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"Episode 257-494 (a.k.a. "Don't Touch That Dial") is the first episode of season four and the overall 40th episode of the Teen Titans series.

Plot[]

One beautiful day, Control Freak suddenly pops up right on the Titans Tower TV screen, right before Beast Boy's eyes, declaring he now rules the TV and controls its every function, effectively announcing his declaration of evil. Beast Boy proceeds to alert the other titans to this development.

Beast Boy sounds the trouble alarm and all the others respond from their various endeavors (Robin practicing his boxing in the gym, Cyborg working on his car, Raven meditating, and Starfire preparing to take Silkie out for a walk). Everyone arrives in the living room and Beast Boy explains the situation. However, when he turns the TV back on to prove it, Control Freak is nowhere to be found. The other Titans are skeptical about Beast Boy's somewhat incoherent report since he hasn't taken his eyes off the TV for quite some time. In fact, the only time he can remember not watching TV was three weeks ago when he went out to the movies, only for Starfire to remind him that it was merely another TV show about a person who went to the movies. Robin dismisses the whole thing to remind Beast Boy that Control Freak is in prison until a newsflash about Control Freak's escape from prison brings the official confirmation. The Titans saddle up and drive off to investigate with Robin announcing to the team that Control Freak sightings on over a dozen TV screens in the last half-hour have been flooding in from all over the city. And so, they track his broadcasting signal back to Cooks Electronics Store where they are beset with dozens of TVs displaying just as many channels. When Beast Boy finds one tuned into a station carrying his all-time favorite show, Clash of the Planets, Control Freak appears before them inside the on-air TV scenes, gloating that the Titans will never catch him. When Robin declares that it's only a matter of time before they catch him, Control Freak somehow jumps around all over the TV scenes as if they were real environments, cutting off all the TVs' signal inputs. Robin orders the team to search the building for Control Freak, but Cyborg's analysis confirms that Control Freak is not inside the building at all, but is rather literally inside the TVs.

042

The Titans facing their first challenge in the TV Dimension.

Security camera footage reveals Control Freak has constructed an oversized version of his master remote control to convert himself into a broadcast wave form and allow him full access to TV shows as if they were an alternate plain of existence. The Control Freak sightings were him flipping around from channel to channel. The Titans find the control room containing the TV converter apparatus and Cyborg is able to confirm its authenticity, stating it's equipped with enough high-end technology to break half the laws of physics. Just as the Titans proceed to check out the apparatus and figure out how to retrieve Control Freak, Beast Boy accidentally activates it, transforming them all into broadcast wave forms as well and transporting them right onto a gameshow called "Quiz Monkey". When Starfire answers one of the questions correctly, Control Freak reveals himself in the new car she just one and a wild chase ensues, leading right across all running programs, such as the very same news channel that announced Control Freak's escape, an energy drink commercial, and a fishing program. Just when Starfire and Cyborg manage to wreck the car in its tracks, he escapes when Cyborg is caught in the crosshairs of two stunt drivers. To make matters worse, Control Freak manages to use his vast geeky knowledge to outwit the Titans in frighteningly comical ways:

  • When Robin and Raven have him cornered in a toddler stage show, he goads Robin into shouting the word "Freeze", which gets them both buried in oatmeal.
  • He outraces and outsmarts Beast Boy in a frighteningly accurate depiction of Fast and Furry-ous.
  • He bests Robin and Raven in a firefight when he snatches the gear and tux right off the back of an agent in a spy show.

Before making his next escape, Control Freak announces to the Titans that while in the real world, he may be just another geek. But in a realm where television is reality, he's the real deal. All of a sudden, all the Titans are transported to a creepy black and white swamp. Upon careful observation, Beast Boy instantly realizes to his horror that they're not in a TV show, but a scene from a classic kaiju movie called It Came From Jones Lake. Just then, the titular enormous scaly swamp monster emerges from the depths of the water ready to devour our heroes, prompting Starfire to scream in horror.

