Brian Sings and Swings

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“Brian Sings and Swings”
Family Guy episode

Episode no.	Season 4 Episode 69
Guest stars	Frank Sinatra, Jr., Don LaFontaine, Mark Borchardt
Written by	Michael Rowe
Directed by	Chuck Klein Zac Moncrief
Production no.	4ACX21
Original airdate	January 8, 2006
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List of Family Guy episodes

"Brian Sings and Swings" is an episode from season 4 of FOX animated television series Family Guy. Guest starring Frank Sinatra, Jr. as himself, Don LaFontaine as the trailer narrator, and Mark Borchardt as himself. This episode was supposed to air December 4, 2005 but was moved to January 8, 2006.

The episode deals with Brian's singing talents, followed by Brian's drinking problem.

[edit] Plot summary

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Brian is nearly killed when Peter hits him with the car (Peter's comment immediately afterward: "Did I hit that deaf kid again?"). He recovers but he's depressed by the uncertainty of life and death. He meets Frank Sinatra, Jr. and is inspired by his live-for-today lifestyle. Brian and Stewie join with Sinatra to form a new Rat Pack. Brian plays the Dean Martin role too well, drinking himself into the gutter. Stewie lifts his spirits by telling him that someone (Stewie) does care about him. They finish one more number before Mia Farrow breaks up the act.

Meanwhile, Sarah, a girl in Meg's science class, invites Meg to her after-school club. Thrilled at being included, Meg agrees but discovers the club is the Lesbian Alliance. She joins anyway and pretends to be a lesbian because they treat her as a friend. Lois confronts Meg about this, but Meg actually tries unsuccessfully to be a lesbian. She finally confesses to Sarah that she just isn't gay, ruining Quagmire's attempts to secretly videotape them.

[edit] Censorship

When Mr. Berler accidentally shows his home sex tape instead of a documentary, he says, "I'm sorry, can I show this video of me doing my wife?" The word "doing" was bleeped out on FOX (despite that the word was said on the episode To Love and Die in Dixie during the cutaway of how Peter always makes a fool of himself during job interviews), but not on Cartoon Network.

[edit] Notes

The closing credits has a swing version of the theme song performed by Sinatra.
Brian had to wear a cone after the operation. A cutaway in another Season 4 episode, Blind Ambition, shows Brian wearing a cone which Stewie throws a crumpled piece of paper in and says, "Score! Score!"
Brian goes to a doctor, instead of a veterinarian.
In the scene exactly after Stewie says he's missing an ear, when he is at the table, his ear is back.
This is the first episode in which there are signs that Lois was once a lesbian (or at least a bisexual) when she kissed Sarah (although Lois makes a comment about "going back to men" in Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story, which was released on DVD before the episode aired).
A cut scene that appears in the Deleted Scenes section of the Family Guy volume 4 DVD has Brian, Stewie, and Frank Sinatra, Jr. performing for terminally ill kids at a hospital, and Brian getting drunk and asking a kid if his "blood type was pee", followed by a later scene where Brian is in the gutter and one of the terminally ill kids gets his revenge on Brian by urinating on him after gloating that he's in remission.
The cutaway gag in which Stewie is laughing at an episode of Hope And Faith marks the first, and so far only, time that Seth MacFarlane has not voiced Stewie. MacFarlane revealed, during the DVD commentary for the episode, that Stewie's "laugh" was actually a laugh track that was created by Ricky Blitt; MacFarlane loved the hilarious laugh track so much that he decided that it must be used for a particular joke in an episode (this episode containing the chosen joke with the laugh track).

