The Thin White Line

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“The Thin White Line”
Family Guy episode

Episode no.	Season 3 Episode 1
Guest stars	Leif Garrett , June Foray, Haley Joel Osment
Written by	Steve Callaghan
Directed by	Glen Hill
Production no.	2ACX17
Original airdate	July 11, 2001
Episode chronology
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"When You Wish Upon a Weinstein"	"Brian Does Hollywood"
List of Family Guy episodes

"The Thin White Line" is an episode of Family Guy. Guest starring Leif Garrett as himself, June Foray as Rocket J. Squirrel, and Haley Joel Osment as the kid in the bathtub. This is the first episode of the third season, the last episode of the previous season is "Fore Father." This episode was originally intended to air as the second season finale, with the next episode opening up the third season, but this did not happen that way due to FOX's constant shuffling of the show's schedule.

[edit] Plot summary

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Peter wins a paid vacation at work, and the family gets ready to go on a cruise. Joe Swanson recognizes the strength of Brian's nose and offers him a job as a police dog to look for drugs. Brian proves instrumental in finding drugs at the airport and busting a midget gang's drug ring.

But when Brian gets addicted to cocaine and goes to rehab, Lois insists the family has to cancel the vacation to help Brian. Peter, however, joins Brian at the rehab center and causes chaos and distress.

After leaving the center, Brian stuns the family when he announces that he is leaving Quahog, setting the stage for the next episode, "Brian Does Hollywood".

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Notes

Brian's cousin is the same dog Peter brought home as an addition to the family in "E. Peterbus Unum."
The newspaper containing an article about Brian also features the headline "Scientists Mystified by Paper Rain," presumably a reference to the confetti seen on the image illustrating the article.
When Brian goes into rehab, he's put into room number 42, a number that has several meanings in pop culture. It's possible, due to this being the first episode of the season, that this could be a small tribute to sci-fi author Douglas Adams, who died two months before this episode aired.
The midgets posing as students in the Sunday school could be a parody of Baby Face Nelson, a short, notorious gangster.
- In this scene, Joe moves his chair in such a way his feet come up so he can use both his legs to kick the midget.
When Brian enters his room, Peter is lying on the bed drinking from an eight-pack of beer, a notable divergence from the standard "six-pack".
The scene where Peter scares the woman in the pool could be seen as a parody of the commercials for the popular shark outfit poolwear
This episode has the first appearance of the Greased-Up Deaf Guy.

[edit] Cultural references

The name of the episode combines "the Thin Blue Line", a colloquial term for the police, and "white lines", a slang term for cocaine (from the song by Grandmaster Melle Mel and the Furious Five.)
The music, dialog and action sequences from this episode parody police procedural dramas. Specifically, when Brian and Joe race through the airport, the theme from CHiPs plays.
Big League Chew is referenced when Peter says to Chris , "You know what I haven't had in a while? Big League Chew."
A flashback shows Brian watching an episode of the VH1 program Behind the Music with Leif Garrett. The show is known for documenting the post-success breakdowns of once-popular recording artists and Garrett’s episode is one of the best-known[1].
Another Brian flashback has him auditioning for a tv commercial with a toucan. It parodies Toucan Sam of Froot Loops (follow your nose).
As a seeing eye dog, Brian narrates The Blair Witch Project for a blind guy. He continually says, “Nothing’s happening…” followed by "...something about a map..." followed by "...it's over. A lot of people look pissed" a common complaint about the wildly publicized 1999 independent film.
The way in which Mr. Weed hunts his employees is reminiscent of the famous 1924 short story "The Most Dangerous Game" by Richard Connell.
Mr. Weed says he has enough tranquilizer darts “to take-out Robert Downey Jr.,” a reference to the actor’s drug problems. A rare self-chastising meta reference has Weed's audience reacting with umbrage to the remark.
A fantasy sequence shows Stewie and a group of sailors singing a parody of "My Gallant Crew" from the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta HMS Pinafore.
At the school assembly Brian is called “McGriffin, the Drug Dog,” a reference to the anti-crime mascot McGruff the Crime Dog.
After seeing some cocaine on his nose, Brian exclaims “Got Milk?”, a reference to the popular ad campaign. "Got Milk?" is also referenced near the beginning of the episode "Holy Crap".
While time traveling, Chris finds himself in “the Bible days” and encounters an angry lion, a reference to the early persecution of Christians.
Cartoon flying squirrel Rocky shows up and says, "And now, here's something we hope you'll really like," a frequent segue in The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show.
Uncharacteristically, Peter reads The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway.
Brian refers to Lois as a “Stepford wife,” a phrase used to describe a "perfect" suburban housewife after the satirical novel The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin and its film versions.
A cutaway to when Brian used to be Peter’s “sidekick” shows Peter as The Late Show host David Letterman and Brian as his musical director Paul Shaffer.
Brian’s cousin, a Club Med employee, performs the 1987 Buster Poindexter hit “Hot Hot Hot.”
Peter trying to make up his name in the rehab clinic by referencing random objects he sees (but failing miserably, due to the sudden appearance of a griffin) references the plot of The Usual Suspects.
A flashback shows Peter as a security guard for former Beatle George Harrison, watching Charles in Charge while an intruder invades the home. Harrison was attacked in his home on December 30, 1999.
The picture hanging on the wall of the rehab doctor's office [2] is the same as the one behind the Simpson family couch [3].
Seth MacFarlane said that Brian's coke laugh is based on Mozart's laugh from the movie Amadeus.

[edit] References

S. Callaghan, "The Thin White Line." Family Guy: The Official Episode Guide Seasons 1-3. New York: HarperCollins, 2005. 128 - 131.
A. Delarte, "Nitpicking Family Guy: Season 3" in Bob's Poetry Magazine, 2.August 2005: 34 - 35 http://bobspoetry.com/Bobs02Au.pdf