Ready, Willing, and Disabled

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“Ready, Willing, and Disabled”
Family Guy episode
Tricia Takanawa reports on the charity car wash at Spooner Street
Episode no.	Season 3 Episode 15
Guest stars	Tony Danza , Valerie Bertinelli and Alex Rocco
Written by	Alex Barnow and Marc Firek
Directed by	Andi Klein
Production no.	3ACX07
Original airdate	December 20, 2001
Episode chronology
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"Peter Griffin: Husband, Father...Brother?"	"A Very Special Family Guy Freakin' Christmas"
List of Family Guy episodes

"Ready, Willing, and Disabled" is an episode of Family Guy. Guest starring Tony Danza as himself portraying Joe Swanson, Valerie Bertinelli as herself portraying Bonnie Swanson, and Alex Rocco as Bea Arthur portraying Peter Griffin. The title is a pun on the saying, "Ready, willing, and able!".

[edit] Plot summary

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Chris organizes a car wash to raise money for a boy in an iron lung. When a thief wearing a Jimmy Carter mask steals the proceeds, Joe chases after him and recovers the money, but fails to catch the perp.

This failure severely depresses him, until a conveniently timed news announcement leads Peter to suggest to Joe that he should enter the Special People's Games (a parody of the Paralympic Games, with a logo consisting of five interlocking wheelchairs). Peter drives Joe mercilessly in training for the games.

Meanwhile, Meg, Chris and Stewie fight over a money clip holding $26 while hoping no one else claims it. Distrust flares among them and they repeatedly clash, trying to outwit each other for the money.

Joe's most prominent rival at the Games is a wheelchair-bound motor neurone disease patient with a voice synthesizer (a homage to Stephen Hawking). Peter encourages Joe by citing George W. Bush's unwillingness to quit after losing the popular vote in the 2000 presidential election. Joe leads the field in the decathlon until a weak long-jump puts his victory in jeopardy. Peter secretly spikes Joe's sports bottle with steroids, and Joe wins the final race to clinch the gold medal. The pair become famous and make public appearances and press conferences around Quahog, until an agent talks Joe into signing a contract with him.

Peter is later stunned to see Joe commercially endorsing a cereal company, and he is furious upon seeing an inaccurate TV movie, Rolling Courage: The Joe Swanson Story, starring Tony Danza as Joe, Valerie Bertinelli as Bonnie, and Bea Arthur as Peter. The movie has everything wrong, from Joe being crippled by crooks, whereas he was knocked off a roof by the Grinch, to how he decided to enter the Games (depicted without Peter's encouragement), and it portrays Peter as a unencouraging slob, although in real life he encouraged Joe to go the distance. When Brian tells Peter that Joe is successful and inspirational because of his handicap, Peter decides to fake a handicap. Armed with a tape with poorly-done footage showing his 'accident'(which included him running over a scarecrow who was supposed to be him), Peter tracks down Tom Tucker and demands fame, commercials, and a TV movie based on himself, but he fails to convince the news anchor and gets thrown out. Jealous of Joe's fame and lucrative endorsement deals, Peter reveals his doping secret to the public, disgracing Joe. This leads to Joe surrendering his gold medal and sinking back into depression.

When someone finally arrives to claim the money clip, Joe recognizes him as the car wash thief. Joe chases him again, this time leading to the thief's arrest and death (ironically of a broken spine), and the return of Joe's faith in himself.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Notes

In the French version of this episode, when Peter digs in the new park, the skeleton says, "ahhh!" before it chases the people.
In the Spanish version of this episode, when Peter digs in the park, the skeleton roars before it chases everyone.
While Stewie tries to get the money clip, the dollars are replaced by a green book.
During the car wash they are raising money to help provide a classmate of Chris's with a new lung. However, while drinking at the pub, Cleveland says that Joe helped the student receive a new liver.
This episode shows that Chris and Meg can understand Stewie. Stewie tells them both to raise their hands and they do so. On the other hand, one might argue that they are simply imitating him without understanding his words.

[edit] Cultural references

Joe's lunch of giant ribs is delivered to his wheelchair in the same way Fred's is delivered to his prehistoric “car” in the closing credits of The Flintstones, and with the same result.

Five Wheelchair Symbol's are arranged like the Olympic Rings to create a logo for the Special People's Games (a reference to the Special Olympics).

A cutaway shows Peter working out in “Richard Simmons’ Sweatin' to Books on Tape,” a parody of Simmons’ Sweatin' to the Oldies series of exercise videos. The book on tape is Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom.

The guy in the wheelchair that is Joe Swanson's rival looks (and sounds) a lot like Stephen Hawking

The robber wearing a Jimmy Carter mask is a reference to the Keanu Reeves action film Point Break, as Lois points out after much difficulty.

When encouraging Joe not to quit, Peter mentions several setbacks in the life of President George W. Bush, including his 1966 arrest for drunk and disorderly conduct, his 1976 Driving under the Influence conviction, “losing millions of dollars of his father’s friends’ money in failed oil companies” and losing the popular vote in the 2000 presidential election. Peter also mentions that Bush “knock[ed] that girl up,” although no journalists found evidence that Bush had impregnated any woman prior to the birth of his twin daughters.

Like many famous athletes, Joe appears in an ad for a breakfast cereal similar to Wheaties, only he is endorsing Wheelies.

Chris and Stewie watch a parody of the television show Touched by an Angel.

Brian reads Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky

After Stewie threatens to do to Brian "what I did to John Lennon", implying he shot Lennon, a flashback shows Stewie introducing Lennon to Yoko Ono, referring to the notion that Ono lead to the breakup of the Beatles.

After the money clip is claimed, Stewie’s cries imitate those of Peanuts character Charlie Brown, "AUUUUUGH!!".

When Stewie is waking up from the fight over the money, he refers to Seinfeld and how he should not split the bill because he only got soup.

When the blind team are seen during the parade, they are holding a banner written in braille. It reads "GO BLIND".

The guy with the voicebox shouldn't have been in the final race because his wheelchair was electric, and everybody else's weren't, thereby giving him an unfair advantage.

This episode reveals how the monkey in Chris's closet became evil. Apparently, The monkey came home one day from work, and his wife was sleeping with another monkey.

[edit] References

S. Callaghan, "Ready, Willing, and Disabled." Family Guy: The Official Episode Guide Seasons 1-3. New York: HarperCollins, 2005. 152 - 155.
A. Delarte, "Nitpicking Family Guy: Season 3" in Bob's Poetry Magazine, 2.August 2005: 50 - 51 http://bobspoetry.com/Bobs02Au.pdf