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Could anyone ever imagine that Family Guy would be able to release a 5th volume of TV episodes to go along 1 DVD of Seth’s favorite episodes (including the uncut Road to Rhode Island), the Blue Harvest special and the Stewie 3-parter. Not bad for a show that was cancelled and though dead almost 6 years ago! There are 13 episodes broken up into two DVDs (the third is just extras) and contains episodes from the first half of Season 4, completely uncensored as well.
The Main Characters
The Griffin family is the main stars of this show. Peter is the father and could be considered by many to be borderline retarded. There are no barriers between his brain and his mouth and often what he is thinking is what comes out of his mouth. Lois is his wife and is a little more normal than Peter. She is his anchor. That is not saying much since she has an explosive temper and could go off at any time. Peter and Lois have three children; Chris, Meg and Stewie. Meg is the oldest and is shunned by the family and the world in general. Chris is overweight and perhaps even more absent minded than his father. Stewie is the most intelligent of them all, even though he’s only a baby. He has quite the dirty mouth and he’s always scheming. He usually has the most choice lines in the series, too. Brian rounds out the Griffin family. He is the most learned, most well-versed, most well-spoken, and is a dog. They are quite the dynamic, and dysfunctional family. Seth MacFarlane does the voices of Stewie, Peter and Brian (among others), Mila Kunis voices Meg, Seth Green handles Chris and Alex Borstein is Lois.
The Setting
Quahog, Rhode Island.
The Plots
---Disc One---
1) Stewie Loves Lois(21:48)
Original Airdate: 09/10/06
There are two main storylines that run here. The title refers to Stewie becoming enamored with Lois after she sews Rupert back together after Stewie’s favorite teddy bear was mauled by a dog! The fixation is just, well, weird, and he even goes far enough to ban Brian from talking to her! Lois can’t take it after a while (and even dreams about killing him). She starts ignoring him and The funnier storyline revolves around Peter getting a prostate exam then he feels violated to the point where he sues the doctor. Of course, when he really needs a prostate exam he tries everything to get an exam. He has to admit that he wasn’t violated and things are back to normal for the Griffin clan. There were some funny moments, especially Peter running from the office after getting “molested,” calling the evil monkey, Meg and the two Sulu references. The Stewie story just wasn’t that great, but it was redeemed by the Peter one. B+
2) Mother Tucker (22:44)
Original Airdate: 09/17/06
The family goes to an air show where two radio hosts are. Brian uses the microphone to help find Stewie and he’s offered a job on the radio. Brian does the show and it sucks but in true Full House fashion, Stewie becomes his co-host and the show becomes just one big shock jock type show. That is storyline number 1. The second one revolves around Peter’s mother leaving her husband. Peter is shocked but things go crazy when Mrs. Griffin starts dating Tom Tucker! Tom becomes Peter’s surrogate father and their relationship is just weird. Highlights include the Peanuts reunion (where Charlie Brown is all drugged out) and the Charlotte’s Web spider overcoming Tourrette’s. The radio stuff was just very stupid and annoying, though, and it was used way too much. B-
3) Hell Comes to Quahog (22:40)
Original Airdate: 09/24/06
The gang goes to a roller rink (while slightly intoxicated) to pick up Meg. They start skating and dancing and leave, forgetting Meg. Meg complains about not having her own car so Peter, Brian and Stewie go to get her a car. Peter is his usual idiot self and buys a tank instead. He brings the tank home, blows up Cleveland’s house (while he’s in the tub) and causes all types of chaos. The real meat of the episode revolves around a superstore being opened that is closing all the businesses in town and causing rolling blackouts in the middle of a heatwave. It’s even worse when Meg starts working there, then Peter. Eventually Meg gets fired for not firing her dad and Stewie and Brian blow the store to bits with the tank. There is a funny scene of Iceman using his ice sled to go to a gay club and his wife finding out and another of Peter killing Yogi Bear with a knife to the back and that is enough to make this a good one. B+.