Cyborg tells everybody to calm down, believing this all to be a matter of special effects and somebody in a monster costume since this is TV. However, Cyborg is quickly proven wrong when the creature proves to be a fatal opponent and the Titans are forced to conclude that while that monster may be fake in the real world, the realm of television makes it all real, just like Control Freak said before he got away. Robin refuses to prolong the battle and orders all the Titans to split up to hunt down Control Freak. They all wind up in different Channels and TV shows just before the monster can strike a kill blow and the monster is transported to some sort of office. A mysterious benefactor stroking a fluffy white cat (Control Freak living out the cliche by roll-playing as a classic archetypal villain) has assembled three of the most notorious villains in television history - The Creature from Jones Lake, Seven-Gorn-Seven, and the Off-World Outlaw - to hunt down and destroy the Teen Titans. While he does that, he flips the channel to a scene from a classic miniseries called Invasion X, where he learns all kinds of alien martial arts from one of its lead characters, Master Hagadesh.

The rest of the Titans have quite the adventure of their own while struggling to navigate the TV Dimension and the challenges that come with each channel:

  • Robin is coaxed into waterskiing over ferocious sharks on a stunt show.
  • Cyborg is roped into a girl's one-sided romance who keeps calling him Lance when he finds himself in a soap opera.
  • Raven is buried under a mountain of football players when she wanders onto a televised championship football game and intercepts the ball.
    • She manages to recover and reunite with Cyborg when they are both pursued by the Jones Lake Monster in a screen with malfunctioning color bars.
  • Beast Boy is downing mountains of flapjacks while pretending to be the son of a happy couple in a vintage black and white sitcom when he is ambushed by Seven-Gorn-Seven.
  • Starfire is in a kid's cartoon vainly attempting to obtain information regarding Control Freak from a sharply dressed pelican searching for his lost pet hippo when Beast Boy catches up to her and they both flee for their lives from Seven-Gorn-Seven.
  • While the host of Stunt Fest is being mauled by an angry grizzly bear, Robin and the Off-World-Outlaw are engaged in a classic cowboy standoff. Robin manages to land a single blow, but is overpowered pretty quickly only to be saved by the timely arrival of Cyborg and Raven - and the Creature from Jones Lake.

Finally reunited in a commercial for "Zinthos" (from the creators of Azarath and Metrion), the Titans overpower and easily defeat all the villains just in time for the next channel. They then find themselves transported into the dojo scene in Invasion X where Control Freak was training with Master Hagadesh with still no luck in finding him. However, Control Freak makes himself known and easily outfights the Titans with his devastating Kung Fu moves. Worse yet, he reveals that his battle training is just the tip of the iceberg compared to the rest of the formidable arsenal of ultra-tech weapons he has assembled from all kinds of other fictional TV Shows while the villains kept the Titans occupied:

  • A blackbelt in Astro Jitzu (Master Hagadesh's training regime)
  • The Bionic Hero's rocket boots
  • Benthar's wristbands of power
  • Captain Callile's Infamous flabbo blaster

Control Freak makes his getaway with the Titans in hot pursuit. However, his proficiency and unparalleled knowledge of all this fictional battle gear make him practically unstoppable. Just when the Titans have him cornered back in Jones Lake, he escapes again, and just when things can't get any worse, a newsflash informs the Titans that Control Freak's interference inside the TVs is causing them to emit harmful electromagnetic waves which disrupt the neural pathways of anybody watching them, which will eventually destroy the brains of all viewers. In other words, TV literally rots people's brains.

