Road to Rupert

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“Road to Rupert”
Family Guy episode
Episode no.	Season 5 Episode 9
Guest stars	Rob Lowe, Ted McGinley, George Wendt
Written by	Patrick Meighan
Directed by	Dan Povenmire
Production no.	5ACX04
Original airdate	January 28, 2007
Episode chronology
← Previous	Next →
"Barely Legal"	"Peter's Two Dads"
List of Family Guy episodes

"Road to Rupert" is a season 5 episode of the FOX animated television series Family Guy. It is the third Brian and Stewie "Road To..." episode.

[edit] Plot summary

When the Griffins have a yard sale, Brian accidentally sells Stewie's beloved teddy bear Rupert. When Brian tells Stewie this, they begin to try to find Rupert. Stewie gets DNA from the dollar bill Rupert is sold for, and he finds that the man who bought him, Stanford (Rob Lowe), lives on the same street. But they soon find that he has moved, only to see the last moving truck pull out of the man's drive way. Though they do not catch it, a box falls out of the back which reveals the man and his family have moved to Aspen, Colorado. The two hitch hike to Aspen, where they must get over the mountains to access the town. They are able to rent a helicopter, due to a medley that Stewie and Brian perform in, however, Brian crashes the helicopter into a mountain. They are forced to walk the remainder of the way, and they find Stanford living in an expensive house in Aspen. Stanford says he has given Rupert to his own son, but Stewie finds that Stanford is a champion skier and he challenges him to a race. Stewie looks as if he will win the race when he deploys rockets on his skis (even drinking tea by a fireplace on his way down in a small room that comes out of his skis), however he crashes into a tree, causing him to lose the race. The stipulations for if Stewie lost were that Brian would have to stay in Aspen with the family, but the former's "ski room" butler pours tea on the family's son, allowing Stewie to take Rupert and make their escape. Stewie car jacks a man and the two drive home.

Meanwhile, Peter purchases Evil Knievel gloves (despite the fact that they're his gloves) and he attempts to pull off a trick in his car. He ends up crashing his and two other cars. The next day, Joe is forced to revoke Peter's driver's license. After Peter annoys Lois when he is stranded at home, Lois has Meg become his personal driver. Peter and his friends become so annoying for Meg that she has a fit of road rage and she causes a fender bender. After the driver of the other car insults Meg, she attacks him. Peter is so impressed by this that he begins to enjoy Meg's company and he tells her that he realizes that she is a really wonderful daughter. Eventually, however, Peter has his license given back to him. Meg expresses her worry that Peter will go back to treating her with disrespect. Peter tells Meg that although he will appear to still treat her badly in front of the rest of the family, he now secretly considers Meg his best friend.

[edit] Notes

• This is the third road trip episode with Brian and Stewie, the previous two episodes being "Road to Rhode Island" and "Road to Europe". There are various points of commmonality among these three road trip episodes (in all Brian and Stewie use an aerial vehicle) as well as some differences, the most obvious perhaps being that in this episode Stewie's song and dance number is not with Brian.
• Stewie says he bought the chattering teeth from Jack's Joke Shop in South Attleboro, Massachusetts, which was previously mentioned in the episode "Lethal Weapons". In the real world, Jack's has been in Boston for 50 years [1][2].
• When Brian is talking to Stewie about him being too old for Rupert, Stewie replies, "Brian, I'm one." Brian asks "Still?" But Stewie quickly blows it off. This is a reference to the characters never seeming to age.
• It should be noted that this episode first appeared on the weekend of Winter X Games XI, which also took place in Aspen, CO, and featured different competitions of skiing.

[edit] Cultural references

• At the end of the opening credits, there is a shot of Brian riding a horse and Stewie dressed up in an American flag shirt and has a moustache, a reference to the movie Borat! Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan

