Meet the Quagmires

"Meet the Quagmires"

“Meet the Quagmires” is the eighteenth and final episode of the fifth season of FOX animated television series Family Guy.

Synopsis

Peter, hearing Quagmire brag about his sexual exploits, feels that he has missed out on enjoying the single lifestyle. Death is summoned to the Drunken Clam on a false alarm, and he grants Peter’s wish by sending him (along with Brian) back to 1984 for one night. Appearing to others as his 18-year-old self, Peter cancels his scheduled movie date with Lois Pewterschmidt, instead accepting an invitation from Cleveland to go and party at a bar. Peter enjoys the evening, and is making out with Molly Ringwald when Death appears to return him to the present.

Back in the present day, Peter discovers that his past actions have had drastic effects on the world; he and Molly have been married for 20 years, Lois is married to Quagmire, Chevy Chase is host of The Tonight Show, and Al Gore is president of the U.S. Over Brian’s objections, Peter begs Death to return him to the past so he can undo his mistake. Back in the past, Peter is determined to accept Lois’ invitation, but stupidly blows his opportunity again and again, repeatedly asking Death for a do-over. Peter again goes out with Cleveland instead of keeping the date, Death refuses to give him another mulligan, and Lois is furious at Peter for missing their date. Peter and Brian sneak into the country club dance to prevent the kiss that caused Lois to fall in love with Quagmire. After Lois tells Peter that he’d had his chance and blown it, Peter almost gives up, but then demonstrates his passion by punching out Quagmire and kissing Lois. He asks her to marry him, and she accepts.

Afterwards, Peter comes back to 2007 to find that his life is now just the way it was originally—except that Roger from American Dad! now seems to be living with them.

Scientific basis

This episode makes use of the “sensitive dependence on initial conditions” concept of chaos theory, otherwise known as the “butterfly effect,” an idea first described by Jacques Hadamard and popularized by Pierre Duhem and Edward Lorenz.

Notes

• This is the second consecutive episode to reference 9/11 (though the actual scene with that reference was shown on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim and not on FOX).

• Some of the episode’s plot-points are derived from the Back to the Future trilogy and it incorporates elements from other 1980s movies as well (see Cultural References). However, unlike the time travelers in the Back to the Future films, Peter and Brian do not co-exist with previous versions of themselves after time-traveling multiple times. Instead, they merge with their previous selves, with Peter inhabiting the body of his 18-year-old self and Brian merging with the "first" Brian to travel back with Peter, similar to the time travel mechanism (including a matching time travel "effect") of Quantum Leap.

• Brian is not marked as out of place in the past by any of Peter's friends, despite Brian not having a past counterpart at that point in Peter's life (the episode "Brian: Portrait of a Dog" establishes that Peter was married when he first met Brian) and Brian being with or near Peter for much of their time in the past.

• Ernie the Giant Chicken appears in this episode at the dance in 1984. Peter accidentally punches him in the face while dancing. This angers the chicken, suggesting that their animosity began prior to the coupon incident in “Da Boom.”

• A radio advertisement on May 20, 2007, for this episode played a clip in which Peter responded to Brian’s theory, stating that it was “as ridiculous as the theory of evolution,” but when it aired on FOX and Adult Swim, the line was replaced with the “as ridiculous as the theory of why Tom Cruise runs in all of his movies.”

• This is the first episode since Chick Cancer, the second-to-last episode of 2006, not to include Herbert the Pedophile.

• In 1984, Death says Peter is 18 again. Then, when Lois comes out of the pool, Brian exclaims “Wow, 18-year-old Lois.” However, it was previously established in the episode “Let’s Go to the Hop” that Lois is two years younger than Peter. Brian may simply not have known this.

• Death mentions that Dick Cheney shot 3 people (see References below), however, Brian had stated just seconds earlier that Al Gore (President in the altered timeline) had instated a zero tolerance gun control policy. However, gun control does not mean gun elimination, so it is reasonable that Dick Cheney has a gun in the alternate timeline.

Censorship

• After Peter blows off the teenaged Lois and leaves Brian with her, Brian says in the FOX version, "Can I Wham my Oingo Boingo into your Velvet Underground?” On Adult Swim, he says, "I would eat your poo."
• When Brian hits on the woman in 1984 and gets threatened by her boyfriend, the FOX version cuts to the shot of Peter making out with Molly Ringwald. On Adult Swim, there's an extra scene where the 80's guy tells Brian that he'll kick his ass anytime anywhere and Brian tells the guy to meet him on top of the World Trade Center towers on September 11th, 2001 at 8:00 a.m.
• In the FOX version, Quagmire and Lois go inside their house to have sex and play "Schoolgirl and Guy-Who-Has-Sex-With-Schoolgirl". On Adult Swim, they go inside to play "Hide-and-Go-Anal".
• On the FOX version of the episode, when Lois says something is poking her at the dance, Quagmire replies that it is just his "wang". On the Adult Swim version, Quagmire replies that it is just his penis.

