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The Story on Page One

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“The Story on Page One” is an episode from the second season of the FOX animated television series Family Guy. It guest-stars Luke Perry as himself.

Plot summary

A visit to Brown University (Brian’s alma mater) shows that Meg does not have enough extracurricular activities to be admitted, so Meg decides to write for her high school’s paper. Meg's first story is an interview with Mayor Adam West and his money-wasting investigation on water “theft.” Mayor West shows Meg how the drain to his sink and his potted plants are stealing his water. Peter doesn’t think that story will grab attention, so he replaces it with a story claiming Luke Perry is gay. When Perry reads this article, he files a lawsuit against Meg.

Meg is deeply upset, but Peter promises to make it up to her. Trying to get Meg out of the suit, Peter tries to stage a photo of Perry acting gay through seduction, thus making the article seem valid, but Perry doesn’t respond to his sexual antics (other than throwing up at one point). He finally confesses to Perry about what he did, who decides to drop all charges. Meg gets to interview Perry for a new article: “Luke Perry Is Straight, But It Didn’t Do Me a Damn Bit of Good.” Peter gives Perry a copy of the revised article. Perry rushes back to bed with Adam West who says he will have sex with Luke only if he would stop stealing his water. Luke agrees, although he has no idea what Adam West means.

Meanwhile, frustrated with his short size, Stewie puts a mind control device on Chris to make him do his bidding, especially trying to kill Lois. The plan backfires when the device is shorted out by the microwave oven, causing Chris to turn on Stewie, though Stewie manages to evade him.

Notes

  • The TV Guide Peter sees, featuring Luke Perry on the cover, reads “If you can read this, Family Guy is on the air.”
  • The family watches a fictitious sitcom called Sherry and the Anus, whose ending credits list real life Family Guy writers and directors as producers of the show-within-a-show.

Censorship

  • Cuts made in syndication:

    • The entire "Sherry and the Anus" cold-open is removed.
    • Brian's line, "Peter, how the hell is he going to recognize us?" is cut.
    • As Peter dances in a bikini in front of Luke Perry, the close-up of Luke realizing that Peter's butt is in his face followed by him gagging is shortened to only show the close-up of Luke gagging and shorten the time that we see Peter shaking his butt.

Cultural references

  • The guard at the Dean’s office shouts, “Nobody sees the Dean, not nobody, not no how,” a reference to the Wizard’s guards in The Wizard of Oz.
  • Lois says that, when she was in college, the National Guard shot some of her friends, indicating that she went to Kent State during the 1970 shootings on the campus.
  • The flashback showing Brian’s college years, during which he was harassed for being a dog, parodies the 1992 film School Ties, in which Brendan Fraser’s character is harassed for being a Jew (in the movie, the message on the wall read “Go Home, Jew!” instead of “Go Home, Dog!”). Brian standing outside in the rain and yelling "cowards!" is also part of the parody.
  • Stewie inquires to some women "So.. What do you think of this Music television?"
  • Peter says that he wanted to name Meg after Twiki, a robot from Buck Rogers in the 25th Century.
  • A cutaway to Meg’s probable future without a college education show her modeling in a bikini at a “bum fight,” an event in which homeless people fight one another in exchange for food, alcohol or some other incentive. These events were captured in the controversial 2002 documentary Bumfights.
  • In the cutaway scene showing Peter as a Ghostbuster, he interrupts the famous pottery wheel scene in the movie Ghost and sucks up Patrick Swayze's character.
  • When Peter’s typing on the typewriter, the camera pans around him, then he tosses the paper from the typewriter, where it then forms the logo for Stephen J. Cannell Productions (mistakenly spelled “Steven” in the spoof logo). It was one of three logos, the others being UBU Productions and TriStar Pictures, from the world of TV, movies, or home video to have been parodied on Family Guy.
  • After holding an exploding bomb from Mayor West, Meg has Daffy Duck’s beak on the wrong side of her head, and then states, “Of course, you realize, this means war,” parodying a frequent gag on Looney Tunes.
  • When Meg visits Mayor Adam West, he inquires "Are you Sarah Connor?", a reference to the Terminator series of films.
  • A scene from Big is parodied when Stewie walks up to a Zoltar machine and says “I wish I was big.” The machine responds with “I wish I could weigh people.”
  • Stewie uses his mind control device to force Chris to sing “Puttin’ on the Ritz” by Irving Berlin. This refers to a scene in Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein where the monster performs the same song.
  • The scene in which Thomas Jefferson’s family is shown as mostly black children is a reference to the recently unveiled evidence that he fathered children with his slave Sally Hemings.
  • When Peter lists things that distract kids today, he includes the game Rock ’Em Sock ’Em Robots, the geometric drawing toy the Spirograph, the psychedelic rock band Moby Grape, and 90210 despite the fact that they all (except 90210) date back to at least the mid-1960s.
  • Peter tells Luke that Dark Side of the Moon synchs up with The Wizard of Oz, a popular notion about the album. Perry mentions that he heard the same from Beverly Hills, 90210 co-star Shannen Doherty but thought that she was “just being a bitch,” a popular tabloid portrayal of the actress.
  • A cutaway indicates Ricky Martín is actually Jewel.
  • Peter thinks that Luke Perry, and not Tom Cruise, starred in Rain Man.
  • Peter made a reference to Walter Cronkite, saying that the Vietnam War never occurred in an attempt to convince his family that reporters make up stories.
  • Adam West references the Got Milk? campaign as well as an old commercial for Connect Four.
  • When we first see Luke Perry, a woman offscreen calls out, "Luke! Luke! Time for dinner!" This is a reference to Aunt Beru from Star Wars.

References

  • S. Callaghan, “The Story on Page One.” Family Guy: The Official Episode Guide Seasons 1–3. New York: HarperCollins, 2005. 116–119.
  • A. Delarte, “Nitpicking Family Guy: Season 2” in Bob’s Poetry Magazine, 2.May 2005: 26–27 http://bobspoetry.com/Bobs02My.pdf

External links



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