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This came out a few months ago for a few reasons. It helped promote American Dad, which was debuting soon, and also has the complete “Road to Rhode Island” episode that had cut out an Osama Bin Laden scene. It was marketed as Seth’s 5 favorite episodes.
The Main Characters
The TV shows focuses on the Griffin family. There is Peter, the stupid father who frequently makes references to old TV shows. Lois is the stay at home mother who can get angry to get her way when she needs to. Meg is the outcast daughter who always wears a red cap. Chris is actually denser than his father with a bit of a monkey problem in his room. Stewie is the youngest and the brightest of them all. No one can hear him talk but he hates Lois and seems to want to take over the world. The Griffins wouldn’t be complete without Brian, the talking dog. Everyone can understand Brian but only Brian can understand Stewie. Stewie, Brian and Peter are all voiced by Family Guy creator Seth McFarlane while Alex Borstein (of Mad TV fame) voices Lois. Mila Kunis and Seth Green voice Meg and Brian respectively.
The Setting
Quahog, Rhode Island.
The Episodes
I’ve reviewed all of these before in the previous Family Guy volumes, so here is a quick recap.
1) When You Wish Upon A Weinstein
When Peter gets scammed out of money for Volcano Insurance, he learns from his friends Quagmire and Cleveland tell him that he should get a Jewish accountant / investors since they are good with money. So Peter wishes for a Jew. The next day, a Max Weinstein shows up. The Griffins make friends with Max, who helps Peter with his money, and they even go to a synagogue with him. This inspires Peter to push Chris into a life as a Jew. They go to a Las Vegas for a quickie bar mitzvah and Lois has to stop them. There are some classic lines in this one (Cleveland: Not all Jews are good with money. Peter: Yeah, the retarded ones but why would you say that? For shock value?). Highlights also include a musical number, “I Need a Jew,” and the famous celebrities at the synagogue, like half of Lenny Kravitz and Optimus Prime.
2) Road to Rhode Island
This is the real reason to purchase this DVD for FG completists. Basically it is a Stewie and Brian romp through the US. Brian starts having dreams about his mother. His shrink recommends he meet her. Stewie is in Palm Springs visiting his grandmother and Brian suggests he pick up Stewie. They go to the airport and Stewie distracts the x-ray inspectors by singing show tunes then saying that he hopes Osama knows show tunes and he shows up singing. That was cut from all subsequent releases. Brian gets drunk and wanders off, so Stewie looks for him, leaving his bag behind with the tickets there. So they need to get across the country, singing and having a grand ol time.
3) To Live and Die In Dixie
Chris gets a job as a paperboy to get a present for a girl. He stops by a convenience store one day and a thief steals his bike. He goes and fingers the thief and was told the thief would never know who he is, so Peter walks in and gives the thief a picture of Chris, his name, his school schedule and everything else. So the thief escapes and says he’s going to kill Chris, so the family has to relocate to the Deep South. Hijinx ensue.
4) I Am Peter, Hear Me Roar
As with most Family Guy episodes, the first half of the story usually has nothing to do with the second half. Take this episode for example. Peter and Lois go to get a free boat but Peter doesn’t listen to Lois and takes the mystery box instead. Inside the mystery box? Comedy tickets. So Peter goes with his friends (who all took the boats) to the club. Peter gets drunk and tells jokes and everyone laughs because it looks like he pees in his pants. So he starts telling jokes at work and makes a sexist joke in front of a woman. He gets in trouble and that brings us to the second part, Peter going to a woman’s retreat and coming home very effeminate. So Lois now has to get the old Peter back. This is really one of my favorite episodes as it is funny from beginning to end.
5) Lethal Weapons
It’s autumn in Rhode Island and you know what that means? New Yorkers come and invade to see the foliage. This angers Rhode Island to have a bunch of New Yorkers invade their churches and bars. Luckily, Lois has been taking self-defense training classes to raise her morale at Peter always contradicting her. So Lois starts getting very rough, beating up New Yorkers left and right. The whole family gets violent however and they have to learn to deal with that. Honestly, not one of my favorite episodes but its on here.
DVD Features
A) Extras
1) Feature Commentary on Road to Rhode Island
This commentary is done by none other than Stewie and Brian themselves. They basically make fun of each other and talk about the episode (like making a dog suit for the young Brian). Highlights include: Stewie calling Brian fat (to which Brian responds Fuck You). Alternate takes that happened in the making of the episode. They talk about the Osama Bin Laden scene and Brian says that the FBI should’ve watched Family Guy. They even mention the show being cancelled so they can’t collaborate again. Of course, the show is back on the air now. There is some swearing on here so beware, but this is the best commentary done on a Family Guy episode (though honestly there is not much competition) and for the Season 4 DVD, they have to have at least 2-3 episodes done like this. This pays for the DVD.
