'Raising Hope' Season 3, Episode 19: 'Making the Band' Recap

‘Raising Hope’, season 3, episode 19, ‘Making the Band’

In the playground, all the parents are boasting about their kids, much to Jimmy and Sabrina’s chagrin. Jimmy says they usually ignore them, but they were on a mission this time.

A few weeks ago, Jimmy and Sabrina were trying to plan Hope’s birthday party, but realized that Hope doesn’t have any kid friends to invite to the party they can’t afford. But Virginia points out that the only way they can have kid friends is to talk to the parents and hear them gloat about their kids.

Sabrina asks Jimmy what he did when he was a kid, since Virginia and Burt would never talk to other parents, and he said he improvised by talking to a trashcan. He vows to get Hope some friends.

Which brings them to the playground, and he hands out invitations to the other parents for Hope’s party.

Virginia and Burt say they should be party planners, since Hope’s party is bound to be a hit. They turn on the TV, and catch an interview with Smokey Floyd (Jason Lee). They play a video of him, and Burt notices that he’s in the video, and is excited because he’s famous now. Smokey recounts his journey of recovery and rehab to get him to where he is now. He says he’s going to visit everyone he’s hurt in his life.

Cue the doorbell. Burt answers it, excited to see Smokey. Smokey says he’d like to stay with them for a week and make up for it. They eagerly accept.

Jimmy and Sabrina set up decorations and thank Barney for taking care of the cake. He apologizes for the cake mistake, as he accidentally emailed the bakery his online dating profile picture instead of a picture of Hope. He reveals the cake, and Jimmy and Sabrina gasp in fear.

Virginia and Burt walk in and introduce them to Smokey. Sabrina requests that Smokey not do cocaine around the other parents. He says it’s his lactose intolerance medication and walks away to snort it. Virginia admits that he’s not as cool as she hoped.

The doorbell rings, and two other entertainers, Beauty (Jaime Pressly) and the Beaver (Ethan Suplee) arrive. Jimmy says he thought Virginia was hiring actual entertainers, not Andrew and his ex-ex-wife Donna. Virginia says they are professionals, even though they’ve never done this before or got paid.

Sabrina and Jimmy talk to the other parents, and endure rather awkward stories about breastfeeding.

The doorbell rings, and the pizza man (Eddie Steeples) shows up, with 2 tiny pizzas. Virginia asks where the rest of the pizza is, stating she ordered 2 super-jumbo pizzas. He says that those are it, and that they’ve redefined their sizes. He says she should have ordered 2 ‘damn, that’s too much pizza’ pizzas.

Sabrina sneaks away and fills her can full of wine, and gets caught by one of the mothers. She fills her can up, as well.

The doorbell rings, and a woman (Nadine Velazquez) is standing there with a trampoline. She asks where she is supposed to set up. Virginia says she ordered a bounce house, and she says that she ordered a moon bounce, and reveals a moon on her trampoline. Virginia tells her to set up in the corner.

Jimmy meets one of the dads, and they hit it off. Jimmy tells Sabrina about him, and she reveals that she met an awesome mom, too. They’re surprised there are cool parents there.

The party entertainment begins to fall apart. The trampolinist is rude to the kids, and Beauty and the Beaver lack any and all acting skills. They kids aren’t too happy, so Jimmy and Sabrina go to Virginia and Burt and tell them the entertainment sucks. As they complain, all the entertainers come in and complain about the kids, saying they quit. They tell Burt and Virginia to fix it.

Burt and Virginia ask Smokey if he’d play for Hope. He says he would love to, but he doesn’t have a guitarist, a singer, or any percussion. The ‘My Name is Earl’ cast come together to play his band, along with the help of Virginia and Burt.

The kids clap along with the song, entertained.

Hope blows out her candles, and the ‘cool mom’ comes up to Sabrina and says that they’re not like any of the other parents and they should be friends. Then they spot who she’s married to and quickly change their mind. Jimmy points out there’s still the ‘cool dad’, but they see who he’s married to and say that Hope can have friends in college.

‘The band’ celebrate their awesome set, and say they can be the next big kid’s party band, but Smokey says he has to break up the band. Everyone says that they can manage it, and Barney even volunteers to be their road manager, but Smokey says that he can’t do it. They all put him on a guilt trip, and Smokey agrees to do it.

The band turns into a huge hit, booking kids’ parties left and right. Someone’s rich uncle sees a video of their performance, and flies them in for his kid’s kindergarten graduation party.

Their planes goes through some turbulence as it approaches a storm. The band panics and the captain reassures them that they’ll make it out alive. He says they’ll try landing in a football field. All the band members recount their biggest regrets and confessions. After the biggest confession, the plane pulls through the turbulence. Burt and Virginia realize that being in a band isn’t what they should be doing, and they have Hope waiting for them.

Smokey stands up and crosses ‘robbed the lawn guy of his Smokey Floyd experience’ off his list.