Peter's Got Woods

Infobox Television episode
Title =Peter's Got Woods
Series =Family Guy


Caption =Peter is given a T-shirt by James Woods.
Season =4
Episode =11
Airdate =September 11, 2005
Production =4ACX14
Writer =Danny Smith
Director =Chuck Klein & Zac Moncrief
Guests =James Woods Gabrielle Union Patrick Stewart Jonathan Frakes Michael Dorn
Episode list =List of Family Guy episodes
Season list = Infobox Family Guy Season 4
Prev =Model Misbehavior
Next =Perfect Castaway

"Peter's Got Woods" is the eleventh episode from the fourth season of the FOX animated series "Family Guy". This episode featured guest stars Gabrielle Union as Shauna and James Woods as himself. This is the second "Family Guy" episode to be rated TV-PG. [ [http://www.fox.com/schedule/showinfo/familyguy/fg_414.htm FOX Fall Schedule ] ] On Adult Swim, the official rating is TV-PG for suggestive dialogue (D) and offensive language (L).

It was initially scheduled for September 18, 2005 but was aired a week earlier due to FOX delaying the broadcast of the episode "Perfect Castaway" over sensitivity for Hurricane Katrina victims, as the episode made many jokes about tropical storms. [ [http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6255478.html Fox Holds Family Guy With Hurricane References - 9/8/2005 3:54:00 PM - Broadcasting & Cable ] ]

Plot summary

Lois asks Peter to go the PTA meeting, then Peter asks Brian to go. Brian reluctantly goes, and falls in love with one of Meg's teachers, Shauna Parks. They go out on a date, and Brian suggests changing the name of James Woods Regional High School. Shauna, who is black, likes Brian's idea of honoring Martin Luther King Jr., and the board holds a meeting to consider the name change. Peter, however, sees through Brian and deduces that he's only doing this to impress Shauna, so he gets James Woods to come to the meeting, who says it's OK to change the name of the school. Impressed by Woods' humility, the board decides not to change the school's name. Brian is furious with Peter's involvement with his and Shauna's idea, although Peter mistook Dr. King for "that guy from "", Martin Landau, "the dead crooner", Dean Martin, and "the guy who played Sheneneh", Martin Lawrence, among others.

Peter and Woods become very good friends, while Brian is late for his date with Shauna. She is upset that he still talks to Peter and makes Brian choose between her and Peter, and they eventually call off their relationship, as Brian feels that his friendship is more important. He and Peter patch their differences at The Drunken Clam, becoming friends again. When both return home, they find Woods is still there and disturbs them big time. They get rid of him by trapping him in a box, with Reese's Pieces as bait. Woods is then sent to be studied by "top men", when he is really being stored away in a Government Warehouse with similar other crates (à la "Raiders of the Lost Ark").

Censorship

A sub-plot is cut out of this episode in which Stewie's sleep cycle is disturbed after staying up all night to read "The Da Vinci Code". He proceeds to become a night owl, going out at night and reciting poetry in a coffee house. In the finished episode, the scene where Stewie stops talking to Brian and goes after two prostitutes for their money is a vestigal reference to the entire deleted sub-plot.

Cultural references

* A cutaway, explaining why Brian owes Peter a favor, shows Peter serving as the chorus while Brian sang "Sighing Softly to the River" from Gilbert and Sullivan's operetta "The Pirates of Penzance".
* A cutaway shows Stewie playing a game of Marco Polo with deafblind author and activist Helen Keller.
* Stewie reads "The Da Vinci Code", influenced by the fact that Lois liked the book.
* At the campout, Peter mashes together the urban legends "The Vanishing Hitchhiker", "The Bloody Hook", and "The Babysitter and the Man Upstairs".
* Peter and James Woods sing to the tune of "You Two" from the 1968 musical "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang".
* James Woods shows Peter "Videodrome", a 1983 cult film, in which Woods starred.
* Peter says to Brian they need to come up with a crazy plan like the kids on "That '70s Show". The show then goes into a segue of Peter and Brian floating in front of a tie dye background to rock music, a common segue on "That ’70s Show".
* One cutaway parodies ' and shows Captain Picard and Commander Riker joking about Lieutenant Commander Worf's forehead. Actors Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes and Michael Dorn reprise their "Star Trek" roles. Picard tells Riker that "Commander Worf's head looks like a fanny." As Worf is annoyed at being mocked, Picard tells him to "Get a sense of humor, Rocky Dennis!" in reference to the movie "Mask", starring Cher, about the disfigured titular character Rocky Dennis. An alternate version of this scene shows Counselor Troi (voiced by Marina Sirtis) picking up on Picard's apparent desire to give her a "golden shower". Seth MacFarlane is a huge fan of "Star Trek", claims "The Next Generation" as his favorite "Star Trek" series, and later guest starred on two episodes of '.
* The dialog and the setting near the end of the episode, in which James Woods welcomes Peter, offers him some "cold roast beef" and then quickly switches between anger and regret, is lifted from Roman Polanski's film "Death and the Maiden", which is based on a play of the same name by Ariel Dorfman.
* The end of the episode is a reference to both the end of "Raiders of the Lost Ark" (the line "Top men" and the warehouse) [cite web | title = Family Guy | publisher = TheRaider.net | url = http://www.theraider.net/information/influences/family_guy.php | accessdate=2008-01-17] and "E.T." (using the same type of candy to lure Woods out of hiding so he can go home).
* Peter hangs out with Barney Rubble from the cartoon series "The Flintstones". Parodying the series’ use of animals for modern day technological inventions, a pelican serves as Barney's toilet. (In the TV special "A Flintstone Family Christmas", the Flintstones were shown to have an actual toilet.) The pelican says to the audience "And you think "you" have a crap job." And then canned laughter, parodying the use of canned laughter on "The Flintstones", ensues. The gag is reprised later in the episode before a commercial break, when Lois explains that it's Meg's "Time of the Month", and pans to a sheep who is visible distraught and exclaims "Not again"; canned laughter ensues again.
* When Shauna, Brian's love interest, introduces herself, there's heavenly singing of the name "Shauna" in the background. This parodies a scene from "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" when Jennifer Grey's character tells Charlie Sheen's character, "It's Jean, but most guys call me Shauna."
* Ronald Reagan, during his retirement, is shown pounding a McDonald's wall and yelling "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!", referencing Reagan's famous 1987 speech in West Berlin and his suffering from Alzheimer's disease. This episode was produced prior to Reagan's death in June 2004.
* When Peter confuses Martin Luther King, Jr. with a number of people, he mentions "that guy in "Platoon"," and Brian guesses that he means Charlie Sheen or Willem Dafoe. Peter says "No, his name is Tom Berenger; we were looking for Tom Berenger," mimicking the style of "Jeopardy."

Reception and legacy

This episode aired in the U.L on September 16, 2005 and garnered 4.54 million viewers. Fact|date=May 2008

On the commentary for this episode, Seth MacFarlane mentioned that he'd like to do a sequel to this episode where James Woods would attempt to get revenge on Peter for being locked in the warehouse. He was able to do so with the episode "Back to the Woods" which goes just as planned resulting in Peter plotting to ruin the actor's career as a payback.

References

External links

* [http://imdb.com/title/tt0576958/ IMDB Page]
* [http://www.familyguyfiles.com/episodes/episodes.php?season=5 Family Guy Reference Archive]