To Love and Die in Dixie

Infobox Television episode
Title =To Love and Die in Dixie
Series =Family Guy


Caption =Sam's father, Chris, Sam, Peter
Season =3
Episode =12
Airdate =November 15, 2001
Production =3ACX09
Writer =Steve Callaghan
Director =Dan Povenmire
Guests =Waylon Jennings, Dakota Fanning
Episode list =List of Family Guy episodes
Season list = Infobox Family Guy Season 3
Prev =Emission Impossible
Next =Screwed the Pooch

"To Love and Die in Dixie" is an episode of the third season of "Family Guy". Country music singer Waylon Jennings guest-stars in his last ever screen appearance. This episode is also included in the "Freakin' Sweet Collection" "best of" DVD. The title is a reference to a line in the traditional Confederate Civil War song "Dixie".

Plot summary

Chris gets a newspaper route to pay for a birthday gift for a girl he likes. At a convenience store, he witnesses a robbery and identifies the thief out of a lineup. However, Peter shows up and tells the thief (not knowing he's the thief) that he's here to pick up Chris who was going to "finger the guy who held up the convenience store" and then stupidly proceeds to give the thief a picture of Chris with a list of his school schedules and his greatest fears. When the thief escapes and swears revenge on Chris the family is placed in the Witness Protection Program. The Griffins are relocated to Bumblescum, a tiny town in the deep South. Peter (after making his car look like The General Lee and playing "The Dukes of Hazzard") becomes sheriff with Brian as his deputy. Stewie joins a hillbilly jug band (called Stewie and the Cowtones), Meg becomes popular with her classmates and Chris meets Sam, whom he assumes is a boy.

Chris (after Sam kisses him) assumes Sam is gay. As Chris writes in a journal about what happened with Sam, Brian hears the whole thing (as Chris was thinking out loud). Chris explains that kissing Sam kinda felt right. When they meet again, Chris tells Sam that he likes him but only as a friend. Sam seems cool with this and when they are about to go swimming it is revealed to Chris (by the bra and long hair) that Sam is a girl. Due to the fact that Chris has had bad experience with girls (as seen in the beginning of the episode) he now feels awkward around Sam. At the hootenanny (or hoedown), Sam explains to Chris that he had no problem talking to her, when he thought she was a guy, so she tells Chris to think of her as a boy who he can make out with. The criminal tracks Chris down to Bumblescum (because the FBI told him where "Meg" was but not Chris) but during the confrontation the criminal is shot by Sam's father.

Despite offending the town earlier when Peter corrected their Civil War reenactment, they still were willing to take care of their neighbors. With the criminal gone, the Griffins return to Quahog with Chris sadly having to leave Sam behind.

Episode-specific cast

*Waylon Jennings – balladeer/narrator
*Dakota Fanning – eight-year-old mother

Censorship

*When the bank robber who has just escaped prison says "Yeah, I'm gonna go bang my girlfriend and then I'm gonna kill Chris Griffin!", Stewie remarks "Good Lord, can they really say 'bang my girlfriend' on TV?", a jab at what the censors on network TV (or the FCC) can and can't allow in terms of language and content. As it happens, the FOX rerun and syndicated versions of this episode do bleep out the "bang" in "bang my girlfriend", but it is intact on other airings (TBS and Adult Swim) and on DVD.

*Changes made in syndication:
**During the ALF E! True Hollywood Story gag, ALF's line "They had to cut the crap out of my fur before each taping" is cut.
**the scene of Meg and Peter calling Chris a "lardo" and blaming him for having to move to the South is cut.
**The scene where Peter and Brian make their first jump in the General Lee is cut.
**When Chris and Sam poke the dead body, Chris' line "It's true. The best things in life really "are" free" is removed.
**The scene where the Griffins say goodbye to their new Southern friends and where Chris and Sam kiss is removed.

Cultural references

* Waylon Jennings (in his last televised appearance) provides narration during a freeze-frame of Peter and Brian mid-air in a car, being chased by the angry civil war veterans. The scene mimics a technique found in most episodes of "The Dukes of Hazzard" television show, which lead into most commercial breaks in an identical matter. Jennings was the narrator of that series, doing similar voice over, even calling Brian and Peter "them boys", his traditional nickname for the lead characters, the Duke cousins.
* A flashback Peter's first job was with Simon and Garfunkel. He wanted to title "Mrs. Robinson" "Mrs. Fleckenstein" (one of the writers on "Family Guy"'s staff is named Fleckenstein) and sing "parsley, sage, rosemary and Lawry's Seasoning Salt" instead of "parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme" in "Scarborough Fair/Canticle". After Paul Simon criticizes his ideas, Peter says "That's it, I'm goin' to 'Nam".
* The FBI agents are a reference to "The Odd Couple". "We'll be watching your house together, even though he's a slovenly liberal and I'm a fastidious conservative", one of them says "I smell a sitcom!".
* Peter spots a "Crunch Berry", a variation of Cap'n Crunch breakfast cereal beneath the refrigerator.
* After Stewie plays a song on the banjo, he screams "I got blisters on me fingers!", which is what Ringo Starr screams at the end of The Beatles song "Helter Skelter".
* The pig in the classroom shares traits similar to Arnold Ziffel, the pig on the sitcom "Green Acres", who also attended school.
* After Lois says that she made dinner with Shake 'N' Bake, Stewie says "And I helped!", a line directly from Shake 'N' Bake commercials.
* Chris jokes that "Hell is UPN", a second-tier TV network that ceased operations in 2006.
* There is a humorous Southern version of a Civil War re-enactment, which plays off of real history, as Robert E. Lee was a teetotaller, while Ulysses S. Grant was forced to resign from the military in 1854 because of a drinking problem (he did not return until 1861).
* A segue between scenes shows Buck Owens, host of "Hee Haw", another popular television show that takes place in the rural south.
* After the locals kill the thief on the dock, Peter says that all Southerners "suffer from the gum disease known as gingivitis", in the same manner as the voice on a 1990s commercial for Listerine, an oral hygiene product.
* After Peter shows Brian the his version of The General Lee, Brian says "The Duke boys would be proud", a reference to Bo Duke and Luke Duke from "The Dukes of Hazzard".

References in other episodes

In "The Fat Guy Strangler", Brian hits Peter with a rock for not rolling down the windows of the General Lee, a reference to an accident occurring in this episode.

References

* Callaghan, Steve (2005). "Family Guy: The Official Episode Guide Seasons 1–3". Orion Books. ISBN 0-7528-7399-7.
* [http://www.familyguy.com/ Official Episode Guide] (Requires Macromedia Flash and Internet Explorer)
* [http://www.epguides.com/FamilyGuy/ List at epguides.com] (Referenced From [http://www.tv.com tv.com] )

External links

*FGwiki