[edit] Cultural references

Meg watches as Chris' hair and face is placed on his head, spoofing the scene in The Empire Strikes Back in which Admiral Piett watches Darth Vader's helmet being lowered over his deformed head, as a sample of the famous tune "The Imperial March" is played in the background.
Brian reads the newspaper headline "Thanks to treatment Magic Johnson down to one AID."
Stewie says if Brian dies he'll have to start hanging out with actor/wrestler The Rock again. The cutaway shows a trailer with Stewie and The Rock. The narrator (Don LaFontaine) speculates about The Rock’s race and then that of actress Jessica Alba. The Rock is part black and part Samoan. Alba is Mexican (from her father's side) and white French-Canadian and Danish (from her mom's side). During the narrator's speech about Jessica Alba, he claims that he would've "plowed that 'til next July" if he were 40 years younger. This could be making a reference to Frank Miller's Sin City.
Meg's teacher shows an episode of the educational science show NOVA but he taped over it with a homemade sex tape.
The poster welcoming Meg into the Lesbian Alliance also says "See You Next Tuesday," an innuendo for "cunt." It is sometimes spelled, more obviously, "C U Next Tuesday." The American Dad episode "Threat Levels" uses the same gag.
The "mega-lesbians" at the "Lesbian Alliance Club" sing "Elvira" by The Oak Ridge Boys.
Brian says that he has to "live life when you can and live it hard", which Stewie calls "the Chris Farley method." The comedian/Saturday Night Live alum had extensive drug abuse problems and died of an overdose, not unlike his idol, John Belushi, who was also a well-known SNL castmember.
The flashback in which Peter "swam with the bulls" is a combination of the running of the bulls and synchronized swimming. They perform to "Waltz of the Flowers" from the ballet The Nutcracker by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.
In the cutaway where Thomas Edison hoards electricity, he watches the sitcom The Office (first aired 73 years after Edison's death) and blasts "Foxy Lady" by Jimi Hendrix (released 36 years after Edison's death).
The imagery in the scene where Brian sits at the bar depressed mimics the cover of Frank Sinatra's album, No One Cares; Frank Sinatra Jr. happens to be performing at that bar.
Stewie, Brian and Frank Sinatra Jr. make up the “New Rat Pack.” Frank Sinatra Sr. was in an all-star group called the Rat Pack.
The part where Mayor Adam West is singing is a parody of the song "Edelweiss" from the musical "Sound of Music".
When Stewie is left alone in the makeup room he decided to play 52 pickup, which is a card practical joke.
A recurring joke refers to Frank Sinatra Jr.’s mother as actress Mia Farrow who was briefly married to Sinatra Sr. in the 1960s. His mother is actually Nancy Barbato.
When Stewie’s ear is severed and no one notices, he replaces it with a Mr. Potato Head ear.
In a flashback, Peter is mugged by The Today Show film critic Gene Shalit, who often speaks in puns. Shalit threatens Peter in movie titles and actors: "Don't Panic Room, I'm not going to William Hurt you. I only want your Tango & Cash, so just Pay It Forward and we'll all be Happy Gilmore" Peter then asked in a confused manner "What?" This is the third reference Family Guy has made to Shalit. The first being in Ready, Willing and Disabled and the second in the Family Guy Viewer Mail 1 segment "Supergriffins".
Stewie decides not to buy a button-up jacket because it will make him look like actor/comedian Steve Harvey.
Stewie laughs in a "messed-up" way at the sitcom Hope & Faith, which is a reference to laugh tracks used in sitcoms with lame jokes.
When Meg walks in with her new "lesbian look", Chris asks, "Mom, why is the cable guy here?", which could be a reference to redneck comedian Larry the Cable Guy, known for his plaid, sleeveless shirts, although he does not have a mullet as Meg did.
On the cutaway showing John Goodman eating Thanksgiving dinner while his family starves, there are two children at the table. In real life, John Goodman has one child.
When Quagmire attempts to videotape Meg and Sarah for a second time, his production crew is Mark Borchardt and Mike Schank, whose efforts to make an independent film were documented in the 1999 film American Movie.
In a song, Stewie states his admiration for actor Robert Stack and Brian his of Candid Camera host Allen Funt.
Brian's temporary replacement, referred to as only a "Jew," is Dean Martin's old partner, Jerry Lewis.