Teent

Teen Titans Reporters

In a talk show segment, Robin tries desperately to convince the audience to turn off their televisions to avoid their brains being liquified, but Raven informs him that she doesn't believe they're going to take him seriously. Beast Boy confirms that they'll never take him seriously because the content created in the TV realm from their adventure is, in essence, ratings gold. And so, with no way to convince people to stop watching their TVs, the only way to save millions of viewers from inevitable brain death is to defeat Control Freak before it's too late, but the chances of accomplishing that are slim since Control Freak's lifetime worth of knowledge regarding TV makes him all-powerful in a dimension where TV magic is real. In this moment of peril, Beast Boy is finally able to draw upon his own immense knowledge about TV and movies, and he leads them right to Control Freak's next haunt, the sci-fi scenario Clash of the Planets. As a matter of fact, after interrupting an epic final battle scene by vanquishing the villain, Baron Rang, Control Freak adds his lightsaber to his growing arsenal of fictional battle gear, officially adopting the 12th-Level Space Samurai sobriquet, Count Roll Freakau.

The Titans arrive on the channel and Cyborg identifies the particular scene they're in as the first episode of season four. They follow Beast Boy's lead and his frightening knowledge of the space cruiser is the only assurance they have that they're going the right way. Just then, they're ambushed by a battle droid patrol crew and Beast Boy seizes Raven's cloak hoping to psyche them out with a classic mind trick from the show. It backfires miserably and they do battle.

When the Titans finally reach the galactic command center, they engage in an epic fight to the finish with Control Freak. Again, he manages to maintain the upper hand against the Titans with all his new power and weapons. With everyone else defeated Beast Boy and Control Freak charge at each other and the attack shakes the entire ship, even causing the duel black bars that create the 4K screen layout to collapse off the screen. Beast Boy vows to refuse to let Control Freak win and Control Freak boasts that he is effectively omnipotent in the TV Dimension as a 12th-Level Space Samurai. However, Beast Boy's immense knowledge from rewatching every episode of Clash of the Planets hundreds of times proves to be Control Freak's undoing when he recalls a vital detail Control Freak had overlooked: a 12th-Level Space Samurai can be banished to the null dimensions by the Hah Jun Chant. Beast Boy chants Hah Jun Kang and instantly strips Control Freak of his newly gained powers and imprisons him in a dimensional panel, finally defeating him for good. Control Freak can't accept his defeat over being overpowered by the good guys, but Beast Boy reminds him that this is the world of television, meaning Robin had it right the first time when he said his defeat was only a matter of time. With Robin and Starfire securing the dimensional panel Control Freak is imprisoned within, Raven urgently demands to know that Cyborg can get them back home.

However...

Back at Titans Tower, all the Titans are gathered in the living room enjoying cups of coffee while reminiscing about their mission. Robin and Starfire reflect on the effects watching too much television had on their mission: While Robin concludes that watching too much TV is indeed unhealthy, Starfire interjects by stating that it was in fact Beast Boy being a TV junkie that had enabled them to win the day. And all Titans - along with a guest from the TV dimension - share a laugh about this particular irony deeming that there really is no lesson here.

The laugh track also heard during the Titans sharing a laugh only proves that Cyborg apparently can't get them back to reality, ending the episode with the notion that the best he could do was create a sitcom staring the five of them.

Characters[]

Main Characters[]

Supporting Characters[]

Villains[]

Others[]

Cultural spoofs[]

This particular episode is laced with obvious references to popular TV shows and movies:

