Wasted Talent: Difference between revisions
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{{Infobox television episode |
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| title =Wasted Talent |
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{{Redirect category shell|1= |
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| series =Family Guy |
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{{R to section}} |
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| image = |
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{{R to TV episode list entry|Family Guy}} |
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| caption = |
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| season =2 |
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| episode =20 |
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| airdate =July 25, 2000 |
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| production =2ACX15 |
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| teleplay =[[Mike Barker (producer)|Mike Barker]] and<br />[[Matt Weitzman]] |
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| story =Dave Collard and<br />Ken Goin |
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| director =Bert Ring |
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| guests =*[[Michael McKean]] as Pawtucket Pat |
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*[[Adam Carolla]] as Death |
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*[[Gary Cole]] as [[Jerry Nelson]] |
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*[[Nicole Sullivan]] as [[Barbra Streisand]] |
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*[[Julia Sweeney]] as Woman in Bar |
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*[[Carlos Alazraqui]] as [[Cheech Marin]] |
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| season_article = Family Guy (season 2) |
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| episode_list = List of Family Guy episodes |
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| prev =The Story on Page One |
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| next =Fore, Father |
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}} |
}} |
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"'''Wasted Talent'''" is the 20th episode of the [[Family Guy (season 2)|second season]] of the American [[cartoon series|animated television series]] ''[[Family Guy]]''. This episode marks the first time that [[Chris Griffin]] has had no speaking lines in an episode. This episode is rated TV-PG-D (TV-14 on [[Adult Swim]] reruns) in the United States and 15 in the United Kingdom. |
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==Plot== |
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[[Lois Griffin|Lois]] desperately searches for one [[piano]] student who can beat her rival Alexis Radcliffe's student at the piano competition. Meanwhile, [[Peter Griffin|Peter]] drinks even more Pawtucket Patriot [[beer]]s than usual in an attempt to find a hidden silver scroll and win a [[Tour guide|tour]] of the [[brewery]]. The next day, [[Joe Swanson|Joe]] finds the first silver scroll. Some time later, the last scroll is found, causing Peter to give up. Tom Tucker later admits he made up the story about the last scroll being found, and then puts a carnivorous [[earwig]] in his ear to make up for it. Peter decides to drink one more beer, which turns out to have the last silver scroll. But as Peter runs all the way homeward, he falls, clutches his kneecap and moans over and over again. (This scene would eventually become a popular internet meme in recent years.) |
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The next day, Peter and [[Brian Griffin|Brian]] go to the brewery tour (based on ''[[Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory]]''). Pawtucket Pat ([[Michael McKean]]) is seemingly killed on his front walkway, but the killer turns out to be [[Cheech Marin]], hired to pull off a gag. Since the brewery is not compliant with the [[Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990]] and does not have wheelchair ramps, Joe is forced to leave the tour. After experiencing the "beer room", Peter and Brian split off from the group to try beer that never goes flat, in spite of Pat's warning that they have not worked out all the kinks. When Peter and Brian drink the beer, they begin floating upward towards a ceiling-mounted exhaust fan. To save themselves, they fart repeatedly until they reach the ground. When Pat finds Peter and Brian in the forbidden room, he curtly ejects them from the brewery. |
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Angry at Pawtucket Pat, Peter tries to get Lois's attention by playing the piano, showing that he can play piano perfectly when drunk. Lois decides to enter Peter as her student in the piano competition, and keeps him in a state of constant inebriation. Peter's piano repertoire is [[television program|TV show]] [[theme song]]s. Stewie then asked Peter to play "Lonely Man" from ''[[The Incredible Hulk (1978 TV series)|The Incredible Hulk]]'' as he is mimicking Bruce Banner asking for hitchhiking (slowly walk to the doorstep while doing so). At the competition, Peter is so drunk that he cannot even find the piano. Lois has to turn him around to face the piano, then move him over a couple of inches to play in the correct key. Peter and Lois win first place, but Lois frets that she may have harmed his health for her own selfish need to win. Peter defensively tells her all of his [[brain cells]] are intact. There is one left, and it realizes that it is the only cell in the brain. He can finally read all of his books; he then bends down and breaks his glasses, exclaiming "That's not fair! It's not fair! There was time now!". This is a reference to ''[[The Twilight Zone]]'' episode "[[Time Enough at Last]]". |
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During credits, Stewie (in live-action scene) is at the roadside, asking for hitchhiking but passing-by drivers ignored him (while "Lonely Man" is still playing). |
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==Production== |
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[[File:Mike Barker and Matt Weitzman by Gage Skidmore.jpg|right|thumb|200px|alt=A man with a bald head and a brown sweater, and a man with spiked brown hair and glasses, speaking into a microphone.|Mike Barker and Matt Weitzman wrote the teleplay of the episode.]] |
