Parent Teacher Night

	Invader Zim Episode
	Parent Teacher Night
	Chronology
Previous:	NanoZIM
Next:	Walk of Doom
	Information
Episode No:	Episode 03a
Production No:	03a
Airdate:	April 6, 2001
	Credits
Writer(s):	Jhonen Vasquez; Rob Hummel

NOOOOO! You have the mixture all wrong!
— Professor Membrane

Plot Summary

SPOILER WARNING OF DOOM: This section or article may contain spoilers!

After another day at the Earth Skool, Ms. Bitters reminds the children that it's Parent-Teacher Night, and that all the parents must come to the Skool at the end of the day. Zim is confronted with a dilemma: He doesn't have any parents (Irkens are cloned from a gene bank and have all their information given to them in PAKs by the Control Brains). Zim becomes worried because his robotic parents aren’t programmed for such a task yet, and he cannot permit them to blow his cover. He attempts to help them become the parents they should be, but GIR's carefree nature puts his plans in jeopardy.

At the meeting in the cafeteria, Dib, who brings his dad's communication device, tries to prove that Zim is an alien. The robotic parents malfunction and wreak havoc during the meeting, but nobody, besides Dib, notices they aren't human, or that Zim is an alien, due to the show's characters' stupidity. So, Zim's plan to fool everybody (except Dib) actually worked, despite GIR's interference. In the end, Zim and the Roboparents fly off while Dib gets in trouble for throwing punch on the floor in frustration.

End of Spoilers: There are no further spoilers for this section or article. You can breathe now.

Facts of Doom

Cultural References

In this episode, Zim says "You lie! YOU LIE!" This is a reference to Johnny the Homicidal Maniac. When Nny first meets Squee, he says exactly the same thing.

Trivia of Doom

This is the first and so far only time Zim's roboparents are outside of the house, and play a major role. They were going to have a major role in the cancelled episode "Roboparents Gone Wild".
The title is the first to use the squiggly Invader ZIM font instead of the original font.
At the end of the episode when Ms. Bitters is mad at Dib and the whole room turns red, there is a clock in the background that says "12:16".
Like "The Nightmare Begins", this episode was originally rated TV-Y but was later changed to TV-Y7-FV.
This is the only time Zim is shown as a smeet. He would've been shown again in a flashback as a smeet in the cancelled episode, "The Trial" with the same first part of the flashback, except longer where another smeet that Zim had deformed can be seen when Zim exits the chute.
Smeet Zim was voiced by Melissa Fahn.

Things You Might Have Missed

Ms. Bitters has a security camera in her classroom, which is not seen in later episodes.
When Zim turns on the video to teach his Roboparents normal behavior, a child in one of the videos looks very similar to Timmy from The FairlyOddParents!
List of old-fashioned cartoons broadcasted in the base:
- A clay animated show
- Hunter's dog
- Heckle and Jeckle's first cartoon
- Dancing scarecrow
- Beaver eating corn
- Cat licking some striped candy poles
- A "Tom & Jerry" Christmas special from the 1940s.
When Dib spills his fruit punch on Zim, it doesn't burn him. This is inaccurate, since Zim gets burned by water, a similar liquid in "The Wettening".
The man in the parenting video slightly looks like Old Kid.

Changes and Cuts

A scene where Zim tries to reprogram his Roboparents was supposed to have GIR change the channel to 1940s movies with smoking and guns. This was changed for obvious reasons.
When the word "diarrhea" splatters onto one of the television sets that GIR watches, the words were supposed to be in brown, but was later changed to dark red.

Inconsistencies and Animation Errors

Ms. Bitters' dress changes from purple to black sporadically throughout the episode and other early episodes.
The events of the parent teacher night conference happened in the afternoon, despite the name, as a clock reads 12:16 and the scenery outside wasn't dark.
As GIR is running after the Makeup Lady, he doesn't run all the way out of frame. He disappears a few milliseconds before he goes out of the frame.
When GIR falls from the base's ceiling with make-up on, his tongue is orange in one of the scene's frames.

Music

Main article: The Kevin Manthei Invader Zim-phony Special

Skool's Out
Makeup Lady
TV Lair
Spine Break SRC
Family Programming
Parents Arrive
Parents Crack