PETER'S GOT WOODS

__NOTOC__
'“Peter’s Got Woods”' is an episode from the fourth season of the FOX animated television 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.^[1] On Adult Swim, the official rating is TV-PG for suggestive dialogue (D) and offensive language (L).

Contents

Plot summary

Censorship

Cultural references

Goofs

References

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 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 thought that Dr. King was “that guy from ,” Martin Landau.
Peter and James 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. Returning home, they find James Woods is still there. They get rid of him by trapping him in a box, with Reese’s Pieces as bait (à la ''E.T.''). 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 (á la ''Raiders of the Lost Ark'').

Censorship

When James is scolding Peter for not having dinner with him, he says, “Where does James Woods fit in with the fun?” On the DVD, he says, “You fucker,” after it, which is bleeped out on the original track (but can be heard if one switches to the uncensored track on the ''Family Guy'' Volume 3 DVD set). On the TV version (both FOX and Cartoon Network versions), the “you fucker” line is cut entirely.

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.

★ Before suggesting that James Woods High School be named after Martin Luther King, Brian suggests baseball-player Reggie Jackson and actor Sidney Poitier.

★ Stewie reads ''The Da Vinci Code''.


★ Peter apparently 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, sarcastically remarking “And you think you’ve got a crap job!” Later on, a sheep groans about his “job” (apparently as Meg’s tampon) saying “NOT 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.” This could also be a reference to the 1993 film ''A Bronx Tale'' where street gospel style music is played during the meeting of an interacial couple; the episode has similar themes to the film.

★ Presumably because of his stupidity, Peter mistakes Martin Luther King for television actor Martin Landau, comedian Martin Lawrence, “drunk crooner” Dean Martin, Martini & Rossi brand vermouth, actor Martin Sheen, his son actor Charlie Sheen, and the younger Sheen’s ''Platoon'' co-stars Willem Dafoe and Tom Berenger.

★ 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 as well as his suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. He then shouts “Reagan smash!”, a reference to the Hulk’s catch phrase “Hulk smash!” This episode was produced prior to Reagan’s death in June 2004, but aired exactly 15 months after Reagan’s state funeral.

★ 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''.

★ The marquee outside the theatre where Brian and Shauna break up reads: “''I’m Sleeping with Someone at Paramount'' Starring Ashley Judd.”

★ James Woods shows Peter ''Videodrome'', a 1983 cult film in which Woods starred. This is the only reference to one of Woods’ movies in this episode.

★ 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''. Also, Mila Kunis, who voices Meg, starred in ''That ’70s Show'' and Seth Green, who voices Chris, was a semi-recurring character on the show.

★ A flashback shows Peter’s trying to pick-up contestants on the Miss USA pageant.

★ 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. The character Captain Picard looks very similar to the character Avery Bullock from ''American Dad!'' (whom Patrick Stewart actually voices), the animated series also created by ''Family Guy'' creator Seth MacFarlane. 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.” In this parody, the Conn and Ops stations are switched, with Data positioned on the right instead of the left, and vice versa for Wesley Crusher.

★ The dialogue and the setting near the end of the episode, in which James Woods welcomes Peter, whom he has expected to arrive sooner, offers him some “cold roast beef” and then quickly switches between anger and regret, is almost directly lifted from Roman Polanski’s film ''Death and the Maiden'', which is in turn 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) and ''E.T.'' (using the same type of candy to lure Woods out of hiding so he can go home). At the end of the episode, Peter says James Woods is being examined by “top men.” The scene then shows what is assumed to be a box containing James Woods being put into a giant s storage. This is a copy of the ending of ''Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark'', where the Ark meets a similar fate at the movie’s end.

★ When Lois says, “Well, it’s not often we get to meet celebrities,” Peter says he was Christina Aguilera’s manager, who critiques Aguilera on her overdrawn singing and disgusting appearance.

★ Mayor West’s bag of creamed corn could be a reference to Adam West’s role as the creamed-corn-loving principal in ''The Adventures of Pete and Pete''.

Goofs

Seth MacFarlane acknowledges in the commentary track that in the ''Star Trek: The Next Generation'' homage, Data and Wesley Crusher are in the wrong positions (Data should be on the right and Wesley on the left). Also, the rank pips are on the wrong side of the uniforms, and Lieutenant Worf is referred to as “Commander Worf.”
Part of the subtitles for Spanish reads “Don’t take that tone with me. I was out drinking with the guys” when really he is saying “''Eso no significa que no''
★ giggity
★ ''pueda vivir. Maldito sea''
★ giggity
★ ” (“This doesn’t mean that I
★ giggity
★ can’t live. Damn it all
★ giggity
★ ...”) Since the last
★ giggity
★ appears to take the place of the verb, the last sentence doesn’t really make much sense.
At the end of the scene in which Peter says James Woods is with the “top men,” they show a crate being nailed closed. The nails are actually Phillips-head screws.

References

1. http://www.fox.com/schedule/showinfo/familyguy/fg_414.htm


★ IMDB Page

★ Family Guy Reference Archive