The Tan Aquatic with Steve Zissou

"The Tan Aquatic with Steve Zissou"
Family Guy episode
Brian and Stewie at a party for tan people.
Episode no.	Season 5 Episode 11
Directed by	Julius Wu
Written by	Mark Hentemann
Production code	5ACX06
Original air date	February 18, 2007
Guest stars
Mike Barker Jeff Bergman Chris Cox as Randy Fulcher Michael Clarke Duncan as Fozzie Bear Keir Gilchrist as Kyle Beth Littleford Rachael MacFarlane
Episode chronology
← Previous "Peter's Two Dads" Next → "Airport '07"
Family Guy (season 5) List of Family Guy episodes

"The Tan Aquatic with Steve Zissou" is the 11th episode of season five of Family Guy, which originally aired on February 18, 2007. The episode follows Stewie, who develops a tan, but becomes obsessed with his new look and attempts to keep it, eventually stopping after being told by the doctor he may now have cancer. Meanwhile, Peter discovers Chris being tormented by a bully, goes to the bully's house to speak with him, and ends up beating him up.

The episode was written by Mark Hentemann and directed by Julius Wu. It received mostly mixed reviews from critics for its storyline and many cultural references. According to Nielsen ratings, it was viewed in 8.53 million homes in its original airing. The episode featured guest performances by Mike Barker, Jeff Bergman, Chris Cox, Michael Clarke Duncan, Keir Gilchrist, Beth Littleford and Rachael MacFarlane, along with several recurring guest voice actors for the series.

Plot

Stewie

When Peter, Joe, Cleveland, and a hot-tempered Quagmire go to their local golf course with Stewie, Stewie develops a sun tan, since Peter neglected to apply sun screen to his body. Stewie takes an instant liking to it and decides he wants to keep it, so he decides to make regular efforts to keep himself tanned. After the installation of a sunbed in the Griffin house, Stewie uses it and asks Brian to wake him up after fifteen minutes. However, Brian falls asleep, and Stewie wakes up severely burned six and a half hours later. After his skin returns to normal, Stewie discovers a mole on his stomach. Fearing that he may now have cancer, he goes to see Dr. Hartman, who tells him he will have to await the result of some tests to discover if it is cancerous. Believing himself to be dying, Stewie requests Brian's help in performing a list of things he wishes to accomplish before he dies. The last one being Brian writing a poem said by Stewie. Stewie is eventually informed by the doctor that he does not have cancer and that he will not die, much to his delight. He sees what Brian wrote on the notepad and says "Oh, you are just the worst type of person".

Peter, Chris, and Kyle

Meanwhile, Chris discovers his newspaper recipient, Herbert, is now having his newspaper delivered by Kyle, a new and rude paper delivery boy who torments Chris.After being told of Kyle bullying Chris, Peter visits the boy's house to talk him with him, but ends up assaulting him for trash-talking him. Shortly after, Peter leaps out of a nearby window and escapes back to his house. Kyle's parents later call the Griffin house, where Lois discovers what Peter has done. She forces him to apologize to the boy so his mother wouldn't press charges. Peter and Kyle later become friends and Kyle convinces Peter that it is a positive thing to bully people, which ultimately makes Peter begin to bully his family and neighbors relentlessly until Lois points out that he's bullying everyone the same way he was bullied in high school. In an attempt to teach Chris a lesson in life, Peter takes him to the location of his former high school bully, Randy Fulcher, whom he intends to beat up for revenge, not caring that Randy now suffers from multiple sclerosis (believing it to be a monkey scrotum). However, he ends up being beaten up himself by Chris in his attempt to stand up to his own father, whom he believes to be a bully, which finally convinces Peter that bullying is wrong.

Production

David Goodman comments, regarding the plot partially following Herbert that "there is always a bit of trouble pitching a Herbert storyline to the network." Samm Levine had originally been selected to voice Kyle, but the character was recast because, as show producer Seth MacFarlane comments, "it seemed a lot funnier when Peter was beating up a kid if he was younger and more defenseless." A deleted scene had been made which showed Chris asking for money and stating "I spent my last ten bucks on a ham costume," and Peter replying with "it's just sitting there right now, but you know what the great thing is, it's just three months until Halloween and I am done." Peter's ancestor shown preparing to wrestle with a kangaroo was described by Seth MacFarlane to be "a very strange gag," which was added after the other parts of the episode had been created. Quagmire speaking profanities at the golf course was censored from television because of the inappropriate language. Broadcasting Standards prohibited the show from televising the scene of a nymphomaniac as it consists when Stewie recalls sleeping below her.

American Dad! producer Mike Barker returned as a guest voice actor.

