Road to Rupert
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“Road to Rupert,” also known as “Road to Colorado,” is a season five episode of the FOX animated television series Family Guy. It is the third Brian and Stewie “Road To...” episode.
Plot summary
When the Griffins have a yard sale, Brian accidentally sells Stewie's beloved teddy bear Rupert. When Brian tells Stewie this, they begin to try to find Rupert. Stewie gets DNA from the dollar bill Rupert is sold for, and he finds that the man who bought him, Stanford (Rob Lowe), lives on the same street. But they soon find that he has moved, only to see the last moving truck pull out of the man’s drive way. Though they do not catch it, a box falls out of the back (although they never checked it to see if Rupert was actually in the box) which reveals the man and his family have moved to Aspen, Colorado. The two hitch hike to Aspen, where they must get over the mountains to access the town. They are able to rent a helicopter, due to a medley that Stewie and Brian perform in, however, Brian crashes the helicopter into a mountain. They are forced to walk the remainder of the way, and they find Stanford living in an expensive house in Aspen. Stanford says he has given Rupert to his own son, but Stewie finds that Stanford is a champion skier and he challenges him to a race. Stewie looks as if he will win the race when he deploys rockets on his skis (even drinking tea by a fireplace on his way down in a small room that comes out of his skis), however he crashes into a tree, causing him to lose the race. The stipulations for if Stewie lost were that Brian would have to stay in Aspen with the family, but the former’s “ski room” butler pours tea on the family’s son, allowing Stewie to take Rupert and make their escape. Stewie car jacks a man and the two drive home.
Meanwhile, Peter purchases Evil Knievel gloves (despite the fact that they’re his gloves) and he attempts to pull off a trick in his car. He ends up crashing his and two other cars. The next day, Joe is forced to revoke Peter’s driver’s license for reckless driving, disturbing the peace and rape (one of the drivers was a virgin, and her hymen was busted). After Peter annoys Lois when he is stranded at home, Lois has Meg become his personal driver after a monkey had another client. Peter and his friends become so annoying for Meg that she has a fit of road rage and she causes a fender bender. After the driver of the other car insults Meg, she attacks him. Peter is so impressed by this that he begins to enjoy Meg’s company and he tells her that he realizes that she is a really wonderful daughter. Eventually, however, Peter has his license given back to him. Meg expresses her worry that Peter will go back to treating her with disrespect. Peter tells Meg that although he will appear to still treat her badly in front of the rest of the family, he now secretly considers Meg his best friend.
Notes
- This is the third road trip episode with Brian and Stewie, the previous two episodes being “Road to Rhode Island” and “Road to Europe.” There are various points of commonality among these three road trip episodes (in all Brian and Stewie use an aerial vehicle) as well as some differences, the most obvious perhaps being that in this episode Stewie’s song and dance number is not with Brian. Brian also has no lyrics in the song, whereas previous road trip songs had the two singing duets.
- Stewie says he bought the chattering teeth from Jack’s Joke Shop in South Attleboro, Massachusetts, which was previously mentioned in the episode “Lethal Weapons.” In the real world, Jack’s has been in Boston for 50 years[1][2].
- It should be noted that this episode first appeared on the weekend of Winter X Games XI, which also took place in Aspen, CO, and featured different competitions of skiing.
- 8.75 million people watched this episode on its first run on FOX.
- Some people might call this episode “Road to Colorado,” because Brian and Stewie go to Colorado.
Cultural references
- Spongebob Squarepants and Patrick Star are singing the campfire song song
- At the end of the opening credits, there is a shot of Brian riding a horse and Stewie dressed up in an American flag shirt and wearing a moustache, a reference to the movie Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.
- Aspen was the destination of the main characters in Dumb and Dumber, who also lived in Rhode Island. Incidentally, during the opening credits, two slides have resemblance to scenes from the film: a picture of Brian and Stewie riding a mini scooter, and Stewie with his tongue stuck to the metal of a chairlift.
- Stewie’s fantasy of Rupert’s funeral is a parody of Spock’s funeral in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, right down to the song “Amazing Grace” being played on bagpipes and then taken up by the non-diegetic soundtrack.
- When searching on the database for who took Rupert, it is shown that Stanford watches Cold Case, Without a Trace, and Yu-Gi-Oh!.
- Sharon Stone kills her lover after sex, as in the movie Basic Instinct. She kills the man in the fashion of a praying mantis. The man was voiced by Connor Trinneer, better known as Commander Trip Tucker on Star Trek: Enterprise.
