Don't Make Me Over (Family Guy)
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"Don’t Make Me Over" is the fourth episode of season four of Family Guy. The working title of the episode was "Extreme Makeover: Meg Edition." Guest-starring Bob Widmer as the Tin Man, Tara Strong as Meg's singing voice, and Gene Simmons as himself.
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[edit] Plot summary
Meg is turned down by a popular boy for a date and begins to feel sensitive about her appearance, so she looks to her family for support. In an effort to cheer her up, Lois takes Meg to the mall to go clothes-shopping, though that has very little effect. Discovering Channel 5 Asian reporter Tricia Takanawa is giving away free makeovers, Lois suggests Meg get the ultimate makeover. After the makeover, Meg becomes extremely attractive and her popularity skyrockets.
Meanwhile, The Drunken Clam is suffering due to the aforementioned mall having been built right across the street, so Peter and friends drag out a karaoke machine that Horace had kept in a storage room. When Peter, Cleveland, Quagmire and Joe team up to sing Journey's song "Don't Stop Believing", people swarm to the bar. Thrilled with their success, the group starts a band and travel to their first gig at a prison. The band, named "Fat, Horny, Black, and Joe", is about to launch into their opening number when they realize at the very last minute that they don't know any songs, and the prisoners riot as a result. Peter's family, who are attending to support him, hastily take the stage and sing "Buy Me a Rainbow," a schmaltzy 70's-style variety-show number, with Meg (now attractive) as lead singer. They are an enormous hit, and they sign a contract with a record executive, Jimmy Iovine (who was imprisoned for stomping a cat to death).
Despite the family's talent, their producer Dr. Diddy is more interested in exploiting Meg's new look to make her a teen sex symbol. Meg's newfound stardom goes to her head, causing resentment among the other family members; nevertheless, they travel to New York to perform on Saturday Night Live. Meg is immediately seduced by Jimmy Fallon and loses her virginity to him; she fails to realize that the entire encounter is being aired on live television as part of the show (even as Fallon keeps glancing at the camera and chuckling) until it is too late. Peter attacks Fallon on stage and beats him up; this, however, was because of Fallon's aforemention bad acting and, although he had every intent of coming to Meg's aid, he was oblivious to the fact that Fallon was the culprit. The Griffins return home, where Meg reverts to her old look, saying "being beautiful is too much work." Lois replies sotto voce, "Well, not for me." It is then revealed that the entire show is on a set, and the Griffins leave the living room and walk to the rest of the cast that appeared in the episode, and Peter thanks everyone in the style of Saturday Night Live.
[edit] Notes
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Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones. |
- When Peter says "you mean I get to meet John Belushi, Gilda Radner, Phil Hartman, Chris Farley, and Horatio Sanz? Sweet!" Everyone he mentioned except Horatio Sanz are dead SNL alumns.
- The Craig Hoffman character is named after the supervising producer for the first three seasons.
- Gene Simmons of KISS makes a cameo to encourage Peter. Simmons, an old friend of Lois, previously appeared in the episode "Road to Europe".
- The scene where Chris notices his hair was braided before going on stage is cut out in syndication.
- It is revealed here Adam West hates baseball cards.
[edit] Cultural references
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This article or section contains too many minor or trivial fictional references. Mere trivia, or references unimportant to the overall plot of a work of fiction, should be deleted. See also what Wikipedia is. |
- As Stewie rides on Brian’s back, he quotes Yoda from Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back.
- On a dare from Brian, Stewie runs naked through the mall, screaming, "Help! I’ve escaped from Kevin Spacey’s basement!" a reference to tabloid questions regarding the actor’s sexuality. The original line cited Roman Polanski instead of Kevin Spacey.
- News anchor Tom Tucker says that the next news story will concern "Joan Rivers speaking from beyond the grave," despite the fact that the actress is still alive.
- Peter and his friends attempt to revive the Drunken Clam with a Coyote Ugly theme that fails when Joe accidentally kicks himself in the head.
- For their band Peter dresses like a member of Devo, Cleveland like a member of a funk band, Joe as Geddy Lee of Rush , and Quagmire like Tommy Lee, drummer of Mötley Crüe.
- Peter attempts to satisfy angry inmates by telling a story about Lake Wobegon, the setting of Garrison Keillor’s radio show, A Prairie Home Companion, which often featured quaint stories of rural life.
- The person who signs the Griffin family is from Interscope Records, which has distributed Dr. Dre's music.
- Dr. Diddy’s name is a cross between Dr. Dre and Diddy, two well-known hip hop music performers and producers.
- Miss Swan shows up when Meg is sassing Lois. Miss Swan was a character from Alex Borstein’s tenure on MADtv. Borstein is also Lois' voice actor. Peter later mocks MADtv, a competitor to Saturday Night Live.
- Upon hearing that he will be on Saturday Night Live, Peter replies “You mean I’m going to get to meet John Belushi, Gilda Radner, Phil Hartman, Chris Farley and Horatio Sanz?” All except Sanz are former cast members who are deceased. The implication is either that the overweight Sanz is the next one to die, or that his post-SNL work has been so sparse and unknown that an average media-consumer like Peter Griffin might assume Sanz had died.
- When Lois worries that Meg might develop a "coke problem," Peter replies "No Coke! Pepsi!" a catch phrase from the "Olympia Cafe" sketches of the show’s late 1970s era. (When Howard Hesseman hosted SNL in 1982, he joked in his monologue that John Belushi would still be alive if he had said "No Coke, Pepsi.")
- During the faux SNL episode ending, in the far right of the screen, Gene Simmons can be seen licking (President) Bush. To the far left of the screen, Meg’s former "real boyfriend" (an obviously dead and decaying person) can be seen getting attacked by a wolf as was shown earlier in the episode.
[edit] Music
- During the "1980s fixing-stuff-up montage (from the movie Revenge Of The Nerds)," "One Foot in Front of the Other" by Bone Symphony is heard. This is the song also heard over the Revenge of the Nerds fixing-stuff-up montage.
- When the guys temporarily give the Clam a Coyote Ugly theme, they dance on the countertop to a tune in the style of “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” by The Charlie Daniels Band.
- While the Clam is a karaoke bar, Mort Goldman performs Maureen McGovern’s 1973 hit "The Morning After."
- Peter, Cleveland, Joe, and Quagmire sing "Don't Stop Believing," a 1981 hit from Journey.