4) Saving Private Brian (22:45)
Original Airdate: 11/5/06
Chris tells his family about an Army presentation they had at his school and Brian is pissed that they are doing this to high schoolers. He goes down to the Army recruiting building to lay into them. He goes with Stewie and leaves him for a minute to put some change in the meter and Stewie signs up him and Brian for the Army. The two go to Iraq then find out how horrible it is and want to leave. They try being gay, but that doesn't work. Then they shoot each other in the feet but still can't get discharged. Luckily the war ended and they returned home. Meanwhile, Chris looks for other activities to keep himself busy and joins a metal band, and then starts acting all crazy and obsessing over Marilyn Manson. Peter and Lois find Manson and he smooths things over between the two. Some running themes this season were brought to a close (the two ragtime piano players) and a horribly out of date reference to Zidane and his head-butting incident at the World Cup. This was a decent episode. B+
5) Whistle While Your Wife Works (21:51)
Original Airdate: 11/12/06
This has the introduction theme song where Peter falls down the stairs which was really funny. Quagmire picks up some illegal fireworks and Peter uses them and manages to blow all the fingers off his hand! He is basically disabled now and is about to get fired from work until he asks Lois to do his typing for him. This plot ends with the two of them having sex at his job. Stewie meets Brian’s new girlfriend, and she’s a complete ditz. Stewie invites her over to the house and Lois and Stewie think her idiocy is the funniest thing. Stewie tells Brian he should dump her but he can’t bring himself to do it. There was really nothing to this episode and wasn’t funny, the cutaway scenes weren’t that good and really, it just stunk. C-.
6) Prick Up Your Ears (22:10)
Original Airdate: 11/19/06
When Adam West’s cat-launcher breaks a porn shop window, Chris and his friends steal a bunch of video and watch them, when Lois walks in. Lois says Chris should talk to his sex-ed teacher but Lois finds out there is no teacher! She volunteers to teach the class and is fired. They have a speaker come in (with some hilarious observations on the speaker and his techniques) and preach abstinence. Peter is shocked that Meg is giving up sex (you’re what they call a practice girl) but then when he reads a silly anti-sex pamphlet he pledges abstinence, too, even turning down Lois and her dressing up as Grimace. Soon all the kids start practicing what’s called ear-sex. In other parts of the show, Stewie loses a tooth and tries to stop the tooth fairy from taking his tooth. There is a great Michael Jackson goof (the kid in me enjoys the frosted side, the adult in me likes the kids in me). This episode just hit on all cylinders, the jokes were hilarious, the one-liners great (hey, this sandwich tastes funny, is there anything wrong with the smuckers? Peter responds: “Yeah it was on my penis.”) Great episode. A.
---Disc Two---
7) Chick Cancer (21:40)
Originall Airdate: 11/26/06
There are two main storylines here, the first is that Olivia returns into Stewie’s life and the two get back together, get married and eventually break up again. That wasn’t too great but the bread and butter is Peter’s new obsession with chick flicks. In fact, it provides the line of the show, “Lois, before I found these movies, women only made me cry through my penis. Now they make me cry through my eyes.” He makes his own chick flick, which was terrible, but definitely funny. I think the best outside reference was the Chester Cheetah sniffing Cheetos like crack. Overall it was a solid episode. B+.
8) Barely Legal (22:39)
Originall Airdate: 12/17/06
This episode features a very creepy plot where Brian brings Meg to the prom and after getting drunk makes out with her. Meg starts an obsessive relationship with Brian that ends with her kidnapping him and tying him up! In an unrelated plot, Peter, Quagmire and Cleveland undergo police training after Adam West sends all the police force away (save Joe) to save the life of the woman in Romancing the Stone. It was a creepy story, but some of the gags were pretty darn funny, especially Brian telling to Lois he ate Meg’s hairy pie (after Meg put her own hair in a pie she baked for Brian) and the dance sequence of the African-American’s stripping out of white costumes when the police are gone. I really can’t say this was great, but it wasn’t terrible, either. B.
