A Picture Is Worth a 1,000 Bucks

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“A Picture Is Worth a 1,000 Bucks”
Family Guy episode

Chris is manipulated by art dealer Antonio Monatti.
Episode no. Season 2
Episode 11
Written by Craig Hoffman
Directed by Gavin Dell
Guest stars Dee Bradley Baker, Candice Bergen, Faith Ford, Charles Kimbrough, Joe Regalbuto
Production no. 2ACX07
Original airdate April 18, 2000
Season 2 episodes
Family Guy - Season 2
September 23, 1999 – August 1, 2000
  1. Peter, Peter, Caviar Eater
  2. Holy Crap
  3. Da Boom
  4. Brian in Love
  5. Love Thy Trophy
  6. Death Is a Bitch
  7. The King Is Dead
  8. I Am Peter, Hear Me Roar
  9. If I'm Dyin', I'm Lyin'
  10. Running Mates
  11. A Picture Is Worth a 1,000 Bucks
  12. Fifteen Minutes of Shame
  13. Road to Rhode Island
  14. Let's Go to the Hop
  15. Dammit Janet!
  16. There's Something About Paulie
  17. He's Too Sexy for His Fat
  18. E. Peterbus Unum
  19. The Story on Page One
  20. Wasted Talent
  21. Fore Father
← Season 1 Season 3 →
List of Family Guy episodes

"A Picture Is Worth a 1,000 Bucks" is an episode from the second season of the Fox animated series Family Guy. It is the 18th episode of Family Guy to be aired. It guest-starred Candice Bergen as Murphy Brown, Faith Ford as Corky Sherwood, and Charles Kimbrough as Jim Dial.

The title is a parody of the saying "A picture is worth a thousand words."

[edit] Plot summary

For his birthday, a blindfolded Peter drives the family to Bob's Funland and Putt Putt Golf. The attraction's owner, Bob Funland, soon asks them to leave, after Peter makes repeated trouble for other customers. Peter grows depressed over his lack of accomplishments; he remembers Bob Funland as a loser from high school, and even his own obnoxious cousin Kathy Griffin is famous. Chris gives Peter an astonishingly good painting as a present, but Peter simply uses it to cover a hole in the window of his car. An art dealer named Antonio Monatti buys the painting for $5000 and urges Peter to bring Chris to New York, where he could become a famous artist. Brian reveals he used to know Andy Warhol.

Under the guise of nurturing his son's natural talent, Peter puts Chris completely in Monatti's hands while the rest of the family tour the city, dazzled by the big-town sights. Monatti gives Chris a total makeover, dying his hair green, dressing him in fashionable clothes, renaming him "Christobel" and introducing him to a two-dimensional Kate Moss (implying that Moss is so thin, when she turns to the side, she disappears). Since Monatti alienates Peter (because he "is a pig"), he tells Chris that he must keep away from his father at all times. When Chris reluctantly complies, Peter disowns him and focuses on Meg's talent for bird calls. Meg's bird calls attracts Big Bird from Sesame Street, who is angry he was summoned for no reason.

Lois tricks Peter into attending the premiere of Chris' artwork by telling him that strippers would be distributing free tacos. After a grandiose unveiling, "Christobel's" masterpiece turns out to be a collection of portraits of Peter in a style reminiscent of that of Andy Warhol. Monatti and the "art crowd" immediately detest the new work and reject Chris as a poser. As the family prepare to return to Quahog, "heterosexual fashion designer" Calvin Klein spots Stewie and immediately casts him as "the face" for his new line of designer diapers. At the end of the episode, the billboard with Stewie wearing a diaper on it reads, "Stewie Griffin says: I can go anywhere in my Calvin Klein diaper."

[edit] Notes

 Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines.
The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.
  • In the opening credits, this is the first episode to clearly show the children in the pictures behind Lois at the piano. The photographs of the Griffin children were redrawn for this episode. Strangely enough, the transition ends showing them in much too high detail, something corrected a few episodes later. Also, a single frame shows the picture of Meg oversized out of proportion.
  • The end credits appear in all capital letters instead of the usual mixed-case style.
  • Beginning with this episode, Mila Kunis permanently takes over the voice of Meg.
  • When the Devil's assistant is reading up on Peter, Peter's picture shows him as a blond and wearing a red shirt.
  • Dee Bradley Baker provided the vocal effects for Meg's bird calls. He would later provide the voice of Klaus the goldfish on American Dad!.