• Aspen was the destination of the main characters in Dumb and Dumber, who also lived in Rhode Island. Incidentally, during the opening credits, two slides have resemblance to scenes from the film: a picture of Brian and Stewie riding a mini scooter, and Stewie with his tongue stuck to the metal of a chairlift.
• Stewie's fantasy of Rupert's funeral is a parody of Spock's funeral in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, right down to the song "Amazing Grace" being played on bagpipes and then taken up by the non-diegetic soundtrack.
• Watching Cheers, Peter jokes that the show hasn't been fun since Kirstie Alley ate Shelley Long.
• When searching on the database for who took Rupert, it is shown that Stanford watches Cold Case, Without a Trace, and Yu-Gi-Oh!.
• Sharon Stone kills her lover after sex, as in the movie Basic Instinct. She kills the man in the fashion of a praying mantis. The man was voiced by Connor Trinneer, better known as Commander Trip Tucker on Star Trek: Enterprise
• When playing 20 questions, Adam West answers his own question by asking if the answer is Bo Bice.
• On the car's DVD player, Peter watches an episode of the Nickelodeon cartoon SpongeBob Squarepants (complete with an actual recording of "The Campfire Song Song" from the episode "The Camping Episode"). The director of Road To Rupert, Dan Povenmire, wrote for Spongebob and in fact wrote the Campfire Song Song (source:http://www-personal.umich.edu/~goodwins/bob/sb_music.html)
• Stewie makes reference to Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell getting left behind after the Rapture.
• The James Taylor song that Brian sings when hitchhiking is called "Country Road".

• The musical number with Stewie and a live-action Gene Kelly is an edited scene from the film Anchors Aweigh (1945). The sequence originally involved Jerry Mouse of Tom and Jerry fame. Stewie's reflection on the floor remains that of Jerry.
• When Stewie and Brian are crossing into Colorado, the welcome sign says 'Welcome to Colorado. More than just Kobe and Columbine', referring to two recent events Colorado is famous for.
• When Stewie and Brian's helicopter crashes Stewie appears momentarily as the devil, just as John Candy appeared to Steve Martin in Planes, Trains & Automobiles while they were driving the wrong direction on the expressway. (There's also a similar sequence in the movie Dirty Work (1998), where Norm MacDonald is hallucinating due to bad brownies while driving, and sees The Devil, played by Adam Sandler, yelling some gibberish about eating pork at him, and then he looks next to him, and sees Gary Coleman laughing demoniacally at him.)
• During the "My Black Son" intro, Peter and his black son are biking along a beach and get distracted by a thin black-haired woman, causing them to fall onto the sand. This is a parody of the 'John Ritter as Jack Tripper' scene during the first 3 seasons of Three's Company.
• Also during the "My Black Son" intro there are nods to Punky Brewster (Peter picks up the frozen dinner), Family Ties (Peter in the Ohio shirt), Perfect Strangers (the revolving door), Who's the Boss? (the curtain vacuuming), Laverne & Shirley (the glove on the conveyor belt, the doors hitting each other, and the dough landing on Peter and Lois while they kiss), and Bosom Buddies (catching fruit with the bag).
• Stewie and Brian get a ride from Bandit from Smokey and the Bandit. The character Frog, portrayed by actress Sally Field in the film, is also in the car.
• After Peter crashes his car during his first car-jumping stunt, he makes a comment about Matthew Broderick's car accident.
• When Lois opens the refrigerator and tells Peter to get out, he replies, "There is no Peter, only Zuul." This is a reference to two scenes from the film Ghostbusters.
• In a montage scene with Meg and Peter, The Flintstones opening is parodied with Meg pulling into a drive-in movie, in which Peter sticks his head out through the roof of the car and Meg placing baby Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm on his head.
• Peter says Meg is cooler than the other side of the pillow. This is a reference to ESPN sports commentator Stuart Scott, to whom the phrase's recent popularity has been attributed. In a cutaway scene, Billy Dee Williams is seen on the other side of Peter's pillow.

• At the yard sale, Brian is selling DVD copies of Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story
• The scene where Peter strikes a series of mailboxes (and eventually Mort Goldman) with a baseball bat while leaning out a moving car window is a possible reference to the scene in Stand By Me where Ace's gang plays 'Mailbox Baseball' or the scene in 'The Benchwarmers'
• The scene where Brian and Stewie pull a man out of his car through the broken window while yelling expletives is a possible reference to a similar scene from Reservoir Dogs
• The ski race towards the end between Stewie and the father who bought Rupert is a direct reference to the climax of Better Off Dead.
• The marquee in front of the drive-in movie theater visited by Stewie and Brian lists one of the films being shown as Inland Empire - a surrealistic David Lynch movie.
• Notice that when Peter is watching SpongeBob, SpongeBob and Patrick's mouths are moving at the exact same rate, despite the fact that Patrick's struggling in the song.
• GOOF: When Meg stops the car (causing a crash behind her), she is completely doused with beer. In the next shot (after punching out the other driver), she is completely dry.
• On the internet when it shows Stanford ages it 39 but he was born in 1966 41 years ago.

Preceded by "Barely Legal"

Family Guy Episodes

Followed by "Peter's Two Dads"