Ten Years to Life

"Ten Years to Life"
Queen of the Willis episode
Episode no.	Season 7 Episode 1
Directed by	Ava Zinn
Written by	Ava Zinn
Production code	701
Original air date	February 1, 2019 (Fort Wayne) February 2, 2019 (Indianapolis) March 1, 2019 (first-run syndication)
Guest actors
Kathi Jameson as herself Melvin Runecraft as Evil Ava Josh Kaufman as himself Crystal Gayle as herself Crystal Bowersox as herself Jena Asciutto as herself Nick Fradiani as himself Avril Lavigne as herself Alisan Porter as herself Kassie DePaiva as herself
Episode chronology
<span /> ← Previous "Nightmare Vacation" Next → "The Story of Melissa's Mother"

"Ten Years to Life" is the first episode of the seventh season of Queen of the Willis, following the revival of the series seven years after its cancellation in 2012. It aired on broadcast syndication in the United States on March 1, 2019, though it premiered on March 1, 2019 on WXXC in Fort Wayne and March 2, 2019 on WEVI in Indianapolie. In the episode, Karly Jameson invites Ava, Melissa, Tiffani, and Pamhouser to her four day festival in Quillsville during the annual FeatherStock, but is nearly ruined after Karly is attacked by Jill Da Rippa. Meanwhile, Angie, Stephanie Rose, Maribel Sabo, and Lilly Abhrams decide to interview potential friends, and are approached by a fellow bar patron named Christiana Sellars.

Queen of the Willis had been canceled in 2012 due to low ratings, but was revived by NoSirGifts after reruns on the company's Fox and independent stations became the station's most watched program in those markets. The episode was written and directed by series creator Ava Zinn. The episode contains many cultural references; in the opening sequence Angie lists shows that were canceled by CBS or dropped by Fort Wayne independet station WXXC after Queen of the Willis was canceled and says that if all of those shows were to be canceled/dropped, they might have a chance at returning.

Plot

In the cold open, Angie tells her family that they have "been canceled". She then lists all shows, like Mike & Molly and 2 Broke Girls, that were canceled by CBS between the show's cancellation and revival as well as shows that have been dropped by INNCD 47 and says that if all of those shows were to be canceled, they might have a chance at returning.

As Ava and Angie are having lesbian sex, Ava yells out Alisan Porter's name, so Angie realizes that she is imagining her as Porter to maintain her libido. Ava and Angie decide to take a second honeymoon to enliven their marriage, but ultimately attend Feathersox 2019.

Deanna, now married to Brandi Sousa, is still living with her parents, Ava and Angie Willis, and siblings Brian, Stuart, Ron, Emilie, Luanne, and Hillary (with the exception of Tom, who died in 2011), and their daughter Tessanne. Deanna initially claims she refused to move out after attendign college to care for the aging parents but eventually admits to losing her teaching job in Indianapolis. She reunites Angie with her half-sister, Laura Donaldson, after their year-long feud over the The Voice and American Idol and Ava's support of Alisan Porter. Meanwhile, Brandi announces she is pregnant with their second child with Deanna, but Brandi's fifth. Bianca Willis, both military veterans, is in a relationship with another woman. Austen Willis, also a military vertan, is serving overseas.

At The Druken Hoosier, Angie, Stephanie, Jennifer, and Lilly decide to interview potential friends to fill the vacancy, and are approached by a fellow bar patron named Christina Sellars, whom they ultimately decide to let Christiana join as their new fourth member after Lilly recognized Christiana. Later, when Angie introduces Christiana to Ava, she reveals that the two used to date (and also have a child together).

Later, Karly Jameson, a famous Quillsvillian announces she is starting her concert tour in Quillsville. Tickets to the show are sold out as they are invite only. Meanwhile, the Quillsville Mafia (consiting of Josh Kaufman, Bart the Bully and wife Danielle, Cynthia Wilson (aka Jill Da Rippa), and two guys named Seth and Jon) plot to disrupt Feathersox after Cynthia vows to get revenge after she was passed over by Fanchon Stinger and Diane Willis ten years earlier, blames Fox 11's news director. Cynthia attacks Alisan (via strangling), Avril (via molestation) and eventually Karly (by nearly strangling Karly).

