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I Dream of Jesus

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"I Dream of Jesus"

"I Dream of Jesus" is the second episode of the seventh season of Family Guy. It originally aired on Fox in the United States on October 5, 2008.[1] In the episode, Peter finds an incognito Jesus Christ working at a record shop, and convinces Jesus to make his second coming public.

The episode was directed by Mike Kim. It was written by Brian Scully. The title of the episode is a play on the television series I Dream of Jeannie, and the episode made prominent use of the song "Surfin' Bird" as recorded by The Trashmen. The episode guest started Chris Cox, Ike Barinholtz, Amanda MacDonald, Niecy Nash, Paris Hilton and Perez Hilton.

The episode received mixed reviews from critics. According to Nielsen Media Research, "I Dream of Jesus" was Fox's most-watched program the evening it first aired, with 8.4 million views. Seth MacFarlane was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance and an Annie Award for his role as Peter Griffin in this episode. This was one of three episodes (along with "Road to Germany" and "Family Gay") submitted the year Family Guy was nominated for the "Outstanding Comedy Series".


Plot

The family goes to a 1950s-themed restaurant and they see celebrities dressed up as people from the 50s, including James Dean, Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley. Peter obtains a record of his favorite song, The Trashmen's "Surfin' Bird" from the restaurant (which was about to be thrown away because it was released in 1963) Peter drives everyone at home crazy by repeatedly playing and singing to it, and even squanders the family's savings to do a public service announcement. Everyone sees the public service announcement, and a mathematician tells the mayor that the bird is greater than or equal to the word. Deciding that enough is enough, Stewie and Brian steal the record while Peter is asleep and destroy it. Infuriated, Peter accuses the others, saying they had a motive as he changed his will and left everything to the record. He goes to a record shop the next morning to buy another copy, but it turns out this store and at least two other record stores had already been visited by a dog and a baby who bought all the copies. Peter is frustrated, but gets distracted as he recognizes the record sales clerk to be Jesus Christ.

Jesus reveals he goes to Earth every 100 years or so to check on the world and it couldn't have been a better time, as his father had just given up smoking. He and Peter become friends, and Peter invites him to dinner where Brian ends up asking Jesus for proof he is Jesus Christ. Jesus does this by turning everyone's dinner into sundaes and, after Peter asks him to, makes Lois' breasts enlarge to massive proportions, causing Brian to drop his jaw. Peter convinces him to make his second coming public. Jesus walks on water to retrieve a dollar bill that blew out of Peter's hand. Consequently, he becomes famous and makes celebrity appearances on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and the MTV Movie Awards. He gets so caught up in his new-found popularity that he begins to neglect his friendship with Peter. The next day, Peter watches the news, where Tom Tucker reports that Jesus was found in Mary-Kate Olsen's apartment that morning face down and unconscious. Tom reports that police have revived and arrested the disoriented Jesus, who quoted "Jews are responsible for all the world's wars". Peter is asked by Jesus to bail him out. Now in disrepute, Jesus decides that maybe he was not mature enough to return to the world yet. Before he leaves this world, Jesus gives Peter a present: another record of "Surfin' Bird", which plays over the end credits.

Production

Co-executive producer, Steve Callaghan, made a minor appearance.

The episode was written by one of this season's co-executive producers Brian Scully, on his first writing job for the show.[2] It was directed by Mike Kim, who had been with the show since it's fifth season when he directed the episode "Stewie Loves Lois".[2][3] Series regulars Peter Shin and James Purdum served as supervising directors for the episode.[2] The episode's music was composed by Walter Murphy.[2]

"I Dream of Jesus", along with the first eight episodes of the seventh season were released on DVD by 20th Century Fox in the United States and Canada on June 16, 2009, one month after it had completed broadcast on television.[4] The "Volume 7" DVD release features bonus material including deleted scenes, animatics, and commentaries for every episode.[5]

Actors Chris Cox, Ike Barinholtz, Amanda MacDonald, Niecy Nash, Paris Hilton and Perez Hilton guest started.[2] Recurring voice actors for the show, including Patrick Warburton, Adam West, Johnny Brennan, writer Alec Sulkin, writer John Viener, writer Kirker Butler, co-executive producer Steve Callaghan, co-executive producer Mark Hentemann and executive producer Danny Smith also made minor appearances.[2]