[edit] Cultural references

  • The Griffins pass a New York bus saying, “CBS: Why watch what everyone else is watching?”
  • While riding in the taxi, the Griffins listen to a recording of David Leisure, who tries to remind people of his old roles, but is frustrated that nobody remembers him.
  • Peter expresses his excitement about going to Bob’s Funland and Putt-Putt Golf by parodying a Kellogg Company Frosted Mini-Wheats commercial.
  • Stewie sees an evil looking clown at a game stand and comments that “it looks like something out of Stephen King.” It is in fact meant to be Pennywise the Dancing Clown, the evil clown from King’s novel and telefilm It, which cast member Seth Green starred in.[citation needed]
  • At the carnival shooting gallery, Stewie sings “This is my rifle, this is my gun. This is for fighting, this is for fun,” a classic modern military slogan made famous by Full Metal Jacket.
  • In a cutaway, Walt Disney is seen drawing a picture of Minnie Mouse, ordering her to strip with distress expressed by Minnie.
  • The play at which Peter embarrasses Brian is Anton Chekhov's Uncle Vanya.
  • The Griffins point out two of the main tourist attractions of New York: Central Park and the Empire State Building. They may not be accurately identifying them, however, as the two are not all that close to one another.
  • Peter compares Chris to New York City’s mayor, Rudy Giuliani, as “the best thing to happen to New York since Giuliani had all the homeless people secretly killed.” This is a reference to the mayor’s major crackdown on crime.
  • At the hotel, Peter asks the receptionist if they have rat bellhops like in The Muppets, a reference to "The Great Muppet Caper".
  • At the museum of Modern Art, Brian finds some art by Robert Mapplethorpe that’s not photography. A worker claims that early on, Mapplethorpe did caricatures. It then cuts to a scene of him drawing a kid named Tim's picture with Reggie Jackson defecating upon the child, then asking him what his player number is.
  • Peter mentions actress Gina Gershon. He says “You mean like Gina Gershon beautiful or beautiful beautiful?”
  • Peter rejects the idea of Chris having to go to an art school, saying there’s not enough time. He then pulls out a knife and says, “Chris, give me your ear.” This is a reference to van Gogh, one of the world’s most well-known painters, cutting off his ear.
  • In another cutaway, former Murphy Brown colleagues Candice Bergen (as Murphy), Faith Ford (as Corky Sherwood), Joe Regalbuto (as Frank Fontana), and Charles Kimbrough (as Jim Dial) inject dated “buzzwords” into a nondescript conversation, poking fun at the show’s topical humor.
  • When Stewie takes a look at secret papers in a Chinese briefcase at the United Nations, he comments “Ancient Chinese secret, huh?” a catchphrase from a Calgon water softener advertisement.
  • Peter’s song “I’m Gonna Make You Famous” is a parody of “Everything’s Coming Up Roses” from Gypsy: A Musical Fable.
  • Peter and Meg walk through New York to music from The Flintstones. The background changes into Bedrock until they back out of it. The background change could also be a reference to Warner Bros.' cartoon Duck Amuck, where Daffy Duck is seen wandering from one scenery to another, due to the fact that Bugs is the artist drawing Daffy into different scenes, in particular a sequence in which he is skiing in a snowfield and suddenly wanders into a different, Hawaiian-themed scene.
  • In the scene where Peter and Meg are standing at Central Park with a hat doing the bird calls, you can briefly see Art Garfunkel, also with a hat, playing his guitar and singing. This is probably a reference to Garfunkel's poor career development after Simon and Garfunkel.
  • Neptune’s line “...and you know nothing of my work” is a reference to Marshall McLuhan’s cameo in Annie Hall.
  • When Peter says that he’d sell his soul to be famous, the scene cuts to the Devil being pleased at these words, only to find that Peter has already sold his soul. Twice in fact; once for Bee Gees tickets, and again several years later for half a mallomar.
  • The scenes around New York as the Griffins arrive in a taxi simulate the "loose-camera" style pioneered by NYPD Blue.
  • The scene where a bull is shown examining china in a china shop is a reference to the idiomatic expression, "act like a bull in a china shop."
  • The scene introducing Chris's art show, with smoke and a laser-light show, appears to be an allusion to the unveiling of the "Chromolume #7" in Sunday in the Park with George as evidenced by the mentioning of Seurat's "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte."
  • The scene where Chris' reveals his diligently worked on painting featuring multiple pictures of Peter with different shades of colours is an allusion to Andy Warhol and his similar prints of Marilyn Monroe.
  • Peter mentions in his song that he will make Meg "known far and wide, like that princess who died", a reference to the tragic death of Diana, Princess of Wales.

[edit] References

  • S. Callaghan, “A Picture Is Worth a 1,000 Bucks.” Family Guy: The Official Episode Guide Seasons 1–3. New York: HarperCollins, 2005. 81–85.
  • A. Delarte, “Nitpicking Family Guy: Season 2” in Bob’s Poetry Magazine, 2.May 2005: 17 http://bobspoetry.com/Bobs02My.pdf

[edit] External links


Preceded by
“Running Mates”		 Family Guy Episodes Followed by
“Fifteen Minutes of Shame”
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