Brian Does Hollywood

"Brian Does Hollywood"

“Brian Does Hollywood” is an episode of Family Guy. Guest-starring Jenna Jameson, Ron Jeremy and Ray Liotta as themselves. The title is a play on the title of the 1978 pornographic film Debbie Does Dallas.

Plot summary

The episode continues where “The Thin White Line” left off, introduced with a “Previously on Family Guy...” sequence, which is often used on TV episodes that pick up where the last left off, showing action-packed events which never actually occurred, parodying Hollywood thrillers.

To pursue his screenwriting ambition, Brian moves to Los Angeles, California, where he stays with his gay cousin Jasper. After menial jobs, such as waiter and car washer, he lands a director job for pornographic movies.

Stewie auditions for Kids Say the Darndest Things in order to unleash a mind control device, and the family goes to Los Angeles, forcing Brian to keep up appearances. On Kids Say the Darndest Things, host Bill Cosby grabs Stewie’s device and unwittingly foils his plot.

Jasper tells the Griffins the truth about Brian’s job, and Peter and Lois arrive at the Woodies (the porn version of the Oscars) just in time for Brian to accept his award.

Notes

• The actual annual awards ceremony for the American pornographic film industry is the Adult Video News Awards.
• Woody nominees for best musical score include Walter Murphy and Ron Jones, both of whom have scored Family Guy episodes, and John Williams, famous for his many science fiction and fantasy cinematic scores.
• Michael Eisner, whose car Brian washes, will appear later in the season in “Screwed the Pooch” and “Family Guy Viewer Mail #1,” in the fourth season episode “Brian the Bachelor,” and in the fourth season episode “The Courtship of Stewie’s Father.” Ricardo appears again in "You May Now Kiss the...Uh...Guy Who Receives."
• When Stewie is auditioning for "Kids Say The Darndest Things", he says Peter is 42. But in the episode Death Has A Shadow, Peter says "I didn't fart till I was thirty," while a cutscene shows him as being thirty in the seventies. This would make him around the age of sixty when this episode aired.

Cultural references

• The opening montage of scenes “previously on Family Guy” (although none of them actually were) parodies typical cliffhanger endings in American dramas and action television series. Various trademark settings and characters are featured, e.g. the pastel suits that Peter and Cleveland wear whilst driving a speedboat around a “Miami-like” environment is an homage to the 1980s television show Miami Vice, while Brian’s remark that “everyone [he’s] told about the file is dead” is a reference to The Net.
• A flashback shows that Peter used to live with mass murderer Charles Manson’s “family.” Peter tells them he got an invitation to a party at Sharon Tate’s house. Manson and his followers murdered Tate and four others in 1969.
• When waiting in line for his audition Lois points out Tom Tucker’s disfigured son also waiting for an audition, and Stewie asks in disgust “I mean really, how am I supposed to follow that act? Bite the head off a chicken?” referring to the typical behaviour of a carnival side-show “geek” (although perhaps also referring to a mythical stage incident involving a bat and rocker Ozzy Osbourne—but probably more likely the carnival reference).
• Among the stars that Brian lampoons are Val Kilmer and Kevin Costner (that neither are good actors), Keanu Reeves (that he is aloof and a “wooden actor”), and Oprah Winfrey (weight problems).
• Jasper comes back from Club Med with a Filipino boyfriend, admitting to Brian that he is a rice queen.
• Meg’s star map shows “the actual gutter where the policeman fell over laughing when Eddie Murphy told them he was just giving the transvestite a ride home,” referring to the notorious 1997 incident.
• The Griffins dine at the Musso & Frank Grill, an actual Hollywood attraction[1]. Brian is correct that writers Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner drank there.
• While on the line with his phone company, Peter hears the 1977 Barry Manilow hit “Looks Like We Made It.”
• On the set of Brian’s film, Stewie asks: “Does anyone else smell Astroglide?”, a reference to a lubricant commonly used in pornographic movies. Also, Chris asks if Samuel L. Jackson is in the film, since “he’s in everything,” a possible reference to Jackson’s reputation as the “hardest working man in Hollywood.”[2] Jackson is, in fact, in the film.
• Peter is beaten by the Los Angeles Police Department in a manner similar to Rodney King, though it seems that he asked them to beat him as a photo opportunity.
• Just before his Kids Say appearance, Stewie tries to guess whether Rob Lowe is gay or straight.
• While hypnotized by Bill Cosby, Stewie says Cosby’s film “Ghost Dad was the best movie I've seen since Leonard Part 6,” another Cosby film (though Cosby has long since denounced it). He also says he likes pudding; beginning in the 1970s, Cosby had been the spokesperson for Jell-O Pudding.
• The script that Brian reads supposedly resembles Bang the Drum Slowly, “except the drum’s a chick.”
• While at Musso's and Frank's, Peter wonders where the director of Porky's ate. Then he wonders where the idea of "the fat chick pulling that kid's crank throught the hole" came from.
• Brian’s porno films Add Momma to the Train, The Purple Head of Cairo, You’ve Got Male Genitalia, and Shaving Private Ryan are spoofs of actual films Throw Momma from the Train, The Purple Rose of Cairo, You’ve Got Mail and Saving Private Ryan.
• John Williams, known for writing the scores for films such as Jurassic Park, Jaws, Star Wars, and Superman: The Movie, is nominated for Best Score in an Adult Film, as well as Family Guy composers Ron Jones and Walter Murphy. Williams is nominated for a lavish orchestral score (one of Williams’ trademarks) whereas the Jones and Murphy scores are performed on synthesizer.
• Joan and Melissa Rivers host the Woody Awards red-carpet arrivals, just as they have done for other award shows—except this time, they are not really being televised. Joan Rivers’ interview with Brian parodies her age and earlier stints on The Tonight Show.

Goofs

• When Peter, Lois, and Stewie are waiting their turn at the audition for Kids Say the Darndest Things, Peter wears three different outfits in three shots. In the first shot, he wears a blue suit with a red tie and white shirt. In the second shot, he wears the same suit except it’s all black and grey. In the third shot, he wears his normal white collared shirt with green slacks.

• When Stewie is on the airplane kicking the chair of the passenger in front of him the seat is moving while the handle on the side is not

References

• S. Callaghan, “Brian Does Hollywood.” Family Guy: The Official Episode Guide Seasons 1–3. New York: HarperCollins, 2005. 132–135.
• A. Delarte, “Nitpicking Family Guy: Season 3” in Bob’s Poetry Magazine, 2.August 2005: 35–37 http://bobspoetry.com/Bobs02Au.pdf