The voice of a guest at the tanning-party which Stewie is hosting was provided by Mike Barker. David A. Goodman comments on the DVD commentary that "It's nice to hear Mike Barker back on Family Guy.," as Barker had performed multiple voices of characters in previous episodes. Peter asking "I'm going to prison, aren't I?" when hiding in the tree caused a little bit of trouble for the show. A sketch had been created showing Brian falling asleep when watching Late Night with Bib Fortuna while Stewie was still in the tanning booth, but it did not seem good enough to air, so it was never broadcast. When Stewie is being sprayed by Brian with sun-screen, Ralph Furley enters the room and mistakenly thinks he sees Brian ejaculating on Stewie. The cream was originally intended to keep squirting out of the bottle as if Brian were continuing to ejaculate despite Mr. Furley's presence, but it "did not seem to go ahead" and was removed completely. MacFarlane comments that he was amazed that broadcasting standards allowed them to do what they did not the televised version. A deleted scene was made and designed to happen directly after Peter makes Meg throw-up in the kitchen by releasing wind next to her which showed Peter giving Chris his lunch money for school, then taking it off him as he is boarding the school bus. The gag showing Dick Cheney as a Wal-Mart greeter telling the customers to "go fuck themselves" was described by MacFarlane to be "way too unacceptable" for television and was thus censored. Peter falling to the floor after being pushed away from hitting Randy by Chris was very difficult to do, as it is difficult to do slow-motion in animation.

In addition to Barker and the regular cast, actor Jeff Bergman, voice actor Chris Cox, actor Michael Clarke Duncan, actor Keir Gilchrist, actress Beth Littleford and voice actress Rachael MacFarlane guest starred in the episode. Recurring guest voice actors Chris Sheridan, writer Danny Smith, writer Alec Sulkin and writer John Viener made minor appearances. Actor Patrick Warburton also has a guest appearance as well.

Cultural references

• An unused ending to the episode had been similar to the ending of 1984 American comedy film Revenge of the Nerds, but "it never really clicked," hence, it was not broadcast.
• Stewie at a party with other tan-obsessed people is an a reference to the Tony Lacey scene in Annie Hall.
• Stewie reciting a poem he wrote to Brian is a reference to non-fiction novel Tuesdays with Morrie.
• Stewie and Brian visiting the Art Institute of Chicago as one of Stewie's last wishes is a reference to Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
• There is a dispute between Peter and Lois in regards to how different LEGO is from Mega Bloks.
• While Stewie is tanning, he begins to sing his own version of the Kokomo (song) by The Beach Boys.
• A parody of Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes’ Tony the Tiger called Terry the Tiger is seen in the Griffin kitchen, saying “They’re food!”
• When Lois notices Stewie's sunburn, she tells Peter that it was similar to the time he fed his Mogwai after midnight. A cutaway scene shows Peter feeding the Mogwai a drumstick, causing it to turn into Fran Drescher, whose head Peter then microwaves.
• When Lois wipes off Stewie's fake pencil mustache, Stewie compares the saliva being cleaned on his upper lip to the time he had dinner with Martin Landau. A cutaway shows Martin Landau having a distinct speech pattern by not chewing up his food as he speaks.
• When Brian advises Stewie to “wait and see” whether or not he has cancer, Stewie says “Jim Henson had a wait and see attitude, and look what happened to him. Now we’ve got wrong-sounding Muppets,” a reference to Henson’s failure to properly address a cold he had, which led to pneumonia, and ultimately his death in 1990. The scene then cuts to Kermit the Frog and the Swedish Chef (two characters Henson voiced) in a dialogue sequence, with much different voice tones. The two would later appear at the end of the show, discussing the preceding events, when Fozzie Bear walks in, and says in a deep voice (supplied by actor Michael Clarke Duncan): “Wocka wocka. Who wants to hear a funny-ass joke?” Unlike Kermit and the Chef, Fozzie would not fall into the category in real life, as he was voiced by Frank Oz, who is still alive today. It should be noted this gag could also refer to The Walt Disney Company’s decision to have the Muppets be performed by different puppeteers rather than their usual ones outside of the movies.
• When Peter realizes that he should bully Randy Fulcher, he compares this to Dick Cheney being a Wal-Mart greeter. He greets each costumer with "Go f*ck yourself", a reference to a 2004 incident where he said those words to Senator Patrick Leahy, after he asked the vice president about Halliburton's alleged war profiteering.
• When Stewie gets off his beach chair during a tan, Stewie is seen drinking a can of TaB, and then slowly looking to the camera - a parody of TaB commercials in the '80s.
• The title of the episode "The Tan Aquatic with Steve Zissou" is a reference to the 2004 Wes Anderson movie "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou".

Reception

In a significant improvement over the previous week, the episode was viewed in 8.53 million homes in its original airing, according to Nielsen ratings. The episode also acquired a 3.0 rating in the 18-49 demographic, being slightly edged out by The Simpsons, while still winning over American Dad! and King of the Hill.

Ahsan Haque of IGN gave "The Tan Aquatic with Steve Zissou" a 7.4/10 and commented "the random filler jokes just don't work, especially in this episode as both Jim Henson's Muppets and Frosted Flakes' Tony the Tiger are misused as random source material for jokes that simply fail to deliver," adding that "The idea of Peter going overboard with his newfound desire to bully his family and friends is also not quite as funny as it could have been." In a negative review by Brett Love of TV Squad. he noted "[the episode] was something of the opposite of "Peter's Two Dads." Where that one excelled with the structure of the story, this one wasn't as strong.

External links

• "The Tan Aquatic with Steve Zissou" at the Internet Movie Database
• "The Tan Aquatic with Steve Zissou" at TV.com

Preceded by Peter's Two Dads

Family Guy (season 5)

Succeeded by Airport '07