PTV (Family Guy)

"PTV" is the fourteenth episode of season four of the FOX animated series Family Guy. The episode deals with censorship on television, and specifically the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The episode was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program.

Plot

Opening sequence

In a cave somewhere in Afghanistan, Osama bin Laden and his associates are getting ready to film their next message to send to the Americans, but keeps breaking character following a blooper on his first take. Stewie shows up and begins fighting everyone, parodying the opening sequence of the first Naked Gun movie. During the fighting the music (Drebin - Hero!) from Police Squad! TV series can be heard. After defeating the terrorists, Stewie engages in a swordfight (using a rubber chicken) with bin Ladin. The fight's choreography mimics the Yoda vs. Dooku fight in Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones.

After defeating all the terrorists and bin Ladin, Stewie falls from the cave and lands on his tricycle, riding off. In the sequence, the camera POV is similar to that of the opening from The Naked Gun movies. Along the way, Stewie runs over the ghostly twins from The Shining, an Imp from Doom and Maria from The Sound of Music. Towards the end the sequence parodies The Simpsons, where Stewie, instead of Marge Simpson, follows Homer Simpson into the garage and runs him over and when he's on the floor, Peter comes through the door, looks down and says: "Hey, Stewie. Who the hell is that?"

Episode summary

Peter is very excited about watching the Emmy Awards, but Lois tells him that he has to attend Meg's school play. Peter voices his frustration but is coerced to go when Lois beats him up, presses his face to the floor and traps him in a hammerlock. At Meg's play, Peter tries many ways to watch the Emmys, even trying to convince Lois to leave early, but he fails.

Back at home, the news anchors are reporting that due to a "trouser malfunction", David Hyde Pierce revealed his testicles in the Emmy Awards. Peter is outraged that he "missed a moment in television history." In the Federal Communications Commission building, the Board of Commissioners are discussing what to do about the David Hyde Pierce incident. Their Chairman, Cobra Commander, tells them that they have to censor television.

The FCC gets to work on TV shows, cutting out anything that might be deemed inappropriate, including Chrissy's bikini on Three's Company, Ralph Kramden's threats of spousal abuse and even two thirds of Dick Van Dyke's name. Peter is enraged, and swears to fight the ban. With advice from Tom Tucker, Peter starts his own TV network called PTV. He broadcasts classic shows in their original, unedited versions, as well as original programming, such as Cheeky Bastard, Midnight Q, Dogs Humping, The Peter Griffin Side-Boob Hour, and (in a DVD exclusive scene), a parody of MTV's Jackass called Douchebags, which ends up traumatizing Stewie when Peter craps off a bridge and it inadvertently lands on Lois and Stewie whilst driving.

PTV becomes a huge success, though Lois is furious about Peter's obscenity in his shows. She calls the FCC, prompting Peter, Brian, and Stewie to perform an elaborate musical number about how insane the FCC's regulations are. The song ends with Peter, Stewie and Brian in bras, fishnet stockings, heels, garter belts, and what appears to be thongs or g-strings. Despite being impressed with a song about them, the FCC still shuts down PTV. After Peter tells them that they can't stop people from being who they are or how they live, they decide to take on the challenge.

The FCC start to censor any foul language and inappropriate behavior in Quahog--a black "censor's bar" is pulled over Peter's genitals by FCC suits after he leaves the shower, all expletives are overdubbed with an air horn, and audible farts are banned in public (replaced by a machine that converts the sounds into Steven Wright jokes), they even consider censoring Peter's chin, due to its similarity to a pair of testicles; Lois approves of their actions, believing Peter needs a lesson in decency. Finally, seeing how upset Peter is, Lois attempts to cheer him up with angry sex. In an ironic twist, while they still can have intercourse, they must do the following: "no moaning, no tongue-kissing, no thrusting--no movement whatsoever." As she is taken aback by this, this doesn't stop Peter and he finishes without her. Tired, he then falls asleep on top of her almost immediately.

Lois is celibate for two weeks, thus making her very tense. Finally frustrated with the FCC's presence, she regrets getting them involved and concedes that Peter was right about them and about freedom of speech. They both lobby Congress to have the FCC's rulings reversed. At first they resist, but they relent when Peter points out the resemblance of many Washington buildings to various body parts. The oppression of the FCC is gone, and the family settles down to watch an episode of The Brady Bunch that features bathroom jokes.

