Undercover Boss - Johnny Rocket Episode

Sunday, December 12, 2010 - On Undercover Boss, the President and CEO of Johnny Rocket, John Fuller, goes undercover to discover what the hard workers on the front lines already know - what exactly is the company doing to grow a great business and what can be improved? Along the way this divorced father of two daughters learns a lot about himself as well.

Johnny Rocket is a 50s theme nostalgia restaurant with headquarters in Southern California. CEO John Fuller came in as "the financial guy," and has never worked a day in his life in a restaurant, but all of that is about to change. Job #1 is in Manhattan, New York, working with AJ to learn to cook Johnny Rocket style. AJ begins teaching the Undercover Boss, posing as Tom Carter. AJ takes the cooking very seriously, and trains Tom in the proper techniques for mixing tuna salad and grilling burgers. After some practice, he quizzes Tom by making him cook a specific meal. Then AJ bites in to the burger, declares it too pink, and dumps it in the garbage, hurting Tom's feelings.

On break, while eating his own concoction of mushroom cheese fries, AJ reveals that he was going to school for a music career, and he does an impromptu rap song to demonstrate his interests. He also says that he submitted his idea for a new menu item to "corporate," but hasn't heard anything from them. Then he puts Tom to work cleaning grills and making fries.

Job #2 takes Tom to a restaurant in a casino in Connecticut, hoping to find out why this is their most successful restaurant. This franchise has a breakfast menu, so he begins bright and early with a bubbly waitress named Janice. She has a lot of regulars, whom she greets warmly and takes an obvious interest in. Then it is time for the trademark dancing. However, Janice admits that the dances "corporate" sends out stink, so she's choreographed a bunch of her own for her wait staff to perform. She demonstrates and Tom gamely and stiffly tries to keep up, although even he admits that he's "whatever is below an F." The customers love the dancing, though.

On break, Janice begins questioning the Undercover Boss, trying to find out all about him in her friendly way. Finally he is able to turn the conversation to her, and learns she has four daughters whom she spends as much time with as possible. "You can party when they are in college," she points out. However, since she is the breadwinner, she also has to put in plenty of hours keeping her household afloat, esp. since she learned from her Dad to make the memories while you have your health. He died before he got to do the things he dreamed of and didn't want her to miss out.

Job #3 is in New York, New York at a Sports Lounge with a full bar. There are few customers, but unfortunately two of them are the in-laws of the franchise owner, whom John met once and who recognize this undercover boss instantly. He is able to talk to them privately before the bartender, Claudia, realizes what is going on, and they agree to keep mum. Claudia teaches Tom how to mix drinks, but business is really slow, so they end up out on the sidewalk passing out fliers to try to make people aware of all that they offer.

While they are there, Claudia talks simply about her hard-knock life and says that Johnny Rocket is her family now. John, afraid that she won't have enough tips to keep her working, calls a secret meeting with the franchise owner, giving him ideas for making the sports bar aspect of the restaurant a little more prominent and lucrative.

Job #4 is in Atlantic City, New Jersey at the Boardwalk, as a food runner. This is similar to a waiter, except the customers order and pay at the counter and then are seated, so the runners only have to deliver the food, speeding up turnover and improving tips. Tom is paired with Tony, a genial guy who teaches him to make smiley faces with the ketchup. When the two take a break, Tony talks about the chance Johnny Rocket took on him when they found him living under the boardwalk. His life came unraveled when his daughter was murdered and the murderer wasn't apprehended. Tony went and assaulted him, for which Tony was jailed for three years, then lived on the streets until the franchise owner of Johnny Rocket took a chance on him and gave him a job. Tony is working hard to get his life back together, and still blames himself for not protecting his daughter. "Go home and make sure your kids are safe," he advises Tom. When John gets back to the hotel, he immediately calls his daughters, one of whose birthday he has missed.

Now it is time for Tom Carter, Undercover Boss, to transform back in to John Fuller, President of Johnny Rocket Restaurants. He immediately talks to his executive team about a new training program for every executive they hire, whereby they will go and work in a variety of positions in various Johnny Rocket venues so they don't just give opinions without knowing what they are really talking about. He is embarrassed that he didn't do it sooner and wants the program to commence right away.

Now it is time for the employees Tom met to come meet John and discover this undercover boss for themselves. Janice is asked to help design dances for a video that all the stores will use, and she will be compensated accordingly. John also decides to send Janice and her family to the Grand Canyon, to honor her father, who never got to go. Furthermore, he is setting up a college fund for each of her four children.

AJ, whose style John admired, is informed that his mushroom cheese fries will be dubbed the AJ Special and tried out on some test menus. He will also be flown, with a guest, to the AMA Music Awards for a walk down the red carpet and a visit to the green room. AJ makes some contacts there and is currently talking to recording studios about his music.

John tells Claudia that he is worried about her being able to ride out the new marketing plans to bring more business to the franchise she works for, so he plans to pay her rent for a year so she can continue to work while they improve the location.

Tony, whose plight touched John deeply, will be sent, with his remaining children, to an amusement park of his choice. Also, $5,000 will be donated to the Center for Missing and Exploited Children in his daughter's name, and $5,000 will be given to him directly, so he can get a place to stay and not have to live on the razor edge all the time. Tony, who was worried about taking time off to come to headquarters, is overwhelmed with gratitude at actually being seen and cared about.

The whole company is assembled, along with John's two daughters, who are highly amused at the bloopers video of their Undercover Boss Dad. John is honored to have such great employees working for his company; he's also newly aware of how precious time spent with his daughters will be from now on!

Sources: watching Undercover Boss on CBS