Cultural refrences

The episode's name is a pun of the title of the NBC sitcom, I Dream of Jeannie.[6] The scene in which Stewie and Brian destroy the record is nearly identical to a scene in the movie Office Space in which the characters destroy a printer, including use of the same song.[7] Peter makes Jesus admit that he is the messiah by threatening to urinate over albums of Christian artist Amy Grant.[6] Peter attempts to top Jesus' story about his crucifixion during a dinner conversation with a story about how he and his friends "got wrecked on Southern Comfort" before going to see The Chronicles of Riddick.[8] George W. Bush explains to the american people that going to war was correct because he answers to Jesus Christ, then Peter and Jesus interrupt him to disagree with him. Jesus is invited to the Tonight Show, hosted by Jay Leno.[7] Jesus assists the MTV Movie Awards, which is being hosted by Dane Cook, to present an award alongside the Pussycat Dolls.[6][2] Jesus is found in Mary Kate Olsen's apartment.[6] When Jesus is arrested, he rants saying that "Jews are responsible for all the world's wars", a reference to a similar outburst during Mel Gibson's DUI arrest.[6] Lindsay Lohan is lampooned in the episode.[2]

Reception

According to Nielsen ratings, "I Dream of Jesus" was the most-watched program on Fox the night it originally aired.[9] It was watched by 8.4 million viewers, and earned a 4.3/10 ratings share in the 18–49 demographic.[10] Richard Keller of TV Squad praised the "Surfing Bird" and Office Space parody segments.[11] Ahsan Haque of IGN rated the episode a 7/10, claiming the episode had entertaining moments, but was not one of the show's strongest efforts. Haque wrote, "Jesus on Family Guy should have been a big deal and featured far more laughs than it did." [7] Steve Heisler of The A.V. Club praised the "Surfin Bird" plot, but stated that the Jesus story was abrupt, adding, "There was a lot of ground Family Guy didn't tread that they wanted to".[12] L. Brent Bozell III of the Parents Television Council, a common critic of the show, took offense at this episode's portrayal of Jesus. Bozell said "this lying, slacker Jesus is even dumber than Peter, the greatest idiot on animated television today."[6]

Seth MacFarlane was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance for his role as Peter Griffin in this episode,[13] MacFarlane was also nominated for an Annie Award for Voice Acting in an Animated Television Production or Short Form for his work in I Dream of Jesus but lost to Ahmed Best for his role as Jar Jar Binks in Robot Chicken: Star Wars Episode II.[14] According to Seth MacFarlane, "I Dream of Jesus" was one of three episodes (along with "Road to Germany" and "Family Gay") submitted for consideration for "Outstanding Comedy Series" in the 61st Primetime Emmy Awards in 2009. He explained, "We picked three of our edgier shows as a choice. We figured if we are going to be damned, let's be damned for what we really are." The series was ultimately nominated for the award, the first time an animated series was nominated for the same category since the ABC sitcom The Flintstones in 1961.[15]

References

  1. ^ "Primetime Listings for "I Dream of Jesus"". FoxFlash. 2008-09-12. Retrieved 2008-09-12.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h "Family Guy - I Dream of Jesus - Yahoo! TV". Yahoo!. Retrieved October 4, 2012.
  3. ^ "Family Guy - Stewie Loves Lois - Yahoo! TV". Yahoo!. Retrieved October 4, 2012.
  4. ^ "Family Guy, Vol. 7". Amazon.com. Retrieved October 4, 2012.
  5. ^ "Family Guy – Season 8". EzyDVD. Retrieved October 4, 2012.
  6. ^ a b c d e f Bozell III, L. Brent (October 10, 2008). "Fox's Lying, Slacker Jesus". Creators Syndicate. Retrieved March 8, 2009.
  7. ^ a b c Haque, Ashan. "Family Guy: "I Dream of Jesus" Review". IGN. Retrieved September 14, 2009.
  8. ^ Pierson, Robin. "Episode 2 - I Dream of Jesus". The TV Critic. Retrieved October 4, 2012.
  9. ^ "CW's Sunday Slate Struggles last=Eggerton". Broadcasting & Cable. 2008-10-06. Retrieved 2010-02-28. {{cite news}}: |first= missing |last= (help); Missing pipe in: |title= (help)
  10. ^ Gorman, Bill (October 6, 2010). "Sunday Ratings: Desperate Housewives, 60 Minutes Win, CW Crashes". TV by the Numbers. Retrieved October 6, 2010.
  11. ^ Keller, Richard (October 11, 2008). "Six shows that I am watching pretty regularly this season". TV Squad. AOL. Retrieved March 28, 2009.
  12. ^ Heisler, Steve. ""Lost Verizon"/"Earthly Girls Are Easy"/"I Dream Of Jesus"/"The One That Got Away"". The A.V. Club. Retrieved December 15, 2009.
  13. ^ "The 61st Primetime Emmy Awards and 2009 Creative Arts Emmy Awards Nominees are..." Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. July 16, 2009. Retrieved 2009-07-16.
  14. ^ "36th Annual Annie Award Nominees and Winners (2008)". Retrieved July 16, 2009.
  15. ^ Hibberd, James (2009-07-17). "Family Guy smashes Emmy barrier for cartoons". Reuters. Retrieved July 18, 2009.
Preceded by
Love, Blactually 		Family Guy (season 7) Succeeded by
Road to Germany

Template:Family Guy (season 7)

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