North by North Quahog

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“North by North Quahog”
Family Guy episode

Episode no.	Season 4 Episode 1
Guest stars	Don LaFontaine, Hunter Gomez, Bill Ratner, Rick Kuhlman and André Sogliuzzo
Written by	Seth Macfarlane
Directed by	Peter Shin
Production no.	4ACX01
Original airdate	May 1, 2005
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"North by North Quahog" is the first episode of Season 4 of Family Guy. It was the first episode that aired after Fox started to make new episodes of Family Guy, and first appeared at the University of Vermont in Burlington at a special screening. [1] Almost the entire plot and many of the technical aspects of the episode are direct parodies of the 1959 Alfred Hitchcock movie North by Northwest.

Like the very first episode of the series ("Death Has a Shadow"), this one was written by Seth MacFarlane and directed by Peter Shin, who won an Annie Award for Directing in an Animated Television Production for this episode, and was nominated for an Emmy, but lost out to the South Park episode "Best Friends Forever".

[edit] Plot summary

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Lois and Peter are making love in their squeaky bed, much to the horror of their children, when Lois yells out George Clooney's name. In order to get the spark back in their marriage, they decide to go on a second honeymoon.

While Lois and Peter are away, Brian and Stewie chaperone a dance at Chris's school. During the dance, Chris is caught with liquor that actually belongs to Tom Tucker's upside-down faced son Jake. A friendly visit to the Tuckers the next day does not bring positive resolution to the situation, so Brian drags his butt on the Tucker's carpet. Later, he gets back at Tucker by planting drugs in his son's locker.

Mel Gibson and his servants observe their commercial

Meanwhile, the honeymoon trip is interrupted. Peter was reading a comic book while driving and ran into a tree. In search for a place to stay, the Griffins get into Mel Gibson's personal suite at a swanky resort. In the suite, they try to rekindle the spark by making love, however, Lois calls out Mel's name. To cheer himself up, Peter rummages through Mel's possessions, stumbling on the only copy of Passion of the Christ 2: Crucify This (Jim Caviezel and Chris Tucker in a sequel to The Passion of the Christ. The sequel is reminiscent of many action-adventure films, including Chris Tucker's Rush Hour).

In order to spare the world from "two hours of boredom", courtesy of yet another torturous Mel Gibson film, Peter and Lois steal the film and attempt to hide it. They are chased by priests across cornfields and eventually end up getting shot at by Mel Gibson on top of Mount Rushmore. After being easily tricked by Peter, Gibson falls to his death in a Wile E. Coyote-like shot. Supposedly, Peter knew Gibson would fall, since, as he says, "Christians don't believe in gravity." Then Lois and Peter end up making love on George Washington's head. The spark to their marriage came back.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Cultural references

As the episode is a parody of North by Northwest, the title, several scenes (such as Peter being chased by a cropdusting plane in a field and the final chase sequence across the faces of Mount Rushmore), certain sets (Mel Gibson's cliffside house in this episode is an exact facsimile of North by Northwest's Phillip Vandamm's cliffside house), and even direct quotations ("We're on top of the monument!" is found both in the film and in this episode, both in exact same context) are taken from the film. More so, the show also utilizes the actual Bernard Herrmann-composed theme from the film on several occasions. The closing credits theme is done in the Bernard Herrmann style.

Once finding a hotel to spend the night in whilst their car gets fixed, Peter and Lois encounter a hooker, much to Lois' concern. Peter reassures her by saying "Keep absolutely still Lois, their vision is based on movement", an obvious reference to Jurassic Park in which the main protagonist (Alan Grant) has a similar (and equaly errorenous) line when they encounter a Tyrannosaurus. (This same hooker is seen with Charlie Brown in Mother Tucker.)

Meg and Chris are seen watching "Two and a Half Men", however, instead of there being a kid and two men, there is half of a man laying on the floor, pleading with them for help.