However after being arrested by Ava (after being bit by Tabby and scratched by Shushu), Cynthia reveals that she is not to be evil after all. She then reveals that she got home from work one day and caught her husband cheating on her. She was depressed after the divorce, which ultimately accorfing to Bob Donaldson and Diane Willis, cost Wilson her job and her house. She moved into Bart the Bully's home until she got back on her feet and has lived there for eleven years. Cynthia apologizes to Mayor Kelso and Tina Craven for unintentionally terrorizing Quillsville and wishes to start over. Mayor Kelso is unconvinced, but when Tina pays a great amount of money to CBS to move its Indianapolis affiliation from channel 8 to channel 40 (it is revealed that Fox 11 and channel 40 as well as channels 8 and 10 are the two duopolies).

During an argument, Ava reveals that Christiana (while at Feathersox) had bought Angie a gift (revealed to to be the complete box set of The Cleveland Show), and she goes on to apologize to Christiana for being so insensitive.

Heather tries to join Angie's group, but Angie says it is not a good idea because Melissa dislikes her. Heather attempts to rectify the situation outside Melissa's house. However, Heather ends up making things worse by mistaking Melissa's wife, Stephanie, and one of Melissa's sisters, who is hiding out from her abusive girlfriend, for one of her patients. Heather tricks Melissa into going to dinner with her after Feathersox 2019 by making her think Gene Cox, the Indianapolis television anchor/reporter that Tabby (as Rags) bit and Shushu clawed in "Revenge of the Male Anchors 2", is the one inviting her and perfroming a leg transplant.

At dinner, Heather attempts to make small talk, but Melissa does not soften up. Finally, Heather asks Melissa why she does not like her. Melissa responds with an angry tirade detailing everything about Heather she finds reprehensible, at the end of which she calls Heather "a big, sad, cocksucking prostituting bore". Heather then returns home, having been crying on the way back. Tabby and Shushu cheers her up by saying that she only needs to like herself, and then professes their own admiration for Heather by letting her spend the night in their room.

Angie discovers that Avril Lavigne has a private suite at a luxurious hotel nearby, "which she barely uses". She and Ava decide not to go to the hotel, but attends the concert instead. As Ava and Angie are about to leave, Lavigne discovers that the CD has been replaced with a tuna sandwich, leading to a chase on the stage that ends on the roof of Babyface High School. While being chased, Ava slips but hangs on the cliff. Angie grabs her and, while being held at gunpoint by Lavinge, she tells Lavigne that the film "is in Pia Toscano's pants" and points to the other side of the roof. Lavigne follows Angie's direction and falls off the edge of the roof as Angie pulls Ava to safety. Upon climbing back to the top of the roof, the two have lesbian sex there, improving their marriage.

Production and development

Guest stars

Kassie DePaiva

Alisan Porter

Avril Lavigne

Crystal Bowersox

Jena Asciutto

Crystal Gayle

Nick Fradiani

Melvin Runecraft provided the voice of Evil Ava

Josh Kaufman

Kathi Jameson

All the guest stars in this episode voiced themselves unless otherwise noted.

In 2012, Queen of the Willis was canceled after six seasons due to low ratings. NoSirGifts tried to sell rights for reruns of the show, but it was hard to find boradcasters that were interested; NoSirGifts-owned independent stations eventually bought the rights, "[...] basically for free", according to the president of NoSirGifts Television Production. When the reruns were shown on NoSirGifts' independent stations in 2014, Queen of the Willis became the most-watched program in Fort Wayne, Denver (now an NBC affiliate), Milwaukee, Miami, Norfolk (now an ABC affiliate), and the third most-watched program on the company's Fox affiliates in Nashville, San Diego, Madison (Wisconsin), Austin (Texas), Lafayette (Indiana). Following Queen of the Willis' high ratings among NoSirGifts owned Fox affiliates and independent stations, and in ten markets where Fox affilated with a NoSirGifts-owned station became the number 1 station. The show's popularity and reruns rekindled NoSirGifts' interest in it. They ordered 45 new episodes in 2017, marking the first revival of a television show based on stong rerun ratings since Family Guy. NoSirGifts president Jackson Steele said that it was one of her most difficult decisions to cancel the show, and was therefore happy it would return.

