“ | I may be blind ... | „ |
- Toots' catchphrase, of which he opened many of his speeches with. |
Toots was Joan of Arc's foster grandfather. He was a blind African-American jazz oboe player, who gave Joan grandfatherly advice. He dated Cleo's Foster Mom and moved in with her family. He first appeared in "A.D.D.: The Last D is for Disorder" and remained a regular character until the Season 2 episode, "Sleepover", where Toots was killed off-screen in a clarinet accident, while the clones were frozen and was replaced by Candide Sampson as Joan's new foster parent. He is voiced by Donald Faison.
Biography[]
Season 1[]
In "A.D.D.: The Last D is for Disorder", Toots introduced himself during a PTA meeting about Gandhi having A.D.D. and its hyperactive cousin, A.D.H.D. He said that despite being blind, he could see that everybody was making decisions based on fear and ignorance. Toots admitted that he only came into this meeting because he was trying to go to Giovanni's Italian restaurant. After realizing his mistake, he left and everybody went back to rioting against Gandhi again.
In "Homecoming: A Shot in D'Arc", Toots drove home and ran over a trash can. When he heard that Joan wasn't being accepted onto the basketball team because she's a girl, Toots told her that when he was her age, he couldn't play on the basketball team because he was black, but he still broke the barriers anyway, and encouraged Joan to do the same. Toots threw the basketball behind him and scored a goal perfectly, claiming that he still got it after all these years. Toots then walked directly into a wall.
In "A Room of One's Clone: The Pie of the Storm", Toots noticed how chilly the hurricane was, not realizing he was sitting in front of the opened refrigerator. When Joan was afraid her house would be destroyed, Toots told her that he built the house like Noah's ark and it would never be flooded, only for it to catch on fire and burn down when it was struck by lightning. While the house was destroyed, Toots lived under the bleachers at Clone High High School with Joan. All hope was not lost as Toots announced that he had started dating Cleo's Drunk Foster Mom, meaning that they'd be moving into her house with Joan's worst enemy, Cleopatra. Unfortunately, Toots was blind to Joan's pain. Toots was very much in love with Cleo's Drunk Foster Mom and was very open and unfiltered about his sexual exploits with her, even while Joan was present. Toots would also have BSDM sex with Cleo's Drunk Foster Mom.
In "Snowflake Day: A Very Special Holiday Special", Toots was blind to how much Joan hated Snowflake Day and when she was sad and upset, all Toots could think of doing was dancing the cabbage patch. Toots went out into the cold weather to look for Joan and mistook a Cougar for her and took it home with him. The cougar chewed through Toots' achilles tendon, prompting Toots to shoot it to death, while still believing it to be Joan. Toots was surprised to see Joan return home after he previously thought he had killed her, but nonetheless was happy to see her.
In "Makeover Makeover Makeover: the Makeover Episode", Toots heard Joan crying and assumed she was laughing and then started telling her jokes about Popes. When Joan explained that she was sad about Abe not loving her back, Toots had the idea to give her a makeover. However, on account of Toots' blindness, he botched her makeover horribly. Not only did he mutilate Cleo's pet poodle by mistake but he also got himself hit by a truck, while balancing books on his head. When the makeover was over, Joan was surrounded by a dress of tires, wearing a torn up and stained shirt, all topped off with a football helmet, which only made her cry even more. Toots assumed she was laughing again and went off to his tennis match, using a pickaxe as a tennis racket. When Cleo presented Joan's brand new and final makeover, Toots stared in awe at a wall. After taking a picture of his beautiful granddaughter before she went off to prom, Toots said that he was off to go watch a silent movie and then threw a basketball out the door, mistaking it for Joan and then one again, crashed into a wall.
In "Changes: The Big Prom: The Sex Romp: The Season Finale", he was part of the conga line that Scudworth organized to enter the freezer.
Season 2[]
In "Sleepover", Joan comments that Toots had died because of a clarinet accident while she was still frozen. As Toots was also frozen, it is currently unknown in what capacity the accident took place in, or if Toots was unfrozen before or after Joan was. Later in the same episode, Joan mentioned how she remembers how Cleo lived with her, while Toots and Cleo's Drunk Foster Mom dated briefly, suggesting their relationship is over and Cleo no longer lives with them.
In "Saved by the Knoll", Joan remembers how as a kid in the early 90's, Toots took her to see John Cougar Mellencamp in concert at Carnegie Hall, where it was announced that he'd be dropping the "Cougar" from his name.
Appearance[]
Toots was an elderly African-American blind man with a balding head of curly gray hair and a little soul patch on his chin. He wore black sunglasses, a black tuxedo with a pink shirt, and a tan straw hat with a magenta stripe. Toots always carried around a black clarinet, which he used as a walking stick. Under his glasses, Toots had two big brown holes in his face, where one's eyes would usually be.
Personality[]
Toots was a stupid, clumsy, and possibly senile blind man, who made constant buffoonish mistakes on account of his lack of vision, many of which resulted in himself or others getting hurt. As a blind man, Toots was very poorly trained and failed to accept the limitations of his disability, making him feel as though it was okay for him to drive. However, he was still a very kind and loving grandfather to his adopted clone, Joan of Arc, except for that time he demonstrated having no problem with murdering her in "Snowflake Day: A Very Special Holiday Special". At many times, Toots had been a very wise and knowledgeable man, who gave Joan advice all the time. However, Joan usually failed to understand him, so his advice fell on deaf ears. Toots was blind not only physically but also metaphorically. He was bad at reading emotions and constantly failed to notice when his granddaughter was in times of distress, and always assumed she was in a happy mood.
Episode Appearances[]
- A.D.D.: The Last D is for Disorder
- Homecoming: A Shot in D'Arc
- A Room of One's Clone: The Pie of the Storm
- Raisin the Stakes: A Rock Opera in Three Acts
- Snowflake Day: A Very Special Holiday Special
- Makeover Makeover Makeover: the Makeover Episode
- Changes: The Big Prom: The Sex Romp: The Season Finale
- Sleepover (Mentioned; Deceased)
- Saved by the Knoll (Mentioned)
Trivia[]
- Toots resembled blind African-American jazz musician, Ray Charles.
- Toots was possibly a devout Christian, as he had a golden Jesus Fish (Ichthys) on the trunk of his yellow station wagon.
- Despite his blindness causing him to fail most tasks, Toots was surprisingly very good at basketball.
- Toots built his house all by himself.
- Some of Toots' hobbies included playing tennis, watching silent movies, and telling jokes about Popes.
- Toots was killed off the show in Season 2, having been mentioned to have been killed in a clarinet accident, while the clones were all frozen.
- However, Toots was seen getting frozen in the flash freezer, along with the rest of the clones, so it's unknown how this could have happened.