From Method to Madness

"From Method to Madness" is the 18th episode of the 3rd season of the American television show Family Guy. The title of the episode is derived from the phrase "There's a method to my madness" and also references the technique of Method acting.

Plot summary

Brian and Lois attend a poorly acted one man show. Afterwards, Brian boasts that he could easily do a better job. Lois dares him to "put up or shut up," by auditioning for local theater. The judges are bored with Brian but are delighted with Stewie, who is immediately enrolled in a children’s performing arts school. He quickly becomes cool, makes friends and an enemy named Olivia. When he overhears that both he and Olivia are in danger of being cut from the program, the pair hastily work together and end up becoming a massively popular duet. They share fame and success until their fighting breaks up the act; Olivia goes on to greater fame and finally she gets to go to Hollywood (kissing Stewie goodbye before she leaves), but Stewie, because of Olivia's quitting, starts to lose fame and drops back, which causes him to lose touch with reality.

Meanwhile, Peter saves a drowning man, and so the Griffins are invited over to share dinner with his family. Lois and Peter are shocked to discover that the family are nudists. The man had been nude when Peter rescued him but Peter simply assumed the man's shorts were lost in the ocean. Their teenaged son (who is also a nudist) takes an interest in Meg. After devastating Meg with their refusal to accept the lifestyle, Peter and Lois shed their clothes to make him feel more welcome; This traumatizes Meg in different ways. When he leaves, Quagmire shows up and asks for a towel, presumably after seeing Lois naked.

Brian visits Stewie at an insane asylum, where Stewie requests to hear a tuning fork. Upon hearing that he was the one that was flat, Stewie snaps out of his insanity, and returns home with Brian.

Cultural references

In the car after meeting the nudists, Chris can't stop saying "Boobies!", so the others wear sunglasses and black suits then Lois uses a neuralizer (a device used in Men in Black to erase the memories of people who have seen aliens) to make Chris believe he just came back from the circus.
Stewie's sexy party is a reference to similar sketches on The Benny Hill Show.
To illustrate Peter's concern about child acting, a cutaway features Elroy Jetson, a character from televised cartoon The Jetsons who, as an adult, is kicked out of a pub bruised and drunk. It also shows Bamm-Bamm, the child from The Flintstones has now become a taxi driver.
When Olivia and Stewie fight each other, they both climb up on a plant and continue to fight. This can be seen as a reference to the fight in the bamboo forest, between Jen and Li Mu-Bai in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
After a solo performance, an angry audience member describes Stewie's show as being worse than Seussical, a Broadway show that opened in November 2000 and was panned by the critics.
The final scene, in which Stewie is at a mental institution due to his perseveration on a single note may be a reference to Schumann, who constantly had the "A" note stuck in his head and was in a mental asylum for the last two years of his life.

Debut appearance

This episode introduces Olivia; she is seen later in the season five episode Chick Cancer.

References

S. Callaghan, "From Method to Madness", Family Guy: The Official Episode Guide Seasons 1–3. New York: HarperCollins, 2005. 152–155.
A. Delarte, "Nitpicking Family Guy: Season 3" in Bob's Poetry Magazine, 2.August 2005: 53–54 http://bobspoetry.com/Bobs02Au.pdf

External links

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