Trivia

One of the FCC workers remind Peter that they will keep the censorship in Quahog until "the residents clean up their act, like Ozzy Osborne when he stopped biting the heads off bats"
Brian's cousin Jasper, and his boyfriend Ricardo, appear for a couple of frames while Stewie rides through a gay pride parade. (Jasper was introduced in "Brian Does Hollywood" and appears again with Ricardo in "You May Now Kiss the...Uh...Guy Who Receives.") He was also in the episode E.Peterbus Unum, but he was not as the same character.
In his June 25, 2007 appearance on the radio show Loveline, Seth McFarlane admits that the prologue with Osama bin Laden was added after the episode ran three minutes short.
During the FCC song, which Peter, Brian and Stewie sing, Stewie says "Any baby with a brain could tell them everybody poops" while holding a book "Everybody Poops" which appears before in Brian in Love.
The FCC song in this episode was voted #2 on the Museum of Television and Radio special "TV's Funniest Moments" which aired on FOX on June 1 2007 behind The Chris Rock Show segment "Black Progress".
The 59th Primetime Emmy Awards opened with Stewie and Brian singing about the upcoming TV season using the tune from "The FCC Song", originating from this episode. The awards show aired nearly two years after "PTV"'s original airdate, noting the song's lasting appeal.
While exclusively airing the sixth season of Family Guy for British audiences, BBC Three aired this episode as part of the Family Guy 100th Anniversary special, declaring it to be "The Best Episode...So Far".

Censorship

According to the DVD commentary, the part where Quagmire passes out after overhearing Peter saying, “I like eating red carpet!” originally had Quagmire holding a running hose instead of a newspaper, but the FOX Standards found it too obscene because the running hose would have looked too much like a penis ejaculating when Quagmire passed out.
Also, the cutaway where Peter gets raped on his 16th birthday (in a parody of the end of the movie Sixteen Candles) originally had Jake Ryan undoing the belt to his pants, but FOX objected.
The version of this episode that is on the DVD has a different sequence of the part where Peter decides to put original programming on PTV after obtaining success from airing uncut versions of old sitcoms:
- TV Version: Cheeky Bastard and Midnight Q were shown after Peter decides to put original programming on PTV. When Lois complains about the new shows and Peter says, “There’s nothing offensive about my programming,” it then goes to The Side-Boob Hour, the scene then cuts to the outside of the Griffin house and Lois can be heard saying, “The Side Boob Hour?!” followed by a cut to Lois telling Peter that she called the FCC about his offensive programming.
- DVD Version: The Side Boob Hour is shown first, followed by Cheeky Bastard and Midnight Q. A fourth show, called Douchebags (a parody of the MTV show Jackass) is shown, where Cleveland and Peter are at a bridge over the I-95 freeway doing an episode called “I Dare You to Crap Off of That.” Peter craps off the bridge (because Cleveland dared him) and his feces lands on the windshield of Lois’s car, causing it to crash. The scene then cuts to Peter reminding Lois that she was the one who "recklessly drove into oncoming crap." Lois points out that Stewie (who was in the car with her at the time of the accident) is so traumatized from the experience that he may never ride in the car again (with a shot of Stewie cowering in the corner, mumbling, “Turn off the windshield wipers. They don’t work; they’re just making it worse”). Nevertheless, Stewie actively participates in the following musical number as he did before; also, he is riding in the car later in the episode when the family drives to Washington.

According to DVD commentary, the Douchebags segment was supposed to air on TV, but only if edits were made to the sequence (i.e., Peter isn’t supposed to be shown pulling down his pants, the wet, plopping sound of Peter’s feces hitting the windshield can’t be heard). Instead of adhering to the censor’s notes, the scene was taken out altogether and further edits were made to cover it up.

Syndication edits (in addition to the above edits made for FOX):
- The "Are we there yet?" exchange between Chris and Lois is cut.
- The "fart converter" scene was cut.

