Call Girl (Family Guy)

"Call Girl" is the fourteenth episode of the eleventh season and the 202nd overall episode of the animated comedy series Family Guy. It aired on Fox in the United States on March 10, 2013, and is written by Wellesley Wild and directed by John Holmquist.^[1] In the episode, when the Griffins are strapped for cash, Lois is forced to look for a job and gets discovered by a "voiceover" talent agent named Randy, who actually runs an adults-only phone line. Shenanigans ensue when Lois settles into her gig and hears Peter on the other line.

Plot

Chris enters with a birdhouse he built based on an episode of Benson and Peter becomes interested in attracting birds. As the birds flock to the house where Chris wants the birds to reenact the episode "Conflict of Interest," a falcon sweeps in and snatches all of the smaller birds. Peter decides to become a falconer and acquires a falcon which he names Xerxes to everyone else's annoyance. Peter has Xerxes bring him different stuff. As Peter sets off to take Xerxes to the park, they spot a couple passing by on a motorcycle with sidecar and Peter decides to upgrade his adventures. Later on, Peter is visited by a lawyer representing the Jewish motorcycle owner who sues Peter for every cent he has and Xerxes.

As Lois berates him for losing everything, she finds that she is forced to get a job. Waiting at the employment agency, she is heard by a gentleman named Randy and offered voice work. Telling the family, she believes she will be appearing on television and in movies. But when she gets to the office, she finds it is a phone sex operation. Despite her reservations, she is lured by the money and gives being a phone sex operator a try. She finds herself answering calls for most of the men in town and returns home exhausted and not in the mood for sex.

At the Drunken Clam, Peter complains to Joe and Quagmire about not having sex and Quagmire gives him the number for his favorite phone sex service. Alone at home, Peter calls the line and Lois answers, quickly figuring out that it is Peter. She entertains him as he also becomes attracted to her voice without being aware of who it is. Later, Lois asks about his day and tries to get some thoughts out of him about his experience. Peter calls later and asks about a date and Lois objects, noting that he is married despite Peter's insistence which angers Lois that Peter would actually cheat on her. Lois even brings this up during her discussion with Bonnie.

At the Drunken Clam, Peter tells Joe and Quagmire about meeting his phone sex date and the guys warn him against it. Peter wants to go through with it anyways. Lois tells Bonnie and she is horrified as well that Peter would cheat. Lois sees Peter dressed up to go out as he sticks to his story about going out of town, leaving Lois depressed and angry. She dresses up herself and meets Peter where he confesses that he was faking about his fictional past and starts having regrets. He opens up to the woman he does not know is Lois and tells her she is beautiful although he goes ahead and has sex with her, still unaware that she is Lois. Eight hours later Peter finds the truth and Lois is angry, but Peter admits that he somehow felt they were true soul-mates and really did love her, although he also admits that he ran up a phone bill of $7,000.

At home, Peter and Lois completely gross out Chris and Meg with their show of affection for each other. However, Stewie watches Peter and Lois having sex and asks if all 3 can have a threesome.

Reception

The episode received a 2.7 rating in the 18-49 demographic and was watched by a total of 5.27 million viewers. This made it the most watched show on Fox's Animation Domination line-up that night, beating The Simpsons, American Dad!, Bob's Burgers and The Cleveland Show.^[2] The episode was met with mixed reviews from critics. Kevin McFarland of The A.V. Club gave the episode a C–, saying "'Call Girl' is all the more disappointing because every wrong step with the phone sex plot underscores that there’s a potentially great episode somewhere in there, but it requires changing most of the main plot and the unearned thematic resolution. I would’ve watched “Peter And The Sidecar Falcon” more than once, but as presently constituted, I can’t wait to forget the last 15 minutes of this episode."^[3] Mark Trammell at TV Equals said, "A pretty good episode on the whole. The stuff I liked, I liked a lot, and it was certainly enough to recommend the episode on the whole. Maybe it wasn’t an all-time classic, but it was one of the more solid episodes this season."^[4] Carter Dotson of TV Fanatic gave the episode three and a half stars out of five, saying "The situation at least was surprisingly complex for the series, and left a better taste in my mouth than some of this season's episodes, which have just featured an unrelenting misanthropic darkness at times without any of the redeeming qualities that this one had. Having something to think about is welcome!"^[5]

On a negative side, Parent's Television Council called it "Worst of the Week" criticizing its content describing it as "degrading". They also disliked the amount of gross-out humour describing it as "The worst content Family Guy has shown; in the past, the program has exposed children to other scenes sexualizing women and implying pedophilia, a man masturbating a horse, a baby eating horse sperm, or a character eating vomit and excrement out of a baby’s diaper – all on in prime time, on the airwaves the American people own". ^[6]

References

External links

• Call Girl at Family Guy Wiki