
1-03 4308-018 09-Sep-1991 Beauty and the Beet
This is Bushroot's introductory
episode. It chronicles his transformation from a meek and well-meaning
research scientist that wants to create a solution to world hunger by
helping people get nutrition from sunlight like plants into a bitter plant-mutant villain
that uses plant life for ill means. This is also the episode where we
learn how much Bushroot craves someone to love, through his unrequited affection for Dr. Rhoda Dendron.

1-05 4308-040 11-Sep-1991 Night of the Living Spud
This episode takes place not long
after Beauty and the Beet. Bitter that he's been rejected by
women (presumably, he tried dating after his caveman-like kidnapping of
Rhoda didn't work out as intended, although I'm sure he meant her in his
rant as well), and told that he's "just a shrub!", he's decided to grow his
own bride.
Unfortunately, his intended "Posy" turns out to be a giant, non-verbal,
mean-spirited vampiric potato monster rather than a sexy flower gal after
Spike goofs and swaps his posy blossoms with potato starch in the
experiment. To his credit, Bushroot tries to make it work, but it's obvious
that poor
Reggie is inexperienced in the relationship business. Here's a hint,
Bushy, even if your bride isn't a fiendish potato, telling her that she
needs to go on a diet right after your wedding ceremony ain't the route to a
happy honeymoon. Also, a nit-pick I have about this episode: when the
news report is given that he's robbing Fabric King, he's referred to as the
"herbivorous mutant research scientist turned criminal".
Herbivorous, really? For a show that seems to pride itself on
using a vast vocabulary, flubbing that in place of herbaceous is
pretty cringe-worthy.

1-12 4308-024 20-Sep-1991 Easy Come, Easy Grows
In this episode, Bushroot
creates a trees that can grow money as well as steal it. He buys lots
of treats for his plants with it, including a fertilizer factory.
Darkwing, who has been investigating all of the robberies, realizes that
Bushroot is behind it and tracks him down. During their scuffle at the
fertilizer factory, Bushroot's trees try to mulch Darkwing, Launchpad,
Gosalyn, and Honker, but they escape and the trees and Bushroot wind up in
the mulcher instead. Ouch. Afterward, Bushroot is seen as a little sprout that has to grow back.
Presumably, this doesn't take that long, considering what he can do in Twin Beaks and how quickly he seemed to recover from being mowed in
Beauty and the Beet.

1-20 4308-047 02-Oct-1991 Just Us Justice Ducks (1)
This episode is the first of the
two-parter that introduces the villainous team known as The Fearsome Five, of which
Bushroot is a part of along with Megavolt, Quackerjack, and Liquidator with
Negaduck as their leader. Working for Negaduck, they quickly take over St. Canard, and Darkwing is forced to accept help from some of his allies
when he can't handle them all himself. Bushroot's parts in this
episode are pretty amusing. He teams up with Liquidator in part of it,
a natural match as plants and water go great together. The two of them
seem to get along pretty well, and Liquidator is comfortable being the brawn
for Bushroot to hide behind when there are no plants under his direct
control. He and Liquidator also convince Stegmutt to "Put out the
Darkwing!" in one of the funniest scenes in the episode.

1-21 4308-048 03-Oct-1991 Just Us Justice Ducks (2)
In the second half of this episode, we get to see Bushroot defeat
Morgana one on one after she sneaks up on him. He has some Spike-like
fly traps eat Eek and Squeak, which she transforms via magic into "harmless
daisies" to save her familiars. Bushroot then controls the daisies and
ties her up with them, taking them back to the tower where Negaduck has set
up their base of operations. Later on, after Darkwing goes and frees
the Justice Ducks (as Gizmoduck, Stegmutt, and Neptunia were captured by
Megavolt, Quackerjack, and Liquidator, respectively), Stegmutt ultimately
defeats Bushroot. At first he doesn't know what to do once he grabs
him, but then Darkwing gives him inspiration with the line, "Let's pretend
Mr. Bushroot is on fire!" In payback for what happened in Part One,
Bushroot gets to experience what "Put out the Bushroot!" feels like.

