The Griffin Family History

"The Griffin Family History"

“Untitled Griffin Family History” is an episode from season four of FOX animated television series Family Guy. On the DVD this episode is referred to as “The Griffin Family History.”

Plot summary

Lois is trying to get Peter to brush his teeth when they hear a noise coming from downstairs. Peter looks downstairs and find three robbers in balaclavas. The whole family wakes up and Meg startles Peter, and in a delayed response, he hits her in the head with the baseball bat he was carrying. The whole family then flee to Peter’s panic room. It is a small steel room with boxes and TV monitors that can be used to watch every room in the house (a reference to the movie Panic Room, but Peter states he created after watching and wanting to get away from The Butterfly Effect). Unfortunately, the room has no phone, so Peter decides to tell stories about the Griffin family history.

These stories begin with the big bang, which was actually God farting through a lit lighter. Next is the Paleolithic Age. Ur-Peter invented the wheel, and then moved forward to the Bronze Age when Moses Griffin led the Israelites to freedom. Peter also tells the story of black slave Nate Griffin, as he pranked the captain of a slave ship by cutting the floor off around the Captain’s bed and floating it out in the Ocean so that he woke up, got out of bed and fell into the water. Nate was a slave to the Pewterschmidt family (as in “Peter Griffin: Husband, Father...Brother?”), who Peter discovered was his ancestor and got married to Lois’ ancestor. Other stories include that of silent movie actor Black Eye Griffin, and Adolf Hitler’s annoying brother Peter Hitler. Unfortunately, after telling the story of Nate Griffin, Peter accidentally activates the fire sprinklers with a flare gun, threatening to drown the family. While the sprinklers are going off and filling the panic room with water, Peter admits his dislike of The Godfather, something shocking that the rest of the family argues with him about, considering all the talented cast in that movie.

Meanwhile, Meg is sent down through a vent to get food. But Peter talks to her through a loudspeaker (“I see you in the kitchen, Meg...”) and the robbers find and capture her (although they mistake her for a boy). She hopes that they will rape saying that she won’t scream or struggle, but, horrified, they decline her advances as one runs to his friend when she tries to rape him. As the water is reaching its peak, Joe shows up and opens the door. All the water drains out of the room, saving their lives. Joe also mentions that he caught the crooks. The crooks press charges of sexual harassment against Meg, and she is taken down to the police station by Joe. Even though he keeps telling the family that Meg needs a lawyer to fight the charges, they strangely ignore him. In the end, Peter thinks that she is just going to a dance and tells her to enjoy herself.

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“Moses Griffin...”

Notes

• When discussing The Godfather, they’re actually talking about the entire Godfather Saga. Peter says that it is 6.5 hours long and Chris says that it has Robert de Niro, Robert Duvall, and Al Pacino in it, although de Niro was not in the original Godfather, only in The Godfather Part II.
• A deleted scene that was kept intact on the DVD version is a scene in between the big bang scene and the caveman scene where the Griffins are portrayed as dinosaurs. The TV version only shows the gag where Peter describes evolution and, in accordance with the Kansas School Board, shows a creationist rendition of how life came to be on Earth where everything magically appears with the help of Jeannie from I Dream of Jeannie.
• In the Nate Griffin segment, Brian appears as a talking monkey, and Cleveland appears as a white slave trader. However Ollie Williams is still black.
• In the Nate Griffin segment, Nate Griffin does not speak with a Southern accent as he does in “Peter Griffin: Husband, Father...Brother?.”
• In the Nate Griffin segment, the color of the bronco the black Griffins escape from briefly changes color from white to brown.
• The main characters have very few lines in this episode. Stewie has as little as three lines, not counting black Stewie’s two lines.
• This episode marks the rare occurrence in which a main character, besides Brian, has understood what Stewie has said. When Peter mentions that he never liked the Godfather and never actually finished watching the film, Stewie questions this logic. Afterwards, Lois interjects with, “I agree with Stewie.” Rarely does a main character, especially a family member, acknowledge that they completely understood what Stewie says. (Though it should be noticed that everyone understands Stewie and only Brian really replies most of the time.
• Another deleted scene on the DVD (which was actually in the episode and cut for time on TV) showed “Black Eye” Griffin (the silent movie star) getting killed during a poker game.
• This is the last episode of season five in the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia.
• This is the fourth time Meg was mistaken for a boy. The first time was in “The Kiss Seen Around the World.”
• In the segment about Nate Griffin, the only characters who are the same race are Lois, her family, and Ollie Williams.