2) Feature Commentary on To Live and Die in Dixie
This commentary is done by Seth McFarlane, Daniel Palladino, Steve Callaghan, Danny Smith and Mike Henry. This commentary is far and away better than anything on the Season 1-3 Discs. I heard there was lots of dead air due to questionable language or something along those lines. This one they keep going the whole episode. Tons of info is given on this commentary as well. Mike Henry was actually the voice of the old man and he does that voice a few times. Very good commentary.
3) Feature Commentary on I am Peter Hear Me Roar
This commentary is done by Seth McFarlane, Chris Sheridan, Alex Borstein and Craig Hoffman. I always enjoy the commentaries with Alex. They even talk about the ‘effin cry opening and Seth saying it was always laugh and cry and that’s why he re-recorded it. Pretty decent commentary. Not quite as good as the first one, but still lots of good stuff. There are no long periods of silence, which plagued the first two DVD sets.
4) Feature Commentary on Lethal Weapons
This commentary is done by Seth McFarlane, Chris Sheridan, Garrett Donovan and Steve Callaghan. This is another very good commentary on this disc. In fact, besides the Stewie/Brian one, it’s probably the best. Very informative, Seth breaks into his Quagmire, Stewie and Peter voices often and it was just a joy to listen to.
5) American Dad (5:58)
This is a very rough 6 minutes draft of the TV show. The names are the same, but Steve looks and sounds different. It seems to be the first 6 minutes of the pilot and the beginning theme song is different too. The voices and the look are the same on all the other characters though.
6) Seth MacFarlane talks about American Dad (7:24)
Seth talks frankly about American Dad, how it was originated, the characters, the people who voice the characters and it has clips from the above extra shown in between. Oddly enough, Steve was shown as a drawing looking exactly like the way he looks now, while the draft he looks completely different. Haley is actually voiced by Seth’s sister.
7) Seth MacFarlane talks about Family Guy Season 4 (15:28)
Before he talks about Season 4, Seth talks about the top 5 episodes he chose for this DVD and why he chose them. Then Seth talks about the new upcoming season and how he is happy it is back on the air and it is the first show that was cancelled and then brought back by the same network. They show some clips from the new season as well. Very cool.
B) Audio/Video
The audio is presented in English Dolby Surround and the video is shown in fullscreen 1.33:1. There is also a Spanish Surround track and a French Stereo track. The video is the basic TV to DVD transfer and it is a bit better than watching it on Adult Swim so that’s a plus. The Surround is there but hardly used; since it is just a TV show after-all.
C) Liner Notes
There is a single page with The Griffins on a couch in the front and the episode list on the back. There are also ads for Greg the Bunny and God The Devil and Bob.
D) Easter Eggs
None
Overall Review
Mileage may vary on this one. On one hand, if you have the three seasons already on DVD, you have all these episodes and if that’s all you want, then take a pass on this one. If you’re a fan of Seth’s work and just need the complete “Road to Rhode Island” episode then you’ll eat this up without thinking. I for one picked this up for the latter reason. I thought the DVD would be that and not much else but the commentaries were far and away better than anything on the regular DVD’s and the three extras were pretty decent as well, especially Seth describing his favorite episodes and how Family Guy is now back for more. Overall, it’s a surprising DVD. Is it worth the $20??? 5 episodes isn’t really that much but the Stewie / Brian commentary pays for this DVD in my opinion. If you’re a true fan of the show, you can’t be without this disc. Moderate fans may want to take a pass at this one.
Overall Rating
8.0
10.0 Perfect
9.0-9.5 Near Perfect, Highly Recommended
8.0-8.5 Really good disc, Recommended
7.0-7.5 Good DVD, Mildly recommended
6.0-6.5 Above Average DVD. Mildest of mild recommendations
5.0-5.5 Decent all around disc, but catch it on TV
4.0-4.5 Great Movie but horrible DVD
3.0-3.5 Horrible movie but great DVD
2.0-2.5 There’s at least some merit to this DVD, but not much.
1.0-1.5 Horrible DVD, don’t even bother
0.0-0.5 Worst DVD ever
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