  • The entire episode's premise is similar to the 1992 film Stay Tuned where the film's main characters Roy and Helen Knable are trapped in their television set after ordering a television satellite from a demonic salesmen. Beast Boy's addiction to TV is also similar to Roy's.
  • Opening: The show's opening is a spoof of the television show The Outer Limits's opening, performed by the late Vic Perrin.
  • Clash of the Planets: obviously a Star Wars spoof. Also, the Clash of the Planets name and logo design resemble the ones for Battle of the Planets, aka Gatchaman, in which some of the Teen Titans crew have also participated. Also, when the Titans run into the droids who demand that they identify themselves, Beast Boy imitates Obi-Wan's line from A New Hope "you don't need to see our identifications." while the droids resemble the "Separatist Battle droids".
  • The main character of Clash of the Planets's design is a reference to Koji Kabuto from the various Mazinger anime and manga series.
  • When the Titans are looking over the channel guide, Clash of the Planets is shown as being made in 1977, the same year the original Star Wars movie was released.
  • The killer robot Seven-Gorn-Seven is a clone of Robby the Robot, a character from the 1956 film Forbidden Planet. "Gorn" is also the name of an alien race from Star Trek.
  • The dimensional panel Control Freak ends up trapped in is a reference to the Phantom Zone panel featured in the movies Superman (1978) and Superman II (1980), starring late actor Christopher Reeve.
  • James Bond is spoofed by Agent 257 and Control Freak imitated James Bond villain Blofeld.
  • Looney Tunes cartoons with the Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner sequences are included.
  • The Matrix is also spoofed, through Control Freak's impersonation of the film's lead actor, Keanu Reeves, and his manner of speaking. Control Freak quotes his famous line, "I know kung fu, woah."
  • The Dukes of Hazzard are spoofed when Control Freak jumps a car.
  • The Zinthos commercial, while clearly a parody of numerous medication advertisements, also mentions that you're not supposed to get Zinthos wet or feed it after midnight. This was a reference to the movie Gremlins.
  • Highlander is spoofed by using the quote, "There can be only one!"
  • Iron Chef, a now discontinued Japanese cooking show specializing in different international cuisines is parodied by The Red Chef. The Red Chef in the show is a parody of Iron Chef French Hiroyuki Sakai, one of the two chief cooks in the show.
  • Another among the spoofed is William Dozer's Batman show from the 60s, with the spinning Titans T.
  • Terminator II: Judgment Day is yet another example when Control Freak says "Hasta la vista, Titans" with sunglasses.
  • Creature from the Black Lagoon is spoofed by the "Creature from Jones Lake."
  • Godzilla may also be spoofed, because the "Creature from Jones Lake" could fire what looked like atomic breath while it's dorsal fins glowed, similar to whenever Godzilla fires his atomic ray.
  • The Six Million Dollar Man is mentioned by Control Freak's quote, "We have the technology."
  • Stunt Fest is a parody of action reality shows, like Fear Factor or Survivor, while the host is a parody of the late Australian show host and wildlife expert Steve Irwin (The Crocodile Hunter).
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Beast Boy's family sitcom act

  • The black and white sitcom is a parody of family sitcom shows from the 40s and 50s like Leave It to Beaver.
    • This sitcom also vaguely utilizes the animation style of Batman: The Animated Series as a joke to this show being old.
      • Beast Boy also says "Jeepers" when his pancakes get incinerated, a reference to Scooby-Doo.
  • The end scene is a reference to the show Friends. It could also potentially be a nod to Seinfeld, which was known as "the show about nothing." Cyborg references this by stating that the episode was "completely meaningless".
  • Modern soap operas are spoofed in the humorous scenes where a romantically confused woman mistakes Cyborg for a man named Lance.
  • Control Freak's plan of bringing forth villains from TV shows to do his bidding may be a reference to the film Last Action Hero, in which the main antagonist plans on bringing villains from movies to life and use them to rule the world.
  • When the Titans are looking through the channel guide, Robin exclaims, "500 channels?", to which Raven says, "and still nothing on." This is a reference to the 1992 Bruce Springsteen song, "57 Channels (And Nothin' On)" (back in 1992, most TVs had only 57 channels).
  • At one point, the bridge shakes and everybody runs back and forth in a manner reminiscent of Star Trek.
  • The scene in which Robin jumps over a shark while on water-skis is a reference to a clip from the she show Happy Days, which also spawned the idiom "jumping the shark".
  • The scene of Control Freak petting a cat during a meeting with his 3 henchmen resembles Dr. Evil of the Austin Powers franchise.

