Brian the Bachelor

Infobox Television episode
Title =Brian the Bachelor
Series =Family Guy


Caption =Brian on "The Bachelorette".
Season =4
Episode =7
Airdate =June 26, 2005
Production =4ACX10
Writer =Mark Hentemann
Director =Dan Povenmire
Guests =Jessica Biel, Kevin Michael Richardson, Michael Bell, Nancy Cartwright, Dr. Drew
Episode list =List of Family Guy episodes
Season list = Infobox Family Guy Season 4
Prev =Petarded
Next =8 Simple Rules for Buying My Teenage Daughter

"Brian the Bachelor" is the seventh episode from the fourth season of the FOX animated television series "Family Guy". Guest-starring in the episode are Jessica Biel as Brooke, Kevin Michael Richardson as Doug the Pimple, Michael Bell as Allstar Seaworthy from "Snorks", Dr. Drew as the Dermatologist, and Nancy Cartwright from "The Simpsons" as Casey Kelp from "Snorks".

Plot summary

Peter, Joe, and Quagmire drag Cleveland to a bar to get him to meet some women after Loretta leaves him. It doesn’t work so well, so when "The Bachelorette" comes to Quahog, Peter takes Cleveland to try and join. Cleveland gets nervous at the audition and in an effort to calm him, Peter removes Cleveland’s clothes and then his own. The producers see this and Brian apologizes for what happened with Peter and Cleveland. After meeting Brian, they recruit him to be a contestant. He signs up for the free martinis and food till he gets kicked out of the contest, but ends up falling in love with the reality starlet, Brooke.

Meanwhile, Chris has a zit on his face which he names “Doug”. Lois worries about Chris, as Doug tells Chris to make some mischief. He goes to the Swanson’s house and plants a bag filled with excrement to set on fire, and writes “That’s enough, John Mayer” in spraypaint on the wall of the Quahog Mini-Mart. Lois sees Chris sneaking back into his room and is going to punish him but Chris tells her that Doug said he doesn’t have to listen to her. This outrages Lois, who decides to go to Goldman’s Pharmacy the next day and get some astringent to get rid of Doug. However, the next day, as Peter and Lois head to Goldman’s, they realize there has been a break-in, and someone has destroyed Mort’s entire stock of acne medication.

That night, Brooke comes over for dinner to meet Brian’s family, Doug tells Chris to lift up Brooke’s shirt. He does this, shocking and offending the family. Joe then comes in, saying he has proof that it was Chris who broke into Goldman’s Pharmacy and stole his acne medication. Chris decides he no longer wants to listen to Doug after he made Lois cry, but Doug says he could make Chris punch himself. Desperate to get rid of the zit, Chris goes to the dermatology clinic. Doug gets a pistol threatening to kill Chris if he doesn't do what Doug says. Chris manages to push the pistol away. While Chris is trying to get the medicine, Doug tries to reach the pistol. But Chris quickly gets the medicine and kills Doug.

Brian wins Brooke's heart and the final rose, but when the cameras are turned off, Brooke suddenly turns cold to Brian, telling him "Great working with you" (implying she thought he knew it was fake) and "It's just a TV show." And Brian's award is a manor bill. Brian tries to reestablish a connection by leaving her messages on the answering machine but she doesn’t answer, so he goes to see her in person. After getting hit with a telephone, he finally gets the hint and is left broken-hearted. Back at home, he laments to Stewie that he fooled himself into believing that Brooke actually loved him. Stewie tells Brian that at least he has some new material for his novel, before proceeding to jokingly tease him about the lack of progress he's made.

Production

During the commentary Seth MacFarlane states that when they produced the show, their network was doing very badly and the show they parody was a lot more popular than their own.

