From Method to Madness
| "From Method to Madness" | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Family Guy episode | |||
| Episode no. | Season 3 Episode 18 |
||
| Directed by | Bert Ring | ||
| Written by | Mike Barker Matt Weitzmann |
||
| Production code | 3ACX11 | ||
| Original air date | January 24, 2002 | ||
| Guest stars | |||
|
|||
| Episode chronology | |||
|
|||
| Family Guy (season 3) List of Family Guy episodes |
|||
"From Method to Madness" is the 18th episode of the third season of the American television show Family Guy.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
Brian and Lois attend a poorly acted one man show. Afterwards, Brian boasts that he could easily do a better job. Lois dares him to "put up or shut up," by auditioning for local theater. The judges are bored with Brian but are delighted with Stewie, who is immediately enrolled in a children’s performing arts school and throws a Benny Hill-style "sexy party" to celebrate. He quickly becomes cool, makes friends and an enemy named Olivia. When he overhears that both he and Olivia are in danger of being cut from the program, the pair hastily work together and end up becoming a massively popular duet. They share fame and success until their fighting breaks up the act; Olivia goes on to greater fame and finally she gets to go to Hollywood (kissing Stewie goodbye before she leaves), but Stewie, because of Olivia's quitting, starts to lose fame and drops back, which causes him to lose touch with reality.
Meanwhile, Peter saves a drowning man named Mark Campbell (on his fishing boat), and so the Griffins are invited over to share dinner with his family. Lois and Peter are shocked to discover that Mark and his family are nudists. Mark had been nude when Peter rescued him but Peter simply assumed Mark's shorts were lost in the ocean. Mark has a beautiful (nudist) wife named Dottie. Their teenaged son, Jeff, (who is also a nudist) takes an interest in Meg. Jeff and Meg become fast friends, and her parents are shocked when they see him at the house. After discouraging Meg with their refusal to accept the lifestyle, Peter and Lois have a change of heart and shed their clothes to make Jeff feel more welcome; this confuses Meg in different ways, as now she doesn't know what to make of her mother or father the entire situation for that matter. As Jeff leaves, he tells Meg that he appreciates what her parents did, and Meg thanks her parents. When he leaves, Quagmire shows up and tells Peter that he is returning his lawn mower, and asks for a towel, presumably in reaction to seeing Lois naked.
Brian visits Stewie at an insane asylum, where Stewie requests to hear a tuning fork. Upon hearing that he was the one that was flat, Stewie snaps out of his insanity, and returns home with Brian.
[edit] Cultural references
After Stewie and Olivia have their big fight, Stewie calls her a "Bebe No-Worth". This is a play on words to the actress and dancer, Bebe Neuwirth, who was in the cast of Cheers and appeared on Broadway in Chicago in which she sang the hit song "All That Jazz." When Stewie is playing the French horn, he claims that the name of the song is "Me Farting" by Chopin. In the car after meeting the nudists, Chris can't stop saying "Boobies!", so Lois uses a Neutralizer. The Neutralizer is a device they use in the 1997 science fiction film Men in Black. To critique Stewie's solo acting exercise, Olivia quotes Anne Robinson's catchphrase on The Weakest Link, "You are the weakest link, goodbye!", prompting Stewie to launch a lengthy tirade in which he asks "Have you any Titanic jokes to throw at me as long as we're hitting these phenomena at the height of their popularity?"[1] When Peter proves his concern about child acting, a cutaway shows an adult version of Elroy Jetson, a child character from The Jetsons, getting kicked out of a pub bruised and drunken. It goes on to show grown up Bamm-Bamm, the child from The Flintstones, has now became a taxi driver. When the crowd boos Stewie's one-man show after Olivia leaves, one audience shouts that this show was worse than Seussical. This was referencing to the negative reception from the Broadway musical about the works of Dr. Seuss.
[edit] Production
The episode was written by series regulars Mike Barker and Matt Weitzman, and directed by series regular Bert Ring, before the conclusion of the third production season.
[edit] References
- S. Callaghan, "From Method to Madness", Family Guy: The Official Episode Guide Seasons 1–3. New York: HarperCollins, 2005. 152–155.
[edit] External links
 |
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: From Method to Madness |
| Preceded by Brian Wallows and Peter's Swallows |
Family Guy (season 3) | Succeeded by Stuck Together, Torn Apart |
