Sibling Rivalry (Family Guy)
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"Sibling Rivalry" is the twenty-second episode of season four of Family Guy, and is a sequel to the season three episode "Emission Impossible." The episode first broadcast on March 26, 2006, and was written by Cherry Chevapravatdumrong and directed by Dan Povenmire.[1] The plot follows Stewie battling with his half-brother, Bertram, who is born to two lesbians after Peter donates sperm. Meanwhile, Lois begins excessive eating after Peter undergoes a vasectomy and loses his interest in sex.[2]
Plot
After a pregnancy scare, Peter reluctantly agrees to get a vasectomy to prevent further repeats. Before the surgery, he agrees to donate sperm, should Lois & he ever decide to have another baby. While in the sperm bank, Peter accidentally destroys all the existing samples, and decides to replace them with his own to prevent himself from getting in to trouble. Nine months later, a lesbian couple, who took away some of Peter's sperm in order to conceive a child, give birth to Bertram, Stewie's half-brother who first appeared in the episode "Emission Impossible."
After the vasectomy, Peter's loses his sex drive, much to the frustration of Lois, who begins excessive eating as a resolution. Peter begins to ridicule Lois due to her weight, but stops shortly after the pair have sex and discover they prefer "fat sex", opposed to their regular sex. Peter attempts to make Lois fatter to feed his urges, but Lois suffers a heart attack during sex, and the doctors remove all of the fat from her body, and she returns to her normal weight.
Shortly after birth, Bertram declares a war with Stewie for control over the playground. The pair confront each other in the playground with airplanes and helicopters, firing numerous bullets at each other. After the air battle ends with no winners, Bertram resorts to biological warfare, and infects Stewie with chickenpox. After recovering, Stewie confronts Bertram, and the pair engage in a sword fight in the play area. Stewie eventually wins, disarming Bertram, who, according to Stewie later in the episode, admitted defeat and ran away.
Production
The song performed after Lois' pregnancy test comes back negative was written by Alec Sulkin and Alex Borstein, and sung by professional Hollywood studio singers.[3] Orchestrations in this song were performed by Walter Murphy, and described by show producer Seth MacFarlane to be "wonderful."[3] The sketch of Peter challenging Lois to a race to Boston was removed from television broadcasting in order to save time.[4] As Lois is slowly racing Peter to Boston, a Shania Twain song can be heard on the radio; Dan Povenmire states on the DVD commentary that he often gets into trouble for adding pieces of music into an episode when they're so short, yet cost so much.[5] The producers of both Family Guy and the Ice Age series agreed to collaborate in the episode during its reference to Scrat from the Ice Age series.[3]
There was discussion among the producers of the series regarding whether Bertram should be included in the storyline, as he had not appeared in any episodes for several years.[4] An un-used scene was intended for broadcasting which showed Stewie, while reading Where's Waldo?, saying to Brian "Oh, turn to the next page - I bet they put him in someone's utility pocket," but it was never used as it wasn't deemed funny enough for the episode.[3] Originally, Peter singing "Milkshake" to inmates at a prison was going to be naked and push his nipples from underneath, but broadcasting standards objected; as a result, the show broadcasting Peter wearing underpants and pushing his nipples from the side.[3][5] When Peter and Lois are in the restaurant and Peter leaves to 'warn the chef of Lois' arrival,' Lois was intended to say "If he won't put something in me, I will," but the gag was never broadcast.[5]
The unsafe homeless man with whom Peter was seen leaving a youth-baseball team in Stewie's flashback was originally based on John Wayne Gacy, but people claimed he didn't look scary enough, so Povenmire changed the character completely to that of a homeless-man.[5] The idea of Stewie and Bertram laughing as they go down the slide during their sword fight was pitched by Povenmire's wife, and, although negative about the idea at first, Povenmire included it in the episode due to the original sketch not going so well.[5] During Peter and Lois' 'fat sex,' Peter repeatedly states "almost done, almost done;" originally, there was going to be approximately twice as many of these, but they were never included in the episode.[3] The DVD-version of the episode shows Peter arriving at the Sperm bank, and saying to the receptionist "I have an appointment to banish a White Russian from my Kremlin," to which she replies with "This is a sperm bank, you don't have to use innuendo," and Peter concludes the conversation with "Where do I splooge?"[3][5]
Cultural references
When in the children's park, Stewie quotes "Did ya get me my Cheez Whiz, boy" and a man throws one to him, this is a reference to The Blues Brothers.[3] Stewie and Brian attempting to find diversity in an Abercrombie and Fitch catalogue is a reference to the children's books series Where's Waldo?.[5] An Ice Age is made when Scrat, a character from the films attempts to steal Peter's nuts.[3]
Reception
In a review of the episode, Bob Sassone of TV Squad noted "If there's one reason I'm glad I watched tonight's episode it's because I learned exactly how a vasectomy is done," adding that "Peter is going to have a vasectomy, so he decides to freeze his sperm before he does it. This leads to a hysterical, yet truly gross, scene where Peter knocks over an entire shelf of sperm samples, and has to refill them, um, himself."[6] Geoffrey D. Roberts of Real Talk Reviews reviewed the episode negatively, writing "Also, many viewers will probably be disappointed with an episode about sibling rivalry between Stewie and newfound half-brother Bertram. Both share the same goal – to rule the Universe. With Bertram nothing more than a whinier version of his half-brother, it turns out one Stewie Griffin is more than enough."[7]
References
- ^ "Sibling Rivalry". Tv.msn.com. Retrieved 2008-06-22.
- ^ "Sibling Rivalry". British Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 2008-06-19.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i MacFarlane, Seth (2006). Family Guy season 4 DVD commentary for the episode "Sibling Rivalry" (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
{{cite AV media}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|1=(help) - ^ a b Goodman, David (2006). Family Guy season 4 DVD commentary for the episode "Sibling Rivalry" (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
{{cite AV media}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|1=(help) - ^ a b c d e f g Povenmire, Dan (2006). Family Guy season 4 DVD commentary for the episode "Sibling Rivalry" (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
{{cite AV media}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|1=(help) - ^ Sasson, Bob. "Family Guy: Sibling Rivalry". TV Squad. Retrieved 2008-05-23.
- ^ Roberts, Geoffrey D. "All in the Family". Real Talk Reviews.com. Retrieved 2008-06-19.
External links