9) Road to Rupert (23:09)
Original Airdate: 01/28/07
This starts with a yard sale where Brian accidentally sells Rupert. So Brian and Stewie go off in search of Rupert. Peter gets his license suspended after trying a crazy stunt. So he can’t go to the bar, he wrecks the TV and is now extremely bored. He thinks of his own 80’s TV show (My Black Son) and eventually Meg has to drive him around. They form a close friendship until Peter gets his license back. This storyline didn’t have much going for it. So Brian and Stewie head out to Aspen to get his bear back and have their regular antics (including Stewie dancing with a live-action Gene Kelly) and have a ski-off so Stewie can get his bear back. They lose the race but Stewie gets his bear back after beating them up. There’s a hilarious sequence where Lois complains about the Stewie Griffin Untold Tale DVD until some Fox people take her away. There were some hilarious laugh out loud moments and this is another in a classic Stewie/Brian team-ups. A.
10) Peter’s Two Dads (23:24)
Original Airdate: 02/11/07
This has a couple of main themes running through it. In act I, Lois and Peter forget about Meg’s birthday and throw her one of the worst parties in the history of parties. It ends with Peter riding down the stairs on his unicycle and landing on his father. This injury eventually kills Francis and with his dying words he tells him he’s a drunk. Peter goes to therapy for this and ends up realizing Francis isn’t his real father! He heads to Ireland to find his real father and it’s about as funny as you can get. His father is the town drunk and Peter has to outdrink his father to earn his love. There’s a song and dance number at the end, too. In the slightly more disturbing part of the episode, Stewie realizes he loves getting beat by Lois and tries to get himself smacked around as much as possible. Not too many cutaway scenes here but this episode really didn’t need it, relying on the strength of Peter meeting his true father. B+.
11) The Tan Aquatic with Steve Zissou (22:52)
Original Airdate: 02/18/07
Peter goes golfing with Stewie strapped on him and Stewie ends up getting a sun tan. Stewie likes this look and goes crazy with the tanning, even putting a tanning booth in his room! When he asks Brian to get him out after 15 minutes Brian falls asleep and Stewie is roasting in there for 6 hours. Stewie is horribly sunburned and fears he has cancer. Stewie begins living his life as if he only has days to live with Brian at his side. Of course, he lives. The funnier story of the two involves Chris getting beat up by a bully, Peter trying to talk to this bully and then beating him up (Peter beating up a 13-year-old is just gold) and Peter turns into a big bully himself! He later goes to confront the kid who bullied him (he now has MS and uses crutches) and Chris finally stands up to a bully, his father. The best stuff occurs early, with Quagmire going insane on the golf course but overall it was enjoyable, especially Peter’s story in this episode. A-.
12) Airport ‘07(22:52)
Original Airdate: 03/04/07
The episode starts off at a redneck comedy show and Peter turns into a redneck, buying a pick up truck. He ends up crashing into Quagmire’s car (causing his women to run away, don’t worry, they are tagged) and so Peter drives him to work. Peter does something crazy (tries to fuel his jeep with the airplane gasoline) and Quagmire gets fired. He ends up living with the Griffin’s and they are sick of it after a while. So Peter and the guys try to get Quagmire his job back. Their plane is to drug the pilots and have Quagmire save the day and their plane goes off perfectly, except for one minor detail, Quagmire is not on the plane! Quagmire is in the dumps until his hero, Hugh Hefner, gives Quag a pep talk and Quagmire helps his friends land the plane. He’s a hero and he has his job back! There’s a funny reference here to Peter bringing Cleveland to the Michael Richards show, the one where he shouts out racial slurs. There are two callbacks here; the first is Brian remembering being beat up by Stewie and allowing him to drink Peter’s spit juice. Second, we have the return of the, “Who else but Quagmire,” gags. A not so funny reference is Mayor West being alerted to a plane crash a la Bush being alerted of 9/11. I enjoyed this one, and this is actually the first time I’ve seen it since it aired. Of course, I can’t go without mentioning the Peter Griffin crotch shot seen in the episode, with his actual penis hanging out. A-.
13) Bill and Peter’s Bogus Journey (22:05)
Original Airdate: 03/11/07
Peter stars going to the gym after a harrowing encounter with an aquarium octopus. He thinks he’s a muscle man and when he tries to help Bill Clinton with a flat in front of his house, he suffers a hernia. Bill starts hanging out with Peter and the two become fast friends. Lois doesn’t like Bill’s influence and goes to the former prez to complain but ends up sleeping with him! The only way the marriage can be saved is if Peter sleeps with another woman. He has any pick, and he picks Lois’ mother! Peter realizes he can’t go through with it because he loves her too much. The b-story here is Lois and Stewie trying to potty train Brian. That plot goes nowhere, like this episode. The Conway Twitty references were a bit too much and really the episode wasn’t even that funny. What a bum note to end the collection on. D.
