Family Guy Viewer Mail 1

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“Family Guy Viewer Mail #1”
Family Guy episode
Episode no.	Season 3 Episode 21
Guest stars	Bill Goldberg, Kelly Ripa, Regis Philbin, Michael Winslow
Written by	Gene Laufenberg, Seth MacFarlane, Michael Shipley, Jim Bernstein
Directed by	Pete Michels, Scott Wood, Michael Dante DiMartino
Production no.	3ACX12
Original airdate	February 14, 2002
Episode chronology
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"Road to Europe"	"North By North Quahog"
List of Family Guy episodes

"Family Guy Viewer Mail #1" is an episode of Family Guy. The episode consists of three segments, each suggested by a viewer. This was the last original episode to air before the series was originally cancelled by FOX.

[edit] Plot summaries

Brian and Stewie introduce the show, consisting of three short stories in response to requests they have received from viewers.

[edit] "No Bones About It"

Peter finds a genie who offers him three wishes. His first wish is to see what Kelly Ripa is like off-camera (she is a horrible alien who eats living men's still-beating hearts), and his second wish is for his own theme music, which plays everywhere he goes. On a city bus, a brawny man (Bill Goldberg) grows irritated with Peter's music and threatens to break every bone in his body. Peter quickly wishes that he was boneless and collapses into a fleshy heap. When townspeople react with revulsion and horror towards him, he moves to Hollywood to become a stuntman's human airbag. Peter misses his family, though, and when a doctor offers him an experimental surgery to restore his skeleton, he takes the chance. The operation is successful, but he is horribly misshapen; he learns that his family donated bones to transplant into his body, and they all painfully amble away together.

[edit] "Supergriffins"

After being exposed to toxic waste, the Griffins find they now have superhuman powers. Stewie's head grows even larger and he gains telekinetic abilities; Chris is able to start fires by thought; Peter can change himself into any person or object; Lois becomes super-strong; Brian can move at incredible speed, traveling around the world nearly instantaneously; and Meg gains the "super-amazing" ability to make her fingernails grow or shrink on command. Despite initial intentions to use their powers for good, they soon terrorize Quahog for personal gain. Mayor Adam West douses himself in toxic waste, hoping for powers with which to combat the Griffins, but develops lymphoma instead. With Mayor West in the hospital the Griffins see the error of their ways and dedicate themselves to good and helping West recover.

[edit] "Lil' Griffins"

In a parody of The Little Rascals, child versions of Peter, Brian, Quagmire, Joe, Cleveland, and Mayor West revel in their "we hate broads club." When young Lois Pewterschmidt joins their school, however, Peter and Quagmire are love-stricken. Attempting to impress Lois, both boys promise to spend the night in a spooky abandoned house to prove their courage. Wacky hijinks ensue as each group tries to scare the other; when they see an apparently "real" ghost, they all flee in terror. Lois says that she is no longer impressed by bravery, however, and introduces Mort Goldman, whose intelligence she likes. Peter and Quagmire swear off girls forever in disgust; thirty-five years later they are still womanless but, without the distraction of women, they have become incredibly wealthy (and are having sex with buttered bagels.)

This episode is not considered to be in canon with the rest of the series, and is more akin to the various cutaways during a normal episode.

[edit] Notes

• This was supposed to be the first of two episodes consisting of segments suggested by fans, hence the title "Viewer Mail #1." The show was cancelled before the second was produced. Now that the show has returned, "Viewer Mail #2" may be an upcoming episode.
• Three short segments, unconnected to each other and the general continuity of the series, usually make-up the Halloween-themed Treehouse of Horror episodes of The Simpsons, a show Family Guy is often compared to. It also occurred in two Futurama episodes: Anthology of Interest I and Anthology of Interest II.
• The theme music that appears when Peter is "riding on the bus" has the same melody that appeared when Peter was doing research in Wasted Talent
• In "No Bones About It," professional wrestler Bill Goldberg was a cameo as a man who threatens to punch Peter.
• In a deleted scene, included on the DVD release of the third season, Peter's first wish in “No Bones About It” is that Jackie Gleason was still alive. However, the undead Gleason turns out to be a malicious zombie, and he tries to kill the Griffins until Stewie shoots him with a rocket launcher.
• In "Lil’ Griffins," Adam Carolla reprises his role of Death
• This episode contains a number (more than usual) of out-of-continuity occurrences: In "Lil' Griffins", Cleveland, even though seen as a young kid, still has his mustache, as does Tom Tucker. A young Joe is confined to a wagon in the "Lil’ Griffins" parody, however, in the show’s regular continuity, he did not lose use of his legs until he became a police officer. Peter knows Brian even though he meets Brian as an adult and Brian spent his child(puppy)hood on the Dog farm. Joe wasn't even around when Peter was a child, because they first meet when Joe moved to Quahog from Providence in a Season 1 episode. Neither was Quagmire; he and Peter met because Peter was drowning and Quagmire saved him. And Cleveland apparently met Peter when he picked him up in his hippy Volkswagen and was chased by members of the Ku Klux Klan, who Peter mistakes for ghosts (the two later instances were introduced in the Season 3 episode Death Lives). Peter and Quagmire are also not millionaires on the show, and Peter is not single. (The Griffins are also not normally super-powered or partially boneless).
• Peter's theme music stops as he loses his bones.

