A Hero Sits Next Door

Infobox Television episode
Title =A Hero Sits Next Door
Series =Family Guy


Caption =Lois & Stewie meet Joe Swanson
Season =1
Episode =5
Airdate =May 2, 1999
Production =1ACX05
Writer =Matt Weitzman
Mike Barker
Director =Monte Young
Guests =Michelle Kwan
Suzie Plakson
Episode list =List of Family Guy episodes
Season list = Infobox Family Guy Season 1
Prev =Mind Over Murder
Next =The Son Also Draws__NOTOC__"A Hero Sits Next Door" is the fifth episode of "Family Guy" from season one. It guest-stars Michelle Kwan as herself and marks the first appearance of Joe Swanson and his family.

Plot summary

Mr. Weed introduces Guillermo, a ringer he hired to ensure the company’s victory, at the annual softball game. Peter injures Guillermo with a wild pitch during practice and must find a new player to replace him. Meanwhile, Lois is trying to become friends with the new neighbors. After Stewie tries to escape from listening to Lois and Bonnie's conversation, he says "Oh to be the Lindbergh baby right about now", a reference to the kidnapping of Charles Lindbergh's son. Peter is antagonistic to his new neighbor, Joe Swanson, until he discovers that Joe played baseball in college. Peter invites Joe to join the team. When Joe shows up on the field, however, Peter (along with the other players) is horrified to see that he is wheelchair-bound, and yells, "Holy crip, he’s a crapple!" Joe turns out to be a fantastic player, however, and leads the team to victory. In addition, he is also a heroic policeman, and soon becomes very popular with the neighbors, including Peter's family. When Peter is mad at Joe for taking all his friends he quotes the Gershwin & Gershwin song "They Can’t Take That Away from Me" by saying "The way I wear my hat? No, no, he can't take that away from me." Stewie, meanwhile, believes that Joe is some kind of cyborg, and tries to steal his wheelchair.

Joe's popularity makes Peter jealous, and Peter wants to be a hero too. He decides to perform a heroic deed to compete with Joe and attempts to stop a bank robbery in progress. However, he and Brian are taken hostage until Joe convinces the robbers to surrender. After the hostage situation Peter is disappointed, but his family tells him that he is their hero.

In another subplot, Meg keeps trying to get Kevin's attention, but is unsuccessful until she gets Kevin to start talking about himself.

Production

This is the first episode not to have a word relating to death in the title. The first four episodes titles were based on episodes from the old CBS Radio drama, Suspense. The writing staff has remarked that they initially planned to give each episode a bizarrely macabre title, but dropped the approach after the first four episodes because they were getting the episodes mixed up.

Also, Joe's wife Bonnie is shown with brown hair. In later episodes it turns black.

Cultural references

* When Joe recounts (in flashback) being paralyzed as a result of a rooftop battle, he is battling the Grinch from "How the Grinch Stole Christmas!"
* Peter makes a reference to one of the dinosaurs from Jurassic Park: he tells the guys at work that he developed a transformer doll that turns Facts of Life character Natalie into ' the spitting lizard'.
* In a cutaway gag, Peter is seen playing strip poker with the Super Friends. Wonder Woman loses and has to remove her bra. Peter notes that Robin should be looking at Wonder Woman's breasts and not him, a reference to the implied homosexual relationship between Batman and Robin. Batman is referenced again when Peter goes to the 'Batcave' which is, ironically, a cave full of bats.
* During the robbery, the start of the early 1980s title sequence of Doctor Who is shown.
* Stewie is seen reading The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli, which explains and justifies how the means of keeping order in a nation are worth the ends, however cruel or inhumane the methods (something Stewie points out that he understands perfectly). He then picks up Sun Tzu's The Art of War, an ancient Chinese text explaining military tactics and techniques.
* Stewie expresses his desire to be 'the Lindberg baby' and get away from Bonnie and Louis. This is a reference to the Lindbergh kidnapping, where the baby son of aviator Charles Lindberg was kidnapped and later murdered.
* While talking about copyright infringment, Peter turns into Mickey Mouse.

Censorship

In Syndication:
*Peter's supposed coprolalic utterings of "Son of a bitch" have been reduced to one.
*The part where one softball player gives another player trick gum that makes him addicted to heroin was cut.
*Although earlier, otherwise uncut airings (such as those shown on some Adult Swim reruns and FOX reruns) edit out the part where a child's JFK PEZ dispenser gets blasted by a stray bullet, syndication leaves the scene uncut.
*When Brian says "Gosh, I'd like to help you Peter. But I've gotta go out in the hall and chew on the back of my ass for about 5 minutes." One version has "ass" replaced with "leg."

References

* Callaghan, Steve. “A Hero Sits Next Door.” "Family Guy: The Official Episode Guide Seasons 1–3". New York: HarperCollins, 2005. 30–33.
* Delarte, Alonso. “Nitpicking Family Guy: Season 1.” "Bob’s Poetry Magazine" March 2005: 12–13. [http://bobspoetry.com/Bobs02Mr.pdf http://bobspoetry.com/Bobs02Mr.pdf]

External links

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* [http://openhulu.com/watch.php?show=Family+Guy&episode=A+Hero+Sits+Next+Door&id=613 "Watch A Hero Sits Next Door"] on OpenHulu.com