Tears of a Clooney

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“Tears of a Clooney”
American Dad! episode
Francine and Clooney having a moment in their relationship
Episode no.	Season 1 Episode 23
Guest stars	Paget Brewster, Bruce Boxleitner
Written by	Matt McKenna, Chris McKenna (writer)
Directed by	Brent Woods
Production no.	2AJN04
Original airdate	May 14, 2006
Newspaper Headline	Rob Schneider, Dead at 62
Season 1 episodes
American Dad - Season 1 May 1, 2005 – May 14, 2006
Pilot Threat Levels Stan Knows Best Francine's Flashback Roger Codger Homeland Insecurity Deacon Stan, Jesus Man Bullocks to Stan A Smith in the Hand All About Steve Con Heir Stan of Arabia: Part 1 Stan of Arabia: Part 2 Stannie Get Your Gun Star Trek Not Particularly Desperate Housewife Rough Trade Finances with Wolves It's Good to Be Queen Roger 'n' Me Helping Handis With Friends Like Steve's Tears of a Clooney

	Season 2 →
List of American Dad! episodes

"Tears of a Clooney" is the first season finale of the animated series American Dad!. It is possibly the longest episode of the series, spanning one year in the story.

[edit] Plot

On Francine's 39th birthday, she becomes depressed while watching her only TV appearance—a bit part that was interrupted by a young George Clooney, whom she now deeply loathes.

Stan attempts to fulfill Francine's dream of fame by arranging for her to be attacked by a swarm of paparazzi, at the grocery store, but she informs him that her real dream is to destroy Clooney. Her plan is to woo him, win his heart, then break it, and "watch him cry until his eyeballs bleed". Stan thinks her dream is the craziest, most unsettling thing he's ever heard, but he's happy to do it. Stan and Francine fly to Prague, where Clooney is staying for the production of his new movie, Dr. Love. When they get to their hotel, Stan reveals that he has hired mercenaries to gather info on Clooney, which Francine uses to her advantage. They start out with Stan becoming friends with Clooney after sending his other friends on a freighter to China. Through the course of a year, Clooney meets Francine (who has learned and mastered everything Clooney loves) and falls in love with her. By the next year, Francine has total control over Clooney's heart, but Stan has developed a closer friendship with Clooney and warns him that Francine is a mother (he shows a picture of his family excluding himself). Now becoming psychotic, Francine plans to kill him if she can't break his heart. To stop her, Stan handcuffs her to a pipe in the hotel room, but she gets free by cutting off her own hand. The two engage in a motorcycle chase to a spa where Clooney is relaxing. Francine beats Stan, who is left hanging from a cliff. Stan asks her what the real reason is behind her hatred of Clooney, and it turns out this is just her way of having a mid-life crisis. Stan talks her out of killing Clooney, and the two head back to the hotel (where Francine's hand has been put on ice to be re-attached). Stan breaks Clooney's heart himself by breaking off their friendship, while a gleeful Francine watches through video cameras hidden in Clooney's room. With Francine finally satisfied, Stan hugs her and wishes her a happy 40th birthday. Even though he pretends to be happy about breaking George's heart, Stan cries when he sees a video of George weeping.

In a side story, while Francine and Stan are in Prague, Roger has the pool drained and filled with soil to grow a vineyard. But because he's too weak to tend it himself, he adopts some foster children and treats them like his slaves. Steve hates having to share his room with them, so Roger has two cute girls be his "personal assistants". Steve and Roger then live a privileged life: growing mutton chops and smoking pipes while the children work in the snow. Hayley tries to get Roger to let the children go, despite being weakened from a disease (unnamed, but possibly Pneumonic Plague); in the end, she beats the disease and (obeying a promise she made to God) calls Child Services to save the kids from Roger. Roger lets them go anyway, after he tastes the wine they made and finds it horrible.

[edit] Cultural references

In the final vineyard scene, Steve's "assistants" wear the slave girl outfit worn by Princess Leia in Return of the Jedi. When the foster children are taken away from them, the girls try to use their chains to strangle Steve in a similar manner to how Leia killed Jabba the Hutt in the same movie.
A bumper sticker on Stan's car says "Cheney-Quayle '08".
Francine wears the Bride's yellow jumpsuit from Kill Bill in the motorcycle chase.
Francine's method of getting free from the pipe is a reference to Saw.
The delivery boy tells Hayley that Costco now has doctors in store and later, Hayley gets a phone call from Dr. Kirkland at Costco. Kirkland Signature is Costco's store brand.
In the reference to George Clooney ruining Francine's chance at stardom, one of the actors in the scene is Bruce Boxleitner.
The broken TV repeating "Bros before Hoes" in a loop is a reference to Total Recall, in which the repeated message was "Get your ass to Mars".
The scene in which Francine chops off Stan's mutton chop while wearing night vision goggles is a parody of the climax of The Silence of the Lambs.
Another reference to the Silence of the Lambs series is Francine cutting off her own hand to escape Stan's handcuffs, similar to how Hannibal Lecter escaped in the ending of Hannibal or how T-Bag escaped in the second serie of Prison Break.
The title of the episode is a word play of the song "The Tears of a Clown" by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles.

[edit] Notes

At the spa, the song to which George Clooney listens is "Who Will Save Your Soul" by Jewel.
Haley says that she made a promise to God that if she beat her cancer, she'd free the children from Roger. The episode "Roger Codger" made it clear that she was an atheist.
This is the second time Haley has been bald in the series, after Stan shaved her head in "Stan Knows Best". Later, a patch of her hair was pulled out in the catfight between her and her mom in "The Magnificent Steven". Later, in a dare challenge between she and Klaus in "Frannie 911".
Clooney never actually appeared in any episodes of Scarecrow and Mrs. King, but did make a brief appearance in the American sitcom The Golden Girls.
Klaus appears only at the very beginning of the episode, when the family is celebrating Francine's 39th birthday. This is one of the only episodes when his part is extremely small.
This episode makes a joke reference from its sister show Family Guy when Steve is given two foster girls as company from Rodger he mentions taking a memo concerning his erection and that it was dictated but not read. This is exactly what was said by Peter in the episode Whistle While Your Wife Works on the subject of Life cereal.
This episode aired fully uncensored in New Zealand on C4 with Francine saying "fucking" and "fucker". The full version also appears on the Region 4 Volume 2 DVD. The Region 2 Volume 2 DVD also contains these words uncensored, but the DVD subtitles read "(bleep)" rather than the actual words.
The episode from beginning to end depicts events occurring over the course of an entire year (made clear by holiday celebrations and Francine's 39th and 40th birthdays).
After Francines mopes about her dream of becoming an actress Stan says "I thought your dream was to own a muffin kiosk. Whatever happened to that?" referring to Finances with Wolves.