The Courtship of Stewie's Father

"The Courtship of Stewie's Father"

“The Courtship of Stewie’s Father” is the sixteenth episode of season four of Family Guy, which originally aired on November 20, 2005. The episode sees Peter beginning to bond with Stewie after noticing that Stewie enjoys watching him assault Lois. After Lois tells Stewie to go to his room upon returning from a severe prank she was subject too, Peter fails to argue with Lois, leaving Stewie feeling betrayed. In an attempt to restore Stewie's faith in him, Peter takes him to Walt Disney World Resort. Meanwhile, Chris is forced to assist Herbert in his household chores after breaking his window, much to the delight of Herbert.

Plot

After failing to receive the Employee of the Month award at Pawtucket Brewery, Peter attempts to charm his supervisor, Angela who has a dislike for him. He organizes a surprise cockfight in her house, but when she returns, all that is left is the remains of several chickens who have killed each other. When his mentally challenged co-worker, Opie, gets promoted he is replaced by Soundwave of The Transformers, and Peter still fails to receive his Employee of the Month award. Meanwhile, after playing baseball in the street, Chris accidentally smashes his neighbour, Herbert's window. In an attempt to repay his debt to Herbert, Chris agrees to help the elderly man in his household chores, much to the delight of Herbert.

After speaking with Stewie's preschool teacher, Lois discovers several pictures Stewie has drawn which show him killing her, but she misinterprets these, coming to the conclusion that his father, Peter is not included in any, and that Peter should make more of an effort to bond with Stewie. Peter reluctantly agrees, and begins to bond with Stewie after seeing him laugh when he assaults Lois. Their final prank on Lois is to force her in to the trunk of the family sedan and push it in to the lake. Shortly after, Lois returns home furious and demands Stewie go to his room; when Peter fails to back him up and disagree with Lois, Stewie feels betrayed. He throws away his baby-sized Peter clothes, his photo of him and Peter together, and many others.

To make amends with Stewie, Peter takes him to Walt Disney World Resort in Florida, failing to listen to Lois when she tells them not to go. Excited at the prospect of visiting Disney World, Stewie forgives Peter, although pretending to be annoyed. When the pair arrive, Peter inadvertently loses Stewie, who is captured by Disney World employees to sing for those enjoying the rides. Peter finds him and takes him away, but is chased across the theme park by a security guard, who eventually loses them in Temple of Doom style. The pair return home after a brief encounter with Michael Eisner and Stewie's faith in Peter is restored.

Production

This is the first storyline the show has produced which focuses largely on Herbert. Originally, the Herbert storyline was designed to be longer, and several other gags had been created showing Herbert attempting to come on to Chris, but broadcasting standards were nervous about the episode and forced the show to reduce the amount of time spent on the storyline. Show producer Seth MacFarlane comments that the aftermath of the cockfight which Peter arranged was "a great drawing by Kurt Dumas." MacFarlane comments that it was "amazing lighting" on the flying car scene and that it is "so cool looking." When Herbert comes to the house to tell Peter and Lois that Chris broke his window, he was meant to say more, but it was cut, one scene was intended to have Peter replying with "If he wants you to do a job, give him the best job you've ever given." When Quagmire is describing how he seduced two homeless twins, Fox censored the gesture which saw Quagmire pretending to put his hand up a woman's vagina (along with many other implied sexual acts) and showed Peter covering Stewie's ears. When God speaks to his lover after being telephoned by Jesus, he asks her "where were we," which she replies with "right about here" and hands him a condom. After telling her it's his birthday (so he won't have to use it), she replies a firm "no." The gag was designed in this way because broadcasting standards wanted to portray the message that God would not have unprotected sex.

MacFarlane made the sound effects of Stewie and Peter laughing excessively after attacking Lois, with no sounds of laughter being used from previous episodes. MacFarlane comments that he was "sweaty and exhausted after it." The reaction to the Peanut Butter Jelly Time scene astonished MacFarlane, as he believes it has become repetitious and annoying after he visited a karaoke bar in Hollywood and the club played it excessively. Stewie going crazy with excitement after learning Peter is taking him to Disney World is described by MacFarlane to be "a great piece of animation," and the scene "is a little more crazy than they [the show] normally go." Upon learning he has lost Stewie, a deleted scene was created showing Peter listing things he was going to do before finding Stewie, always leaving Stewie at the end of the list and putting his own needs before Stewie's. In the DVD commentary, MacFarlane describes the vocal performance by Mike Henry, when singing as Herbert, to be "nothing short of brilliant," adding that "there's so much feeling in the song, you almost root for Herbert to get at least a wink from Chris."

The first draft of this episode's script contained a decidedly different structure of the second act, wherein Peter and Stewie bond while enacting revenge on a bullying child's father at the playground. Also removed from the original script was a montage set to the theme song from "Silver Spoons" wherein Peter and Stewie undergo several other father-son bonding activities. Originally, Stewie was to lose his faith in Peter after seeing how spineless he is when faced with his boss Angela at the Pawtucket Brewery. The angle of the two finding common ground in pulling pranks on Lois was added after the rewrite. The "Peanut Butter Jelly Time" sequence also does not appear in the original draft.

Cultural references

When Peter takes Stewie to Disney World and they are watching a music video featuring Michael Jackson a boy remarks, "Wow, it looks like Michael Jackson's coming right at me!" and he steps out of the screen, grabs the boy, and runs off. This is a reference to People v. Jackson, a 2005 court case regarding Jackson's supposed inappropriate conduct with a minor at his Neverland Ranch. The flying car scene is a reference to 1989 sequel-film Back to the Future Part II. In the same scene, there is a reference to the black creator of peanut butter. When Opie is promoted and replaced, the job is taken by Soundwave, a character from the TV series The Transformers. The song Herbert is singing when dreaming of living with Chris is the song "Somewhere That's Green" from the 1986 film-adaption Little Shop of Horrors. The security guard chasing Peter and Stewie in to the "Indiana Jones Ride", as well as the following encounter with Michael Eisner, is a reference to a scene from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. The Halle Berry ride at Disney World where Berry knocks down several people is a reference to when Berry hit a pedestrian with a car then walked away.When Stewie gets lost at Disney World, they dressed him up in a costume, and chained him to the floor. They forced him to sing It’s a Tiny, Tiny World endlessly.

Reception

The episode was watched by over nine-million people on its original airdate. As usual, the Parents Television Council reacted negatively to the show, branding it the "Worst show of the week" on August 17, 2006, calling it a "sheer vulgar storyline." In a review of the episode by TV Squad, Ryan J. Budge noted "tonight was another great episode of Family Guy," adding that "these episodes keep getting better and better."

External links

• Template:FGwiki
• "The Courtship of Stewie's Father" at the Internet Movie Database
• "The Courtship of Stewie's Father" at TV.com