Dr. Scratchansniff has to teach the Warners good manners for a party. However, this is a task easier said than done. When the Warners do learn good manners, they are kicked out of the party by Mr. Plotz, who wants to impress two Japanese producers. In the end, it is the Warners who host the great party.
This was the first episode of Animaniacs to feature a full half-hour story.
While the episode's title references the William Shakespeare play The Taming of the Shrew, the plot has far more in common with George Bernard Shaw's play Pygmalion and Lerner & Lowe's Broadway musical adaptation, My Fair Lady (which is also referenced in this episode's variable verse). The play involves a narcissistic professor of language taking a young Cockney flower girl off the street and teaching her to speak in an upper-crust English dialect in order to pass her off as a noblewoman at a ball (to win a bet).
It is shown that Yakko speaks perfect Japanese. When translated into English, the conversation he has with Mr. Kato is:
Yakko: "Tokyo is an extremely interesting place, isn't it?"
Mr. Kato: "Please go there."
Yakko: "If there's still a place to go, eh?"
The Warners' favorite movie stars are Michelle Pfeiffer (Yakko), Mel Gibson (Dot) and Don Knotts (Wakko).
Slappy Squirrel, Rita and Runt make cameos at the party. At the beginning of the cartoon, Chicken Boo is first mentioned when someone says, "It was a chicken, I tell ya! A giant chicken!"
Thaddeus Plotz's full name still has not been revealed at this point. He is referred to only as "T.P." (likely a pun on the shorthand term for toilet paper) and he is credited as "C.E.O."
Celebrity guests at the studio party (in order of appearance):
Robert Patrick (as the T-1000 from Terminator 2: Judgment Day)
Geena Davis & Susan Sarandon (as Thelma & Louise)
Spike Lee
Annette Bening
Warren Beatty
Bea Arthur
Danny Devito (as the Penguin from Batman Returns)
Mel Gibson
Danny Glover
Joe Pesci
Sigourney Weaver (as Ellen Ripley from Alien3)
Michael Keaton (as Batman)
Jack Palance
Luke Perry?
Michelle Pfeiffer (as Catwoman from Batman Returns)
Mike Myers & Dana Carvey (as Wayne Campbell & Garth Algar)
Whoopi Goldberg
Billy Crystal (as Mitch Robbins from City Slickers)
Jaleel White (as Steve Urkel from Family Matters)
Gallagher
Madonna
The noncelebrity characters in this episode are Thing from The Addams Family and Disney'sBeauty and the Beast.
Geena Davis sounds exactly like Slappy. Joe Pesci sounds exactly like Pesto (which makes sense, since Pesto is a caricature of Pesci).
Jack Palance doing a one-arm push-up is a reference to when he did it while accepting his Oscar for his role in City Slickers.
Due to a resemblance, some viewers mistaken Billy Crystal for Ted Danson when seated with Whoopi Goldberg. This was due to the fact that 1993, when the episode was produced, was the same year Goldberg briefly dated Danson due to the two of them meeting on the set of Made in America. Billy Crystal wearing the cowboy outfit was supposed to reference his role in City Slickers, however Ted Danson wore a similar outfit in Made in America, playing a sleazy car salesman who wore blue jeans and a ten-gallon hat as part of his gag.
Quotes
Wakko: (playing with a head statue of Dr. Scratchansniff) Ooh, a giant Pez dispenser! Want some?