"Ten Years to Life" was the first episode to be broadcast after the show's cancellation. It was written and directed by Zinn and believed the show's six-year hiatus was beneficial because many shows do not normally have hiatuses, and towards the end of their seasons "... you see a lot more LGBTQ and (bodily function) jokes and signs of a fatigued staff that their brains are just fried". With "Ten Years to Life", the writing staff tried to keep the show "... exactly as it was" before its cancellation, and did not "... have the desire to make it any slicker" than it already was.

In 2018, the bathroom and living room scenes from Therapist Hopping 2, along with The Story of Melissa's Mother's Heather's 60 second vomiting scenes as well as and the bedroom scene was reused in the tenth season premiere of Vote for the Girls with Ava Zinn & Alexandra Moffitt for a series of YouTube cross-over videos promoting Vote for the Girls's supported contestants. In the 10th season premiere of that show, Ava is watching Vote for the Girls on CBS, and informs Heather she watched one of the strangest episodes where she saw Ava Zinn sell her virginity to a 50 year old Denver, Colorado news anchorwoman and Heather tells Ava Willis that is was a bet Ava Zinn lost and works up the courage to tell Ava that she voted for Chloe Kohanski and Brynn Cartelli on The Voice. Ava gets enraged at the news as she voted for Addison Agen and Christiana Danielle, and orders Heather to reconsider.

In the bedroom scene from "Ten Years to Life", as Ava and Angie are having lesbian sex, Ava yells out Maddie Poppe's name, so Angie realizes that Ava is imagining her as the American Idol 16 winner to maintain her libido. In The Drunken Hoosier scene, Ava yells out Hannahlei Cabanilla's name as Ava and Angie have lesbian sex.

In the bathroom scene, Heather considers voting for contestants Milo Manheim and Juan Pablo di Pace on the 27th season of Dancing with the Stars (instead of Evanna Lynch and Aexis Ren following Tinashe's elimination), Jensen Arnold on the fifteenth season of So You Think You Can Dance, Glennis Grace on the thirteenth season of America's Got Talent, Chris Kroze on the fifteenth season of The Voice (instead of Reagan Strange, Sarah Grace, Kymberli Joye, Chevel Shepard, MaKenzie Thomas and Kennedy Holmes) , and some guy Ava Zinn really hates on the 17th season of American Idol (with Tabby mentioning Ava Zinn went undercover as a contestant to audition eight years earlier). In the first and fourth videos, Tabby brutally beats up Heather for her different votes, in their respective videos, asking "Where's my Vote for the Girls pick?" and forces her to vote for female contestants. In the second video, when Heather thinks about voting for Jensen Arnold, Tabby and Shushu does't beat Heather and Shushu instead says, "Well, it's about bloddy time you fucking cunt," and Tabby replies, "Now you're talking my language! Thank you, Heather!" with Shushu saying "I would have loved it if she won though, but Hannahlei (Cabanilla) won the fucking show." The scene cuts to the aforementioned Drunken Hoosier scene. In the third video, when Heather thinks about voting for Glennis, Tabbby doesn't beat her up and instead says, "Oh, fuck this. I'm not doing one for fucking America's Got Talent," referring to Archibald Coolranch's dominance.

Cultural references

The episode opens with Angie telling the rest of the family that Queen of the Willis has been canceled. She lists the following shows (in chronological order), that she says INNCD 47 has to make room for: Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy!, Eye for an Eye, The Big Bang Theory, CSI: Miami, Mike & Molly, The Mentalist, Ghost Whisperer, Partners, Two Broke Girls, The Job, Vegas, Bad Teacher, Reckless, Intelligence, Hostages, Unforgettable, Stalker, We Are Men, Under the Dome, Zoo, Pure Genius, Training Day, Wisdom of the Crowd, Scorpion, Me, Myself & I, Kevin Can Wait, Code Black, 9JKL, and Living Biblicaly Ava asks whether there is any hope, to which Angie replies that if all these shows are canceled they might have a chance, the joke being all these shows had indeed already been canceled by CBS or dropped by INNCD 47.

External links

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