Peter's Got Woods

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“Peter's Got Woods”
Family Guy episode

Episode no.	Season 4 Episode 11
Guest stars	James Woods, and Gabrielle Union
Written by	Danny Smith
Directed by	Chuck Klein & Zac Moncrief
Production no.	4ACX14
Original airdate	September 11, 2005
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List of Family Guy episodes

"Peter's Got Woods" is an episode from the fourth season of the FOX animated television series Family Guy. This episode featured guest stars Gabrielle Union as Shauna and James Woods as himself. This is the only Family Guy episode to be rated TV-PG.

[edit] Plot summary

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Brian and the teacher on a date

Lois asks Peter to go the PTA meeting, then Peter asks Brian to go. Brian reluctantly goes, and falls in love with one of Meg's teachers, Shauna Parks. They go out on a date, and Brian suggests changing the name of James Woods Regional High School. Shauna, who is black, likes Brian's idea of honoring Martin Luther King Jr., and the board holds a meeting to consider the name change. Peter gets James Woods to come to the meeting, who says it's OK to change the name of the school. Impressed by Woods' humility, the board decides not to change the school's name. Brian is furious with Peter's involvement with his and Shauna's idea, although Peter thought that Dr. King was "that guy from Space: 1999," Martin Landau.

Peter and James Woods become very good friends, while Brian is late for his date with Shauna. She is upset that he still talks to Peter and makes Brian choose between her and Peter, and they eventually call off their relationship, as Brian feels that his friendship is more important. He and Peter patch their differences at the Drunken Clam. Returning home, they find James Woods is still there. They get rid of him by trapping him in a box, with Reese's Pieces as bait (à la E.T.). Woods is then sent to be studied by 'top men,' when he is really being stored away in a Government Warehouse with similar other crates (á la Raiders of the Lost Ark).

[edit] Censorship

When James is scolding Peter for not having dinner with him, he says, "Where does James Woods fit in with the fun?" On the DVD, he says, "You fucker." after it, which is bleeped out on the original track (but can be heard if one switches to the uncensored track on the Family Guy volume three DVD set). On the TV version (both FOX and Cartoon Network versions), the "you fucker" line is cut entirely.

[edit] Cultural references

A cutaway, explaining why Brian owes Peter a favor, shows Peter serving as the chorus while Brian sang "Sighing Softly to the River" from Gilbert and Sullivan's operetta The Pirates of Penzance.
A cutaway shows Stewie playing a game of Marco Polo with deafblind author and activist Helen Keller.
This is the second straight episode where the term "john" for washroom has been used.
Before suggesting that James Woods High School be named after Martin Luther King, Brian suggests baseball-player Reggie Jackson and actor Sidney Poitier.
Stewie reads the 2000s best-seller The Da Vinci Code.
Peter apparently hangs out with Barney Rubble from the cartoon series The Flintstones. Parodying the series’ use of animals for modern day technological inventions, a pelican serves as Barney’s toilet, sarcastically remarking "And you think you've got a crap job!". Later on, a sheep apparently groans about his "job" as Meg’s tampon saying "NOT AGAIN!".
When Shauna, Brian's love interest introduces herself, there's heavenly singing of the name 'Shauna' in the background. This parodies a scene from Ferris Beuller's Day Off when Jennifer Grey's character tells Charlie Sheen's character "It's Jean, but most guys call me Shauna."
Presumably because of his stupidity, Peter mistakes Martin Luther King for television actor Martin Landau, comedian Martin Lawrence, "drunk crooner" Dean Martin, Martini & Rossi brand vermouth, actor Martin Sheen, his son actor Charlie Sheen, and the younger Sheen’s Platoon co-stars Willem Dafoe and Tom Berenger.
Ronald Reagan, during his retirement, is shown pounding a McDonald's wall and yelling "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!", referencing Reagan's famous 1987 speech in West Berlin as well as his suffering from Alzheimer's disease. He then shouts "Reagan smash!" a reference to the Hulk's catch phrase "Hulk smash!". It should be noted that this episode was produced prior to Reagan's death in June 2004.
At the campout, Peter mashes together the urban legends "The Vanishing Hitchhiker", "The Bloody Hook", and "The Babysitter and the Man Upstairs".
Peter and James Woods sing to the tune of "You Two" from the 1968 musical Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
The marquee outside the theatre where Brian and Shauna break up reads: "I'm Sleeping With Someone At Paramount Starring Ashley Judd".
James Woods shows Peter Videodrome, a 1983 cult film in which Woods starred. This is the only reference to one of Woods' movies in this episode.
Peter says to Brian they need to come up with a crazy plan like the kids on That 70's Show. The show then goes into a segue of Peter and Brian floating in front of a tie dye background to rock music, a common segue on That 70's Show. Also, Mila Kunis, who voices Meg, starred in 'That 70's Show' and Seth Green was a semi-recurring character on the show.
A flashback shows Peter's trying to pick-up contestants on the Miss USA pageant.
One cutaway parodies Star Trek: The Next Generation and shows Captain Picard and Commander Riker joking about Lieutenant Commander Worf’s forehead. Actors Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes and Michael Dorn reprise their Star Trek roles. Picard tells Riker that "Commander Worf's head looks like a fanny". As Worf is annoyed at being mocked, Picard tells him to, "Get a sense of humor, Rocky Dennis!" in reference to the movie Mask, starring Cher, about the disfigured titular character Rocky Dennis. The character Captain Picard looks very similar to the character Avery Bullock from American Dad! (whom Patrick Stewart actually voices) the animated series also created by Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane. An alternate version of this scene shows Counselor Troi (voiced by Marina Sirtis) picking up on Picard's apparent desire to give her a "Golden Shower".
The dialogue and the setting near the end of the episode in which James Woods welcomes Peter, whom he has expected to arrive sooner, offers him some "cold roast beef" and than quickly switches between anger and regret is almost directly lifted from Roman Polanski's film Death and the Maiden, which is in turn based on a play of the same name by Ariel Dorfman.
The end of the episode is a reference to both the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark (the line "Top men" and the warehouse) and E.T. (using the same type of candy to lure Woods out of hiding so he can go home.)
When Lois says, "Well, it's not often we get to meet celebrities", Peter says he was Christina Aguilera's manager, who critiques Aguilera on her overdrawn singing and disgusting appearance.
Mayor West's bag of cream corn could be a reference to Adam West's role as the cream corn loving principal in "The Adventures of Pete and Pete."