 'getting lost without a license' bit. Check it out. One more thing, I love the artwork on the video box: it shows George, Elroy and Astro in the woods, having been chased up a tree by a bear. Yeah, because that totally happened in the episode, right? Then again, just a picture of George and Arthur all alone on a barren moon would've looked pretty dull.
