Patriot Games (Family Guy)

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“Patriot Games”
Family Guy episode

Episode no.	Season 4 Episode 20
Guest stars	Tom Brady, Carol Channing, Bob Costas, Jay Leno, Troy Brown
Written by	Mike Henry
Directed by	Cyndi Tang
Production no.	4ACX25
Original airdate	January 29, 2006
Episode chronology
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"Brian Sings and Swings"	"I Take Thee Quagmire"
List of Family Guy episodes

"Patriot Games" is an episode from season 4 of FOX animated television series Family Guy. Guest starring Tom Brady, Carol Channing, Bob Costas, Jay Leno, and Troy Brown, all as themselves. The episode title references the Tom Clancy novel/film, Patriot Games.

[edit] Plot summary

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

At Peter's high school reunion, Peter pretends to be a secret-agent astronaut millionaire to impress his classmates, but the truth comes out when he meets Tom Brady and loses all self-control. Peter makes a drunken run for the bathroom, knocking over everyone between him and the toilet. Brady is impressed and lands Peter a spot on the New England Patriots football team as the starting center. Life is great for the Griffins until Peter's new high profile goes to his head (Tom can't take Peter's showboating) and he's traded to the London Silly Nannies. Peter decides to turn them around and stage a game between the Silly Nannies and the Patriots. The Patriots cause his team to run away, leaving Peter facing the Patriots alone. He attempts to play, but he is overwhelmed and defeated. However, Tom Brady compliments Peter on having the nerve to stand up to them.

Meanwhile, Stewie becomes a bookie. After Brian loses $50 betting on Mike Tyson to beat Carol Channing on Fox Celebrity Boxing (somehow, Carol keeps managing to survive so many blows, exhausting Tyson), he's savagely beaten by Stewie when he can't pay up in a Mafia-esque style. After they go to the bank and he settles the debt, Stewie offers "one free hit" to make up for it. Brian leaves Stewie in suspense as to when the free hit will be delivered, until Stewie is overcome with paranoia. At the very end of the episode, Brian then pushes Stewie in front of a London bus.

[edit] Notes

Jay Leno voices himself in the scene where he threatens Tom Brady over the phone.
The part where Stewie beats up Brian in the bathroom will later be referenced in the episode Airport '07 when Brian goes to warn Stewie not to drink from Peter's spit cup, only to recall how badly Stewie assaulted him in the bathroom.
The football team the Patriots first play against appears to be the Dallas Cowboys
Quagmire's mention that he was looking for Lois's toenails in the garbage is a callback to the scene in Emission Impossible where Quagmire puts the hair from Lois's hairbrush on a sex doll with Lois's face on it and says, "A couple of teeth and some toenail clippings and we'll be ready for our date."

[edit] Goofs

American Football is not played professionally in the United Kingdom, but there is an amateur American Football league, the British American Football League. There are no London Silly Nannies who Tom Brady refers to as the worst team. London is actually home to the most successful club in the history of the league, the London Olympians.
During the fight between Mike Tyson and Carol Channing, Tyson knocks Channing down over three times, yet once Tyson is knocked down once, he is the one who is pronounced technically knocked out.
When Lois, Meg, Stewie and Chris go to the theatre to see a purported Alan Ayckbourn play, the marquee misspells his surname as 'Ayckbourne'.
The sign outside the West End theatre is incorrectly spelt, it reads "West End Theater" and in British English it should read "West End Theatre" because the episode setting is in England

[edit] Censorship

When the episode originally aired on FOX, when Lois gives the finger at a camera, it was blurred out. When the episode was shown in reruns on Adult Swim and on DVD, the blur effect wasn't used to cover up the obscene gesture.

[edit] DVD Exclusive Scenes

On the Volume 4 DVD release, a deleted scene involved Peter showing the London Silly Nannies the American version of the sitcom "The Office" and pointing out how the American version is vastly different from the British version to get them mad and prepped for the game against the New England Patriots.

[edit] Cultural references

When Tom Brady says "Let Go" to Peter when they both have the football, Peter thought he said 'Let's go' and started running, causes a touchdown. This is a reference to Tim Allen in The Santa Clause telling his little boy to 'Let go' of the reins in Santa's sleigh. It sounded like 'Let's go' to the reindeer and they promptly took off.
Fred Flintstone stammers "Bet-bet-bet-bet!" as he did in The Flintstones episode "The Gambler", where Fred goes crazy whenever someone mentions the word "bet".
According to DVD commentary, the way Stewie severely beats Brian up is based on the show's take on The Sopranos.
The severe beating also has many similarities with the film True Romance, which starred Soprano's leading man James Gandolfini as a mobster who savagely and brutally beat Patricia Arquette's character, Alabama.
Also, Stewie dunking Brian's face in the toilet, yelling "Where's my money?" is similar to the opening scene of The Big Lebowski.
Stewie telling Brian to "Clean himself off" and tosses him a towel at him is similar to when Sang tossed a towel to a badly hurt James Carter in Rush Hour.
Before the beating of Brian, Stewie drinks a glass of orange juice, referring to The Godfather movies using oranges as a symbol of imminent death or injury.
Lois mentions Peter frivolously spending money on a wax sculpture depicting Gwyneth Paltrow having sex with Harriet Tubman. (On the commentary, it was revealed that originally the creators wanted R2-D2 having sex with Gwyneth Paltrow, but LucasFilm turned them down).
The song Peter sings while showboating after a touchdown, "Shipoopi," is from the 1957 Broadway play The Music Man.
The Silly Nannies dance around a maypole and sing Gilbert and Sullivan's "'Tis Twelve, I Think" from The Sorcerer.
Whilst in England Lois watches a program on the digital channel BBC Four. The show depicted is a parody of the channel's intellectual, esoteric content. "Family Guy" is actually shown on digital channel BBC Three.
The Silly Nannies run away from the Patriots and into a carriage very similar to the one in the Disney movie Cinderella.
Announcers Al Michaels and John Madden can be briefly glimpsed during the "Shipoopi" number. (Madden had earlier appeared in the show's pilot episode, Death Has a Shadow.)
During the fight between Mike Tyson and Carol Channing on Fox Celebrity Boxing, during one of Tyson's bashings, it cuts away to two men under the ring, which is the same as the final round in "Rocky III" where Apollo Creed says, "He's getting beaten!" Then, the man next to him, who seems to be Rocky's brother-in-law Paulie, says, "No, he's getting mad!!!"