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'{{Infobox Television episode | Title =Road to Rupert | Series =Family Guy | Image =[[File:Road to Rupert - Family Guy promo.png|250px]] | Caption =Stewie prepares for a ski-race with Stanford | Season =5 | Episode =9 | Airdate =January 28, 2007 | Production =5ACX04 | Writer =[[Patrick Meighan (writer)|Patrick Meighan]] | Director =[[Dan Povenmire]] | Guests =*[[Max Burkholder]] as Child *[[Phil LaMarr]] *[[Rob Lowe]] as Stanford Cordray *[[Ted McGinley]] *[[Stephen Stanton]] *[[Connor Trinneer]] *Audrey Wasilewski *[[George Wendt]] as [[Norm Peterson]] *[[Dave Wittenberg]] as [[Woody Boyd]] | Episode list =[[Family Guy (season 5)|''Family Guy'' (season 5)]]<br/>[[List of Family Guy episodes|List of ''Family Guy'' episodes]] | Prev =[[Barely Legal (Family Guy)|Barely Legal]] | Next =[[Peter's Two Dads]] }} "'''Road to Rupert'''" is the ninth episode of season five of ''[[Family Guy]]''. The episode follows [[Brian Griffin|Brian]] after he inadvertently sells [[Stewie Griffin|Stewie]]'s teddy bear, Rupert, during a [[garage sale|yard sale]]. In an attempt to retrieve him, Stewie and Brian travel across the United States, eventually discovering he is with a child living in [[Aspen, Colorado]]. Meanwhile, [[Peter Griffin|Peter]] has his driving license revoked for careless driving and is forced to be driven around by Meg, which annoys him. The episode was written by [[Patrick Meighan (writer)|Patrick Meighan]] and directed by [[Dan Povenmire]]. It received mostly mixed reviews from critics for its storyline and many cultural references. According to [[Nielsen ratings]], it was viewed in 8.8 million homes in its original airing. The episode feature guest performances by [[Max Burkholder]], [[Phil LaMarr]], [[Rob Lowe]], [[Ted McGinley]], [[Stephen Stanton]], [[Connor Trinneer]], Audrey Wasilewski, [[George Wendt]] and [[Dave Wittenberg]]. ==Plot== The Griffins have a yard sale to sell off household items that they no longer need, but Brian accidentally sells Stewie's teddy bear, Rupert, causing Stewie to think Rupert has been kidnapped. Brian takes Stewie to the toy store to try to find a replacement, but ends up admitting he accidentally sold it, after which Stewie exclaims: "You son of a bitch!". At the sale, Peter attempts to purchase his own [[Evel Knievel]] gloves. He decides to use the family car to jump over a row of cars, but is unsuccessful and results in his drivers license being revoked by [[Joe Swanson|Joe]]. [[Lois Griffin|Lois]] arranges for [[Meg Griffin|Meg]] to become Peter's personal driver, and he makes numerous attempts to annoy Meg, including setting her hat on fire when traveling with his friends. When another car rear ends her and she is insulted by the driver, Meg takes out her repressed rage with Peter on the driver by beating him up; Peter is impressed, and the two bond in the car. Meanwhile, Stewie attempts to retrieve Rupert by tracking [[DNA]] samples against the federal database from the money Brian was paid for Rupert. They discover the man who bought Rupert lives in Quahog, but upon arrival—they discover the house is deserted. After seeing the moving truck and following it, with [[Adam West (Family Guy)|Mayor West]] driving, they discover the man now resides in [[Aspen, Colorado]], meaning West drives them no further. To get over the mountains, the pair rent a helicopter after discovering "to rent a helicopter, you can pay with cash, check, or a jaunty tune". Stewie then performs a dance for the man in the office (with help from [[Gene Kelly]]), but Brian crashes the helicopter into the mountain, the two end up next to the entrance to Aspen. Reluctant to give Rupert back to Stewie, Stanford Cordray (the buyer) and his family organize a skiing race down the mountain, so if Stewie is the first down, they are allowed to take Rupert away with them and if Stanford wins, he can have Brian. Stewie cheats by installing rockets in his skis, and relaxes to watch his progress. Stewie then crashes into a tree and loses the race. He tells Brian that maybe this means he should give up Rupert, but he proceeds to grab Rupert after his personal butler Crohn throws a cup of hot tea on the child's face, forcing him to drop the bear. The two make a run for it before the child's parents notice, then realize they still need to get back to Quahog (which, by looking at a highway sign at the end, is [[2112 (song)|2112]] miles away, a reference to the [[Rush (band)|Rush]] song), so they [[carjacking|carjack]] a passing driver in the city and drive home. Meanwhile, Joe stops by Peter's house to reinstate his license. Meg worries that Peter will begin treating her badly again, but Peter says that while he will only do so in front of the family to keep up appearances, and that they will now be "secret best friends."