User:Grapesoda22/Bus of the Undead

"Bus of the Undead" is the third episode of the first season of the animated television series Aqua Teen Hunger Force, and the 3rd episode of the series overall. This episode is the first episode of the series to premiere after the September 11 terrorist attacks. This is also the final episode, under the Aqua Teen Hunger Force brand, were Master Shake, Frylock, and Meatwad are detectives. In the United States "Bus of the Undead" is rated TV-PG-L and originally aired on September 30, 2001 on Adult Swim.

"Bus of the Undead" was released on the Aqua Teen Hunger Force Volume One DVD, on November 18, 2003. In addition to being available on DVD this episode is available on iTunes and the "Build Your Own DVD" feature on Adultswim.com.

Plot
Mothmonsterman escapes from Dr. Weird's lair and is drawn to the Aqua Teens' house by lights. It turns out the lights are the "Shake Signal" which Master Shake is wearing on his head while watching "Assisted Living Dracula". Mothmonsterman threatens trouble for the Aqua Teens if they don't leave their lights on. Master Shake suspects that the school bus from which Mothmonsterman is calling them is actually possessed by Dracula's ghost. Frylock attempts to discover who is threatening them by putting the flag that Mothmonsterman destroyed in his cloner. Eventually, though, Frylock decides to prove to Master Shake that the bus is not Dracula by taking him to Dracula's grave.

When the Aqua Teens return home they find Mothmonsterman in their house watching "Assisted Living Dracula"; he has encased Carl in a cocoon and laid a thousand eggs in his esophagus, and Carl is "being a real baby about it." Shortly thereafter the house is taken over by cloned monsters created when Shake threw a pan of brownies into the cloner, where they spliced with the moth DNA to form brownie-moths.

Production
Written and directed by series creators Dave Willis and Matt Maiellaro, "Bus of the Undead" was rated TV-PG-L in the United States. It originally aired in the United States on Cartoon Network's late night programing block, Adult Swim, on September 30, 2001.

"Bus of the Undead" features guest a appearance from Jon Benjamin; and features live action cameos from Don Kennedy and Mary Kraft. "Bus of the Undead" is the first episode to premiere after the September 11 terrorist attacks, which happened 19 days earlier.

This is also the final episode of the series, under the Aqua Teen Hunger Force brand, to feature Master Shake, Frylock, and Meatwad as deceives. The concept was quietly drooped in the following episode, "Mayhem of the Mooninites", although the premise has since been periodically mentioned many times throughout the series. When the series was retitled to Aqua Unit Patrol Squad 1 in 2011, it was claimed that the premise of them being detectives would be used again. The premise was jokingly used only in episodes "Allen Part 1" and "Allen Part 2".

Reception
TV.com gave this episode an 8.7, which is considered "Great", and users of the site gave the episode mostly positive reviews as well.

Home release
"Bus of the Undead", along with sixteen other episodes from season one, were released by Warner Home Video on a two-disc DVD set in the United States on November 18, 2003, and in region four on April 4, 2007. The set also includes audio commentary for "Rabbot", as well as "Mayhem of the Mooninites" and "Space Conflict from Beyond Pluto".

In addition to being available on DVD "Bus of the Undead" is available on iTunes and the "Build Your Own DVD" feature on Adultswim.com.