The Griffin Family History

"Untitled Griffin Family History" is an episode from season 4b of FOX animated television series Family Guy. It aired May 14, 2006. Production code 4ACX30. Guest-starring Judith Light as herself.

Plot summary

Template:Spoilers While in a sealed panic room in the attic during a robbery, Peter tells stories about the Griffin family history ("Everything started with the big bang...").

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Peter Griffin's Grandfather with Hitler

These stories begin in the Paleolithic, when ur-Peter invented the wheel, and move forward to the Bronze Age when Moses Griffin led the Israelites to freedom. Peter also tells the story of black slave Nate Griffin, silent movie actor Black Eye Griffin, and Adolf Hitler's annoying brother Peter Hitler. Peter also accidentally activates the fire sprinklers, threatening to drown the family, until Joe Swanson and the Police bust them out. While the sprinklers are going off and filling the panic room with water, Peter admits his dislike of the Godfather, something that the rest of the family argues with him about.

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Moses Griffin it looks like Peter Griffin

Meanwhile, Meg gets kidnapped by the burglars, and expects, (and wants) to be raped by them, but they decline her advances, and eventually turn themselves in. However, they press charges of sexual harassment against Meg, and she is personally charged by Joe. Even though he keeps telling the family that Meg needs a lawyer, they strangely ignore him. In the end, they think that she is going to a dance.

Notes

• Peter's ancestor Nate Griffin from "Peter Griffin: Husband, Father...Brother?" appears in this episode. His having kids with Carter's ancestor proves that Peter and Lois are related ("Husband, Father...Brother?" also hinted at this). However, most cartoons have the father say that their ancestor's wife was someone who looked exactly like the mother character.

• When locked in the flooded panic room discussing Peter's dislike of The Godfather, Stewie says, "How can you say you don't like it if you've haven't even given it a chance?" To which Lois adds, "I agree with Stewie; it's not really fair." This marks the second time that Lois has clearly understood what Stewie was saying; the first was at the end of "The Son Also Draws", in which, during a parody of NBC's "The More You Know" public service announcements, she chides Stewie for a racist crack.

• Quite a few of the residents of Quahog had ancestors living in the communities of ur-Peter and Nate Griffin's African village. Some of these characters include Quagmire, Joe (whose ancestors are also paraplegics), Tom Tucker, Dianne Simmons, and Ollie Williams of Quahog News, and the CPR instructor from The Cleveland-Loretta Quagmire. Cleveland Brown may have had a white ancestor who, ironically, sold Nate Griffin into slavery.

• The Jews in the Moses segment sound exactly like New Yorkers. Mayor Adam West wrote a list that has Jews being referred as New Yorkers. (Long Island (New York) is known to have a huge population of Jewish people)

• Peter Hitler calls Adolf/Addie a Motherfuhrer, a pun on a profanity term. Fuhrer means Leader in German.

• In When You Wish upon a Weinstein Peter also mentions being Irish ("Lets face it your Jewish, your good with money, I'm Irish, I drink and ban homosexuals from marching in my parade") this makes Peter of Irish,German and African decent.

Cultural references

• Peter's panic room was inspired by wanting to escape from the movie The Butterfly Effect, not Panic Room as we are led to believe.
• 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.
• Nate Griffin goes into the African jungle to find a log and stick to he can play the beginning of Hot for Teacher, by Van Halen.
• 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.
• 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 is taken from Meatballs.
• One of the billboards that Moses Griffin and his people walk past says "Mancow in the Morning." This is a shout-out to the DJ as Seth MacFarlane and his sister, Rachael MacFarlane have been guests on the radio show. Another billboard mentions Danny Gans.
• Peter and his family argue about the movie The Godfather. Peter says The Money Pit is better.
• 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.
• The security camera scene where Peter checks on Meg is a parody of the movie Saw.
• 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. Interestingly, this episode first aired the same night as "The Monkey Suit", which also tackled creationism vs. Darwinism. Both episodes aired around the time of the release of the controversial religious conspiracy movie, The Da Vinci Code.
• Peter's great-great-grandfather "Black-Eye" Griffin, who starred in twenties-era short films, didn't do well when "talkies" came out, due to his unusual, stuttering voice. Apparently he 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 "Singing 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 through out the movie to build his confidence.

Trivia

• Peter's statement about the Pewterschmidt plantation being so far south you stop seeing Howard Johnson's and start seeing Stuckey's is inaccurate. Stuckey's has locations as far north as Pennsylvania & Maryland and as far west as New Mexico & Arizona and Howard Johnson's are nationwide.
• Television ads for this episode included a shot of dinosaur versions of the Griffin family, which did not appear in the episode. The ad also edited Moses Griffin saying "Shut Up" instead of "Shut The Hell Up".
• Goof: When Black-Eye Griffin became famous and living in Hollywoodland. Peter ends up saying "Hollywood".
• The Commandments Moses Griffin delivers to the Israelites include "Shut the hell up", "There's nothing I can do about the Sun", "There are no more Jolly Ranchers, they're all gone" and "When we pass a billboard, please don't read it out loud".
• Every ending of the silent film that Black-Eye starred in is the same, where he always gets hit in the left eye and does a shy, confused look.
• Black-Eye's only dialogue in the silent films aside from "Oh-oh, not my eye again!" was "That's Pie!", which shows him moving his mouth for almost ten seconds.
• When Peter Hitler says Germanator I'll be back that was parody of The Terminator