HAPPY ENDINGS: DAVE OF THE DEAD (TV)
Summary
One in this comedy series about six Chicago friends trying to keep their group together after a romantic upheaval.
While watching a zombie horror film, Brad, Max, Jane, and Dave get into an argument about their potential survivability in the event of a zombie apocalypse. Max and Jane become particularly competitive with each other and engage in various physical competitions to determine their ability to fend off hypothetical zombies. Penny meets a guy named Toby at the laundromat and they hit it off. He invites her to get coffee with him and she accepts. Dave becomes concerned when Brad and Max refer to him as “zombie-like,” referencing his life’s seemingly endless routine and lack of ambition. Penny gets along with Toby immediately; Max believes him to be a hipster based on his choice of clothing, although Penny disagrees. Dave becomes so frustrated with his life that he decides he wants to quit his job and open his own restaurant, although Brad and Max believe this is a hasty and unwise decision. However, they elect not to say anything about it to him, not wishing to hurt his feelings; Brad says he will talk some sense into Dave at some point.
Penny insists that she is having fun with Toby, although Max believes she is deluding herself. Nevertheless he “coaches” her on how to appear and act like a hipster so that she can better appeal to Toby. Max manages to “beat” Jane in a contest to see who can sit still the longest as part of their ongoing zombie-based competition. Toby takes Penny out on a date and introduces her to his hipster friends. Penny does her best to fit in with them. Dave puts on a sample presentation about his idea for “Pangaea Grill,” a restaurant purporting to have dishes from every conceivable ethnic group on its menu. He claims he has a meeting set up with an investor and is quite enthusiastic about the project. Brad reveals that he couldn’t bring himself to warn Dave off of the idea, since working on the restaurant idea has made him extremely happy. No one else can muster the courage necessary to tell Dave about the faults in his ideas. Penny becomes further entangled in the hipster lifestyle despite her friends warning her not to pursue it.
Dave’s meeting with the investor goes poorly, as he feels that his restaurant idea is terrible. Undaunted, Dave plans to pursue unorthodox methods of acquiring capital for his restaurant. His friends try to subtly tell him about the flaws in his plan, but they inadvertently hurt Dave’s feelings and he leaves. Finally Alex takes it upon herself to speak frankly with Dave, and pleads with him to adopt a more “reasonable” approach to his restaurant idea. She advises him to focus the menu of his restaurant to foods that he is more familiar and comfortable with, such as starting with a small sandwich shop. She gives back the wedding ring he gave her and says he can sell it to help finance his restaurant. He appreciates this gesture and thanks her. Penny brings everyone to a hipster party attended by Toby and his associates. Once they enter she gets into an argument about their costume choices with the other hipsters in attendance. Penny becomes frustrated and argues that “actually liking things” is enjoyable, rather than their penchant for ironic mockery. Everyone else leaves and they convince Penny to come with them. They run into a food truck outside and find that it is being operated by Dave; he thanks Alex for her advice and says he will be doing it part-time without quitting his day job. The hipsters from the party approach the truck, but Dave does not have it stocked yet and flees to prevent them from giving him bad online reviews; the rest of his friends hop aboard as well. Jane pushes Max out of the truck and leaves him in the clutches of the zombie-like hipsters in order to prove her “ruthlessness” and win their argument about zombie apocalypse survivability. Max unsuccessfully scrambles to get back in the truck.
(This is the second of two programs on this asset. For synopsis and credits of the second, "Happy Endings: Of Mice and Jazz-Kwon-Do," see ACCNUM 106434).
Details
- NETWORK: ABC
- DATE: November 30, 1999 10:30 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:29:56
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: 121873
- GENRE: Comedy
- SUBJECT HEADING: LGBT Collection; Comedy
- SERIES RUN: ABC - TV series, 2011-2013
- COMMERCIALS:
- TV – Commercials – AT&T phone service
- TV – Commercials – Diet Pepsi soft drink
- TV – Commercials – Emerald breakfast mix
- TV – Commercials – Ihop restaurants
- TV – Commercials – JCPenney department stores
- TV – Commercials – Kay jewelers
- TV – Commercials – Lexus automobiles
- TV – Commercials – Mentos chewing gum
- TV – Commercials – Olive Garden restaurants
- TV – Commercials – Subway restaurants
- TV – Commercials – University of Phoenix School of Business college
- TV – Commercials – Verizon phone service
- TV – Commercials – Volkswagen automobiles
- TV – Commercials – Walmart department stores
- TV – Commercials – Welch’s grape juice
- TV – Promos – “Dancing with the Stars”
- TV – Promos – “Desperate Housewives”
- TV – Promos – “Grey’s Anatomy”
- TV – Promos – “Jimmy Kimmel Live”
- TV – Promos – “Private Practice”
- TV – Promos – “Switched at Birth”
CREDITS
- Jonathan Groff … Executive Producer
- Jamie Tarses … Executive Producer
- Joe Russo … Executive Producer
- Anthony Russo … Executive Producer
- David Caspe … Co-Executive Producer, Created by
- Josh Bycel … Co-Executive Producer
- Gail Lerner … Co-Executive Producer
- Prentice Penny … Producer
- Matthew Nodella … Producer
- Alan Brent Connell … Co-Producer
- Jason Scott Kavner … Associate Producer
- Steve Mesner … Associate Producer
- David Guarascio … Consulting Producer
- Moses Port … Consulting Producer
- Steven Cragg … Consulting Producer
- Brian Bradley … Consulting Producer
- Randall Einhorn … Director
- Leila Strachan … Writer
- Ludwig Göransson … Music by
- Anne Fletcher … Choreographer
- Eliza Coupe … Cast, Jane Williams
- Elisha Cuthbert … Cast, Alex Kerkovich
- Zachary Knighton … Cast, Dave Rose
- Adam Pally … Cast, Max Blum
- Damon Wayans, Jr. … Cast, Brad Williams
- Casey Wilson … Cast, Penny Hartz
- John Bobek … Cast, Toby
- Dave Bushnell … Cast, Hooper
- Sergio Cilli … Cast, Atticus
- Olivia May … Cast, Zombie Co-Worker
- Alex Morris … Cast, Restaurant Investor
- Devin Sidell … Cast, Ione
- Cheryl Texeira … Cast, Hipster Girl