The DVD

"The DVD" is the first episode of Season 1 of The Amazing World of Gumball.

Synopsis
Gumball and Darwin go to extreme lengths to avoid paying a DVD fine.

Plot
The episode begins with Nicole asking Gumball to return a DVD of Alligators on a Train back to Laser Video to avoid paying a fine, and after a bit of deliberation and a violent outburst from Nicole, Gumball fearfully obliges.

He goes to the kitchen to ask Darwin of the DVD's whereabouts, only to find Darwin using the disc as a pizza cutter. Gumball grabs it from him and tries to clean it with a sponge, but he accidentally uses the rough side of it, scratching the disc up and causing him to freak out. In the ensuing panic, he accidentally drops the disc into the sink's garbage disposal, shredding it to pieces. Gumball then decides they need to find a way to replace the DVD without their mom finding out.

First, he tries to replace the DVD with a cardboard cut-out, but the trick fails to deceive Larry, who sends them increasingly urgent notices. Instead of facing the consequences, however, Gumball decides the next best solution is to beg for money on the street to pay off their debt, though unsurprisingly, it fails to work either (with the hobo getting rich in the process by taking their earnings and winning the lottery).

Back at home, Gumball and Darwin search for jobs in the newspaper, eventually settling on a job in cosmetics for make-up testing. The two go in a booth that manually applies the make-up, but Gumball suffers an allergic reaction, horrifying the employee.

They return home once more, where Gumball discovers a lot more letters from Laser Video. He realizes that he and Darwin are in trouble and he tells Darwin that they have to hide the letters before Nicole gets home. Then, they get a call from Nicole who suspects something is amiss; when the two try to assure her that the situation is under control, she suspects that they are lying and tells them she is coming home. Panicked, they double down on one last resort, however degrading and unlikely to work it may be. Right as Nicole arrives and discovers the letters from Laser Video, Gumball and Darwin run away from the house. A chase ensues, with Nicole trying to chase them down to reprimand them, but it ends when Nicole accidentally slams into a wall.

Gumball and Darwin arrive at Laser Video and hand over the disc, which turns out to be a homemade version of Alligators on a Train, featuring cardboard cut-outs and the pair's names exclusively in the credits. Larry is unconvinced, and they break down, telling him about what happened to the original DVD and begging him not to tell their mom, who turns out to be right behind them. She pays off the fine of twenty-five dollars for the lost DVD, telling Gumball and Darwin that she still loves them no matter what they do. Unfortunately, she fails to account for the late fee on the DVD, totaling seven hundred dollars, and the episode ends with a freeze frame of them running away from Larry to avoid paying it off.

Trivia

 * This episode has a merchandise DVD named after it.
 * A mobile application, Backyard Bolt, centers around Nicole's chase after Gumball and Darwin.
 * Nicole is the first character to speak in this episode, making her the first character to speak in the entire series. If one counts the early reel, Gumball is the first character to speak.
 * Nicole and Gumball are the first characters to appear in this episode, making them the first characters to appear in the entire series.
 * This episode reveals that Gumball is allergic to make-up, as shown when his face is severely swollen during the scene where they try to get money from doing a make-up test.
 * When this episode is shown by itself, or when it is seen on Hulu, an extended version of the Alligators on a Train credit song will play on the closing credits of the episode. It is the only episode to have an alternate credits theme.
 * Assuming thirty days is a month, a late fee of $700 over three months and three days means that it costs around $7.50 a day to rent from Laser Video.
 * A preview of the episode aired on May 3rd, 2011, and gathered 2.120 million viewers. When the full episode aired on May 9th, 2011, it gathered 1.937 million viewers.
 * Though this episode aired in the United States as the series premiere, it was actually the final episode of Season 1 to be produced.

Continuity

 * Laser Video is the first store that Larry is seen working in, though he works in many other stores in Elmore.

Cultural References

 * Darwin quotes an infamous anti-piracy video when Gumball suggests an illegal download of the movie to burn on the DVD.
 * Alligators on a Train is a spoof of Snakes on a Plane.
 * Nicole's line "I wasn't the one who watched Alligators on a Train seventy-two times" is a reference to "seen Star Wars twenty-seven times," a phrase that originated in Freaks and Geeks.
 * When Nicole jumps on Judith in the pool, there is a sound effect from the original Donkey Kong arcade game.
 * When Darwin uses the DVD as a pizza cutter, a logo hat reads "HD DVD" can clearly be seen on it. HD DVDs were manufactured by Toshiba and were the main high definition DVD format before the Blu-Ray format was released.
 * DVD players are not normally able to play HD DVDs, meaning that the Wattersons' DVD player may be a rare model.
 * At one point, Nicole phones home because her "mother senses are tingling." This is a reference to Spider-Man's "spider-sense."

Goofs/Errors

 * When Gumball is watching TV, the Laser Video letters are not on the floor. But when Darwin enters the room saying they received another letter from Laser Video, Gumball says to put them in the pile of letters that now appears on the floor. The letters then disappear again when the camera zooms out.
 * When both Gumball and Darwin wink, Darwin's eyelashes disappear. This also occurs when they are out on the streets to get money to pay for the DVD fine they owe Larry.
 * When Gumball and Darwin are running from Nicole, Gumball's whiskers disappear for a split-second.
 * Patrick is seen living in the same neighborhood as the Wattersons, but in "The Knights," he is seen living in a different neighborhood, even voicing his displeasure of the Wattersons' neighborhood.
 * When Nicole crashes into the ground, Darwin's shadow and eyelashes disappear.
 * Despite the fact that Gumball is allergic to makeup in this episode, he has no reaction to the makeup he wears in "The Procrastinators" and "The Worst."
 * When the camera zooms in on the pizza, the position of the pepperoni changes.