Peter's Two Dads

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“Peter's Two Dads”
Family Guy episode
Peter meets Mickey McFinnegan
Episode no.	Season 5 Episode 90
Guest stars	Charles Durning as Francis Griffin, Phyllis Diller as Thelma Griffin
Written by	Danny Smith
Directed by	Cyndi Tang
Production no.	5ACX05
Original airdate	February 11, 2007
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List of Family Guy episodes

"Peter's Two Dads" is a season 5 episode of the FOX animated television series Family Guy. The title of the episode is a parody of the sitcom My Two Dads.

[edit] Plot summary

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Meg asks for a lot of expensive things, like a live band, to perform at a party. Peter and Lois have no idea what the party is for, and after being reminded by Chris that Meg's birthday is coming up, they both admit they forgot and, worse yet, aren't sure how old she will be. Peter and Lois begin to organize Meg's 17th birthday party, which Meg complains is too childish. Peter dresses up as a dirty hobo clown and after getting drunk and trying to ride his unicycle down the stairs, falls and lands on his father, Francis. Francis is taken to the hospital, where he later dies, his last words to Peter being, "You're a fat, stinking drunk!" Peter then vows to never drink again, and takes up the habit of smoking crack instead.

Brian refers Peter to a hypnotherapist, where he uncovers memories of Francis telling him he is not his real father. Peter goes to talk to his mother about it, and she tells him that she had an affair with an Irish man while vacationing in Ireland 40 years earlier. So Peter and Brian leave to a stereotypical small Irish village to search for Peter's long-lost father, whose name is Mickey McFinnegan. Upon asking the locals if they know him, they find out he is the town drunk (which is depicted as a highly respected position in Ireland). The two finally meet in Wifey McBeaty's, a local tavern, but Mickey doesn't believe that he is really Peter's father. So Peter challenges him to a drinking contest and wins, which in turn wins Mickey's admiration and proves to him that Peter must be his son.

The side story is about Stewie going through the selfishness phase that is typical of toddlers his age. Lois finally gets fed up over it, and punishes Stewie by slapping him. Stewie becomes fearful at first, but then develops a taste for abuse. He repeatedly tries to get Lois to strike him, maim him, "violate [him] with a wine bottle," but gives it up after admitting he might have a problem.

[edit] Cultural references

On the Fox website, the teaser details states, "This week, the manatees picked out topic balls reading 'Peter's real father lives in Ireland and Peter goes there to find him'," a reference to South Park episodes Cartoon Wars Part I and Cartoon Wars Part II.
Robert Loggia is parodied after Peter mentions planning parties is worse than being stuck behind Robert Loggia at the airport. It then shows a scene with Robert Loggia spelling his name out slowly, using himself to describe each letter while spelling it for the clerk.
Peter tries to bury his dad in the Pet Sematary.
The song Lois sings in the flashback to Meg's last birthday party is "Sixteen Going On Seventeen" from The Sound Of Music.
The song that Chris (and Herbert) sing at Meg's birthday party is called "Friends and Lovers" by Carl Anderson and Gloria Loring.
When Peter visits Thelma, she asks if he was back to return the TV, and he replies he sold it for crack. This mimics the relationship between Harry and Sara Goldfarb in Requiem for a Dream.
When Peter discovers his biological father is in Ireland he performs the trademark transformation spin into Wonder Woman as done by actress Lynda Carter in the Wonder Woman TV series.
As a birthday present, Meg receives a copy of the first season of the TV show Sister, Sister on DVD from Cleveland.
When Peter sees his father in a ghostly vision alongside Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda, Hayden Christensen appears in Jedi robes, a reference to the 2004 DVD changes to Return of the Jedi.
Lois appears as a dominatrix in Stewie's fantasies.
In a cutaway, Mother Teresa is seen experiencing an overdose in the backseat of Stewie's car. This could possibly be a reference to the car scene in the movie Traffic.
Peter exclaims, "Oh my god! I could've had a V8!" and slaps himself in the forehead. This is a reference to the series of commercials for V8 vegetable juice that played in the 1970s and '80s, and again in 2007.
Meg says, "Come back soon, Daddy, I love you," and Peter replies, "That'll do, pig. That'll do." This is a reference to the movie Babe.
Peter tries to prove he is brave by saying that he managed to sit halfway through Failure to Launch.
The song sang by Peter in the pub in Ireland is a reference to the song McNamara's Band.
Peter flies to Ireland on JetGreen, what seems to be parody of JetBlue Airways. However, an actual airline based in Ireland used the name during its short period of operations.
"Mickey McFinnegan" is a pun on "Mickey Finn", a drug commonly administered in alcoholic drinks, and Tim Finnegan and Mickey Maloney, two alcoholic men in Finnegan's Wake.
In the scene when Stewie is being tortured by Lois, Stewie yelling "thank you" repeatedly is a reference to Little Shop of Horrors where Bill Murray's character loves pain and goes to get a root canal for pleasure.¹
David Tua is drawn by Stewie on the wall with a crayon to incite Lois to hit him.
Peter's line, "So what? So let's dance!" may be a reference to Rodney Dangerfield's line on Caddyshack.
Excluding Ireland itself, Cork is the only Real Irish Area and County to be mentioned in the episode.
Peter tries to entertain at Meg's party by riding a unicycle (which he accidentally crushes Francis with). He first learned how to ride in the episode Peterotica.
This episode also marks the second time in which Stewie's interactions (as a baby) with the rest of the family are questioned; when he draws a picture of David Tua on the wall he says so out loud, and a moment later Lois expresses surprise that the picture Stewie drew looks somewhat like David Tua, as if she had no idea what Stewie had said. Stewies intelligence and capacity to talk has only been questioned once before, in the final scene of E. Peterbus Unum.

[edit] Goofs

When Stewie tries to aggravate Lois in order to be hit, he climbs into his seat and tips over a glass, which is heard breaking. When Stewie goes down to where Lois is cleaning up the mess, the glass is seen whole.

Meg says she's turning 17, but in the episode "Cleveland-Loretta-Quagmire", a drunk Brian goes over to her and says "Meg, you're 17, so...if you ever want to screw around[...]" However, Brian's inebriated state may have convinced him that Meg was 17.

The "Griffin" family has been shown to closely resemble Peter throughout history. Peter not actually being a Griffin seems to contradict this well-established Family Guy staple. However, it is debated that the Griffin relatives in flashbacks are fictional. Another possible explanation is that since Peter had no reliable way to know what his ancestors looked like, he merely imagined them to look like him.
- The negation of Francis Griffin as Peter's father does not necessarily negate Peter's other ancestors. It is quite possible for Peter's father to be Mickey McFinnegan, and having McFinnegan's pedigree branching up into the Griffin family. So while this may seemingly break continuity, it could just be left unexplained.

While celebrating Francis' death outside, Lois knocks Brian into some trash cans after he gropes her, when they return inside, and after Peter makes a comment, the camera focuses on Lois at which then the trash cans disappear from where they were moments earlier.

Francis dying in this episode creates a continuity error in "Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story", where Francis is alive and at a grown-up Chris' wedding. However, Stewie had changed the future at that point in the movie, which may explain the changes of this episode.