Don't Make Me Over (Family Guy)
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| "Don't Make Me Over (Family Guy)" |
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"Don’t Make Me Over" is the fourth episode of season four of Family Guy. The working title of the episode was "Extreme Makeover: Meg Edition." The guest stars are Bob Widmer as the Tin Man, Tara Strong as Meg's singing voice, and Gene Simmons as himself.
Plot summary
Meg is turned down by a popular boy named Craig Hoffman (named after the supervising producer for the first three seasons) for a date and begins to feel sensitive about her appearance, so she looks to her family for support. In an effort to cheer her up, Lois takes Meg to the mall to go clothes-shopping, though that has very little effect. Discovering Channel 5 Asian reporter Tricia Takanawa is giving away free makeovers, Lois tells Meg that a makeover would boost her confidence. After the makeover, Meg becomes extremely attractive and her popularity skyrockets.
Meanwhile, The Drunken Clam is suffering due to the aforementioned mall having been built right across the street, so Peter and friends drag out a karaoke machine that Horace had kept in a storage room. When Peter, Cleveland, Quagmire, and Joe team up to sing Journey's song "Don't Stop Believing", people swarm to the bar. Thrilled with their success, the group starts a band and travel to their first gig at a prison. The band, named "Fat, Horny, Black, and Joe", is about to launch into their opening number when they realize at the very last minute that they don't know any songs, and the prisoners riot as a result. Peter's family, who are attending to support him, hastily take the stage and sing "Buy Me a Rainbow," a schmaltzy 70's-style variety-show number, with Meg (now attractive) as lead singer. They are an enormous hit, and they sign a contract with a record executive, Jimmy Iovine (who says he was imprisoned for stomping a cat to death).
Their producer Dr. Diddy states that exploiting Meg's new look to make her a teen sex symbol will make them rich and Peter completely agrees. The rest of the family is subsequently ignored, especially Brian, who keeps barking at the producer. Meg's newfound stardom goes to her head, causing resentment among the other family members; nevertheless, they travel to New York to perform on Saturday Night Live. Meg is immediately seduced by Jimmy Fallon and loses her virginity to him; she fails to realize that the entire encounter is being aired on live television as part of the show (even as Fallon keeps glancing at the camera and chuckling) until it is too late. During the monologue, Peter attacks and beats up Jimmy Fallon (not because he stole Meg's virginity, but because of Fallon's shameless mugging and constant cracking up in every SNL sketch he was in when he was a castmember on the show, citing that, unlike Carol Burnett, Jimmy Fallon hasn't earned the right to do that).
The Griffins return home, where Meg reverts to her old look, saying "being beautiful is too much work." Lois replies sotto voce, "Well, not for me." It is then revealed that the entire show is on a set, and the Griffins leave the living room and walk to the rest of the cast that appeared in the episode, and Peter thanks everyone in the style of Saturday Night Live. The episode ends with Brian at home turning off the TV when Showtime at the Apollo starts, Brian claims it's not because being a black show but it's one in the morning and he is sleepy. The cameraman does not answer, leading Brian barking and attacking at him.
Cultural references
 | This article may contain minor, trivial or unrelated fictional references. |
- As Stewie rides on Brian’s back, he quotes Yoda from Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back.
- On a dare from Brian, Stewie runs naked through the mall, screaming, "Help! I’ve escaped from Kevin Spacey’s basement!" a reference to tabloid questions regarding the actor’s sexuality. The original line cited Roman Polanski instead of Kevin Spacey.
- For their band, Peter dresses like a member of Devo, Cleveland like a member of a funk band, Joe as Geddy Lee of Rush, and Quagmire like Tommy Lee, drummer of Mötley Crüe.
- Peter attempts to satisfy angry inmates by telling a story about Lake Wobegon, the setting of Garrison Keillor’s radio show, A Prairie Home Companion, which often featured quaint stories of rural life.
- Miss Swan shows up when Meg is sassing Lois. Miss Swan was a character from Alex Borstein’s tenure on MADtv. Borstein is also Lois' voice actor. Peter later mocks MADtv, a competitor to Saturday Night Live.
- Upon hearing that he will be on Saturday Night Live, Peter replies “You mean I’m going to get to meet John Belushi, Gilda Radner, Phil Hartman, Chris Farley, and Horatio Sanz?” All except Sanz are former cast members who are deceased. The implication is either that the overweight Sanz is the next one to die, or that his post-SNL work has been so sparse and unknown that an average media-consumer like Peter Griffin might assume Sanz had died.
- When Lois worries that Meg might develop a "coke problem," Peter replies "No Coke! Pepsi!" a catch phrase from the "Olympia Cafe" sketches of the show’s late 1970s era.
Music
- During the "1980s fixing-stuff-up montage", "One Foot in Front of the Other" by Bone Symphony is heard. This is the song also heard over the Revenge of the Nerds fixing-stuff-up montage.
- When the guys temporarily give the Clam a Coyote Ugly theme, they dance on the countertop to a tune in the style of “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” by The Charlie Daniels Band.
- While the Clam is a karaoke bar, Mort Goldman performs Maureen McGovern’s 1973 hit "The Morning After."
- Peter, Cleveland, Joe, and Quagmire sing "Don't Stop Believing," a 1981 hit from Journey.