Cultural References

• The name of the episode is a parody of Meet the Parents and Meet the Fockers.
• Quagmire references the entrance to Hogwarts (from Harry Potter) when telling the guys about the fourth hole that women allegedly have.
• The following references to 1980s movies are made in this episode:
  • The scene in which teenaged Lois first appeared by the pool is taken from Caddyshack.
  • Lois was prompting Peter to see the movie Zapped! (saying that Scott Baio was androgynous enough that they could both fantasize about him), but Peter would rather see Krull.
  • A cutaway scene involves Pinhead from the Hellraiser movies.
  • In the past, the Drunken Clam was renamed St. Elmo’s Clam, a reference to the movie St. Elmo’s Fire.
  • During the first trip to the past, Brian asks a woman if she’s seen Ghostbusters.
  • In the altered present, there’s a poster on the wall behind Peter’s couch for the movie Sixteen Candles, in which Molly Ringwald starred.
  • As Peter and Brian crawl through the vent, Peter remarks, “Now I know what a TV dinner feels like.” He then admits that it was a quote from the film Die Hard.
• During the first trip to 1984, Peter is shocked to hear that Ronald Reagan is the president (despite the fact that, being from the future, Peter should already know this). In Back to the Future, Doc Brown also expresses his surprise that Reagan “the actor” is president.
• As Death escorts Peter and Brian back to the present, he turns to Molly Ringwald and says, “I’ll be back later for your career.” In the mid-1990s, Ringwald’s profile plummeted dramatically.
• Peter recalls an episode of Twilight Zone in which “the woman wakes up in the hospital and all the doctors are pigs.” The episode he refers to is “The Eye of the Beholder.”
• When Peter mentions a theory as to why Tom Cruise runs in all his movies, a cutaway scene shows Cruise trying to outrun his own “gay thoughts”; this is a reference to popular rumors that Cruise is a closet homosexual.
• In the altered present, Lois comments that Osama Bin Laden had been hiding out in the cast of MADtv, leading Quagmire to remark, “The one place no one would look!” This is a teasing reference to the program being less popular than its rival show, Saturday Night Live (it should also be of note that Alex Borstein, the voice of Lois, was a castmember on MADtv and Family Guy creator/voice actor, Seth MacFarlane, was originally offered the chance to create cartoon shorts for MADtv).
• Peter is seen riding a mechanical bull in a tube top and a mini-skirt. This is a reference to Julie Strain, where she rode a mechanical bull with her breasts hanging out just like Peter.

File:Fgjetsonspoof.png

The Jetsons gag.

• This episode spoofs the title sequence of The Jetsons, copying it exactly up to the point where Jane tries to leave with George’s wallet. Unlike the previous Jetsons spoof in “Brian in Love,” which featured Family Guy versions of the Jetsons characters, this spoof features them in their original designs.
• In the altered present, Dick Cheney had accidentally shot Justice Scalia, Karl Rove, and Tucker Carlson. This is a reference to the Dick Cheney hunting incident.
• At St. Elmo’s Clam Peter dances to “Axel F” while Cleveland wears an outfit like Michael Jackson’s in “Thriller.”
• Peter claims to be responsible for Joe Piscopo’s obsession with bodybuilding.
• The song that Brian sings during the dance scene is “Never Gonna Give You Up” by Rick Astley from 1988. Brian plays a keytar, an instrument introduced in 1980. The fact that Brian sings a song from a few years ahead of 1984 is similar to how Marty McFly plays a song from a few years ahead of 1955 during the dance scene in Back to the Future.
• This episode is loosely based on the plot of Back to the Future and Back to the Future II.
• The first song that is played at the country club is "Earth Angel" by The Penguins, another reference to Back to the Future. In the episode, "Earth Angel" is sung by Luke Adams. The version played in Back to the Future is credited in the film and its soundtrack to the fictional band, "The Starlighters".
• The dance that the three 80s guys dance during Brian's performance was from Michael Jackson's Beat It

Goofs

• This episode breaks continuity as Peter seems to know both Quagmire and Cleveland in this episode. However in Death Lives Peter is shown to meet both of them after he had been dating Lois for some time.
• When Horace falls, there is glass on the floor, and is still there when Death arrives. But then after it cuts back to show Peter and Brian speaking with Death, the floor is clean.
• Death says that Peter was 18 in 1984. However, his official age is 42 or 43. He would be in his twenties in 1984, not 18.
• Death says later in the episode that he sent Peter to the exact moment he sent him back the last time. However, Lois is just getting out of the pool, which was about a minute or two after Peter was sent back the first time.
• Neither Zapped! nor Krull was in theaters in 1984. Peter and Lois could simply be referring to a video copy of the movies in question, however.
• Between the two songs that Brian sings at the country club, he is wearing pants in one shot, and then in another, not a second later, he is shown with no pants on

References

Mark Hentemann (20 May, 2007). Family Guy episode #5ACX13, “Meet the Quagmires” (television episode). United States: 20th Century Fox. {{cite AV media}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)