If I'm Dyin', I'm Lyin'
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| Family Guy Episode | |
|---|---|
| "If I'm Dyin', I'm Lyin'" | |
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| Episode no.: | 16 |
| Prod. code: | 1ACX12 |
| Airdate: | April 4, 2000 |
| Writer(s): | Chris Sheridan |
| Director: | Swinton O. Scott III |
| Guest star(s): | Martin Mull , Fred Tatasciore |
"If I'm Dyin', I'm Lyin'" is an episode from the FOX animated television series Family Guy. It was produced for season 1 but aired in season 2. Guest starring Martin Mull as Mr. Harris and Fred Tatasciore as Chevy Chase.
[edit] Plot summary
Peter becomes very upset when NBC cancels his favorite show - Gumbel 2 Gumbel - Beach Justice - a cop drama starring brothers Bryant Gumbel and Greg Gumbel. To get the show back on the air, Peter tells the "Grant-A-Dream" Foundation (a parody of the Make-A-Wish Foundation) that being able to watch the show is Chris's dying wish (he made up a disease called "tumorsyphilisitisosis", which most say "Hmm, sounds sexy.").
An agreement is brokered between Grant-A-Dream and NBC in which the Gumbel show will be put back on the air if NBC can film Chris's death. When Chris doesn't die, Peter casually claims to have cured him. Thus Peter gets a reputation for being a healer, and when people start worshipping him as a god, seven plagues fall on his house. Peter eventually admits that he is not God thus ending the plagues and saving Chris' life.
[edit] Cultural references
- Gumbel 2 Gumbel shares elements with 1980s TV shows such as Miami Vice and Hart to Hart, and also has reference to the TV show Pacific Blue. The title may be a spoof of Jungle 2 Jungle.
- Peter writes a letter to try and save the show Coach, referencing Craig T. Nelson in the letter.
- In one scene, Hollywood Squares is parodied with its celebrity guests LL Cool J, Charles Grodin, Fran Drescher, Scott Bakula, Whoopi Goldberg, Suzanne Sommers, Dennis Rodman and Betty White. The comical attitude of Hollywood Squares was caught in the episode too, the host asks the sick kid if there is anything lower than absolute zero, and he says "my white cell count."
- In the NBC boardroom, one of the men suggests that they have a new show about a single white girl in the city working at a magazine. This is much like many of sitcoms aired on NBC at the time of this episode (particularly Just Shoot Me, Caroline in the City, and Suddenly Susan), which is why one of the executives dismisses the idea as "the same crap over and over" and suggests that they "take a chance" and "do something fresh", to which the dissident is beaten with a Just Shoot Me poster.
- Peter's black cousin Rufus Griffin had starred in movies called "Caddyblack", "Blackdraft", and "Black Kramer vs Kramer". These are parodies of the movies Caddyshack, Backdraft, and Kramer vs Kramer
- In a cutaway, Back to the Future is spoofed with Peter's black cousin, Rufus Griffin in a film called Black to the Future. The De Lorean time machine, meeting up with his teenager mother, and performing at the school dance are spoofed in the scene. As well as the Chuck Berry phonecall during the dance was replaced with the bandmember calling Isaac Hayes instead.
- In the scene where Peter is pleading to God, he mentions he's a fraud like the Moon Landing, Marky Mark, and Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman's marriage (at the time of this episode, they were still married).
- The seven plagues are from the biblical story of Moses in Ancient Egypt when he told to let the Hebrews go and when King Ramses refused, God sent 10 plagues down: the Nile River turns red with blood, swarm of frogs, swarm of gnats, plague of flies causing disease, disease on livestock, festering boils on the Egyptians, raining hail, hoard of locusts, darkness over the land for three days and last was the death of every firstborn but if lamb's blood was painted over the door then God shall not let the plague enter. The plagues the Griffins didn't have were flies and disease on livestock.
[edit] References
- S. Callaghan, "If I'm Dyin', I'm Lyin'." Family Guy: The Official Episode Guide Seasons 1-3. New York: HarperCollins, 2005. 74 - 77.
- A. Delarte, "Nitpicking Family Guy: Season 2" in Bob's Poetry Magazine, 2.May 2005: 15 - 16 http://bobspoetry.com/Bobs02My.pdf
| Preceded by: "I Am Peter, Hear Me Roar" |
Family Guy Episodes | Followed by: "Running Mates" |