Season 5 Review
I think the beginning of Season 5 will be best remembered for its stunning mediocraty. There were no real blowaway episodes but no real duds either, save the last one. The best episode this season, for me, was Prick Up Your Ears. It wasn’t a bad showing and fans of Family Guy will see all the things they love about the show, the random cutaways, the inane plots, Peter acting retarded and Brian and Stewie’s regular antics. I mean, this is the 5th season, you know what to expect. If you liked previous seasons I don’t think you’d dislike this one. It may not contain some classic episodes but they aren’t bad. I really don’t know what else to add. It was just average. That’s not a bad thing, but it’s not a great thing. I have to go mildly recommended based only on the episodes.
DVD Features
A) Extras
---Disc One---
1) Audio Commentaries
---A) Stewie Loves Lois
Seth MacFarlane, Kim Fertman, David Goodman, Mike Henry and Mark Hentemann appear on this commentary track. Seth gets confused, thinking this episode is Tan Aquatic. They said this episode was so strong they used it as their season premiere. The sticking up to your teacher exam was not from any movie in particular but say it was an 80’s cliché. They mention that there are usually three versions of any given episode. The Fox version, the Adult Swim and the DVD version. Seth relates a story about when he was a kid and he ate all the Flintstones vitamins and had to get his stomach pumped. Seth says that Pewterschmidt and the doctor have the same voice which they eventually play off in a future episode. They actually came up with the idea while doing the commentary! The one scene that wasn’t in the broadcast was Peter playing with Stewie’s mouth thinking it was Lois’, well you know what. I liked this commentary.
---B) Mother Tucker
Seth MacFarlane, Tom Devanney, David Goodman, James Purdum, Chris Sheridan, and Leann Siegel appear on this commentary track. Seth says they like Jack Daniels but never received a shipment of the drink. They reveal that the Charlie Brown bit was originally written for Patriot Games. One of the guys left midway through the commentary. The Stewie monologue (ripped off Maude) was not on the broadcast. There is some issue stemming from Napoleon Dynamite causing a word (retard or retarded) not to be said on Fox anymore. They talk about sending all the Star Wars gags to Lucasfilm and them genuinely enjoying it. They say that Denzel Washington actually had to sign off on the Philadelphia footage used this episode. Another enjoyable commentary.
---C) Hell Comes to Quahog
Seth MacFarlane, Kirker Butler, David Goodman, Dan Povenmire, Chris Sheridan and Danny Smith appear on this commentary track.
---D) Saving Private Brian
Seth MacFarlane, Cherry Chevapravatdumrong, David Goodman, Seth Green, Charles Song and Cyndi Tang appear on this commentary track.
---E) Whistle While Your Wife Works
Seth MacFarlane, Drew Barrymore, Steve Callaghan, David Goodman, Chris Sheridan, and Kara Vallow appear on this commentary track. Drew Barrymore actually does the commentary and as you know she does the voice of Jillian. They based her character on an idiot Seth knows. They joke about the girls Drew has slept with, and Drew loves Hubert and Mike Henry’s voice for it. The bit with Stewie singing was in another episode but there was no room for it and it was put here. Seth’s dad played guitar on the show but Seth says he can’t play guitar no matter how much he tried. They talk about Peter’s porn and where he hides it and Drew jokes she keeps it under her TV cabinets. Drew did Chris’ psychotic teacher and talks about an interview she did with Seth and wanting to be on the show. Drew talks about talking to Seth on the phone (and even calls him Brian!). Drew has a lot of fun on the commentary, throwing in some choice words and she geniunely had fun on the commentary. This is worth the price of the DVD alone!
---F) Prick Up Your Ears
Seth MacFarlane, Cherry Chevapravatdumrong, David Goodman, Suzanna Makkos, James Purdum and Danny Smith appear on this commentary track. Cherry and Suzanna say they are doing lesbian things. They make fun of Cherry’s last name with Danny doing a couple songs done to her name which are all funny. This wasn’t as funny as other commentaries on the disc but was very enjoyable, especially with Cherry and Suzanna involved.