1-35 4308-049 25-Oct-1991 Life, the Negaverse, and Everything
This episode features two versions of Bushroot: the one we know well as
a part of the Fearsome Five, and his Negaverse counterpart. In the
Negaverse, a twisted mirror-world where much of what you expect is reversed,
Bushroot is still a mutant-plant duck, but fighting on the side of good
against Negaduck (the Negaverse is his "secret hideout" and presumably where
he is originally from as Darkwing's opposite). Both Bushroots are
portrayed as fairly inept in this episode, along with the other members of
the Fearsome Five/Friendly Four. Regular Bushroot gets his hands tied
up by Negaduck and thrown in a heap, while Negaverse Bushroot gets coaching
(along with the others) from Darkwing on how to be a more effective fighter.
Afterward, the Friendly Four wear Darkwing-style costumes and call
themselves "Darkwing's Ducks". Nega-Bushroot fixes the Negaverse St.
Canard's parched and dead plant-life after the water is brought back by
Nega-Liquidator, and then uses a daisy to defeat Nega-Honker in the final
Negaverse fight scene.

1-40 4308-051 01-Nov-1991 Darkwing Doubloon
This is a flashback tale of the hero "Darkwing Doubloon" as he fights
pirates in the past, super-villains "just like today"
who match up to the Fearsome Five, even with the same names. Bushroot
has a sword, a funny pair of poufy pants, and a hat on in this episode, but doesn't do
all that much that stands out. He seems like the same Bushroot in what
lines/scenes he has, although if you were to go strictly by canon, you'd
have to ignore this "Bushroot" as he's technically not the same Bushroot
from the show's main continuity.

1-41 04-Nov-1991 It's a Wonderful Leaf
Ah, the Christmas episode. This is one of my favorites, and not
just because it stars Bushroot (although that helps!). It's quite
funny, and spoofs a number of Christmas clichés and tropes. Bushroot
is even drawn to look a bit like the Grinch in a couple of scenes.
This episode is probably the best example of Bushroot at his most bitter and
spiteful. He goes to the mall on Christmas Eve to shop for his plants
while disguised, and is trampled and pushed around by agitated shoppers.
When his costume comes off and he's spotted as a plant monster, he's first
beaten with a rake and then run out by a mob. Hurt and angry, he
decides that he'll get even by ruining Christmas. He starts off by
starting trouble in the mall, and then proceeds to go on a crime spree with
the help of some evergreens and a big truck by stealing an entire
neighborhood's worth of Christmas presents.

1-44 4308-067 07-Nov-1991 Twin Beaks
This episode is a strange one involving mutant cabbages that are taking
over bodies in the town of Twin Beaks, which is brought to Darkwing's
attention when Honker warns him that his family is acting weird. He
suspects Bushroot, but Bushroot keeps turning up "dead" to deepen the
mystery. Ultimately, it turns out that alien cows who bred the alien
cabbages were communicating with Bushroot as an Earth plant to stop them,
and later, telepathically with Launchpad. Bushroot spends a good part
of this episode disguised as a log that gives Launchpad advice, although
it's only revealed near the end that Launchpad's log is actually Bushroot.
This episode shows us a range of self-transformation powers that Bushroot
has that he rarely uses. Despite working with Darkwing and crew to
save Earth, Bushroot runs off at the end with a lone cabbage, which he
exclaims happily he has a whole new planet to show to it. Fortunately
for Earth, the cabbage is never heard from again.

1-45 4308-062 08-Nov-1991 The Incredible Bulk
In this one, Bushroot steals some experimental fertilizer.
Originally he intends to use it to make Spike grow big again, but after he
tests it on a daisy and it grows into tough brute-like flower that can
easily knock Darkwing around, he focuses on that rather than Spike.
Partway through the episode he takes some cuttings and creates more daisies,
which run wild and even make him ride with Spike in the back of a pick-up
truck. They seem to boss Bushroot around as much as he does them.
Bushroot's vicious side is shown again in this episode as well, when he
attempts to boil Darkwing and Launchpad alive in a giant teapot. In a
spiteful and/or jealous move, Spike lets them go when Bushroot runs off
after the daisies, and at the end even Bushroot is starting to get fed up
with the daisies' wild behavior, grumbling about their lack of manners.
In the end, the daisies are defeated by Darkwing, and the experimental
fertilizer is used on a giant bee that chases the last daisy off. Bushroot escapes
with Spike, saying that he's at least able to depend on him.