In one scene, The Honeymooners is spoofed with Ralph Kramden speaking his supposed famous line at Alice, "One of these days, Alice. Bang, zoom, to the moon!" Actually, this precise phrase was never used on The Honeymooners; it is a combination of three other phrases with much the same meaning... (1) "One of these days, Alice, one of these days...POW! right in the kisser!" (2) "Bang! Zoom!" (with accompanying hand gestures) and (3) "Do ya wanna go to the moon? Do ya wanna go to the moon?" (and variations thereof), only to be interrupted by Alice who finished his supposed catchphrase. In this spoof, Ralph responds by actually hitting Alice, knocking her out. He then notices what he just did, and backs away slowly, then runs out of the room. In the 1985-1986 season (season 11) of Saturday Night Live on the episode hosted by "Cheers" castmember George Wendt had a similar "Honeymooners" sketch where Ralph (George Wendt) attempts to hit Alice (played by castmember Nora Dunn) after she makes fun of him for his constant threats, but his is so out of shape she simply holds him by the head so he can't reach her.

In one scene, Pinocchio is spoofed with Geppetto deliberately dropping his glasses and pointing his rear end towards Pinocchio, hoping to get penetrated.

Brian can be seen reading Michael Moore's book Dude, Where's My Country? when discussing how to take care of Meg and Chris. His car has a Kucinich '04 bumper sticker.

Brian's car appears to be a Toyota Prius. Given his apparent liberal political beliefs, it makes sense that he would drive a hybrid vehicle.

At the start of the episode, Peter is watching the movie "The Passion of the Christ" a Mel Gibson film. Peter can't believe that Jesus is "lying there and taking it", referring to a scene where Jesus is getting repeatedly and violently whipped by Romans. A cutaway shows Peter in a similar scenario, standing up and telling the Roman "Hey, Hey, stop it" to which the Roman replies "Okay"

The "beyond" section of Bed Bath & Beyond is modeled on the TV show One Step Beyond.

After Chris is caught drinking, Flint from G.I. Joe gives an educational message, like he did on his own show. He is even voiced by his original actor, Bill Ratner.

Lois' remark about Mel Gibson's Nazi paraphernalia is a reference to the controversy over his father's anti-semitic views and the alleged anti-semitic tone of The Passion of the Christ. Ironically, Mel Gibson was later involved in a scandal where he let loose a string of anti-semitic remarks after being pulled over for drunk driving by two officers.

The scene where Peter drives through the mall pursued by Mel Gibson's goons is similar to a scene in The Blues Brothers where Jake and Elwood Blues were being pursued by the police and took a reckless route through a mall in an attempt to lose them. The parody even uses the music; "I Can't Turn you Loose" from the original scene

Stewie reads the first Garfield strip collection, Garfield at Large, but mentions Garfield having to put up with Nermal, whose introduction actually came in the third book (Garfield Bigger Than Life).

In the Passion of the Christ 2 preview, Jesus' car's license plate is "WWID (What would I do?)", a play on "WWJD (What would Jesus do?)".

The trailer for Passion of the Christ 2 is narrated by movie trailer voice Don LaFontaine.

Mel Gibson mentions that his movie Bird on a Wire can be seen on TBS Superstation.

This episode involves some scenes where characters other than Brian (mainly Chris) appear to understand Stewie perfectly - the scene where Stewie spanks Chris

Peter lists the shows Family Guy was canceled to "make room for" (meaning their original premiere and cancellation took place between the original cancellation and return of Family Guy). All of these FOX shows were cancelled after short runs, usually not even airing their first season. Some of these shows (most notably Undeclared, Firefly, Wonderfalls, Titus, Greg the Bunny, and The Tick) have found cult status through DVDs.
- Dark Angel
- Titus
- Undeclared
- Action
- That 80's Show
- Wonderfalls
- Fastlane
- Andy Richter Controls the Universe
- Skin
- Girls Club
- Cracking Up
- The Pitts
- Firefly
- Get Real
- FreakyLinks
- Wanda at Large
- Costello
- The Lone Gunmen
- A Minute With Stan Hooper
- Normal, Ohio
- Pasadena
- Harsh Realm
- Keen Eddie
- The $treet
- The American Embassy
- Cedric the Entertainer Presents
- The Tick
- Luis
- Greg the Bunny

It is also of note that when Peter mentions Greg the Bunny, he looks at Chris for a quick second. Seth Green, who does the voice of Chris, also starred in Greg the Bunny.