The Father, the Son, and the Holy Fonz

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Family Guy Episode

"The Father, the Son, and the Holy Fonz"

Episode no.:

Prod. code:

4ACX22

Airdate:

December 18, 2005

Writer(s):

Danny Smith

Director:

James Purdum

Guest star(s):

Charles Durning, Tom Bosley, Marion Ross, Gary Cole, Sherman Hemsley, Paula Abdul

"The Father, the Son, and the Holy Fonz" is an episode from season 4 of FOX animated television series Family Guy. Guest starring Charles Durning as Francis Griffin, Tom Bosley as Howard Cunningham, Marion Ross as Marion Cunningham, Gary Cole as Bill Lumbergh, Sherman Hemsley as himself, and Paula Abdul as herself.

The title of the episode is a combined reference to Roman Catholic liturgy and Happy Days. The episode deals with Peter's religious beliefs. The episode title is also a parody of a common Christian invocation often said with the Sign of the cross: In The name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen..

[edit] Plot summary

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Francis Griffin, Peter's father, who is very devout in the Catholic faith, visits Quahog and insists that Stewie must be baptized Catholic. Francis and Peter go to St. Philip's, where the priest refuses to baptize Stewie because he claims the holy water is tainted. Francis does not believe this and pushes Stewie onto the baptismal font. Stewie quickly becomes sick, so Peter and Lois take him to the hospital, where a doctor quickly and correctly diagnoses Stewie's condition as exposure to tainted holy water. Stewie is quarantined in a germ-free environment. Lois asks Peter what his religious beliefs are, sending him on a quest to find a religion. At first he tries Mormonism, until he found out that Mormons can't drink alcohol, then he tries Jehovah's Witnesses, until he finds someone actually interested in hearing what he has to say — caught flatfooted, Peter recites the prologue to Quantum Leap with Jesus in the role of time traveller Sam Beckett. Then he tries many others such as Hinduism, until Francis tells Peter he should look in his heart, so Peter starts his own religion: the First United Church of the Fonz. This new religion borrows surface elements from Catholicism but uses Happy Days episodes as its sacred texts. To the Griffins' surprise, many people show up for the first worship service.

Brian, who's been playing jokes on Stewie, does not like the idea of Peter being a religious leader. Brian joins forces with Francis to find other fad religions to dissipate the congregation of the First United Church of the Fonz. Lois cheers Peter up by telling him that if even just one person embraced the Fonz's values of friendship, it was all worthwhile. This person turns out to be his father.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Notes

In the episode "The Son Also Draws", Peter went on a vision quest and his spirit guide was Fonzie.
The ending credits runs just like the Happy Days credits, the format and the text are identical, in an animated form.
It is the only episode of Family Guy to be rated TV-MA on Cartoon Network, primarily because of its irreverent take on religion, its depictions of nudity, and scenes of Stewie being abused while in the plastic bubble. On FOX, this is rated TV-14.
On the DVD commentary, one of the cast members, while discussing the Vaudville Duo, said, "God rest their souls", accidentally hinting of their death in "Saving Private Brian", which aired just 12 days before the DVD's were released.

[edit] Cultural references

The opening scene shows the Griffin family watching Aquaman on television portrayed as a lazy, unfair ruler who abuses his powers to command sea-life by giving them trivial errands.
In the opening sequence, Peter summons Bill Lumbergh from the film Office Space to tell Lois she needs to "not complain about this" and then, "and if you could sit at the kids' table, that'd be great."
Stewie tells the audience to go watch Desperate Housewives on ABC for five seconds to see how ugly the women are. He then makes a comment about actress Marcia Cross's face looking like someone stretching silly-putty over their knee. The first half-hour of Desperate Housewives's timeslot competes with Family Guy on FOX and, in most of Canada, Global. Ironically, during the premeire of the episode, when Stewie told viewers to turn for 5 seconds, Desperate Housewives was in a commercial break.
Brian torments Stewie by forcing him to watch The View. In this version, the women act very much like farm hens, clucking and such as they sit. Star Jones Reynolds even lays an egg. Coincidentally, there was a MADtv sketch in season 10 where it portrayed the female hosts of The View as clucking, cackling hens. This is in part of the criticism of the show in which many complain that there is too much talking.
Peter watches Jaws 5: Fire Island, where everybody seems to be a stereotypical homosexual. Mike Henry, using his voice for the performance artist, does the voice of the great white shark.
Peter dances with Paula Abdul in footage of the video for Opposites Attract. He is superimposed over the animated role of MC Skat Kat, and sings an altered version of the original song's lyrics.
Peter describes Jesus going through a journey similar to Quantum Leap.
Stewie bathes with Kathy Bates in a parody of a scene in About Schmidt.
When Francis baptizes Stewie "in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost", Peter adds in "and Space Ghost". Space Ghost was the protagonist of both an old Hanna-Barbera television show, and a parody late-night talk show from the mid 90s.
The baptismal font that Stewie is baptized in does not look like the font Catholics use.
When Stewie collapses sick, he requested to not to be treated by a black doctor. Later in the hospital a black doctor gave Lois Stewie's diagnosis.
When the doctor tells Lois and Peter of Stewie's condition, Lois asks if Stewie "will have to go through what John Travolta did in that movie". Peter fearfully asks if he'll have to take Stewie's face off, like in Face/Off, in which the protagonist and antagonist traded faces. Lois then states that she was referring to The Boy in the Plastic Bubble.
The vaudeville duo sings "Fatty's in a little jam, dead girl, dead girl" to the tune of Camptown Races, and probably refers to Fatty Arbuckle.
After Peter converts to Mormonism, he says that one of his new wives is the "Kramer" of his collection, a reference to Seinfeld.
A man tells his wife to imagine "a happy healthy baby boy at play. Now put him in a magic bubble and release him into the universe." When Stewie, in a bubble, rolls by, the man tells his wife to imagine Lindsay Lohan naked and doing a backwards crab walk. Later on, Lohan appears at Peter's door doing just that.
Stewie announces that he has had a horrible morning rolling around in his bubble, with the flashback imitating the Pinball Number Count sequence featured on Sesame Street sung by the Pointer Sisters.
Kirk Cameron (who did not provide his voice in this episode) appears at the First United Church of The Fonz to convert some of the members of Peter's church to Christianity. In reality, the former Growing Pains star is an evangelical Christian himself.
When watching television, Peter listens to television announcers that start light and airy and quickly turns dark at the drop of a hat. This was surprisingly commonplace in the 1980s.
Peter incorporates a number of elements from Fonzie in his religion. Peter tells the congregation to "sit on it", and then "let us 'Eeeyy'", two of Fonzie's catch phrases. There is also a motorcycle in the church, as well as a jukebox, a reference to Fonzie's trademark move of pounding his hand on a jukebox to automatically make it play his song. Peter also refers to the "mystery" of Richie's older brother (who was never seen again after the first episode of Happy Days) and reads a lesson to the congregation from "Potsie's Letter to the Tuscaderos."
After everyone leaves Peter's religion, Peter, Brian, and Francis talk about their disgust with Madonna's career, attitude, clothing choice, father issues, and the men she has dated.
After Stewie is released from his bubble, he says to Brian that he and his friends at Cobra Kai will take him down, referring to the name of the gang of bullies in The Karate Kid.
The ending sequence of Family Guy mirrors that of the opening for Happy Days and uses the song "Rock Around the Clock" by Bill Haley and his Comets, the opener for Happy Days' seasons 1 and 2.
In a flashback, Peter buys a Aaron Neville megaphone.