---Disc Two---
1) Audio Commentaries
---A) Chick Cancer
Seth MacFarlane, Rachel MacFarlane, Pete Michaels, Chris Sheridan, Alec Sulkin and Wellsley Wild appear on this commentary track. Rachel is, of course, Seth’s sister and plays the part of Olivia in this episode. Seth mentions that Patrick Warburton has never appeared on a commentary and says he should. They talk about movies and Seth says Departed was just an average crime movie. Just like this commentary, just average.
---B) Barely Legal
Seth MacFarlane, Kirker Butler, David Goodman, Mila Kunis, Zac Moncrief and Danny Smith appear on this commentary track. Mila makes her lone appearance on the DVD collection. The other guys try to butter up to Mila, which is kind of funny. The dance song is from the Wiz. They talk about Connie’s original last name but they had to change it because Mila couldn’t say it. Mila jokes that she doesn’t know why she has the job. Seth tries to get Mila to make out with him by suggesting they practice Meg making out with Brian. They joke about Meg’s castle in Hollywood but she keeps saying she sold it. Mila was fun to listen to, and the commentary was pretty good.
---C) Road To Rupert
Seth MacFarlane, David Goodman, Mark Hentemann, Patrick Meighan, Dan Povenmire, and Andy Tauke appear on this commentary track. The guys say the Stewie DVD gag wasn’t on television. Seth tells the true story of how the lyrics to Amazing Grace were written and it causes a bit of a stir. They talk about the animation with Stewie and Gene Kelly dancing together. They talk about what a great job the animator did. They say they just used Gerry the Mouse’s reflection (who Gene really danced with) since it was vague enough you couldn’t tell it was Stewie. They mention they couldn’t get a Wrigley’s commercial on the show. They mention that this was originally going to take place in Hawaii.
---D) Peter’s Two Dads
Seth MacFarlane, David Goodman, Mike Henry, Walter Murphy, Danny Smith and Cyndi Tang appear on this commentary track. Mike Henry is the voice of Cleveland and Hubert. Mike basically does his voices three of four times and we don’t hear from him again. Seth mentions that Kevin Swanson appeared in this episode and they say there is nothing interesting about him and that’s why he doesn’t appear. Nothing too much was happening in this commentary, you can skip it and not miss a thing.
---E) The Tan Aquatic With Steve Zissou
Seth MacFarlane, Kevin Biggins, David Goodman, Mark Hentemann, Danny Smith and Julius Wu appear on this commentary track. Seth mentions the TV show, The Winner, and they say it is hopefully in the third season by this time. Well, it’s been cancelled.
---F) Airport ‘07
Seth MacFarlane, Tom Devanney, David Goodman, Mark Hentemann, John Holmquist and Danny Smith appear on this commentary track. Seth mentions this was originally called Keep On Truckin’. Other than that, there’s nothing here.
---G) Bill and Peter’s Bogus Journey
Seth MacFarlane, Alex Borstein, Steve Callaghan, Andrew Goldberg, David Goodman, and Joseph Lee appear on this commentary track. They actually asked Clinton to be in this episode but he actually wrote a letter declining which non one knew about except Andrew.
---Disc Three---
1) Deleted Scenes (16:33)
There are a ton of deleted scenes here. I usually write about all of them with each’s running time but that just isn’t feasible when there 38 deleted scenes, and they don’t even say what episode it was from. You know what, screw it, here’s the rundown;
---I) Enola Gay Bomber (0:37)
Stewie talks to the man who dropped the atomic bomb in Japan, and causes him to kill himself.
---II) Hope and Rape (0:32)
This is a theme song of a sitcom where a convicted rapists lives with a woman named Hope. It was pretty funny.
---III) No Consonant Day (0:20)
Adam West holds a no consonant day, where people don’t say consonants. This was stupid.
---IV) Douche Bag on Rye (0:43)
Brian takes more calls on his radio program with Stewie calling in. Then Stewie interrupts Brian’s show with stupid comments, turning his political show into a shock jock show.
