Road to Rhode Island
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| “Road to Rhode Island” | |
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| Family Guy episode | |
 Brian and Stewie with Brian's dead, stuffed mother. |
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| Episode no. | Season 2 Episode 13 |
| Written by | Gary Janetti |
| Directed by | Dan Povenmire |
| Guest stars | Sam Waterson, Brian Doyle-Murray, Victoria Principal |
| Production no. | 2ACX12 |
| Original airdate | May 30, 2000 |
| Season 2 episodes | |
| Family Guy - Season 2 September 23, 1999 – August 1, 2000 |
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| ← Season 1 | Season 3 → |
| List of Family Guy episodes | |
"Road to Rhode Island" is an episode from the second season of the FOX animated series Family Guy. It is the 20th episode of Family Guy to be aired. It guest-stars Victoria Principal as Dr. Amanda Rebecca and Brian Doyle-Murray as Luke (the farmer). This episode is included in the Family Guy: The Freakin' Sweet Collection DVD, where it includes a previously removed scene with Osama bin Laden. The episode was nominated for an Emmy, for Outstanding Program.
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[edit] Plot summary
The episode begins with Brian visiting his psychiatrist, where he reveals that he was born in a puppy mill and the circumstances under which he was taken from his mother as a puppy. Afterwards, Brian volunteers to pick up Stewie from his vacation at his grandparents' summer home in Palm Springs, California, where Stewie frames a maid to amuse himself at dinner. At the airport bar, Brian gets very drunk and when Stewie comes to retrieve him their plane tickets are stolen. They stop at a rundown motel. Stewie tries calling home, but fails because he believes his phone number is 867-5309. The next day, they have to escape and hijack a car because their credit card was rejected. In order to get home Stewie and Brian masquerade as crop dusters in order to steal a plane, which they immediately wreck. As the pair continue hitchhiking back to Quahog, they pass by a puppy mill near Austin, Texas, Brian's birthplace. Upon arrival they discover that Brian's mother was stuffed and turned into a table by the puppy mill owners as a memorial. With Stewie's reluctant help, Brian gives his mother a proper burial. While eulogizing Brian's mother, Stewie gives an unusual retelling of the Biblical story of Abraham and Isaac. The pair eventually complete their journey home by riding in an open boxcar where they perform a musical duet.
Meanwhile, Lois urges Peter to watch relationship videos with her, but the videos turn out to be pornography hosted by Dr. Amanda Rebecca (who says that this part of the tape is only for the men) thus leading to the porno. She strips in her videos and says sexual phrases. Peter is initially reluctant but later becomes addicted to the videos, much to Lois' chagrin. She manages to get herself on the end of one of the tapes in black lingerie and manages to entice Peter. While kissing, Peter rewinds the tape, playing the part of Lois taking her robe off over and over.
When Stewie and Brian return home, Brian is thankful to Stewie for all he's done, and asks Stewie if there's anything he can do to repay him. At first it appears that Stewie wishes to make him his servant by providing an example with an episode of The Brady Bunch, though it turns out that Stewie wants Brian to tape that episode for him.
[edit] Notes
This is the first road adventure featuring Brian and Stewie as the main characters. The second is “Road to Europe”; the third is “Road to Rupert"; a fourth is expected in 2008, titled "Road to Germany.”
This has been referred to by Seth MacFarlane as “everybody’s favorite episode” mainly by its revelation of Brian’s history and using the song and dance number to show the bickering yet close relationship of Brian and Stewie.
This episode includes a special commentary done by Seth MacFarlane in the characters of Brian and Stewie.[1]
[edit] Censorship
- A scene in this episode featuring Osama bin Laden aired only once: Stewie sings “The Good Ship Lollipop" to distract airport baggage handlers from noticing the weapons in his luggage, then remarks, “Let’s hope Osama bin Laden doesn’t know show tunes.” The camera pans to show bin Laden singing “I Hope I Get It” from the musical A Chorus Line as his luggage goes through the detector. This episode aired more than a year before the September 11th terrorist attacks. The entire scene was taken out of the episode in subsequent airings and the Region 1 “Volume 1” Family Guy DVD set (although the scene remains intact up until Stewie’s singing in the Season 2 DVD set for Regions 2 and 4), but can be seen on the Family Guy: Freakin’ Sweet DVD. In the DVD commentary, Seth MacFarlane mentions that the moral is that “the FBI should watch Family Guy more often.”
- An uncensored version aired on BBC 3 in the UK on 3rd of February
- Edits made in syndication:
- During the first porn video scene, Dr. Rebecca's line “I hope you like big breasts, because mine are so big this itty bra can barely contain them” was cut, and her cleavage was almost completely erased.
- The scene where Stewie tries to remember the phone number to the Griffin house through brute-force search after dialing 867-5309 (and realizing that it was a song title) was cut.
[edit] Cultural references
- In the puppy mill flashback scene at the beginning of the episode, Brian notes that he has an “Excedrin headache.”
- On a train back to Quahog, Brian and Stewie sing “We’re on the Road to Rhode Island,” a parody of a song from the 1942 movie Road to Morocco. The episode itself is a parody of/homage to the Road to... movies, and is the first of three "Road to..." episodes produced so far (with a fourth currently on hold due to the 2007-2008 Writers Guild of America strike[1]). In the song, there is a reference to the 1991 road movie Thelma and Louise. The song mentions several places in Rhode Island, including the City of Newport and Brown University. It also references the banishment of the founders of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations from the Massachusetts Bay Colony due to religious persecution. The Fox network is also mentioned when Stewie sings until they are syndacated, "Fox won't let them die."
- A scene of Brian in a bar dealing with a girl is inspired by the film Leaving Las Vegas.
- The radio in the car Brian and Stewie steal plays “Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?” by Culture Club.
- While driving, Stewie and Brian play Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, a game in which people link an actor or actress to Kevin Bacon by six or fewer films.
- During the scene where Brian and Stewie are standing next to his mother, Stewie spots a picture of Jesus and makes the comment "Look at Jesus standing over there by himself, you think those bulldogs would invite him to their card game," apparently referring to one of the "Dogs Playing Poker" paintings by Cassius Marcellus Coolidge.
- Stewie asks Brian to tape the episode of The Brady Bunch where Bobby saves Greg’s life and Greg becomes Bobby’s slave. However, it was actually Peter whose life Bobby saved in that episode (“My Brother’s Keeper”).
- Peter says, “This is going to be worse than the time we had to sit through your uncle Jerry’s snuff film” referring to snuff films which are tapes that record real violence and/or death. The setting mimics the movie "8MM", where Nicolas Cage watches a snuff film (left by a deceased old man) in an old study.
- The scene where Brian asks Stewie to give a eulogy for his mother, in which Stewie nonsensically quotes various sections of the Bible, is a reference to Chevy Chase's eulogy for his wife's Aunt Edna in the movie National Lampoon's Vacation.
[edit] References
- S. Callaghan, “Road to Rhode Island.” Family Guy: The Official Episode Guide Seasons 1–3. New York: HarperCollins, 2005. 90–95.
- A. Delarte, “Nitpicking Family Guy: Season 2” in Bob’s Poetry Magazine, 2.May 2005: 20 http://bobspoetry.com/Bobs02My.pdf
[edit] External links
- "Road to Rhode Island" at Family Guy Wiki.
- Road to Rhode Island at the Internet Movie Database
- "Road to Rhode Island" at TV.com
| Preceded by “Fifteen Minutes of Shame” |
Family Guy Episodes | Followed by “Let’s Go to the Hop” |
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