- On the car’s DVD player, Peter watches an episode of the Nickelodeon cartoon SpongeBob Squarepants (complete with an actual recording of “The Campfire Song Song” from the episode “The Camping Episode”). The director of “Road to Rupert,” Dan Povenmire, wrote for Spongebob and in fact wrote the “Campfire Song Song.”[1]
- Stewie makes reference to Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell getting left behind after the Rapture (“Dammit, Jerry, why are we the only ones still here?” “I don’t know, we hated all the right things.”).
- The James Taylor song that Brian sings when hitchhiking is called “Country Road.”
- The musical number with Stewie and a live-action Gene Kelly is an edited scene from the film Anchors Aweigh (1945). The sequence originally involved Jerry Mouse of Tom and Jerry fame. Stewie’s reflection on the floor remains that of Jerry.
- When Stewie and Brian are crossing into Colorado, the welcome sign says “Welcome to Colorado. More than just Kobe and Columbine,” referring to two events Colorado is famous for.
- When Stewie and Brian’s helicopter crashes, Stewie appears momentarily as the devil, just as John Candy appeared to Steve Martin in Planes, Trains & Automobiles while they were driving the wrong direction on the expressway. (There’s also a similar sequence in the movie Dirty Work (1998), where Norm MacDonald is hallucinating due to bad brownies while driving, and sees The Devil, played by Adam Sandler, yelling some gibberish about eating pork at him, and then he looks next to him, and sees Gary Coleman laughing demoniacally at him.)
- During the My Black Son intro, almost all of the shots are scenes from open themes of 1980s sitcoms. For example, when Peter and his black son (purportedly Emmanuel Lewis) are biking along a beach and get distracted by a thin black-haired woman, causing them to fall onto the sand, this is a parody of the “John Ritter as Jack Tripper” scene during the theme song of the first three seasons of Three’s Company.
- Also during the My Black Son intro there are nods to Punky Brewster (Peter picks up the frozen dinner), Family Ties (Peter in the Ohio shirt), Perfect Strangers (the revolving door), Who’s the Boss? (the curtain-vacuuming), Laverne & Shirley (the glove on the conveyor belt, the doors hitting each other, and the dough landing on Peter and Lois while they kiss), and Bosom Buddies (catching fruit with the bag).
- Stewie and Brian get a ride from Bandit from Smokey and the Bandit. The character Frog, portrayed by actress Sally Field in the film, is also in the car.
- When Stewie tells Stanford that Brian will lick peanut butter on any part of his body, Stanford pauses momentarily before saying, “Well I did go to Choate,” referring to Choate Rosemary Hall, a New England prepatory school.
- After Peter crashes his car during his first car-jumping stunt, he makes a comment about Matthew Broderick’s car accident.
- When Lois opens the refrigerator and tells Peter to get out, he replies, “There is no Peter, only Zuul.” This is a reference to two scenes from the film Ghostbusters.
- In a montage scene with Meg and Peter, The Flintstones opening is parodied with Meg pulling into a drive-in movie, in which Peter sticks his head out through the roof of the car and Meg placing baby Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm on his head.
- Peter says Meg is cooler than the other side of the pillow. This is a reference to ESPN sports commentator Stuart Scott, to whom the phrase’s recent popularity has been attributed. In a cutaway scene, Billy Dee Williams is seen on the other side of Peter’s pillow.
- At the yard sale, Brian is selling DVD copies of Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story
- The scene where Brian and Stewie pull a man out of his car through the broken window while yelling expletives is a reference to a similar scene from Reservoir Dogs where the character Mr. Pink, played by Steve Buscemi, running from a heist gone wrong, stops a car at a street corner, breaks the driver’s window and pulls the woman driver out of the driver’s seat and drives off with it, but not before tagging a few cops at the corner of the street.
- The ski race towards the end between Stewie and the father who bought Rupert is a direct reference to the climax of Better Off Dead.
- The marquee in front of the drive-in movie theater visited by Stewie and Brian lists one of the films being shown as Inland Empire—a surrealistic David Lynch movie.
- The sequence where Peter and Meg are talking right before Peter gets his license back is a direct parody of the ending sequences in Full House.
- After Brian and Stewie carjack someone, a road sign says there are 2112 miles back to Rhode Island, a possible reference to the breakthrough album of rock group Rush. This is, however, the actual distance[3] between Aspen, CO and Pawtucket, RI.
- When Brian tells Stewie he is getting a bit old for a teddie, Stewie says, “Brian, I’m one!” when Brian respondes with, “Still?” it is a reference to how Stewie does not age even though he was one year old when the show premiered in 1999.
Goofs
- Notice that when Peter is watching SpongeBob, SpongeBob and Patrick’s mouths are moving at the exact same rate, despite the fact that Patrick’s struggling in the song.
- The F.B.I. search lists Stanford Cordray’s date of birth as June 20, 1966 but his age as 39. He would actually be 40 or 41 based on when the episode aired.