---V) Gatorade Commercial (0:25)
This is Family Guy’s spoof of a Gatorade commercial, and it features a guy asking a woman out and sweating in Gatorade blue, then peeing himself. Why was this cut?
---VI) I Have So Much Cancer (0:12)
This is an old time 20’s movie spoof where a guy says he has too much cancer to hear a woman. I don’t know where that would fit in at all.
---VII) Stewie Shoots Hooker (0:25)
This was cut out of the Stewie Loves Lois episode and was in the animatic. I mentioned it there and it is still funny.
---VIII) Village People (0:24)
Lois says Peter hasn’t been this upset since he was kicked out of the Village People. He was a tree.
---IX) Peter Blows up Delta Burke (0:26)
This is another one that is in the animatic version. Peter blows up Delta Burke with the Millenium Falcon.
---X) Squeezing Boob Question (0:17)
Lois says that doctors check for cancer by squeezing her boobs to try and convince him not to sue the doctor.
---XI) Strong Medicine (0:12)
Griffin meets the women of Strong Medicine in his hospital.
---XII) Peeing on Roller Skates (0:15)
Peter pees at the urinal on roller skates and it is pretty funny.
---XIII) Time Bandits (0:35)
Brian is pissed at Superstore USA and Stewie says he can outwitted the Supreme Being. This was a silly reference.
----XIV) Fat Kid Fishing (0:21)
Peter fishes for fat kids as Superstore USA. This was mildly amusing.
---XV) An Insult for Angela (0:29)
Peter gets fired but not before he insults Angela, which takes forever, then he can’t think of anything.
---XVI) Shot a Baby in Iraq (0:18)
The recruiting officer brags about shooting a baby in iraq, which he at first thought was a man.
---XVII) Kelly Ripa (0:26)
Brian says something is more unbearable than having sex with Kelly Ripa, who is super hyper.
---XVIII) Chris Beats up Quagmire (0:40)
Chris, in his heavy metal mode, kicks Quagmire’s ass to take his car keys.
---XIX) Aquaman’s Assistant (0:32)
Peter gets fired from a job being Aquaman’s assistant. Peter messed up a message (you got a message from something man).
---XX) Seal Grates Cheese (0:25)
This was a cutaway that is from one of the animatic episodes below. Peter mistakes Seal’s face for ancient lava.
---XXI) Tetherball (0:15)
Chris plays tetherball with Stewie, who was tied to his mouth. Weird.
---XXII) Bag of Poop (0:20)
Brian and Stewie planned to throw a bag of poop at Olivia but Stewie runs off instead.
---XXIII) Stewie Jumps in Picture (0:08)
Stewie jumps in the picture of Brian and Meg before her prom.
---XXIV) 911 Call (0:45)
During the gang’s training to be police officers. The character actor takes a call and it is pretty funny. A woman calls saying someone is in her house and he basically just talks to her. She ends up screaming. This was pretty funny.
---XXV) Stewie Gets Pierced (0:09)
Just as it says, Stewie gets his ears pierced.
---XXVI) Mr. Holland’s Opus (0:41)
Brian tells Stewie he will buy him Mr. Holland’s Opus figures. A Sandcrawler gets involved, too.
---XXVII) Patriot Act (0:14)
Stewie says that the Patriot Act allows you do whatever you want, including using interracial children as food in the event of a terrorist attack! That’s just wrong.
---XXVIII) Viva Rock Vegas (0:15)
Stewie wonders why the family is selling The Flintstones’ Viva Rock Vegas.
---XXIX) Misty Fogbank (0:25)
Misty Fogbank is the new weather girl and she has huge boobs. Tom Tucker keeps calling her names relating to her boobs.
---XXX) Fatty Sulu (0:20)
Sulu fights his urges to eat. This is hilarious.
---XXXI) Gay Car Alarm (0:26)
This is a cutaway to how a gay cat alarm would sound. I could’ve sworn this made an appearance in another episode but I could be wrong.
---XXXII) Mike Tyson (0:20)
Peter teaches Chris how to stand up to a bully and be a fighter like Mike Tyson. Mike ends up punching a girl.
---XXXIII) Valerie Bertinelli (0:26)
Val stars in a lifetime original movie. She is raped by a doctor but she still has cancer. Typical lifetime movie.
