The Wrong Side of the Tracks

TV Season: 1 Episode: 1.1 Writers: Warren Graff Ken Pontac David Winn Jeff Biancalana Kenn Navarro Director: Kenn Navarro Episode list: TV Season 1 Previous Episode: N/A Next Episode: From Hero to Eternity "The Wrong Side of the Tracks" is the first episode of the first season of the Happy Tree Friends television series.

Starring Roles

 * Lumpy
 * Sniffles

Featuring Roles

 * Cuddles
 * Flaky
 * Mime
 * Nutty
 * Giggles
 * Petunia
 * Disco Bear
 * Russell
 * Lifty and Shifty

Appearance Roles

 * Handy

Plot
Giggles and Nutty enter Lumpy's carnival, followed by Sniffles, who is looking for money with a metal detector. Cuddles, wearing a blue hat with antlers on the side, drags Flaky onto a roller coaster, much against her wishes. They, along with Disco Bear and Russell, enjoy the ride (with the exception of Flaky) until they come to a sudden stop. Lumpy walks by on the opposite side of the track and Flaky vomits upwards, leading everyone to realize they're upside down. Despite Lumpy dislodging part of the cart (and a wheel) from the track, all four make it off the ride safely. Lumpy places a "broken" sign by the entrace to the roller coaster and slips on Flaky's vomit, which has landed on the ground nearby.

Sniffles continues his search for money, becoming disappointed when his metal detector leads him to the detached wheel from Flaky and Cuddles' cart. Lumpy gets to work on his roller coaster, laying down a piece of missing track. He can't find a hairpin that goes in to hold the tracks together, as it has fallen to the ground where Sniffles discovers it. Lumpy decides to jam his pencil in the hole, figuring it'll work just as well. He next begins hammering a part of the track while Nutty sits nearby, eating cotton candy. The hammering causes the stopper on a cart, which is on a small hill in the track, to come dislodged. The cart rolls down and flies off a part of the track that has fallen off, knocking Nutty away. He flies into, and is impaled on, a ringtoss peg, forced to watch his heart slowly stop beating. Handy manages to land a ring around the peg Nutty is on and celebrates, showing no concern for Nutty's well being.

As Sniffles continues his search for money, a balloon-carrying Mime walks up to Lumpy, who is holding a wooden board with nails sticking out of it. Sniffles finds a nail with his detector and tosses it away in frustration, popping Mime's balloon. Lumpy, startled by the noise, turns around and hits Mime in the head with the nails in the board. Oblivious to what happened, Lumpy walks away with Mime still stuck to the board. Later, Lumpy looks at the blueprints for what the roller coaster is supposed to look like and then looks at his own roller coaster. The tracks are twisted and incomplete, but Lumpy decides the roller coaster is ready for riding.

Lumpy removes the "broken" sign and sends a three cart coaster on its way. Handy and Cuddles sit in the first cart, Giggles and Petunia sit in the second cart, and Lifty and Shifty sit in the third cart. Everything goes well until the pencil Lumpy jammed in the track breaks, causing a portion of the track to fall off. When the six riders reach it, the carts break up. Cuddles and Handy keep moving forward, unaware of any problem, while the others fall down onto another section of the track. They land on a hill in the track and balance perfectly, but the carts become disconneted, sending Giggles and Petunia forward and Lifty and Shifty backwards.

Meanwhile, Cuddles and Handy come upon a small tunnel in the track. Handy ducks while Cuddles keeps his arms in the air, losing his hands when they hit the sides of the tunnel. Handy looks at his nubs and laughs mockingly at Cuddles, who falls out of the cart when he passes out (or dies) from blood loss. Handy begins screaming, however, as he discovers he riding straight toward a wall of glass. He crashes through the wall and emerges, cut in half by a large piece of glass.

Lumpy is awoken from a nap as Lifty and Shifty ride by, screaming. Lumpy gets on a handcar and begins following them around the twisted and confusing track, soon finding himself being followed by Lifty and Shifty. When he comes upon a string with flags hanging above the track, he grabs on, flips around, lands in Lifty and Shifty's cart, and holds onto the string as they slow to a stop. He gets out of the car, but he loses his balance and falls off the edge of the track. He lets go of the string, which hooks on the cart and launches the brothers away. Shifty flies into the turnstyle that sits at the entrance to the park, shredding him to death. Lifty lands just short of the turnstyle and laughs at his fortune. The cart, however, flies down and knocks him into the turnstyle, where he suffers the same fate as his brother.

Lumpy sits up on the track he's fallen on and jumps to his feet when he sees Giggles' and Petunia's cart heading for him. He braces himself and pushes back on the cart, trying to get it to stop. He keeps moving backwards, however, and is slowly filed down to nothing by the friction, stopping the cart as it teeters on the edge of the track. Below, Sniffles finally finds a coin and picks it up, pointing his metal detector skyward as he does. The metal detector begins beeping rapidly as the cart Giggles and Petunia are in crushes him. Petunia and Giggles die from the crash and Lumpy's scalp and antlers land on Giggles' head, resembling the hat Cuddles wore earlier. A photo is taken and ends up in a frame from Lumpy's giftshop.

Moral
"If a job's worth doing, it's worth doing right!"

Deaths

 * 1) Nutty is impaled on a peg in a ring toss game, removing his heart from his body.
 * 2) Mime is hit in the head by nails stuck in a board.
 * 3) Cuddles loses his hands on the roller coaster and either dies from blood loss or falling off the roller coaster.
 * 4) Handy is cut in half vertically by a large wall of glass.
 * 5) Lifty and Shifty are shredded by the turnstyle leading into the park.
 * 6) Lumpy's body is filed down by friction as he tries to stop a moving cart.
 * 7) Sniffles is crushed by a roller coaster's cart.
 * 8) Giggles and Petunia die from the force of the impact of their cart hitting the ground, causing their spines to break through their flesh.

Goofs

 * 1) The directions of Lumpy's antlers change numerous times, sometimes during continuous shots.
 * 2) The directions of the antlers on Cuddles' hat change several times.
 * 3) Lifty and Shifty change positions in their cart numerous times
 * 4) The flags on the string Lumpy grabs change colors.

Trivia

 * 1) Nutty is the first Happy Tree Friend to die in the television series.
 * 2) This episode marks the second time Handy has laughed at another's misfortune shortly before his own death, the other being Wheelin' and Dealin'.
 * 3) When Lifty is shredded by the turnstile, The Cursed Idol and Cub's ball (from Havin' A Ball) fly out.
 * 4) Lumpy trying to stop a moving cart is likey a reference to Spiderman 2, where Spiderman tries to stop a moving train.
 * 5) When this episode aired along with From Hero to Eternity and And the Kitchen Sink on YouTube, the alternate title for the conglomeration of the segments was named "One Foot in the Grave."