Padre de Familia (Family Guy episode)

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Padre de Familia
Family Guy episode

Peter showing off his American side
Episode no. Season 6
Episode 6
Written by Kirker Butler
Directed by Pete Michels
Guest stars Carrie Fisher
Phyllis Diller
Michael McDonald
Production no. 5ACX20
Original airdate November 18, 2007
Season 6 episodes
Family Guy - Season 6
September 23, 2007 – May 4, 2008
  1. Blue Harvest
  2. Movin' Out (Brian's Song)
  3. Believe It or Not, Joe's Walking on Air
  4. Stewie Kills Lois (1)
  5. Lois Kills Stewie (2)
  6. Padre de Familia
  7. Peter's Daughter
  8. McStroke
  9. Back to the Woods
  10. Play It Again, Brian
  11. The Former Life of Brian
  12. Long John Peter

Season 5 Season 7
List of Family Guy episodes

"Padre de Familia" is a season six episode of the FOX animated series Family Guy. Guest starring are Carrie Fisher as Peter's supervisor, Angela, and Phyllis Diller as Peter's mother, Thelma Griffin.

This episode aired November 18, 2007, two weeks after the 2007 Writers Guild of America strike interrupted production. At the time of the strike, the episode was not entirely finished. Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane, a member of the Writers Guild of America, went out on the picket lines. As the show's showrunner, he would normally have been at work overseeing the final touches on the episode and would still voice his memorable roles (Peter, Stewie, Brian, etc.).[1]

The title of this episode is the same as the title of the Spanish version of the show, which literally translates to "Father of the Family."

Contents

[edit] Plot summary

The Griffins attend a Veteran's Day parade where, after listening to Herbert sing "God Bless the USA," Peter realizes he is proud of his American citizenship. He begins showing off his patriotism everywhere he goes, even going as far as buying a suit themed after the American flag. He also becomes frustrated with the presence of illegal immigrants, especially with the fact that they are taking away good jobs. Peter goes to great lengths to make Quahog immigrant-free, such as patrolling the town border and banning all non-American influences from his house (much to his family's chagrin). At the brewery, Peter convinces his supervisor to initiate an inspection, laying off any immigrants employed. After doing so, he goes to his mother Thelma's house for his birth certificate to prove his citizenship. However, Thelma tells Peter a startling secret: he was born not in America, but rather in Mexico.

She explains that after learning she had been impregnated by an Irish drunk, she went to Mexico to get an abortion; however, she was forced to wait until Peter was born. As soon as he was, she immediately realized she loved him and took him home with her. Not wanting to risk exposing his existence while crossing the border back to America, she never filled out his citizenship papers, turning Peter himself into an illegal Mexican immigrant.

Peter is subsequently unemployed and the family begins to fall into debt. Lois suggests that Peter try to take a naturalization test. He fails, however, and he and Lois are informed that their marriage, which has lasted for 20 years, may not even be legitimate.

After Peter fails to find any good jobs, Lois turns to her father Carter for assistance. Carter agrees to employ Peter as a servant on his estate, and the Griffins move into a settlement of other Mexican immigrants near Carter's mansion. Of course, working as a servant, especially under Carter, proves grueling for Peter, who begins to empathize with the immigrants. He forms a friendship with them, and they in turn invite him and his family to a party to celebrate Cinco de Mayo. However, Carter crashes the party by reminding him of American regulations. Peter is outraged and rallies up the immigrants to form a rebellion. Carter decides to negotiate with Peter, saying he will grant him American citizenship if he calls off the rebellion. Peter demands that everyone must gain citizenship, but the others insist that he take this opportunity, saying that their day will come someday. Peter agrees, and from this point onward Peter becomes an official American citizen; the family moves back to their house, Peter regains his job, and all is well.

[edit] Notes

  • This is the first episode to receive a 6.7 score on tv.com. The episode is also the latest on the PTC as "Worst show of the week"
  • This is the second episode to make numerous references to 9/11, previously done in "Airport '07".
  • The legal premise on which the plot turns is incorrect. As long as Peter's mother was a U.S. citizen at the time of his birth, was over 21 and had spent 10 of the previous 14 years in the United States, he automatically had citizenship and she did not have to do any paperwork. [2]

[edit] Censorship

  • On Adult Swim, when Brian tells Peter that he never knew about 9/11 until 2004, Peter says that he remembered, followed by a cutaway of him walking by Lois, who's watching the coverage on TV, and commenting that the one who crashed the plane "Must have been a woman pilot." On FOX, the scene ends after Brian says that Peter didn't know about 9/11 until 2004, and cuts right to the Toby Keith/goat scene.
  • Peter tells his friends that he got his "balls" tattooed to look like the Space Shuttle's launch exhaust. On FOX, he says "'nads" instead.
  • In the "Rapid Dave" cartoon, Rapid Dave says to Sylvester: "Up your ass, cat!" in the Adult Swim version. On FOX, the line is changed to "Up yours, cat!" (even though "Up your ass!" was shown in the closed captions for this episode when FOX aired it).

