Death Has a Shadow
Template:Infobox Family Guy Season One
Death Has a Shadow is the first episode of the FOX animated television series Family Guy. First aired on January 31, 1999, after Super Bowl XXXIII. Written by Seth MacFarlane and directed by Peter Shin. Production code 1ACX01.
Plot summary
Template:Spoiler After overindulging at a bachelor party the previous night, Peter falls asleep while monitoring the production line at the toy factory. Following a local news report on the large number of unsafe toys suddenly being sold, Peter is fired for negligence. To keep Lois from knowing, he applies for welfare and receives a weekly check for $150,000 due to a bureaucratic mistake. Lois eventually finds out, prompting Peter to return the money; he decides to do this by throwing the cash from a blimp during the Super Bowl, with disastrous results. In court, Stewie uses a mind control device to make the judge revoke Peter's 24 month prison sentence and give him his job back.
References
Roughly the first half of the episode is based on MacFarlane's pitch to FOX.
An episode of The Brady Bunch shows Greg being thrown into a pit of snakes for possessing cigarettes and Cindy is put in a chamber of fire for telling on him.
Peter states that the Bradys lived in a crumby neighbourhood, and then states that the worst thing in their neighbourhood is Jemima's witnesses. They are an obvious combination parody of Aunt Jemima and Jehovah's Witnesses.
In a cutaway, a wimpy Adolf Hitler is shown struggling to lift weights at a gym, and looks over to see a muscular rabbi being doted on by two women. This is the implied reason for Hitler initiating the Holocaust.
The scene in which Peter gets drunk on communion wine at church was cut from the original airing. A shorter version was included in the later episode "Fifteen Minutes of Shame".
At Peter's job, a co-worker creates a new toy line known as G.I. Jew. His catchphrase is "You call these bagels?", delivered in a voice similar to Woody Allen's.
In a commercial, Peter (dressed as the Cocoa Puffs mascot) says "I'm caca for Cuckoo Puffs!"
Peter was apparently at the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, but wouldn't stand up to the tank because he "only came over to buy fireworks."
Former President Bill Clinton is shown as drunk and hostile at a press conference. When a large reporter asks why he is so popular, he responds with "Probably because you're so fat!"
The jester that Peter hires for Lois is Jerry Seinfeld.
Peter says that they now have enough money to get their kids out of any problem, "Just like the Kennedy's."
At the Super Bowl, announcer John Madden is trying to make conversation with Al Michaels during a commercial break but can only talk about "FOOTBALL!!!" in his announcing voice.
In the courtroom scene, the Kool-Aid Man bursts through the wall, shouting his catchphrase, "Oh yeah!"
This was one of the highest rated episodes of the series, most likely because of the Superbowl.
The pornographic movie the guys watch at the party, titled Assablanca, is a parody of the movie Casablanca.