Cultural references

• Peter reveals that his ancestor Nate Griffin’s real name is Richard Bachman, a reference to the pen name American horror novelist Stephen King used earlier in his writing career.
• Peter (as Moses) makes a commandment where the followers are ordered not to read the billboard signs as they walk through the desert. One of the signs is read aloud as “Mancow in the Morning,” a reference to Mancow Muller’s daily morning radio show. Mancow is a fan of the series and a friend of MacFarlane. Seth MacFarlane and his sister, Rachael MacFarlane, have been guests on the radio show. Another billboard mentions Danny Gans.
• Nate Griffin goes into the African jungle to find a log and stick so he can play the beginning of “Hot for Teacher” by Van Halen.
• During the Nate Griffin segment, a Quagmire character is shown, referred to as “Quagdingo.”
• When Nate Griffin is brought to the plantation, the scene resembles the movie Song of the South.
• Nate Griffin falls in love with Lois Laura-Bush-Lynne-Cheney-Pewterschmidt.
• The story of Nate Griffin is a reference to Roots.
• During the Nate Griffin segment the effeminate guy refusing to accept his slave name is a reference to Kunta Kinte refusing to accept his slave name of Toby in the American novel Roots, which told the story of an African slave named Kunta Kinte.
• Nate’s flight in a cart pulled by a white bronco is a parody of the O.J. Simpson slow-speed chase, and he is picked up by Al Cowlings, who drove O.J.
• The prank Nate Griffin pulls on the slave ship captain as well as the music is taken from Meatballs.
• Peter and his family argue about the movie The Godfather, although it seems more likely they are referring to The Godfather Saga, as Peter says it spends six and a half hours getting in to the plot. Peter says The Money Pit is better.
  • According to the DVD commentary, some of the dialogue was ad-libbed by MacFarlane, Alex Borstein and Seth Green. MacFarlane’s opinions on the movie reflect Peter’s, as Borstein and Green’s reflect Lois and Chris’s, respectively.
• Judith Light accidentally took the oxygen tank instead of the Tony Danza breath. This refers to the Who’s the Boss? episode where Tony and Angela kiss.
• Peter describes the Pewterschmidt plantation as way down South, “around where you stop seeing Howard Johnson’s and start seeing Stuckey’s.”
• Nate made the DMV to get back at the white people.
• When Peter is explaining evolution he is obligated to present the church’s alternative theory due to the state of Kansas. The Christian theory features Jeannie from I Dream of Jeannie appearing from the water creating the different species of animals. Coincidentally, this episode first aired the same night as “The Monkey Suit,” a Simpsons episode which tackled the evolution/creationism controversy.
• Peter’s great-great-grandfather “Black-Eye” Griffin starred in twenties-era short films. The first silent film where he is looking at the moon is a reference to the film A Trip to the Moon which was a black and white silent film from 1902. Apparently, he didn’t do well when “talkies” came out, due to his unusual, stuttering voice, which sounded similar to Bobcat Goldthwait (also parodied in “The Perfect Castaway”). The plight of an old-time star who didn’t do well when the industry modernized also recalled a The Critic episode with a faded star whose career failed to transfer to technicolor, due to his oddly-colored skin and hair. It is also very similar to a subplot in the 1952 movie Singin’ in the Rain, in which Lina Lamont has an annoying voice, and doesn’t transition well to “talkies.”
• When Peter is trying to sell the wheel to the cavemen, Brian says to Peter “You so money, don’t know it.” This is a reference from the movie Swingers, as Vince Vaughn says this to Jon Favreau throughout the movie to build his confidence.
• Peter Hitler tapes his nose up, proclaiming that he’s “Tojo.” Tojo Hideki was the prime minister of Japan during World War II.
• After Lois helps ur-Peter sell the wheel, he says to her, “You and I will party like it’s 9,” a reference to Prince’s song 1999.
• When the thieves get scared of Meg, she responds with “Take me now, fuck me later!” This is the chorus of Mindless Self Indulgence’s song “Faggot.” It was only seen on the Region 4 Volume 4 release.