“Explicit” Scenes from the FCC song

Near the end of the FCC musical number, a rapid montage of explicit scenes is shown. Many of them are scenes from previous episodes of Family Guy.

Explicit scenes from the FCC song:
- Stewie, dressed in leather bondage gear, spanks Brian, who is tied up and ballgagged.
- Peter, in a skimpy pink bikini, flashing his boobs on Howard Stern’s radio show.
- Peter, with his pants down and standing on a stool, farts while Stewie holds up a lit match. He and Brian watch, wearing welder's visors.
- Peter, naked, on a date with a blow-up doll (that looks similar to the ones that Quagmire used to fashion a raft in The Perfect Castaway).
- Justin Timberlake removes Peter’s nipple covering in a parody of the Janet Jackson incident.
- Peter sucks on a popsicle, simulating oral sex (a reference to an incident on The Gong Show where two girls seductively suck on orange popsicles as part of their act).
- Peter, Brian and Stewie, in nightgowns, having a pillowfight.
- Brian, wearing a miner’s cap, puts on rubber gloves, presumably about to give Peter a cavity search.
- Peter chokes Lois with a watermelon slice (“Emission Impossible”).
- Amanda Rebecca, the woman from the marriage counseling videos, rips off her blouse (“Road to Rhode Island”).
- Peter hurriedly covers up his genitals with a pillow as a door is opened (“Road to Rhode Island”)
- Stewie admires himself wearing lipstick (“Emission Impossible”).
- Dave Campbell, naked, bends over to feel the lawn (“From Method to Madness”).
- Stewie caresses a Miss Piggy doll (“Brian Does Hollywood”).
- Peter, naked, makes pelvic thrusts at Meg (“From Method to Madness”).
- Stewie gives a public speech and realizes he is naked (“He’s Too Sexy for His Fat”).
- Peter licking his boob (“He’s Too Sexy for His Fat”).
- Quagmire gets his penis slammed in a window (“Lethal Weapons”).
- Lois in a leather S&M outfit (“Let’s Go to the Hop”).
- Stewie sucks on Peter’s nipple (“I Am Peter, Hear Me Roar”).
- Peter, without pants, passes out on the laps of Meg and her friends (“Jungle Love”).
- Jeff Campbell, naked, squirts a super-soaker covering his penis (“From Method to Madness”).
- Peter makes orange juice using his nipple (“The Story on Page One”).
- Two topless girls in a back yard with suntan lotion

