Bob’s Burgers: OriginsOVERVIEW (SPOILERS)Bob agonizes over upping the menu prices due to inflation while the kids work on a music project secretly about their parents, prompting a flashback to when Bob and Linda first opened the restaurant and Bob’s overwhelming anxiety in finally having to believe in himself.OUR TAKEAs I mourn the loss of The Great North, cancelled only yesterday after five strong seasons (not even reaching a hundred episodes) and a well timed finale, I am glad to be able to jump into a new season of the show it spawned from: Bob’s Burgers, which is now on the cusp of its three hundredth episode. In fact, this episode we’re reviewing today, which is the two hundred and ninety ninth, may actually be the actual three hundredth just bumped up a bit early. If that seems like a weird claim, let me explain. It’s an episode that forgoes the usual intro music, it focuses on previously unseen moments from the Belchers’ past (being careful to make everything look and sound timeless so they can account for the show’s sliding time scale), and oh yeah, it actually is the three hundredth episode by production order. Unless the next episode, which is a Gayle centered story, turns out to be a more momentous occasion, I think it’s safe to say that they just moved up the three hundredth episode to the premiere since it would be a strong one to open on.And thankfully, the episode itself is also a damn fine way to kick off this season, not just because of the new things it shows us about Bob and Linda right before they became restaurant owners and parents, but also what it shows us about the heart of the show that has remained a decade and a half later. The present day pressure to raise the food prices is a microcosm of how Linda pushes Bob to push himself to do better for himself and his family, but it’s also good framing device for us seeing the beginnings of not just the restaurant and Tina, who is born by the end, but also their friendships with Teddy and Mort, how they first got the lease from Mr. Fischoeder, and how Speedo Guy quit what seemed like a promising career in order to be a roller skating guy in a speedo (a subplot that couldn’t help but make me think of how the two hundredth episode of Family Guy did something similar for Greased Up Deaf Guy). Oddly enough, this is also the only one of these hundredth episodes to not have Hugo in some way. And while the Belcher children are not active parts of the episode, they are still emblematic of the themes of love and support the series has maintained, secretly making a song based on their parents. I think I might like the hundredth episode, “Glued, Where’s My Bob” a bit more, but this is more than a good sign that Bob’s Burgers is going strong. See you at 400. Or next week, whichever comes first.