From Method to Madness

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“From Method to Madness”
Family Guy episode
Episode no.	Season 3 Episode 46
Guest stars	Fred Willard
Written by	Mike Barker and Matt Weitzmann
Directed by	Bert Ring
Production no.	3ACX11
Original airdate	January 24, 2002
Episode chronology
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"Brian Wallows and Peter's Swallows"	"Stuck Together, Torn Apart"
List of Family Guy episodes

"From Method to Madness" is an episode of Family Guy.

[edit] Plot summary

In an effort to get Brian out of the house, Stewie encourages the dog to audition for local theater. The judges are bored with Brian but are delighted with Stewie, who is immediately enrolled in a children's performing arts school. When he overhears that both he and a bitter rival, Olivia, are in danger of being cut from the program, the pair hastily work together and end up becoming a massively popular duet. They share fame and success until their fighting breaks up the act; Olivia goes on to greater fame while Stewie, obsessed with his fleeting fame, loses touch with reality.

When Peter saves a drowning man, the Griffins are invited over to share dinner with his family. Lois and Peter are shocked to discover that the family are nudists, but their teenaged son (who is also a nudist) takes an interest in Meg. After devastating Meg with their refusal to accept the alternative lifestyle, Peter and Lois shed their clothes to make him feel more welcome.

[edit] Notes

• Mark Hentemann, who does the one-man show in which all the characters sound the same, is named after producer Mark Hentemann.
• Lois doesn't seem to remember that she gave Brian the lead role in the episode The King is Dead.
• The instrument Stewie tries to play (but just ends up farting) is a French horn, which is equipped with piston valves, rather than the usual rotary ones (piston valves are more common on trumpets).
• After Stewie and Olivia's performance with Olivia wearing a purple dress, in the next shot, when Stewie slaps Simon, she is seen with lipstick and a blue dress. She will later sport this same look in a later scene, therefore it's a continuity error.
• Following the duel between Stewie and Olivia, Simon begins to walk off-screen. However, he disappears before fully leaving the screen.
• Lois doesn't seem to realize all this time that Stewie is gone (he's off struggling with show business)
• The poster on the door of the school of performing arts reads: "Today: Auditions, Tomorrow: Principles of Catering"
• Simon's 'Hierarchy of performance' goes: Legitimate theatre, Musical theatre, Stand-up, Ventriloquism, Magic, Mime.
• Stewie and Olivia perform at Shady Oaks retirement home, a parody of Shady Pines on The Golden Girls
• The title of the episode is derived from the phrase "There's a method to my madness." and also references the technique of Method acting.
• This episode introduces Olivia, she will be seen later in the Season 5 episode "Chick Cancer".

[edit] Cultural references

• On the ride home after meeting the nudists, Chris can't stop saying "Boobies!", so the family uses a Neuralizer (a device used in Men in Black) and makes Chris believe he just came back from the circus.
• Stewie's sexy party may be a reference to Benny Hill chasing scantily-clad girls at high-speed on British TV in the 1970's. His sexy parties were also seen in Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story.
• To critique Stewie's solo acting exercise, Olivia quotes Anne Robinson's catchphrase on The Weakest Link, "You are the Weakest Link... goodbye..." prompting Stewie to launch on a lengthy tirade in which he asks "Have you any Titanic jokes you want to throw at me as long as we're hitting these phenomena at the height of their popularity?"
• Stewie warns Olivia that she might "get booted out of here and end up like Linda Evans". A cutaway implies that Evans, an actress, is now working in a supermarket.
• When Olivia and Stewie start fighting, at one point they climb up on ferns and continue the fight there, mimicking the fight scene in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
• After a solo performance, an angry audience member describes Stewie's show as being worse than Seussical, a Broadway show that opened in November 2000 and was panned by the critics.
• When Stewie is giving a press conference to his stuffed toys, he mentions advice given to him by filmmaker Martin Scorsese and his part across from Chris O'Donnell.
• When Olivia visits Stewie one last time, he claims to have a guest role on an upcoming episode of Gilmore Girls. This could be a reference to Stewie's voice actor, Seth MacFarlane, and his upcoming guest role on the show.
• To illustrate Peter's concern about child acting, a cutaway features Elroy Jetson, a character from televised cartoon The Jetsons who, as an adult, is kicked out of a pub bruised and drunken. It goes on to show grown up Bam-Bam, the child from The Flintstones has now become a taxicab driver.

[edit] Goofs

• When Peter and Lois walk into the kitchen and find Meg and Jeff (the oldest nudist son), Peter asked to use Lois's mace and sprayed himself in the eyes, but this couldn't have happen because of Peter's glasses.

• When Peter is playing Yahtzee, he rolls the dice and the screams "Yahtzee" without having all 5 dice the same number (A Yahtzee is when you roll all the dice and get the same number on all them in 3 turns), plus there was 6 dice on the table. They were 2,3,4,5,5,6 or a large straight.

[edit] References

• S. Callaghan, "From Method to Madness" 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: 53 - 54 http://bobspoetry.com/Bobs02Au.pdf

[edit] Quotes

• Stewie "Well I'd love to stay and chat but you're a total bitch !"

Preceded by "Brian Wallows and Peter's Swallows"

Family Guy Episodes

Followed by "Stuck Together, Torn Apart"