Put to Pasture is episode 51a of Rocko's Modern Life.
Summary
Heffer falls down ill after eating too many pasture puffies. While he's in the hospital unconscious, his friends recall events concerning him.
Plot
Heffer is sitting on the couch watching television while eating pasture puffies when he comes across a special bulletin of the reporter informing that eating too many pasture puffies will cause negative side effects, such as loss of consciousness and coma. Realizing that he had just overdosed on the pasture puffies, Heffer suddenly falls ill to the floor.
The steer is later hauled to the hospital via ambulance, and Rocko and Filburt lament their friend's unconsciousness. Filburt recalls the time that he met Heffer at Food-O-Rama.
Back then, at Food-O-Rama, a manager warns Filburt, who has worked at the supermarket, of the gluttonous Heffer. While serving the samples, Filburt meets Heffer, who has a paper bag on his head as disguise and scarfs the whole sample tray. Filburt becomes annoyed and tries to pull the tray out of the other customers' reach, thinking that it is really Heffer in disguised. Heffer's identity is eventually divulged, and Filburt screams as Heffer is about to crush him.
Back in reality, Heffer is revealed to be lying in a hospital bed, still in a coma. Rocko, Filburt, and the Bigheads are watching through the window. Ed and Bev recalls the time that Heffer sent Ed to the hospital.
In the Bigheads' flashback, Heffer was working a stint as a paperboy and Ed, once the most handsome citizen in O-Town, is watching through the bushes. Heffer tosses the paper to Ed, and Ed tries to use a baseball glove to catch it. Bev tells Ed that she had fixed the blender, and Ed's head ends up in it. The blender is then activated, blending Ed's face in the process.
Back in reality, Rocko recalls the time he and Filburt first met Heffer at high school. In Rocko's flashback, the teachers introduce Heffer to the rest of the class. The teacher also announces that Heffer needs a partner, So Rocko agrees to have Heffer as his partner, much to Filburt's dismay since he has heard of him. Rocko tells Heffer that the class is making a potato lamp and the group that makes the light shine the brightest gets the best grade of the class. Unfortunately, Heffer impulsively devours the potato and Rocko, Heffer, and Filburt's prospects of getting a good grade on the project are in jeopardy. As the rest of the class leaves, Rocko, Heffer, and Filburt stay for the rest of the night and eat potato chips. Heffer eats all of his, and when he feels sad that Rocko and Filburt still have theirs while he has eaten them early, Rocko offers him his chips. When he finishes, he is still sad over Filburt having chips over him. Filburt refuses to give up his chips and is promptly attacked by Heffer, who scarfs his chips, infuriated Filburt, who puts the light bulb in his mouth. To Rocko and Filburt's surprise, the light bulb activates while in Heffer's mouth. So the two decide to stuff Heffer with numerous of potatoes. The next day, in class, during the project, Rocko and Filburt try to turn on the light bulb in Heffer's mouth. It takes a while to affect, but soon, the light shines so bright that it ignites the whole world.
Back in reality, Rocko, Filburt, and the Bigheads stand by the unconscious steer's bed mourning his coma. Just then, Heffer regains consciousness and the others are happy. But as soon as they remember all the problems that the steer has caused for them, they go back to being sullen and walk away as Heffer pulls out a bag of pasture puffies, only for Rocko to return to snatch it from him. Heffer waves goodbye to Rocko as the latter leaves and the steer laughs to himself.
Characters Featured
Trivia/Goofs
- Title alludes to "to retire someone" or old livestock.
- When Rocko and Filburt emerge from Heffer's potato engorged mouth, they are dressed as Lucy and Ethel from the grape-stomping episode of I Love Lucy.
- Final appearance of the hospital beavers, and the only time they don't do the "hup-hup-hup" routine.
- Goofs:
- How could Rocko have gone to high school with Filburt and Heffer? He was a full-grown adult when he arrived in the United States, as seen in Wimp on the Barby. It could be a foreign exchange program that some high schools take in which some foreign schools switch their students for a day.
- Heffer's shirt is yellow when he is being used as a potato lightbulb during the high school flashback.
- Rocko is seen eating 2 of his 5 potato chips, but when he gives them to Heffer, there is 4 chips.
- The only other time we see a young Ed Bighead was in the epiosde Old Fogey Froggy where he almost looked exactly like his current self so it's unknown how Ed got a handsome looking face unless he may have had Plastic Surgery