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program. For example, in “North by North Quahog,” Peter recalls the time he
experimented with gene splicing and ended up with the head of a moose on
his body. In “A Very Special Family Guy Freakin’ Christmas” (December 21,
2001), Peter remembers the time he was taping Monday Night Football with-
out the express written permission of the National Football League, and an
FBI swat team burst into his house, riddling his VCR with bullets. Finally, in
“When You Wish Upon a Weinstein,” Peter recalls having been eaten by big-
mouthed self-help guru Tony Robbins at a book signing.
Despite such interruptions, the episodes of Family Guy do have main nar-
ratives, which are often reminiscent of episodes of The Simpsons or even The
Flintstones, though generally going well beyond such predecessors in outra-
geousness. Thus, there are the requisite attempts to get into show business,
to garner greater financial success, or to avoid the temptations of marital
infidelity. There are also film parodies, and some of the best episodes of
Family Guy involve extended parodies of specific films or film genres. For
example, most of the episode “Wasted Talent” (July 25, 2000) is a takeoff on
the well-known film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971), except that
the Wonka Chocolate Factory is replaced by the Pawtucket Patriot Brewery.
Family Guys from King of the Hill to American Dad
91
Here, Peter drinks case after case of Pawtucket Patriot Beer and finally finds
one of the four silver scrolls hidden in random beers that allow the bearer to
enter the mysterious brewery for a private tour conducted by the reclusive
Pawtucket Pat himself. (Joe is one of the winners as well, though he is unable
to enter the brewery because it doesn’t have wheelchair access.) The tour
then echoes that of the chocolate factory in the film, complete with singing
Chumba Wumbas (instead of Oompa Loompas). Unfortunately, Peter and
Brian get ejected from the factory for excessive farting after drinking perma-
nently carbonated beer, echoing the belching scene of the original. All is not
lost, however. Peter comes home drunk and discovers that, when inebriated,
he is a piano prodigy—which allows him to win an important piano contest
and allows Lois, as his teacher, to defeat her longtime rival, Alex Radcliffe.
Unfortunately, the amount of drinking required to win the contest kills all
of his brain cells but one. The episode then ends with a typical Family Guy
extra comic bit: The single brain cell is delighted at last to have quiet time
alone to read, but then drops and breaks its glasses and is unable to read
at all—just like Burgess Meredith’s Henry Bemis in the classic Twilight Zone
episode “Time Enough at Last” (November 20, 1959).
“Da Boom,” like all other episodes of Family Guy, is chock full of pop cul-
tural references, though it gets outside the normal family sitcom framework
and suddenly makes the program into a riff on postapocalyptic science fic-
tion. Here, Peter gets Y2K fever (though he at first thinks Y2K is “some kind
of sex jelly”) and becomes convinced that the upcoming New Year will bring
an apocalyptic end to civilization as we know it. He stocks up on food and
water and prepares to take refuge in the family basement, while his friends
and family members scoff at his concerns. He manages to lure the family
into the basement anyway (though he has to throw Lois down the stairs),
which helps them to survive the all-out chaos that occurs as midnight
arrives. They emerge into a grim, postapocalyptic landscape, with Peter
gleefully gloating that his fears were justified. The family is also healthy and
mutation free—as opposed to the neighbors, who suffer a variety of bizarre
maladies; for example, Joe has been fused to his driveway, while Cleveland
and Quagmire have been fused to each other.
The family also has food, unlike anyone else in Quahog. Tom Tucker and
Dianne Simmons, for example, are forced to devour Asian reporter Trish
Takanawa in order to stay alive, at which Peter quips that eating her is use-
less because they’ll just be hungry again in an hour. On the other hand,
Peter devours the entire year’s worth of dehydrated meals that he has stowed
away in the basement and then nearly explodes when he takes a drink of
water, forcing the Griffin clan to go on the road to look for more food. Peter
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Drawn to Television
knows of a Twinkee [sic] factory in nearby Natick, Massachusetts, so they
head there, assuming that Twinkees can survive almost anything. On the
way, they encounter a variety of dangers, including a Road Warrior–style
gang of bandits and (even worse) Randy Newman singing and playing
piano. Eventually, they reach the factory and start to devour the remaining
Twinkees, dreaming of building a utopian New Quahog around the bounty
of the factory—with Peter as mayor for life. Unfortunately, radioactive con-
tamination in the area turns Stewie into a weird purple octopus creature,
which then gives birth to hundreds of identical octopus babies. Meanwhile,
Peter’s sudden determination to use the utopian community’s metal
resources to manufacture guns causes the entire Griffin family to be ejected
from New Quahog. As they walk sadly away, Peter admits he was wrong
and that no one needs guns—just as Stewie’s babies attack and destroy the
town, which has now been made defenseless by burning the guns manu-
factured by Peter. Not to worry, however. As the episode ends (with the
Griffins headed for Framingham to look for a Carvel factory), we cut to a
live-action shot of a sleeping Victoria Principal (as Pamela Barnes Ewing),
who suddenly awakes. It was all her dream, of course—just as the death [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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