A Hero Sits Next Door

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“A Hero Sits Next Door”
Family Guy episode
Lois & Stewie meet Joe Swanson
Episode no.	Season 1 Episode 5
Guest stars	Michelle Kwan
Written by	Matt Weitzman and Mike Barker
Directed by	Monte Young
Production no.	1ACX05
Original airdate	May 2, 1999
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"Mind over Murder"	"The Son Also Draws"
List of Family Guy episodes

"A Hero Sits Next Door" is an episode of Family Guy from Season One. Guest starring Michelle Kwan as herself.

[edit] Plot summary

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Mr. Weed introduces Guillermo, a ringer he hired to ensure the company's victory at the annual softball game. Peter injures Guillermo with a wild pitch during practice and must find a new player to replace him. He discovers his new neighbor, Joe Swanson, played ball in college and invites him to play; when Joe shows up on the field, however, Peter (and the other players) are horrified to see that he is wheelchair-bound. Joe turns out to be a fantastic player, however, and leads the team to victory. In addition, he is also a heroic policeman, and soon becomes very popular to others. The fame of Joe makes Peter jealous, and wants to be a hero too. Peter decides to perform a heroic deed to compete with Joe and attempts to stop a bank robbery in progress. He and Brian are taken hostage until Joe convinces the robbers to surrender. Peter is disappointed, but his family tells him that he is their hero.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Notes

Joe Swanson identifies himself as a "police lieutenant" in this episode, yet in every episode showing him in uniform he's drawn with the rank insignia of a private.

Stewie is momentarily hypnotised by the Teletubbies show. The characters in the show feature different antennas on their head (resembling TV antenna) than their real versions do, for instance, one has rabbit-ears antennae, another with a satellite dish, etc.

In this episode, Joe, Bonnie and Kevin Swanson are introduced.

This is the first episode not to have the word "death" or the word "murder" in the title. The writing staff has remarked that they initially planned to give each episode a bizarrely macabre title, but dropped the approach after the first four episodes because they were getting the episodes mixed up.

When the bankrobbers take the gun back from Peter, one of them has a prosthetic arm.

[edit] Goofs

The "GO _UCK YOURSELF __" puzzle on Wheel of Fortune could not possibly contain the four-letter expletive, since the F had already been guessed.

[edit] Cultural references

All Peter can think to offer the Japanese baseball player is "Me love you long time," a line a prostitute delivers in Full Metal Jacket.
Peter pretends to have stereotypical Tourette syndrome.

Stewie reads "The Art of War" before Lois makes him watch Teletubbies.

After Stewie watches Teletubbies, Peter comes in to watch the A&E Biography on "that other guy from Wham!"

After Stewie tries to escape from listening to Lois and Bonnie's conversation, he says "Oh to be the Lindbergh baby right about now," a reference to the kidnapping of Charles Lindbergh's son. A later episode, Brian in Love, has Lindbergh accidentally flushing his son down the toilet, then making a cover-up. Amelia Earhart witnesses the accident, and it is insinuated that Linbergh caused her disappearance.

When Peter is mad at Joe for taking all his friends he quotes the Frank Sinatra song: They Can't Take That Away From Me by saying "The way I wear my hat? No, no he can't take that away from me".

[edit] References

Callaghan, Steve. "A Hero Sits Next Door." Family Guy: The Official Episode Guide Seasons 1-3. New York: HarperCollins, 2005. 30 - 33.
Delarte, Alonso. "Nitpicking Family Guy: Season 1." Bob's Poetry Magazine March 2005: 12 - 13. http://bobspoetry.com/Bobs02Mr.pdf