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The episode's storyline was written by Dave Collard and Ken Goin, and the episode's teleplay was written by series regulars [[Mike Barker (producer)|Mike Barker]] and [[Matt Weitzman]], and directed by series regular Bert Ring before the conclusion of the [[Family Guy (season 2)|second production season]]. |
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==Cultural references== |
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*This episode borrows heavily from the film ''[[Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory]]'': |
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** Pawtucket Pat's contest involves finding silver scrolls hidden in 4 beers, similar to the 5 Golden Tickets from the movie. |
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** [[Tom Tucker (Family Guy)|Tom Tucker's]] lie about the last silver scroll is a parody of the [[Paraguayan]] who falsely claimed to have found the last [[Charlie and the Chocolate Factory|Golden Ticket]]. |
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** Peter says "I bet the scroll makes the beer taste terrible" similar to how Charlie Bucket says "I bet the Golden Tickets make the chocolate taste terrible" in the film. |
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** When Peter finds the scroll near the end of the episode's first act, everything up until Peter's fall on the sidewalk by his house is directly lifted from the film sequence where Charlie finds the last Golden Ticket and triumphantly runs home with it. |
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** While making his entrance at the gates of his factory, Pawtucket Pat pretends to be gunned down in a [[drive-by shooting]], similar to how Willy Wonka emerged very slowly while walking with a cane, then surprised the crowd by doing a [[somersault]] and standing up again. |
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** Pawtucket Pat is assisted by a group of [[little people (mythology)|little people]] known as Chumbawambas, similar to the [[Oompa-Loompas]] from the film. |
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** The Chumbawambas are named after the British pop band [[Chumbawamba|of the same name]]. |
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** The Chumbawambas' song ("Chumba-Wamba-Gobbledy-Goo") is a parody of the Oompa-Loompa song, complete with similar visual effects. |
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** The song that Pawtucket Pat sings while in the "beer room" ("Pure Inebriation") is a parody of the song "[[Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory#Music|Pure Imagination]]", sung by [[Willy Wonka]] ([[Gene Wilder]]), as is the sequence surrounding it. |
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** Peter and Brian's secretly taste the factory's Perma-Suds and wind up floating in the air, much like Charlie and Grandpa Joe did when they sampled Fizzy Lifting Drinks; while Charlie and Grandpa Joe are able to get back down by [[belching|burping]], Peter and Brian do so by [[flatulence|farting]]. |
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** Peter and Brian are kicked out of the tour for their disobedience, much like how Charlie nearly lost the promised lifetime supply of chocolate for his. |
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** Two of the guests at the brewery, an old man and a young boy, appear to be Charlie Bucket and Grandpa Joe. |
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*At the piano competition, after Peter plays the theme song to ''[[The Mary Tyler Moore Show]]'', [[Mary Tyler Moore]], who is in the audience, throws her hat in the air, in an homage to the opening credits of that show. |
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*The end credits are run while [[Joe Harnell]]'s "The Lonely Man" plays in homage to ''[[The Incredible Hulk (1978 TV series)|The Incredible Hulk]]''. The sequence also shows Stewie [[hitchhiking]] along the side of the freeway á la [[Hulk|Bruce Banner]]. |
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*When Peter discovers his "talent", he plays the theme songs from ''[[Dallas (1978 TV series)|Dallas]]'', ''[[9 to 5 (Dolly Parton song)|9 to 5]]'' and ''[[The X-Files]]''. |
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*The final scene, showing Peter's solitary brain cell in despair after breaking his glasses, is an homage to the ''[[The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series)|Twilight Zone]]'' episode "[[Time Enough at Last]]". |
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*The carnivorous earwig is a parody of the urban legend that earwigs [[Earwig#Relationship with humans|like to crawl into people's ears and eat their eyes and brains]]. |
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==Reception== |
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In his 2009 review, Ahsan Haque of [[IGN]], rating the episode a 7.8/10, said that "Wasted Talent" has "decent quantity of hilarious moments" but it is not as memorable as other episodes in season 2. He stated that the storyline is not cohesive enough, and the scenes about the Pawtucket Patriot Brewery "take up a little too much screen time".<ref name=ign>{{cite web |author=Haque, Ahsan |title = Family Guy: "Wasted Talent" Review |publisher = IGN | url = http://tv.ign.com/articles/101/1015079p1.html |accessdate=2009-12-07 |date=18 August 2009}}</ref> |
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==References== |
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'''Notes''' |
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{{Reflist}} |
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'''Sources''' |
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* Callaghan, S. (2005) "Wasted Talent" in ''Family Guy: The Official Episode Guide Seasons 1–3''. New York: [[HarperCollins]]. pp. 120–22. |
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==External links== |
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{{wikiquote|Family Guy/Season 2#Wasted Talent|Wasted Talent}} |
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{{Portal|Television}} |
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*{{IMDb episode|0576977}} |
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[[Category:Family Guy (season 2) episodes]] |
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[[Category:2000 American television episodes]] |
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[[Category:Alcohol abuse in television]] |
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[[Category:Television episodes about personifications of death]] |
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Revision as of 14:49, 19 June 2021
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