Roger Codger
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| American Dad! Episode |
| "Roger Codger" | |
 |
|
| Episode no.: | 5 |
| Prod. code: | 1AJN04 |
| Airdate: | June 6, 2005 |
| Writer(s): | Dan Vebber |
| Director: | Albert Calleros |
| Guest star(s): | |
| Headline: | "Economy Turns Corner, Falls Down Stairs" |
"Roger Codger" is an episode of the TV animated series American Dad!.
It features the special voice participation of Patrick Stewart (as Bullock), Jason Marsden (as Gertie), Mike Henry (as Charlie), Jeff Fischer (as Jeff) and Phil Lewis (as Duper).
[edit] Plot
Stan is humiliated at work when a new agent, Duper, bests him in an operation simulation. He grows even more bitter when the new guy takes over his more prestigious assignments.
When Stan complains about this at home, Francine suggests that they invite his boss, Deputy Director Bullock (voiced by Patrick Stewart) to dinner, and some bootlicking. Because of that, however, Roger will have to hide in the attic all night. The alien complies, but when he finds himself out of a drink while watching his favorite show, Dynasty, he goes downstairs to get a refill. Meanwhile, Stan's dinner with his boss is going very well, until he sees Roger walk by the kitchen door. Stan makes an excuse, goes in the kitchen and pushes Roger into the bathroom, going in himself to scold Roger some more. When Bullock knocks on the door asking to come in to discuss Stan's promotion, Stan freaks and tries to get Roger to hide in the bathtub. This causes the Alien to get nervous and start gushing his ooze all over the bathroom. When Bullock forces his way in, Roger is already hidden, but the bathroom is filthy, and this costs Stan his promotion.
After Bullock leaves, Stan reprimends Roger on his behavior, which only causes the Alien to get even more stressed, and gush more ooze in the dinning room. When Stan finally tells him that the family would be better off without him, Roger feels sick and falls down, seemingly dead. Stan thinks he's just being a drama queen, and tells everybody to ignore him and go to bed. In the next morning, however, as Roges is still lying there, with flies hovering over him, Stan confirms that he is dead. He promises the family to give Roger's body a fitting funeral, but then throws it in a dumpster by a drive-through restaurant. Steve, who is extremely disappointed in Stan for his behavior, decides that he needs a new father figure, and ends up with Klaus as one.
Later, however, Roger later wakes up, in a landfill, and it is revealed that he had gone through a stress-induced hibernation. Desperate, Roger finally figures that he can go back home disguised as an old lady. While on his way, however, he gets confused with one of the senior citizens who are on their way for a tour in Washington D.C., and gets shoved into a shuttle. In it, Roger befriends an old lady who sympathizes with his family troubles. When in Washington, Roger visits the Oval Office, and decides to get hammered in it with his newfound friend. While drinking away, Roger's hat falls off and his alien image is captured by a camera of the internal security system.
Meanwhile, following Roger's death, Francine tries to get her priest to say a word for Roger, her "pet" in next Sunday's service. To her dismay, the priest informs her that only human beings are allowed into Heaven. Francine is extremely disappointed in a God who would not let Roger into Heaven, and loses her faith. Stan, on the other hand, starts dealing with his feelings of missing Roger. He goes to a psychologist, where he reminisses his first encounter with Roger: the alien had escaped containment in Area 51 and was running around the base looking for cover. Stan joined the pursuit squad and eventually cornered Roger in the kitchen. When he turned around to lead Roger out of there and turn him in, he bumped his head into a lamp and was knocked unconscious. Immediately after, the squad also locates the alien and floods the room with hand grenades. Roger drags Stan out, throwing Stan and himself into the laundry shoot just before the grenades explode. The two end up in a laundry transport truck going out of the base. When Stan comes to, he realized that the alien had saved his life and offers repayment. Thus, it is revealed how it was that Roger saved Stan's life in Area 51 and came to live with the family. As it turns out, however, the psychologist was working for the CIA, and all of Stan's colleagues were watching his session in secret. Stan is now seen as some "weak link" in the agency, a "girl".
