The Courtship of Stewie's Father

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“The Courtship of Stewie's Father”
Family Guy episode

Episode no.	Season 4 Episode 16
Written by	Kirker Butler
Directed by	Kurt Dumas
Production no.	4ACX19
Original airdate	November 20, 2005
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List of Family Guy episodes

"The Courtship of Stewie's Father" is an episode from season 4 of the FOX animated television series Family Guy.

The title is a parody of The Courtship of Eddie's Father.

[edit] Plot summary

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Peter gets annoyed because he never gets Employee of the Month at the Pawtucket Brewery. It always goes to his mentally challenged co-worker, Opie, and he thinks it is because his supervisor, Angela, hates him. Joe suggests that he brown-nose her, and Peter organizes a surprise animal cockfight, but as Angela gets there, all of them are dead, making a mess of blood all over Angela's house. Weeks later, Opie does not get Employee of the Month. Instead, he gets promoted, but Peter once again comes short. Meanwhile, Chris breaks neighbor Herbert's window with a baseball and is ordered to do chores for him to repay his debt.

After a talk with the preschool teacher (and seeing several pictures of Stewie murdering Lois), Lois is concerned about Stewie's behavior, and because of Peter being so occupied with work, and suggests Peter to spend some time bonding with him. Peter quickly realizes that Stewie enjoys seeing him hurt Lois, and begins bonding with Stewie by playing pranks on and assaulting Lois. Lois puts up with it until Peter and Stewie drop a car with her inside into a lake. When Lois comes back and orders Stewie sent to his room, Peter backs Lois up, making Stewie feel betrayed. To make amends, Peter takes Stewie to Walt Disney World Resort in Florida. Stewie is captured, but is saved by Peter á la Indiana Jones. Father and son embrace, and Stewie's faith in Peter is restored. Peter and Stewie return home.

[edit] Notes

Transformers character Soundwave is alluded to being Christian. In the episode "When You Wish Upon a Weinstein", the Autobot leader Optimus Prime, the mortal enemy of the Decepticons (which Soundwave is a part of), was shown to be Jewish.
Stewie actually calls Peter "dad" in this episode.
According to the DVD commentary, all the laughing by Peter and Stewie in the part where they drown Lois in the stationwagon, hitchhike to a McDonalds, and (inexplicably) are home on the couch was done by Seth MacFarlane himself (as opposed to being recycled from earlier episodes), which left him sweating and exhausted from going through with it.
Meg had one line in this episode and only appears once when she says to Lois, "Is Chris still working for that disgusting old man?"

[edit] Censorship

In the scene where Peter rescues Stewie from "It's A Tiny World" and Achmed the guard goes after them, Peter's line to distract him, "Hey, look over there! There's a woman learning!" was cut on the FOX version, presumably because it would cause offense to Muslims. The Cartoon Network and DVD versions have the line intact.
Some of Quagmire's obscene gestures (particularly when he points to his crotch and humps a plunger) in his story of how he had sex with the hot homeless twins was replaced with an extended shot of Peter covering Stewie's ears on the FOX version.
According to DVD commentary, there were more scenes in the subplot of Chris doing chores for Herbert the Pedophile to pay off the broken window, but FOX Standards rejected them due to Herbert's morally questionable character (also mentioned was that Herbert the Pedophile was originally supposed to be the school bus driver when they were first creating the character). Some of the missing scenes mentioned was a scene where Herbert offers Chris a pill he claims is Tylenol and tells Chris to lie face down on the couch and a scene where Herbert gives Chris his own work uniform, which turns out to be a leather bondage harness.

[edit] Cultural references

Stewie's life ambition is alleged to be "taking pictures of Madison County", a la The Bridges of Madison County.

Peter (dressed as Indiana Jones) and Stewie (dressed as Short Round) are chased by a turban-wearing guard named Ahmed through a mineshaft, parodying Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Upon luring the guard away, Michael Eisner tries to rip out Peter's heart, but falls down a cliff by the Jungle Cruise and is ripped apart by crocodiles.

Stewie has also been shown as Short Round in Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story.

Kim Cattrall is made fun of for her age in a cutaway.

A cutaway shows an alternate version of Back to the Future Part II in which Doctor Emmett Brown is revealed to be a racist.

When the guard is chasing Peter and Stewie, Peter tries to distract him by saying "Hey, look over there! There's a woman learning!". This might be a reference to sexist attitudes in some Islamic societies. However the man appears to be wearing a Sikh turban.

Herbert (during a dream sequence) sings an almost accurate version of "Somewhere That's Green" from the movie Little Shop of Horrors. The dream sequence where Herbert imagines an idyllic family life with Chris is an almost dead-on copy of the sequence where Audrey dreams of having a family with Seymour (Rick Moranis).

When Peter's socially awkward and "burden of the state" supervisor, Opie, is promoted, the Decepticon Soundwave (from Transformers) inherits his job. Soundwave has a wife he met in a Christian chat room, and carries a picture of his family that transforms into a cassette tape.

In one cutaway, Peter conducts the Sand People Choir. When the Sand People run away, Obi-Wan Kenobi appears and says "Relax. The Sand People are easily frightened, but they'll soon be back, and in greater numbers," an almost word-for-word quotation from Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope.

It's Peanut Butter Jelly Time!

Disney rides:
- Peter and Stewie watch Captain EO, and Michael Jackson runs out of the screen and grabs a kid in the audience. However, the ride was removed from Disney World in the 1990's, so this is just a coincidence to the trial going on at the time.
- Stewie is captured by Disney security guards and forced to sing on "it's a tiny world", a parody of "it's a small world".
- Peter and Stewie get on "Halle Berry's Wild Ride" (a play on Mr. Toad's Wild Ride), where Halle runs over several people and then runs away. This is a parody of Berry's (multiple) hit and run accidents over the last several years.

Before Stewie sings "it's a tiny world" one of the lost kids say, "If you don't sing the song you'll be in a Christmas movie with Tim Allen," a reference to The Santa Clause movie series and Christmas with the Kranks.

In one scene, Brian parodies Peanut Butter Jelly Time, a hit Flash animation short.

When Peter finds Stewie on "It's A Tiny World", he asks him, "Why are you dressed like Rerun?". Rerun was a character on the 1970s sitcom, What's Happening!!.

Moments before Stewie is kidnapped by the Disney World guards, Peter engages in a conversation with the crows from Dumbo, commenting on their racist depiction of African Americans in the original movie.