Peter, Peter, Caviar Eater

"Peter, Peter, Caviar Eater" is the first episode from the FOX animated series Family Guy for season 2. It is the eighth overall episode of Family Guy. It guest-stars Robin Leach as himself, and Fairuza Balk as Connie D'Amico. This episode's title is a reference to the nursery rhyme Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater. This episode originally aired on September 23, 1999 as the first episode to air on Thursday.

Plot summary

Lois' wealthy aunt Marguerite Pewterschmidt comes to visit, but drops dead on their doorstep (much to Peter's relief—"Be careful what you wish for, eh, Lois?"). A videotaped message from Aunt Marguerite informs Lois that she has inherited Cherrywood Manor in Newport, Rhode Island. Marguerite's video is based on Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous is narrated by Robin Leach. There, the Griffins receive a warm musical welcome (a parody of "I Think I'm Gonna Like it Here" from Annie) from the house's staff, who immediately leave afterward because according one of the maids "The old bag only paid us up through the song." Peter hires them back after admitting that he secretly sold their former house in Quahog.

Naturally, Peter has trouble fitting in with the blueblood cluster after disgusting everyone with a story about a rat at the yacht club, while Stewie adapts immediately to ordering servants around, even commanding two to fight to the death, to music from the James Kirk and Spock duel from the Star Trek original series episode "Amok Time" for his amusement. Peter begs Brian to teach him how to be a gentleman. After several attempts through regular methods, Brian resorts to shock therapy. When Peter arrives at a ritzy auction that night, Lois is shocked to see him behaving himself and conversing easily with the upper crust crowd. Unfortunately, he also appears to believe himself fabulously wealthy, as he nonchalantly bids $100,000,000 for a vase. After Peter bids for the vase, he puts his pinkie finger in the same manner as Dr. Evil.

File:FGPeterPeterCaviarEater.png

Peter claims to possess the Underground Railroad.

Lois demands that the family return to Quahog as soon as possible; she says that she now remembered why she left Newport: because it changed people in much the same way that her family is changing. Brian is only able to snap Peter out of his delusion by comparing him to Lando Calrissian and smashing one of his Star Wars collector's glasses. Brian borrows dialogue from The Empire Strikes Back to explain to Peter he's not really a millionaire. Although Peter returns to reality, he is still $100,000,000 short on covering his auction bid when a representative from the Historical Society comes to collect. When Peter is trying to prove that millions of dollars of history happened in the mansion, he points to a note on the wall dated 51BC that states "Jesus was here" (when asked about the BC part, Peter replies "He's Jesus! He can do anything"), a large crack in the wall (which he pretends is where the Stock market crashed), a small toy train (which he pretends is part of Harriet Tubman's Underground Railroad), and even gets desperate by picking up a small rock (which he claims is where the pilgrims landed at Fraggle Rock). After these several futile attempts to "prove" that Cherrywood Manor has enough historical value to cover the bid, Peter makes up with Lois and finds a set of hidden photographs. The pictures show several prominent American figures (including Abraham Lincoln, Robert E. Lee, and Ulysses S. Grant) at Cherrywood Manor, which was a whorehouse at the time. Not only does the discovery make Cherrywood enormously valuable, but Peter sells one of the pictures to the tabloids to repurchase their old house double what they paid.

In the end Peter no longer cares what Lois's family thinks of him, since her ancestors were nothing more than a bunch of, "pimps and whores."

Awards

This episode was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Music and Lyrics for the song "This House is Freakin' Sweet". It did not win however.

The second season also had Seth MacFarlane winning an Emmy for Best Voice Actor for Stewie Griffin.

Cultural references

Before the video will, Peter says "big money, big money, no whammies, no whammies, STOP!" a reference to the game show Press Your Luck.
During the musical number, "This House Is Freakin' Sweet", Stephen Hawking, a renowned physicist is hired to help Chris with his homework. The song is also much like the song "I Think I'm Gonna Like It Here" from the musical Annie.
Peter's mannerisms, dress, and voice at the party are very similar to Jackie Gleason playing his perpetually drunken, nasally-voiced millionaire character "Reginald Van Gleason"--right down to the top hat and mustache he wears.
The two little girls Stewie blows up with a rocket launcher are from the movie The Shining.
This episode reveals that Peter's middle name is Löwenbräu, which is the name of a brewery in Munich.
When Lois attempts to leave Peter, she is dressed in a departure outfit closely akin to Ingrid Bergman in Casablanca and Gene Tierney in Laura.
The cutaway gag in which "Mean" Joe Greene throws Peter his jersey is a parody of a Coca-Cola commercial he was in 1979. However, Greene's name on the jersey is misspelled (it's spelled "Green") and the jersey Peter got is the black home jersey, rather than the white road jersey which Greene tossed in the actual commercial.
The scene where Peter bids 100 million dollars for a vase is a parody of Dr. Evil in Austin Powers, complete with the pinky.
When Meg hangs up the phone and exclaims, "A pox on Quahog!" is a parody of the line "A plague on both your houses!" said by Mercutio from Romeo and Juliet.
In the scene where Lois flashbacks to first meeting Peter at the party, it shows a younger Peter Griffin dancing with a blonde-haired woman, which is an obvious reference to the 1987 film, Dirty Dancing. It even features Patrick Swayze standing in the corner of the onlookers with the song which was in the film, "Do You Love Me (Now That I Can Dance)", playing in the background.
The scene where Brian urinates on the plant at the party he starts to sing the chrous of the song "For the Love of Money" by the O'Jays

Censorship

The part in the De Beers Diamonds commercial parody where the female shadow slides down to orally pleasure the male shadow was cut short after it first came on and has been shown that way on FOX reruns, Cartoon Network/Adult Swim showings, TBS showings, and on the Volume 1 DVD. It is intact in the Teletoon repeats.
Syndication edits:
- Peter's swearing fit at the beginning is altered to remove one use of the word "damn".
- When Brian urinates in the potted plant while drunk, the sound of his urinating is removed.
- The part where Peter shows off the sleazy pictures of historical figures visiting Cherrywood (back when it was a brothel) was shortened so as not to linger on the sexual images for more than a second.
- Brian's line "Hey, I've worked miracles before" and the cutaway right after (with Marisa Tomei) is cut. Another line Brian says, "Hey, Barkeep, it's like the damn Sahara over here." Some airings, the word "damn" gets cut out.

References

Callaghan, Steve. “Peter, Peter, Caviar Eater.” Family Guy: The Official Episode Guide Seasons 1–3. New York: HarperCollins, 2005. 44–46.
Delarte, Alonso. “Nitpicking Family Guy: Season 2.” Bob’s Poetry Magazine May 2005: 5–7. http://bobspoetry.com/Bobs02My.pdf

External links