Cultural references

The PTV line-up includes
- All in the Family: Archie and Edith get the Jeffersons to move by burning a cross on their lawn while dressed as Ku Klux Klan members.
- The Waltons: The signature scene of the Waltons where they say their “good nights,” edited where John Boy doesn’t respond, and replies, “Damnit, can’t a guy masturbate in this house?”
- Midnight Q: Quagmire’s midnight talk/sex show, which he hosts nude. The name is a pun on "Midnight Blue", although the acts described echo the lineups featured on "Playboy After Dark".
- The Side-Boob Hour: Peter’s own show where he presents the “side boobs” (the partial reveal of a woman’s breast, from the side) from Baywatch and Dynasty, followed by his own.
- Cheeky Bastard: A sitcom starring Stewie and Brian as bickering roommates, in a style akin to The Odd Couple. Stewie also provides the show’s laugh track, contrary to the claim that it was filmed in front of a "live studio audience".
- Dogs Humping: A Discovery Channel-type show that shows animals having sex. According to Peter it is the highest-rated show on PTV’s Wednesday night line-up.
- Douchebags: A Jackass parody.
Shows censored by the FCC:
- The Dick Van Dyke Show: The FCC bleeps the name The Dick Van Dyke Show, making it “The (censored) Van (censored) Show, starring (censored) Van (censored),” a reference to “dick” being used as a vulgar slang term for a penis and “dyke” being used as a derogatory term for a lesbian, both of which can’t be said on television (though “dick” is allowed on some channels if it’s used as an insult to someone and not as a vulgar slang term for a penis).
- Three's Company: Chrissy appears with her bikini top censored, despite the fact that she was not exposing anything.
- The Honeymooners: The quote “One of these days, Alice.. Pow! Right in the kisser!” is dubbed over, making it “One of these days, (new voice) I’m going to stimulate the economy by buying an American car.”"
Apache Chief from the Super Friends, played by Dailp Singh a.k.a.The Great Khali of WWE's SmackDown series, helps Peter install his satellite dish.
The incident with Hyde-Pierce accidentally revealing a testicle is a reference to the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show incident, in which Janet Jackson accidentally revealed a nipple. Jackson claimed the incident was a “wardrobe malfunction” whereas Diane Simmons refers to Pierce’s incident as a “trouser malfunction”. The actual incident (with Peter as Janet Jackson) is featured in a rapid-cut montage at the end of the FCC song.
Osama bin Laden appears in the show for the first time since the now-excised “show tunes” scene in “Road to Rhode Island”.
The fight between Stewie and Osama Bin Laden is an exact choreographed homage to the Yoda-Count Dooku fight from Attack of the Clones.
When Peter sings the FCC Song, the line “You’re gonna have to do her with your ding-a-ling” is a reference to Chuck Berry’s song “My Ding-a-Ling,” a song that was a double entendre.
The part during the end of the FCC song where Brian, Peter, and Stewie are dressed in lingerie and high heels is an oblique reference to the 1975 cult film The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
When Peter fails to be able to successfully watch the Emmys at Meg’s play, he mentions that it’s worse than his 16th birthday, followed by a sequence where Peter is raped by Jake Ryan, the main love interest in the film Sixteen Candles.
When Peter is told to start his own TV station by Tom Tucker, he mentions that he hasn’t had a business since a mail-order operation. Wile E. Coyote is seen waiting to return a large Acme slingshot.
When Peter says “Lois, these eggs are scrambled,” captions say “Lois, these eggs are fried.” Then he commented that he expected her to make Eggs Benedict Arnold, a nod to eggs benedict, and Benedict Arnold, notorious for switching sides in The American Revolution.
Meg’s play God and His Magical Rainbow Suspenders is a parody of Godspell and/or Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.
In the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup spoof, two drunk drivers (one eating chocolate and the other eating peanut butter) get in a car accident. Officer Reese comes along, tastes the combination of peanut butter and chocolate that has resulted from the horrific crash, then looks furtively around and shoots both drivers to steal their product.
An Ozzy Osbourne reference is made. The FCC says Ozzy cleaned up his act and stopped biting the heads off bats. The scene cuts to Ozzy on stage at a concert eating a sandwich instead of a bat. The reference made is to the early 1980s, when Ozzy used to throw pig intestines and calves’ livers into the audience and they would throw things back. Someone threw a bat onstage and Ozzy, apparently thinking that it was a fake rubber bat, bit its head off. The bat was real and alive, only stunned by the throw. Ozzy was taken to the hospital and tested for rabies after the show.
The song lyric: “Any baby with a brain can tell them everybody poops” is a reference to a popular children’s book entitled: Everyone Poops, presenting the myriad forms and shapes of animal and human feces.
In a flashback, Chris imitates Jackie Mason, a former rabbi who is now a stand-up comedian.
Peter says that Sarah Jessica Parker's face looks like a foot.
The tune for the FCC song is taken from Volunteer Fire Picnic, a song from the obscure 1959 Broadway Musical Take Me Along which featured Jackie Gleason.
The Brady Bunch is parodied in the scene with Brady family examining Cindy's unflushed feces in the toilet. It pokes fun at the fact that the network censors didn’t want a toilet to be seen in the bathroom of the Brady house in any episode. Additionally, Olivia Hack and Gary Cole, who have performed various voices for the cartoon, provide the voice of Cindy and Mike Brady, reprising their role in the Brady Bunch movies.
When the FCC tells Peter they are going to close PTV he puts on the jetpack from the 007 movie Thunderball and repeatedly flies into the wall.
The exaggeration of the number of complaints to the FCC refers to when "Married by America", which aired on FOX, received 90 complaints from 23 people instead of the reported 159 complaints.
The chairman of the FCC in this episode is revealed to be Cobra Commander from the G. I. Joe franchise. His appearance is based mostly on that from the 1980's animated series.
The FCC straps everyone at the bar with belts that translate flatulence into Steven Wright jokes.