[edit] Cultural references

  • The Griffins watch the (fictitious) movie Superman V: The Broken Condom, in which Superman quickly breaks up with Lois Lane after his X-ray vision reveals that she's pregnant. This is a reference to Superman Returns[citation needed], the actual fifth movie in the franchise, in which Lois has a son, who is implied in the movie to be Superman's son.
  • Peter tells his supervisor that American companies such as Nike, Microsoft, General Motors, Ford, Boeing, Coca-Cola, and Kellogg's don't profit from non-American labor; the joke here, as Fouad points out, is that they actually do. The actual joke, to the viewers, is that Peter's comment was not intended to be a joke.
  • One of Peter's relatives is Peter the Pig, from the story of "The Three Little Pigs."
  • Peter mentions becoming a nanny; it is a parody of Mary Poppins, except Peter falls through the roof, crushing Jane and Michael Banks in the process. Peter, who injures his back upon landing, realizes the dead children and is horrified. He then throws up, and pushes the bodies under a bed. Still hysterical, he runs to a window and jumps out. [1]
  • The scene where Peter tries to feed a goat to Toby Keith parodies a scene from Jurassic Park. Lois even states that "Toby Keith doesn't want to be fed; Toby Keith wants to hunt," a reference to a line from the film.
  • When Peter talks about illegal immigrants, he says "They are part of the Rebel Alliance and a traitor. Take them away!" This line is from Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope.
  • Peter deems Speedy Gonzales a bad influence on his children, and creates an American version of the character named Rapid Dave, who runs away from Sylvester while yelling, "Quickly! Quickly! Run fast! Run fast!" (as opposed to Speedy Gonzales' regular saying, "¡Ándale! ¡Ándale! ¡Arriba! ¡Arriba!").
  • When Peter tries to figure out Lois' favorite thing during the oral part of his naturalization test, he goes back and forth with the test giver like the contestants in the Winners' Circle from the various incarnations of Pyramid; Dick Clark comes out after the buzzer and gets Peter to find the correct answer, and then Dick sends it to commercial and they all chat while the theme song ($25,000/$100,000 Pyramid version) plays.
  • Peter mentions a more realistic ending to Dirty Dancing, where Johnny gets arrested for having relations with a minor because Patrick Swayze was middle-aged during the time of filming. He was 34 at the time of release though co-star Jennifer Grey was hardly a minor at age 26.
  • At one point, Peter calls Gerardo "Cheech," as in Cheech Marin.
  • A parody of Michael McDonald is hired by Peter to keep him and his border-patrolling buddies entertained by singing everything they say; he appears again towards the end of the episode providing a high-pitched accompaniment to Peter's words, as well as Peter's fart.

[edit] Previous episode references

  • Reappearing in this episode are Pasqual and Santos, the Portuguese fishermen who once worked for Peter; this is their first appearance since the episode "Perfect Castaway." Peter, though, seems not to remember them.
  • Brian complains that Peter had his acupuncturist arrested for being an illegal immigrant. He was seen in the cold open of the episode, "He's Too Sexy for His Fat".
  • Also appearing again is Fouad, Peter's coworker who loves ironic humor. This is his third appearance, the first two being in "Chick Cancer" and "Blue Harvest".
  • The Ball in a cup-toy is also shown again, with a response from Stewie similar to his comments in "The Fat Guy Strangler," where it was last shown.
  • Back in "The Courtship of Stewie's Father", Stewie claimed that a strip club on Tuesday is "not exactly their A-squad". We get to see why in a cutaway.

[edit] Soundtrack

[edit] Reception

This episode was watched by 10.5 million viewers when it first aired.

[edit] References

[edit] External links


Preceded by
Lois Kills Stewie (2)”
Family Guy Episodes Followed by
Peter's Daughter