---XXXIV) Duck Ear Muffs (0:24)
Since Bill Clinton has been around, Peter has acted crazier than when he bought live duck ear muffs. Basically, he has life ducks covering his ears.
---XXXV) Club Girls Ignore Peter (0:47)
Lois wants Peter to sleep with someone to make up for her sleeping with Clinton. He goes to a club and tries to talk to dancing girls and they won’t stop dancing with each other. Peter’s conversation with them is pretty funny.
---XXXVI) Elaine Stritch (0:22)
Peter loves the redneck style and is better than the Elaine Stritch show (a skeleton). I don’t get it.
---XXXVII) Peter as Redneck (0:19)
Peter enjoys being a redneck. He asks Quagmire if he saw the NASCAR race and annoys his neighbors.
---XXXVIII) Airline CEO Dennis Long (1:19)
Peter needs to get rid of his tattoo (about black people making him uncomfortable). Airline CEO wants to apologize for the accident and has a word with Quagmire in private and he walks away with the camera following him. We see all of this from the camera’s P.O.V. Quagmire is fired. This was definitely cut for time, as it is really long and ultimately pointless.
2) Animatic Episodes
I assume you know what an animatic is if you have read any of my reviews before. If not, they are basically like rough animation versions of the episodes with the voiceover work done. These are all longer than the episodes that aired since things would be deleted either for time reasons or standards reasons. Some of the episodes were completely changed around from animatic form, too. All of these have optional commentary as well.
---A) Stewie Loves Lois (25:54)
This episode is almost exactly the same up to the third act, but we’ll get to that. There is a song sung by Tom Tucker (in a Mr. Rogers vein) very early in the show but that was eventually cut. There’s a cut scene of Stewie about to shoot a hooker from Quagmire’s house and a distressed Peter making an Angela Lansbury out of her potatoes in the first act, too. In the second act, the scene where Peter tells the guy he’s been violated is extended (with a funny appearance by the performance actor). Peter goes to the doctor instead of the lawyer by mistake with his ideas to sue. There’s another scene of Peter destroying Delta Burke a la Star Wars. The third act featured the most drastic change. Instead of the doctor losing his license, Peter wins 5 million dollars which the hospital can’t pay. So Peter gets to run the hospital! There are some not so funny things happening with Peter in charge and when the doctor comes in for a prostate exam, he sues Peter and gets his hospital back. The main idea was that frivolous lawsuits go both ways. I liked the way it was aired better than this, and I liked the look at how the story can change from original animatic to the finished form. There are a few cutaways that didn’t make the cut (one with Colin Farrill) that will probably appear later, a funny one with Hirohito reading his name in the paper after bombing Pearl Harbor, and a stupid Alias one. There are things that were added that weren’t here, too, like Stewie hitting Brian instead of saying he loved Olympia Dukakis. The optional commentary is done by Anthony Agrusa, Dominic Bianchi, Mick Cassidy, Mike Kim, and Dave Woody and they spend most of the time watching the show, then talk about how the episodes are made. I wasn’t terribly interested, to be honest. I really liked the alternate version of the episode, though.
---B) Prick Up Your Ears (27:55)
This deals with the whole safe-sex thing and for the most part it was almost the same. There were some cutouts that didn’t make the cut (one about gun control and health benefits in Canada, an Amadeus reference where Super Mario Brothers is played, ) a scene of Adam West’s cat shooter popping Jake Tucker’s balloon, the interiors of the XXX shop, an extended scene of Peter bursting in on Lois’ sex-ed class (including him wanting to show the kids how to have sex), a cutaway of Peter getting fired from Museum of Natural History because of Seal, a longer sequence of Stewie protecting himself from the tooth fairy, and being scared by things in his room, a cutaway of Stewie trying to get a tooth by selling a prostitute out to her pimp, a cutaway of Ronald Reagan going grocery shopping (I wonder if they’ll ever use this one, as the commentary people muse as well), the original version of Tricia interviewing a woman who liked nose-sex, and huge nostril, an unused pose of Peter putting his willy in Lois’ ear, a Columbo cutaway, Stewie protecting his room a second time with infrared lasers, a Lorraine Brocco cutaway from the Sopranos, and finally the Cleveland appearance at the end was lifted to show Brian being thrown out the window. Not terribly different but the deleted parts were pretty funny. This optional commentary features Chad Cooper, Mark Covell, Steven Fointi, Brian Iles and James Purdum. They talk a lot about the things they worked on, they joke about some of the voice actors on the show and generally had a good time. I liked their commentary.