[edit] Cultural references

• In the introduction, Stewie keeps pushing a button on a canned laughter box. When Brian asks Stewie where he got the gizmo, he says he got it from the frequently maligned ABC sitcom Dharma & Greg. Brian jokingly declared he was surprised that there was anything left in it. ABC has been looked down upon with the claim to overusing a bad laugh track in their comedies.

[edit] "No Bones About It"

• Peter wishes to see what co-hostess Kelly Ripa is like off the set of Live with Regis and Kelly. Ripa and co-host Regis Philbin voiced themselves for this cutaway.
• Chris uses Peter's blubber to copy and stretch an image (a la Silly Putty) from the advice-giving comic strip character Mary Worth, exclaiming, "Look what I can do to Mary Worth's smug sense of self-satisfaction."
• The family rides the Mad Tea Party at Disneyland and Peter flies out.
• Lois compares the family's situation to the human interest stories on NBC's news program Dateline.
• Peter mentions taking a stand-up comedy class at the Learning Annex, an adult education center with branches across North America. [1]
• At a Hollywood party, Peter meets Catherine Zeta-Jones and her husband Michael Douglas and mentions comedian Louie Anderson.

[edit] "Supergriffins"

• Brian and Peter are watching an old counting lesson by Count von Count of Sesame Street. Peter asks Brian if the show ever depicted the Count sucking someone's blood for sustenance as a vampire normally would, to which Brian, deadpan, replies "No, they've never done that."
• The family develops superpowers common to comic book superheroes and villains: super strength, super speed, telekinesis, pyrokinesis, and shapeshifting.
• Peter morphs into pop star Britney Spears to get into Nsync's dressing room and steal a lock of Justin Timberlake's hair for Meg. Despite his morphing abilities, he is completely unable to mimic the voice or social mannerisms of a young woman.
• While kissing Timberlake, Peter morphs into film critic Gene Shalit, who is generally considered unattractive.
• Peter demands the town build statue depicting a scene from the 1980s-era sitcom The Facts of Life. Later, he uses his morphing ability to appear as Mrs. Garrett's bosom. This is one of several references to The Facts of Life on Family Guy.
• Radioactive materials gave many superheroes their abilities, (i.e. Daredevil). The tanker truck of toxic waste may also be a reference to the film Modern Problems, in which a similar leak gives Chevy Chase telekinesis. This episode spoofed on the improbability of this when Mayor West dosed himself in such material and developed lymphoma (the doctor points out that the notion is silly, to which West replies "Silly, yes. Idiotic, yes."). Ironically, Adam West, who provides his voice and namesake, is best known for playing the superhero Batman, although Batman is not superpowered. He also references his most well-known role when he states "I've tangled with superbeings before."
• Stewie's enlarged, veiny head, which throbs when he is using his powers, was seemingly inspired by the underground mutants from Beneath the Planet of the Apes, or possibly the Talosians from the Star Trek episode The Cage, both of whom had a similar appearance and mental powers.
• Lois' speech about acting responsibly may be based on the famous line from Spider-Man, "With great power comes great responsibility".

[edit] "Lil' Griffins"

• Many of the younger versions of the show's adult characters are obvious parodies of the characters from Hal Roach's Our Gang comedies of the 1930s, later syndicated to television under the title The Little Rascals. Quagmire took the place of Alfalfa, Cleveland of Buckwheat, Brian Griffin of Pete, and Peter Griffin of Spanky. The scene in which the children stand on each other’s shoulders to portray an adult is a famous bit from the series. Quagmire and Peter's gag of running through the glass door and leaving silhouette cut-outs of themselves in their wake, is also derived directly from the series.
• Lois reads The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane
• In the haunted house, the kids run into actor Michael Winslow from the Police Academy series of comedy films. Winslow's character was known for making convincing sound effects with his mouth, tricking criminals and fellow officers. Winslow voiced himself in this episode.
• A "Little Rascals"-esque version of Goldie Hawn pops out of the armor and shouts, "Sock it to me!" Both Goldie Hawn and the catch phrase are from the late 1960s-early 1970s sketch comedy show Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In.
• The characters from Scooby-Doo appear in the hall of doors gag.
• When the kids switch the channel, they turn to an episode of the daytime talk show The View, featuring de-aged versions of its hostesses, including Star Jones, Meredith Vieira, and Lisa Ling.

[edit] References

• S. Callaghan, "Family Guy Viewer Mail #1." Family Guy: The Official Episode Guide Seasons 1-3. New York: HarperCollins, 2005. 152 - 155.
• A. Delarte, "Nitpicking Family Guy: Season 3" in Bob's Poetry Magazine, 2.August 2005: 57 - 60 http://bobspoetry.com/Bobs02Au.pdf

Preceded by "Road to Europe"

Family Guy Episodes

Followed by "When You Wish Upon a Weinstein"