(S05E02) And we're back, with what was, at best, an ok episode. Was it just me or did it seem like a lot of the cut away gags just didn't work this week? We open episode two at the air show with the citizens of Quahog anxiously hoping for a plane crash. When that doesn't happen, someone runs up and stabs the pilot, to cheers from the crowd. Then Quagmire appears in his plane, The French Tickler, and proceeds to crash through the crotch of Veronica Mars and Paris Hilton on billboards. He dodges the Greta Van Sustren billboard until he can crash through a Jack Daniels one first. As they are leaving, they realize that Stewie is lost. After Peter goes through a dull lineup flashback we go to Brian searching for Stewie. He's stopped at the booth of the local morning zoo radio show. While I agree with the idea that most morning zoo shows are overproduced to the point of annoying, playing those overly long radio intros again and again wasn't funny. But they did set up for a later point. Anyway, while using the PA, Brian is discovered by the PD of the radio station.
Then we have Lois and the kids watching Round Table, with Harold Ramis, Al Michaels, Kermit, and Ray Ramano. No joke, just the four of them talking over each other. But here we get into the main story of the episode. Peter's mother Thelma (Phyllis Diller) shows up to tell him that she left his father. Peter flashes to the Peanuts reunion where punk rock drug dealer Charlie Brown returns to tell the gang that Snoopy and Woodstock are dead from an OD. 
Meanwhile, in the better minor story, Brian is now hosting The Lunch Hour on 97.1 WQHG. He's all set to talk politics and goes to the phones where we hear Stewie say, "Yes, I'll have a big helping of the pretentious crap." Then he throws to Weenie and the Butt, and the overly long intro joke isn't funny this time either. Brian apologizes to his boss for Stewie's call, but his boss is having none of it. He wants Stewie added to the show.
Lois takes Thelma to a singles mixer at the community center where she meets Tom Tucker and they hit it off. After a bad cutaway for a bladder control problem, we're back to Peter and Lois at home. Cut to the not funny nosy waiter bit. Then Peter catches her mom in bed with Tom. They talk about it, and in one of the few funny cut aways Tom throws to Ollie Williams for the analysis. Ollie screams, "Ladie's old!" Peter forbids Thelma to see Tom.
Brian and Stewie are on the radio is the best part of the show and what saves the episode from being totally forgettable. Stewie renames the show Dingo and the Baby. The overly long intro is actually funny this time.
Getting back to Peter's story, he calls his mother and pretends to be Tom Tucker's physician, Dr. T and the Women, calling about his penis cancer medicine. The only funny part of the scene is when Lois hits Peter in the face with a frying pan. Tom wins Peter over and we see a montage of the three of them as a happy family to the tune of Give Me The Simple Life. Little boy Peter just isn't that funny.
Brian is at the Mini-Mart buying smokes and a squeaky toy where fans recognize his voice and start asking for his autograph. Loving the attention, he gets on board with Stewie's antics and embraces Dingo and the Baby.
Unfortunately for Peter, Thelma is leaving Tom. Peter thinks it's his fault. We do get one of the better cut aways here though with Darth Vader as a meter maid who drives a Chevette.
And finally, the episode is saved with the scene of Dingo and the Baby. They take a call from Sindy, and ask her to come down to the station and get naked. She's all for it and the boys get excited about the show. Then Stewie accidentally plays a drop from Philadelphia with Denzel talking about AIDS. Brian asks him what the hell he's doing and Stewie replies, "I swear to god that was supposed to be 'Food Fight!'"
Sindy comes down to the station and gets naked. Then they fire hot dogs at her from the hot dog cannon. For every hot dog she catches in her mouth she gets $100 towards a boob job. As Stewie continues to fire hot dogs, Gore Vidal shows up for his interview with Brian. And in the line of the night, as Brian tries to convince Gore to stay for an interview, we hear Sindy say "That one felt like my dad." and Stewie plays the jingle "Incest in the morning."
In the end Peter learns a valuable lesson. Jake, Tom's upside down face kid, shows up looking for his Dad. Peter tells Tom that he should be spending his time with Jake instead. And then to finish it off, Chris asks Peter to play catch with him and Peter says, "Oh my god, could you leave me alone? You are the neediest kid."
Not a great episode. The whole Peter story just didn't do much for me. As usual, the Stewie and Brian stuff was the best part of the episode. Slow start to the season, but there are 20 more episodes to get it right.
The Upfronts: FOX
Carter Bays of How I Met Your Mother: The TV Squad Interview
The Upfronts: CBS
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
9-18-2006 @ 11:16AM
Rich Keller said...
