Don't Make Me Over (Family Guy)

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Family Guy Episode

"Don't Make Me Over"

Episode no.:

Prod. code:

4ACX03

Airdate:

June 5, 2005

Writer(s):

Gene Laufenberg

Director:

Alex Frost

Guest star(s):

Bob Widmer , Tara Strong, and Gene Simmons

For the Dionne Warwick song, see "Don't Make Me Over (song)".

"Don't Make Me Over" is the fourth episode of Season 4 of Family Guy. The working title of the episode was "Extreme Makeover: Meg Edition". Guest starring Bob Widmer as the Tin Man, Tara Strong as Meg Griffin singing, and Gene Simmons as himself.

[edit] Plot summary

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Meg asks Craig Hoffman on a date, but he turns her down. She looks to her family for support. In an effort to cheer her up, Lois takes Meg to the mall, where Channel 5 Asian reporter Tricia Takanawa is giving away free makeovers. Meg gets the ultimate makeover and instantly becomes popular.

The Griffin Family become singers.

Meanwhile, the Drunken Clam is suffering due to a mall built across the street, so Peter and friends drag out a Karaoke machine that Horace had kept in a storage room. When Peter, Cleveland, Quagmire and Joe team up to sing Journey's song Don't Stop Believin', people swarm to the bar. Thrilled with their success, the group starts a band and travel to their first gig at a prison. The band, named Fat, Horny, Black, and Joe, is about to launch into their opening number when they realize they don't know any songs, and the prisoners riot as a result. Peter's family, who are attending to support him, hastily take the stage and sing Buy Me a Rainbow. They are an enormous hit, and they sign a contract with a record executive, Jimmy Iovine (who was imprisoned for stomping on a cat).

Despite the family's talent, their producer Dr. Diddy is more interested in exploiting Meg's new look to make her a teen sex symbol. Meg's newfound stardom goes to her head, causing resentment among the other family members; nevertheless, they travel to New York to perform on Saturday Night Live. Meg is immediately seduced by Jimmy Fallon and loses her virginity to him; she fails to realize that the entire encounter is being aired on live television, despite the fact that Fallon keeps glancing at the camera and laughing. Peter attacks Fallon on stage and beats him up, because Peter dislikes his acting. The Griffins return home, where Meg reverts to her old look, saying "being beautiful is too much work." Lois replies sotto voce, "well, not for me."

[edit] Notes

The Craig Hoffman character is named after the Supervising Producer for the first three seasons.
Gene Simmons of KISS makes a cameo to encourage Peter. Simmons, an old friend of Lois, previously appeared in the episode “Road to Europe.”

[edit] Cultural references

The outfits and singing style of “Meg,” a Griffin “family band,” are similar to those of The Brady Bunch Variety Hour and The Partridge Family.
During the "1980s fixing-stuff-up montage," "One Foot In Front Of The Other" by Bone Symphony is heard. It played during a montage in the 1984 film Revenge of the Nerds.
As Stewie rides on Brian's back, he quotes Yoda from Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, saying "Strong with the force young Skywalker is." When Brian complains "I don't believe this", Stewie says "That is why you fail", like Yoda.
On a dare from Brian, Stewie runs naked through the mall, screaming, “Help! I’ve escaped from Kevin Spacey’s basement!,” a reference to tabloid questions regarding the actor’s sexuality.
News anchor Tom Tucker says that the next news story will concern “Joan Rivers speaking from beyond the grave,” despite the fact that the actress is still alive.
Peter and his friends attempt to revive the Drunken Clam with a “Coyote Ugly” theme that fails when Joe accidentally kicks himself in the head from dancing on his hands with his legs swinging in the air.
A cutaway shows Neil Armstrong faking the moon landing at a television studio called Stage 51, a reference to Area 51, a military base well known in conspiracy theory lore.
Also during the cutaway showing the fake moon landing, Neil Armstrong walks out of the studio, where he is approached by a fan, who questions why Armstrong is not on the moon. Armstrong stutters at various reasons as to why there is no moon landing, choosing instead to kill the fan with his helmet, and store the body in the trunk of his car. This could be a reference to when Buzz Aldrin attacked a skeptic who was insulting him about not being honest about the moon landing claims.
Brian barking at Dr. Diddy in a racist manner has a similar approach to the 1982 film White Dog. The plot revolves around a white German Shepherd trained by a racist to attack African Americans on sight.
Bill Cosby appears before a commercial break as he did in his 1970s-era animated series Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids.
For their band Peter dresses like a member of Devo, Cleveland like a member of a funk band, Joe like a glam rocker, and Quagmire like Tommy Lee, drummer of Mötley Crüe.
Peter attempts to satisfy angry inmates by telling a story about Lake Wobegon, the setting of Garrison Keillor’s radio show, A Prairie Home Companion, which often featured quaint stories of rural life.
Dr. Diddy's name is a cross between Dr. Dre and P. Diddy, two well-known hip hop music performers and producers.
Meg assertively asks Lois for Skittles. Miss Swan shows up when Meg is sassing Lois. Miss Swan was a character from Alex Borstein’s tenure on MADtv. Bornstein voices Lois. Peter later mocks MADtv, a competitor to Saturday Night Live.
Upon hearing that he will be on Saturday Night Live, Peter replies "You mean I'm going to get to meet John Belushi and Gilda Radner and Phil Hartman and Chris Farley and Horatio Sanz?" All are former cast members who are dead, except Sanz. This may imply that the overweight Sanz is likely next to die. Coincidentally, another SNL castmember died four months after this episode aired: Charles Rocket [infamous for being a member of SNL's first widely-panned cast (Jean Doumanian's season six cast that included a young Gilbert Gottfried and then-future Dick Ebersol cast members Eddie Murphy and Joe Piscopo) and uttering the "f-word" at the end of an episode)].
The episode mocks former SNL cast member Jimmy Fallon for "laughing and looking into the camera in every sketch [he’s] ever been in." While beating Fallon, Peter mentions that Carol Burnett used to do the same on her show but Fallon "hasn’t earned what she earned!"
When Lois worries that Meg might develop a “coke problem,” Peter replies “No Coke! Pepsi!” a catch phrase from the "Olympia Diner" sketches of the show’s late 1970s era.
This episode ends like a typical episode of Saturday Night Live with Peter, acting as the host, waving goodbye to the audience, surrounded the cast and musical guest, which was apparently Counting Crows. Peter exclaims, “Our thoughts are with you, Chevy,” presumably referring to Chevy Chase. It’s common for hosts to comfort former cast members who are facing some sort of turmoil like that, although Chase was not in the news for any such reason while this episode was in production. Peter may be generally referring to Chase’s recent career.
During the faux SNL episode ending, in the far right of the screen, Gene Simmon's of KISS can be seen licking (President) Bush. To the far left of the screen, Meg's former "real boyfriend" (an obviously dead and decaying person) can be see getting attacked by a wolf as was shown earlier in the episode.
After the faux SNL episode ends, It's Showtime at the Apollo begins. The variety show, filmed at the Apollo Theater, often airs after SNL on some NBC affiliates. It soon goes to Brian turning off the television and trying to defend his decision, ("I can't be tired at one in the morning?") keeping in line with the problems of seemingly being racist from earlier in the episode.

[edit] Incidental music

While the Clam is a karaoke bar, Mort Goldman performs Maureen McGovern’s 1973 hit "There's Got to be a Morning After."
Peter, Cleveland, Joe, and Quagmire sing "Don't Stop Believin'" a 1981 hit from Journey. Shortly after the premiere of the episode, the song made its way to number four on iTunes.