1-57 4308-074 26-Nov-1991 Slime OK, You're OK
In his quest for companionship, Bushroot invents a formula called IQ2U that
makes plant life intelligent. With it he creates Hedgey, a sentient
bush that roars and devours everything in sight before breaking down.
Gosalyn is also exposed to it and turned into a slime creature that Bushroot
tries to befriend after Darkwing alienates her. When she starts to
break down and get out of hand, however, Bushroot traps her in a giant
shop-vac type machine to save her so that he can "cultivate" her.
Spike buries Bushroot's IQ2U formula in the grass and creates a giant
lawn-monster also, which Darkwing teams up with Bushroot to defeat.
Afterward, Bushroot releases
Gosalyn (and Launchpad, who tried to rescue her but got stuck with her
instead) for Darkwing, and he also refuses to take the hint to run off and escape
when Darkwing implies that he'd let him go for helping. Darkwing is forced to
make the point clearer by shoving Bushroot off into the night with Spike.

1-60 4308-081 29-Nov-1991 A Star Is Scorned
This is an odd episode in which Thaddeus Rockwell, who's in charge of
Darkwing's show, tries to write Darkwing out as the star and replace him
with Bushroot. He likes Bushroot because he works for fertilizer,
which means more money for him. There are a series of gags based on
various shows that were popular at the time, including a courtroom drama, a
game show, a children's show, and a theme about eco-friendliness and saving
the environment. (The latter two are obvious spoofs of "Pee Wee's
Playhouse" and "Captain Planet".) Darkwing eventually exposes
Bushroot's villainous nature and Rockwell's ulterior motives in promoting
him through showing uncut footage of Bushroot acting distinctly non-heroic,
and Rockwell's boss Mr. Dizzy tells Bushroot not to give up his day job.
Darkwing has a field day putting Bushroot through similar humiliating scenes
as he endured at Bushroot's hands earlier in the episode. Also, I must
point out that Bushroot gets to ride in a limo and wears a tacky
tiger-striped outfit with matching sunglasses in one scene.

1-62 4308-080 03-Dec-1991 Jail Bird
This is the last episode in which the Fearsome Five appear as a group
and Bushroot's last canon appearance. In this episode, the Fearsome
Five go to steal the Mystic Eye of Quackzecoatl, which has the
ability to steal a creature's powers and transfer them to the holder of the
Eye. When Darkwing easily defeats all of them except Negaduck,
Negaduck runs off with the Eye grumbling about how they waste their
super-powers. When he tests the Eye and finds out that it works, he
goes to "rescue" the other four from the super-villain prison they've been
sent to. Darkwing gets thrown in there "undercover" as Demolition
Duck, but the Fearsome Four quickly realize it's him and mock and needle him.
Negaduck shows up, but steals their powers and leaves, forcing them to work
with Darkwing by showing him how to exploit their weaknesses to defeat
Mega-Negaduck. Once they do and Darkwing recovers the Eye, he drops
it, which gives the Fearsome Four their powers back. Megavolt
immediately suggests that they team up against Darkwing, who with amazing
timing has his backup (Launchpad and Gosalyn) fly over with the Thunderquack
to drop a net on them, defeating them. Although this episode has its funny moments, Bushroot
is hardly at his best in it. Even Quackerjack and Megavolt make
fun of him in one scene, although they haven't got much room to talk given how
easily they were all defeated.
Cameo Role:
1-52 4308-070 19-Nov-1991 Time and Punishment
Bushroot is seen for a brief moment in this episode in a flashback
described by the future Launchpad where a number of the show's
super-villains are flattened by an anvil at once, presumably killing them.
Sorta Cameo Role:
1-31 4308-046 21-Oct-1991 Adopt-a-Con
Although Tuskerninni is the villain of this episode, he dresses up in a
humorous Bushroot costume through part of it, and even tells the police that
he's not Tuskerninni, but "Bushroot, the plant guy,
you know?"
Ep Gary and Larson Reincarnated Appear In:
2-11 4308-057 16-Nov-1991 Going Nowhere Fast
This is the episode mentioned above where for a brief moment you see two
scientists that look just like Dr. Gary and Dr. Larson. These
scientists worked with
Darkwing while he was speeding forward through time at super-speed to catch
up at the end.
Got anything to add? Drop me a line at either bushroot@cheezey.org or cheeezey@yahoo.com.
Back to Facts and Fertilizer