The two cut away gags that I thought were too long where the Peanuts reunion and Darth Vader as a meter maid. They didn't do anything for me and really slowed down the whole episode.
The whole radio plotline was great, especially all of the jingles and sound effects they were using.
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9-18-2006 @ 11:18AM
Gavin said...
The writers were all over the map this week and I don't mean that in a good way. A LOT of jokes did indeed fall flat, and the radio bits with Wiener & the Butt went on way too long. They milked that bit waaaay too long and it just ended up being filler. Gore Vidal catching the hotdog in his mouth was pretty funny though. The Simpsons episode last night was also pretty dull, and American Dad was pretty much a meh-fest. I hope things get better quickly....
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9-18-2006 @ 11:24AM
Mack Swift said...
Yeah, this was a so-so episode. Most of the gags were chucklers or eye rollers; nothing fall off the couch funny.
The Brian and Stewie radio show stuff was pretty dang funny though. The whole Sindy, hotdog, and incest part was a hoot. And when the hotdog landed in Gore Vidal's mouth and Stewie yelled, "$100 boob job!"; well that was a good capper.
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9-18-2006 @ 11:49AM
Brett said...
Aw nuts. Gavin and Mack, you are both right. I forgot to ad the Gore Vidal bit at the end. That was really funny. Overall though, a slow episode. Glad to hear it wasn't just me.
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9-18-2006 @ 11:53AM
Chris W said...
I felt very aware of the cut aways, which are often so funny and "appropriate" that you don't notice. This time, it felt too much like set-up punch. But I laughed my ass off several times, anyway. For one, I thought the annoying radio DJ bit was hilarious. I work in radio and these guys are all the same; it was great. Of course, Brian and Stewie's show was awesome. I especially laughed at the Philadelphia drop. The Peter storyline was kind of lame, but I liked the rapport with Tom Tucker. Darth Maid was wonderful; when he's getting the loan for the Death Star?!
Anyone notice that Peter's mom is completely different (voice and attitude) from when we first met her, at the end of "Honor Thy Father", I think it was called.
Also, they never showed us when Stewie was found. I was confused when he called into the radio station.
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9-18-2006 @ 1:15PM
niccomm said...
The Round Table joke was that all four guests sound alike, so they argued over who had said what earlier... come to think of it, that's not much of a joke after all.
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9-18-2006 @ 1:48PM
jq said...
that radio bit playing over & over for too long of periods at a time killed the episode for me. the AIDS bit, darth vader bit, the peanuts bit & round table bit didn't even work for me either. i think american dad was funnier this time. i dont know about anyone else but the 1st & 2nd season is still the best. everything just meshed right. anyone agree?
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9-18-2006 @ 2:41PM
nikescream said...
This was one of the weakest episodes ever. The radio bits were just very annoying. The Vader bit and air show were okay though.
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9-18-2006 @ 4:12PM
Tim Dorr said...
Good, I'm not the only one that noticed this.
But did anyone notice that American Dad was a *really* good epsiode this week? I mean, it seems like they switched writing teams for this one. "You mean there's *more* of her?!?"
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9-18-2006 @ 4:20PM
Brett said...
Tim, I would agree that American Dad was better than Family Guy this week. Not nearly as many dead spots. I thought both the anorexic cheerleader and the imaginary trainer were both very funny.
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9-18-2006 @ 4:59PM
Dave T. said...
OK I don't watch american dad but this was a poor Family Guy.
The best site gag was quagmire flying through the billboards, looping over to the JD and back for Gretta. Everything else was downhill from there. Even the simple act of not resolving stewie being lost was weird.
Best line was just Dingo and the Baby (the Dingo ate my baby) I mean come on. that's just funny. as was the denzel monologue by mistake. all the cutaways were too long and didn't work and the whole peter being a baby was lame. hasn't it even been done before?
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9-18-2006 @ 6:10PM
Michael Couvillion said...
The bit with the movie Mannequin replaced The Ring made me chuckle, as did the Round Table bit - the voices are the joke.
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9-18-2006 @ 7:16PM
Ben G said...
wasn't just this week that American Dad was great. it's been consistantly great since Spring.
too bad Fox doesn't promote it enough, cause Adad is just brilliant.
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9-19-2006 @ 3:14PM
Amihai said...
It's wasn't such a great episode, but come one, will you please stop describing what went on during the entire episode? it's supposed to be a review of the episode, but not per-se...
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