Cruisin' is episode 21 of Rocko's Modern Life.
Premise
Part One
Heffer and Rocko say bon voyage to Hef's Grandfather, who's going on a seniors' cruise vacation. When Heffer and Rocko miss the call to debark, they learn a little more respect for the elderly right before they venture into the nightmarish Bermuda Triangle.
Part Two
After the cruise ship goes into the surreal Bermuda Triangle, Rocko and Heffer become a thousand years older as the other elderly passengers, including Grandpa Wolfe, Winnifred Wolf, and the ship's captain are turned young.
Plot
Rocko and Heffer drive Hiram to Senior Citizen Singles Cruise and take him on board. They search for his room, but Hiram stops to go to the restroom and Heffer has to go as well. Just then, Rocko hears a horn blowing and discovers that the ship is about to leave. He rushes outside and grabs onto the rope to avert this, but to no avail. He and Heffer end up stuck with Hiram on the ship, much to Rocko's annoyance. Heffer suggests that he and Rocko should blend in with the crowd. But this does not turn as well as expected. He and Rocko end up getting locked into a chamber. The captain of the ship also compels the two to scrub the decks. When they finish, they flip a coin, in which the loser gets to take care of Hiram. When the coin shows 'tails', Rocko is stuck taking care of Hiram and Heffer does the work on the deck. While Rocko takes care of Hiram, the ship starts to tilt and Hiram's wheelchair rolls in the other direction. Rocko ends up getting run over by the other senior citizens in wheelchairs as the ship tilts back and forth. While Rocko plays checkers with Hiram, he tells him that he understands the issues senior citizens go through, but that's not a reason for them not to affiliate with the youth generation. Just then, Hiram calls for the girls by the hot tub, who go for Rocko instead. Meanwhile, Heffer is serving food and accidentally knocks over a row of the seniors' walkers. The seniors chase Heffer around the ship. At the Last Dance Ballroom, Rocko feels that the music is too tedious for him to listen to and leaves for a while. When he returns, he notices Hiram staring at an old female wolf named Winnifred Wolfe, who was Hiram's crush back then and slapped him when he tried to hit on her. After reminiscing that day, he discovers that Winnifred has left. Later, at the Flamingo Room, Heffer serves as the waiter and the seniors start a food fight. Later on, Hiram comes across Winifred at the edge of the dock. She leaves him because he still resembles the wolf he was in the last 50 years. Rocko comes around and asks Hiram how his discussion with the old female wolf went. Hiram responds with a whack to Rocko's head with his cane and leaves. Rocko becomes annoyed and even goes as far to saying "Hope I never get old and crutchy." A senior citizen hears this and explains to Rocko the pain and issues a senior citizen goes through. Rocko changes his perception of old citizens and spots a flock of ducks swimming in the ocean. He begs the ducks to swim away to circumvent their imminent demise, but to no avail. Rocko runs to the captain and tells him to turn the ship to avoid running over the ducks. But the captain refuses, prompting Rocko to steer the ship left, taking it to another dimension, better known as the Bermuda Triangle.
As the ship makes it across the Bermuda Triangle, a series of surrealistic events are going on. Rocko gets spooked when he sees a bunch of fighter planes and one of them becomes a monster. Lightning strikes a bunch of galleons, burning them down to their frames (Hiram dismisses this as cheap special effects). A space shuttle hovers overhead and Heffer boards it via fishing rod. As he makes it inside, he screams in terror at the aliens who look similar to him. He exits the shuttle, which travels away, and a clock speeds up time, transforming Rocko and Heffer into seniors. The clock also rejuvenates the senior citizens, including Hiram himself. Rocko and Heffer, now seniors, finally understand what old people have to go through. Meanwhile, a young Hiram approaches a young Winnifred and attempts to persuade her to go out with him. But Winnifred again walks away, saying that Hiram only thinks about himself, no matter how young or old he may be. Just then, a storm precipitates, eliciting turbulence in the ocean, which causes the ship to rock. Rocko, in a wheelchair, rolls off the side of the deck and falls into the ocean. Since he is too old, he can't swim and is about to succumb until Hiram jumps into the ocean and saves him from drowning. He hooks the old wallaby to a rope and Heffer hoists him onto the ship. Hiram then gets blown away by the tidal wave and slams into the ship. He falls unconscious back into the ocean, where a shark is prepared to attack him. Heffer has a hard time watching the shark's impending attack and begins to weep. Winnifred, who is in a life boat, whacks the shark with a board and gets Hiram back onto the ship in safety. Rocko, now back in consciousness, tells a weeping Heffer that Hiram has been saved, much to the steer's relief. The two take a picture with Hiram and Winnifred and the ship reverses time, rejuvenating Rocko and Heffer and changing the young kids back to their elderly age. The captain decides to ride to the deck and everyone leaves the ship. Rocko thanks Hiram for saving his life and says that the two would be great friends. The photo of Rocko, Heffer, Hiram, and Winnifred is shown as the episode irises out.
Characters Present
Trivia
- This episode aired on New Year's Day 1995.
- This is the first episode to air in 1995.
- A reference to the Monty Python sketch "Dead Parrot" is made when Heffer thinks his grandfather drowned. He calls him "my ex-grandpa."
- Grandpa's name is revealed to be "Hiram Willy Wolfe".
- Hiram is somewhere in his 60s or 70s since Winnifred says that he hasn't changed in the last 50 years.
- During the food fight in the Flamingo Room, one of the characters closing his eyes looks very similar to Heffer.
- The Cartoon Network series Regular Show has an episode titled "Cruisin'". The show's creator, J.G. Quintel, confirmed that the episode got its name from this episode.
- This is the third half-hour special episode of the series, after I Have No Son and Rocko's Modern Christmas respectively.
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