When joining his team in the briefing room, Stan sees the footage from the White House that shows Roger. Bullock reveals then that they are certain that this is the alien that escaped from Area 51 four years ago, and orders him apprehended, so that they can also punish horribly whoever it was that harboured the alien for all that time (I mean, really horribly. Weird stuff. Butt stuff). In order to save his own butt, literally, Stan runs out, determined to find Roger before the CIA does and bring him home. As he is driving, however, he receives a call from a drunk Roger, who is calling from a pay phone in Washington to tell Stan off for dumping him in the garbage. When informed by Stan that the CIA is after him, he threatens to rat Stan and his family as the ones who harboured him. After hearing that, Stan decides that the only thing left to do to ensure his family's safety is to kill Roger before the CIA can get to him.
Roger continues his tour of Washington with his elderly friend, but he is shocked to find out that his new friend is actually a raging bigot, who hates Abraham Lincoln for having freed the slaves. He calls Hayley at home, asking the family to come pick him up. Hayley drag Steve and Francine with her, without telling the actual reason for the trip. They finally find Roger at the Smithsonian Museum, and upon seeing him alive, Francine's faith is restored, since she believes that a miracle has happened. Immediately after, however, Stan arrives, and he starts shooting at Roger while pursuing him across the museum. He finally corners the alien in a small room, but his family gets in the way, not willing to allow Roger to be executed. Then, the CIA, led by Bullock himself, knocks at the door, demanding that Stan delivers the alien. When Roger shows a disposition to turn himself in and be killed by Stan in order to save "his family", Stan changes his mind and decides that he must save Roger. He then has an idea: he strips naked and de-wigs the bigot old lady and turns her in as the alien. Bullock buys it and takes the "alien" in, promising Stan his old status back for the apprehension.
[edit] Cultural references
- Hayley's quote "Is this one of those Twilight Zones, but only with horrible, ironic consequences?" is a reference to The Twilight Zone episode Long Distance Call, where a little boy could talk to his dead grandmother on his toy phone.
- The character named "Gertie" is most likely a reference to E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. In that movie, Gertie was the name of Elliot's little sister.
- When Roger is lost in the city and trying to find his way home, he exclaims "Where's a trail of Reese's Pieces when you need one?" This is a reference to the movie E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, where E.T. follows a trail of Reese's Pieces.
- Duper's line "Lucy, you got some 'sploding to do" is a variation of Ricky Ricardo's line "Lucy, you got some 'splaining to do" on I Love Lucy. Duper even mimics Ricardo's accent while saying it.
- The woman in the picture Father Donovan points to while explaining that self-aware robots don't go to Heaven is Pris from Blade Runner.
- Father Donovan mentions sign-language gorillas, a reference to Koko.
- A Church sign reads "Bring your kids! Don't worry, we're Episcopalian." This is a reference to the Roman Catholic Church sex abuse scandal.
- While searching through Area 51, Stan says "I'll check out this lab, where the Theremin music is coming from." The Theremin is an electromusical instrument with a readily eerie swooping sound often exploited in pulp mystery and science fiction films.
- This episodes features the famous Wilhelm scream after Agent Duper throws a hand-grenade.
- When Stan accuses Roger of pretending to be dead, he calls him Ethan Hawke and tells him it's "time to make another awful Richard Linklater movie". And later, "Gattaca 2 finally got its financing."
- The popular 80's television drama, Dynasty, was portrayed as two women slapping and insulting each other repeatedly ("Bitch! Bitch!..." / "Slut! Slut!...").
[edit] Notes
- Langley Falls Post front page headline: "Economy Turns Corner, Falls Down Stairs."
- The green goo that Roger expels is called Xenoplasm.
- Roger's history on how he came about to live with the Smiths', as well as saving Stan's life back at Area 51 is revealed in this episode.
- According to the DVD commentary for this episode, all of the Dynasty shorts would've had the women saying "bitch" the whole time, but FOX has a Broadcast Standards and Practice rule that states that the word, "bitch", can only be said seven times in one half hour (There was a MADtv sketch-within-a-sketch from season 11 that made fun of this and other BS&P rules)
- This episode had a viewer discretion advisory before the beginning of the episode on FOX.
- The original broadcast of this episode on FOX scored a 4.7/7 rating, bringing the total viewers for the episode to 6.14 million.
- Adult Swim airdate: June 16, 2005.
- The original Sunday broadcast of this episode on Adult Swim received a total of 852,000 viewers among adults 18-34.
- This episode originally aired out of production order.
| Preceded by: "Francine's Flashback" |
American Dad! Episodes | Followed by: "Homeland Insecurity" |