Cultural references

* A sexually suggestive "Snorks" gag is seen after Chris spray-paints the mini-mart wall; furthermore, the characters featured, Allstar and Casey, actually did have a romantic relationship on the actual show. Michael Bell, AllStar's original voice actor, did return to voice him, however, Nancy Cartwright voiced Casey instead of her original voice actor, B.J. Ward. (Cartwright, however, did voice Daffney on the original show.)
* In one of the confessions Brian gives for "The Bachelorette", he sings a few lines from “At This Moment” by Billy Vera and the Beaters.
* One of Chris’ pimples demands, “Where are all the whiteheads at?” This is a reference to Cleavon Little’s ploy to goad the Klansmen to leave the line of villains in "Blazing Saddles": “Where are all the white women at?” (or more generally, a reference to the stereotype of black men preferring white women).
* Chris' act of spraypainting 'That's enough, John Mayer' is likely to be a reference to Mayer's video for "Waiting on the World to Change" where several graffiti artists are seen painting things like 'Exploited' and 'Wake up!' onto blank walls.
* The story of the talking pimple is reminiscent of the films "Little Shop of Horrors" and "How to Get Ahead in Advertising".
* When Herbert hops outside Chris’ window on a ladder, the whole scene up to when he falls down is a parody from the film "Animal House". The original music from the movie is also used.
* In one scene, Brian asks if they could cut out the part where he talks about junk and mentions former "Saturday Night Live" castmember, Chevy Chase (followed by Brian's line that Chase might sue because "...the guy's gotta have no money left"), worrying that he might sue. This is a reference to the lawsuits of different celebrities against "Family Guy".
* The pharmacy scene is a parody of the film "Fast Times at Ridgemont High".
* Prince Adam/He-Man can be seen at the ranch where Brian is attending. He uses his sword to transform his donkey into Battle Cat. The sound effects and music from "He-Man and the Masters of the Universe" are used, and even John Erwin, He-Man's original voice actor, returned.
* In the scene when Brooke and Brian are discussing their fondness of jazz music, Brooke mentions that one of her favorite jazz artists is DJ Jazzy Jeff, to which Brian seems disappointed. Brooke then says she was kidding.
* There is a reference to the General Mills monster themed cereals Franken Berry and Count Chocula during one of the Bachelorette contestant interviews. Franken Berry says "Personally I think Count Chocula is only here because he is a minority..."
*Chris' doctor at the dermatology clinic is voiced by Radio Personality and real life Doctor, David Drew Pinsky.
*The scene with Peter and Lois in the drugstore after the break-in plays word for word like the final scene of episode 4 from where Judge Reinhold stops the robber.

Censorship

According to the DVD audio commentary on this episode, on the cutaway about Brooke spending the evening with Quagmire and his mother, the original name of the cat was "Pussy" but the censors found it to be sexual innuendo and it was changed to “Mittens” (however, they didn’t object to the implication that Quagmire intended to have a threesome with his mother and the Bachelorette). Also, in the scene where Cleveland is distraught about his audition for "The Bachelorette" and Peter strips naked (and strips Cleveland’s clothes), originally Peter was supposed to be sitting on Cleveland’s lap to keep Cleveland from running away, but the censors found it to be too sexual.

Reception

In a review of "Family Guy", volume 3, Dan MacIntosh of PopMatters praised the performance of Chris in the episode, writing "Chris' best scenes occur during "Brian The Bachelor", where he is shown developing an unlikely friendship with one of his facial zits".cite web|url=http://www.popmatters.com/tv/reviews/f/family-guy-3-dvd.shtml|last=MacIntosh|first=Dan|title=FAMILY GUY, VOLUME 3|accessdate=2008-08-04|publisher=PopMatters|date=January 6, 2006] In his review of "Family Guy", volume 3, Francis Rizzo III of DVD Talk reviewed the episode negatively, writing "Among the more frustrating trends in the series is its willingness to stretch an unfunny joke to its very limits. When Stewie berated Brian for not finishing his novel for nearly two minutes, not once, but twice, in "Brian the Bachelor," it tested my patience severely, and didn't even make me smile."cite web|url=http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/19078/family-guy-volume-3/|last=Rizzo|first=Francis III|title=Family Guy Volume 3|accessdate=2008-10-10|publisher=DVD Talk.com|date=November 29, 2005]

Notes

This episode marks the first time we see Stewie as a teenager when he pictures himself (and his friends) smoking pot in the future Chris's room. The evil monkey in Chris's closet makes another appearance, and Chris tells him, "I'm in no mood!"

References