---C) Chick Cancer (24:26)
Chick Cancer featured Peter making chick flicks, and this was largely unchanged (just more extended scenes). The Stewie plot with him meeting Olivia is completely nonexistant. Instead he makes a robot body to pursue one of Jillian’s friends. He treats her badly to get her but then has to treat her right to keep her. He finds out that she has a baby and Stewie doesn’t think he’s ready for an adult relationship and instead wants to play. He eventually ends it with her. It was a pretty interesting subplot but the Olivia worked a whole lot better. Here are some of the other changes besides the Stewie story; a trailer for Kill Everything, Peter’s work friend (Fuad) has a beard here, a casual Friday Stewie cutaway, a Maze the mouse cutaway, a shot of Peter writing his movie with a cutaway of the people writing in Starbucks which you will know was moved to another episode, as well as the Luke calling out another pilot, a Stewie bit a la School House rocks, the Chester Cheetah cutaway (used in another episode), Peter calling out an albino, an extended scene of Peter’s chick flick, a Willem Dafoe cutaway used in another episode, the real ending to Peter’s chick flick (Lois killing everyone and then Peter saving the door as Thor). This optional commentary features Andi Klein, Phil Langone, Annie McMillan, Pete Michels and Perry Zombolas. They talk mainly about the differences between the two episodes. They joke around a bit, with Annie jinxing someone else on the commentary, and overall it was a decent commentary.
3) Drawing Peter (5:06)
Peter Shin teaches us how to draw Peter Griffin. It’s pretty cool, but nothing you haven’t seen in one of these extras before.
4) Toys, Toys Galore (16:29)
This is quite a lengthy feature on all the Family Guy toys there are out there. The president of Mezco toys talks about getting the licensing for Family Guy. Seth says that Fox found Mezco and the guys loved how the toys look. This is quite an extensive look at how the toys go from being chosen to being built and released. Seth says that it is really hard for a sculptor to solve mathematically the geometric distributions of the characters, taking a 2D image and translating it into a 3D product. Seth jokes that all his toys are opened and he plays with them and not in their box. I would like to have all the figures but with comics taking up so much of my basement, I don’t my wife would allow it! This was a really awesome featurette.
5) Freakin’ Sweet Promo (0:18)
This is a freakin’ sweet promo for Family Guy: The Freakin’ Sweet Collection. This came out before the show was even put back on the air so it’s an odd choice to be included on here.
B) Audio/Video
The video is done in Dolby Digital Surround 5.1. It’s a cartoon television show so the surrounds aren’t really needed. It’s a standard DVD TV release. The video is nice as well. It is better than on TV since it’s in a digital format so that is all you can ask from a set like this. The audio/video is much better than anything else seen on previous volumes, actually.
C) Liner Notes
The three DVD’s are in slimline cases with the episode descriptions on the back, but other than that, there are no liner notes. There’s a sheet with many FOX TV shows on sale. There’s another fold open sheet with the Fox DVDs, an ad for Family Guy on five nights a week and other Family Guy books for sale.
D) Easter Eggs
None
Overall Review
This is a hard thing for me to review. I love Family Guy and will always buy these sets. I don’t know if Seth and crew have had their best days. I said these episodes were just average, but average isn’t bad. Average means the episodes are enjoyable. Let’s talk about the episodes. Almost all the episodes here are longer than originally aired which is a big bonus. It gives you something extra. There are commentaries for each episode, though some are hit and miss. I have to say, the Drew Barrymore commentary was great. The whole disc of extras were fantastic, too. I love the animatic episodes, all which featured commentaries, the deleted scenes were actually better than I expected, and the toy featurette was a blast. This isn’t the best episode representation but the extras were much better than on any other Family Guy release. For that reason, this gets the perfect score.
Overall Rating
10.0
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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