Trivia[]

  • The number 257-494 is the episode's actual production number.
  • Control Freak's prison number, 257-325, is the production number of the episode in which he first appeared on Teen Titans, which was "Fear Itself".
  • The commercial announcer for the Max-7 from "Overdrive" appears in this episode.
  • The answers to the questions Starfire could not answer on Quizz Monkey are:
    • "What is the capital of Liechtenstein?" - Vaduz.
    • "When did Hannibal cross the Alps?" - In late 218 BC.
    • "What was Spiro Agnew's middle name?" - Theodore.
  • Cyborg breaks the fourth wall during the Clash of the Planets scenario when he says, "Hey, I remember this scene! We're in the first episode of Season Four." This episode of Teen Titans is also the first episode of Season Four.
  • Starfire's shriek at the sight of The Creature from Jones Lake makes this one of the few episodes where Starfire uncharacteristically emits a terrified, ear-piercing scream. Other times include "Divide and Conquer" when the team is just barely managing to hold of Plasmus, "Fear Itself" when she was buried under a swarm of demonic rats, and in "Transformation" when she was about to be devoured by the Cironielian Chrysalis Eater.
  • Innuendo: When Beast Boy steals Raven’s cloak, she reacts to it as if she had just been stripped naked. This is further helped by the fact that the show arguably treats it as if she really was naked, with Raven covering her breasts and Robin’s fist conveniently placed over her groin area, despite the fact that Raven is still wearing her leotard after Beast Boy removes her cloak.
  • The zinthos commercial had many references to Raven.
    • It talks about "azarath" and "metrion", which are 2/3 of Raven's meditation chant. The symptoms of it pertains to Raven like disturbing visions, fits of rage, and the growth of additional eyes.
  • This is the first episode to feature live-action footage, which appeared during the news broadcast.
  • When Beast Boy is discussing Clash of the Planets, several fans appear above him, the exact same fans appear as villains in the episode "Revved Up".
  • When Rebecca mistakes Cyborg for Lance and then kisses him, the person who opens the door is Joaquim, not Lance.
  • The premise of the episode is very similar to "Bunny Raven... or ...How to Make A Titananimal Disappear". Where it’s a wacky episode of the team being sucked into another world and have to play by its rules to complete their mission.
  • This is the first and only season premiere to feature the Japanese version of the theme song.
  • This episode premiered two days after "Titans East - Part 1" and five days before "Titans East - Part 2".
  • This was the first new episode to premiere on the Miguzi block.
  • The Offworld Outlaw bares a strong resemblance to Cad Bane, an intergalactic bounty hunter from Star Wars, and Jonah Hex, the archetypal cowboy gunslinger of the DC Comics

Continuity[]

  • This episode aired exactly 1 year after "Every Dog Has His Day".
  • This episode along with the other more comedic light-hearted episodes in this season were created to balance out the level of seriousness and sadness that came with the 5 episodes of Raven's destiny.

Other references[]

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Lipton and Victor Payton

  • The man hosting the talk show resembles James Lipton, famous actor and host of Inside the Actor's Studio. His guest, Dr. Victor Payton, is the name of the father of voice actor Khary Payton (Cyborg).
  • According to the television guide viewed by the Titans, Clash of the Planets was released in 1977. This is an obvious reference to the original release of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, which was also in 1977.
  • The Clash of the Planets Boy's face resembles Ken Izumi's from the 1974 Sci-fi Anime Series, "Chargeman Ken!".

Goofs[]

  • When Beast Boy and Control Freak are fighting in the kitchen, the camera cuts to a close-up of the chef. In the background, Beast Boy in bear form is thrown into the shelves, but he is brown instead of green.

Regional differences[]

  • The Quiz Monkey question of "What was Spiro Agnew's middle name?" is replaced with "What was Nicolaus Copernicus's middle name?" in the Polish dub.

Gallery[]

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Click here to view the gallery.

Transcript[]

ForReal37
Click here to view the episode transcript.

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