Road to Germany
| "Road to Germany" |
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"Road to Germany" is an episode of Family Guy that aired on October 19, 2008.[1] It is Brian and Stewie's fourth road adventure, following "Road to Rhode Island", "Road to Europe" and "Road to Rupert".
Plot
While watching the Academy Awards at the Griffins' house, Mort needs to use the bathroom badly. Since it is already occupied (by Meg, who is being filmed by Quagmire), Mort runs into Stewie's room and finds a booth that appears to be an indoor outhouse, but when he steps into it, a blinding light flies out of the door and he is heard screaming. An hour passes and the others grow concerned, so Brian goes upstairs to check on him. Stewie comes in and sees that the booth, which turns out to be a time machine, has been activated and, with the help of Rick Moranis, backed by a doo-wop girl group, they deduce that he was sent back in time. Since Mort needs the return pad, a device that will send the user back to the present, and that it is in Stewie's possession, Stewie and Brian decide to go back in time to bring Mort back.
Stewie and Brian end up in Warsaw, Poland, and find Mort in a synagogue at his grandparents' wedding reception; Mort believes he is in heaven, since he is with all his long-deceased relatives. Since no one would ever experience their own grandparents' wedding under normal circumstances, Stewie and Brian let Mort stay a little longer and stick around themselves to enjoy the party, despite Brian's concerns that the date, September 1, 1939, sounds disturbingly familiar. As it turns out, this is the day of the Nazi Invasion of Poland, which promptly occurs.
Unable to use the return pad in such a dangerous situation, Stewie and Brian decide to go to England. They disguise Mort as a Catholic priest and try to sneak out of Poland, but Mort is called to perform last rites for a wounded soldier, doing so unconvincingly. A second priest arrives and Mort is exposed, so they flee on a motorbike (Stewie falls off and, in a parody of Back to the Future, he gets back on using a custom skateboard, leaving their pursuers to crash into a truckload of fertilizer). The three then hijack a U-boat and outsmart their pursuers again in an undersea chase. They reach the battle-torn but nonetheless Nazi-free England, but Stewie discovers that the return pad is low on uranium fuel, and that the only place they'd find more is at a nuclear testing facility in Berlin, Germany.
Stewie, Brian and Mort join a British air fleet (flying a Handley Page Halifax) and win a dogfight against attacking Nazis, aided by Prince Vultan (as portrayed by Brian Blessed) and his Hawkmen. However, they are shot down and sent crashing into the mountains; in a parody of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, they leap out of their plane in a raft, slide down the mountains and into a river. They reach Berlin and disguise themselves as Nazis, with Stewie as Hitler, and easily obtain the needed uranium to charge the return pad. Before they leave, they run into the real Hitler, who offers to spare them in exchange for a musical number, a tradition for Stewie and Brian's road trips. Stewie and Brian begin performing one, but Mort demands they return to the present, which they do. Brian is concerned that Mort knows too much, but Stewie explains he planned ahead by sending themselves 30 seconds before Mort ran up to use the bathroom. He shoves the Mort who traveled with them back into the time machine and destroys it before the other Mort comes in, and he is forced to defecate in his pants.
Notes
This is the first "Road to..." episode not to include any musical numbers. While Stewie and Brian did begin to sing one, they were cut off at the first line. This also features the shortest screen time Peter and Lois have had to date, appearing only in the first two scenes.
Production
After reading the script aloud, Jewish executive producer David A. Goodman, said "I'm going to get kicked out of my temple."[2] This episode will be Brian's second time-traveling adventure following "Meet the Quagmires" as well as Stewie's third (the first two being "Mind Over Murder" and Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story). It was the first "Road to..." episode not directed by Dan Povenmire, who left the show to create Phineas and Ferb for Disney Channel.
References
- ^ a b "Listings — FAMILY GUY on FOX". The Futon Critic. 2008-10-11. Retrieved 2008-10-11.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ TV Preview: Family Guy Entertainment Weekly