<ref name="Episode">{{cite video|date=2007|title=Plot synopsis information for the episode "Road to Rupert"| medium=DVD|publisher=20th Century Fox}}</ref> HEY RUPERT ==Production== {{further|[[Road to... (Family Guy)]]}} [[File:Dan Povenmire Comic-Con 2009.jpg|thumb|175px|right|alt = A Caucasian man in his forties, seated at a conference, with a microphone in front of him. He has a pleasant square face, deep-set eyes, dark hair and a brown beard with clean-shaved cheeks and upper-lip. He is casually dressed, relaxed and smiling. Square signs are posted on the wall behind him, bearing the name COMIC-CON in big bright yellow letters around a drawn eye and eyebrow.|[[Dan Povenmire]] directed ''Road to Rupert'' and all the previous "Road to" episodes.]] Lois mocking ''[[Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story]]'' was not broadcast on television for timing purposes, and only shown on the DVD version.<ref name="MacFarlane"/><ref name="Goodman"/> A deleted scene showed one of Peter's crimes being a [[hate crime]], where during his stunt he hit a car with a [[Jewish]] driver, but the scene was later changed to [[rape]].<ref name="Goodman"/><ref name="Meighan"/> The scene where Stewie takes Nyquil to calm himself down after losing Rupert was removed from the television airing as the show was "cutting a lot of not so funny jokes."<ref name="Goodman"/><ref name="Meighan"/> [[David A. Goodman|David Goodman]] noted that he feels the production crew may not have succeeded on this episode as everything falls into place easily,<ref name="Goodman"/> such as the box falling out of the moving truck.<ref name="Goodman"/> Every frame when Stewie is dancing in a montage of ''[[Anchors Aweigh (film)|Anchors Aweigh]]'' took a large amount of work to produce.<ref name="MacFarlane"/><ref name="Tauke">{{cite video | people=Tauke, Andy|date=2007|title=Family Guy season 5 DVD commentary for the episode "Road to Rupert"| medium=DVD|publisher=20th Century Fox}}</ref> The montage of Stewie and Brian visiting several [[U.S. state]]s was a DVD exclusive scene, removed from television for timing purposes.<ref name="MacFarlane"/><ref name="Povenmire"/> This scene was partially based on series creator [[Seth MacFarlane]] traveling the [[United States]] after the [[September 11, 2001 attacks]] and realizing there is lots of [[Maize|corn]] throughout the U.S.<ref name="MacFarlane"/> A deleted scene directly after the helicopter crash had shown Stewie saying "come here, puss" for a second time, but this was replaced with another.<ref name="MacFarlane"/><ref name="Meighan"/> Stewie and Brian [[carjacking]] somebody was added to the episode in a later rewrite and censored on television.<ref name="Meighan"/> In addition to the regular cast, voice actor [[Max Burkholder]], voice actor [[Phil LaMarr]], actor [[Rob Lowe]], actor [[Ted McGinley]], voice actor [[Stephen Stanton]], actor [[Connor Trinneer]], voice actress Audrey Wasilewski, actor [[George Wendt]] and voice actor [[Dave Wittenberg]] guest starred in the episode. Recurring guest voice actors [[Chris Sheridan (writer)|Chris Sheridan]], writer [[Danny Smith (writer)|Danny Smith]], writer [[Alec Sulkin]] and writer John Viener made minor appearances. ==Cultural references== When speaking with Brian at the yard sale, Lois comments that ''[[Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story]]'' is not a real movie, rather just three individual episodes together, but altering the title to ''Stymie Gruffin: The Untold Story'' when discussing it with Brian.<ref name="MacFarlane">{{cite video | people=MacFarlane, Seth|date=2007|title=Family Guy season 5 DVD commentary for the episode "Road to Rupert"| medium=DVD|publisher=20th Century Fox}}</ref> The music performed at Stewie's vision of Rupert's funeral was the hymn ''[[Amazing Grace]]'', while the funeral itself is a reference to [[Spock]]'s funeral in ''[[Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan]]''.<ref name="MacFarlane"/> The 'My Black Son' scene consisted of a number of 1970s and 1980s television programs, these being ''[[Diff'rent Strokes]]'', ''[[Family Ties]]'', ''[[Punky Brewster]]'', ''[[Laverne and Shirley]]'', ''[[Perfect Strangers (TV series)|Perfect Strangers]]'', ''[[Three's Company]]'', ''[[Who's the Boss?]]'' and ''[[Bosom Buddies]]''.<ref name="Goodman">{{cite video | people=Goodman, David|date=2007|title=Family Guy season 5 DVD commentary for the episode "Road to Rupert"| medium=DVD|publisher=20th Century Fox}}</ref><ref name="Meighan">{{cite video | people=Meighan, Patrick|date=2007|title=Family Guy season 5 DVD commentary for the episode "Road to Rupert"| medium=DVD|publisher=20th Century Fox}}</ref> Peter watches an episode of ''[[SpongeBob SquarePants]]'' in the car which features "The Campfire Song Song" performed in the actual episode. It had been written by [[Dan Povenmire]] for the original ''SpongeBob'' episode, but it was allowed in the episode as [[Nickelodeon (TV channel)|Nickelodeon]] gave ''Family Guy'' permission to reproduce the music.<ref name="Povenmire">{{cite video | people=Povenmire, Dan|date=2007|title=Family Guy season 5 DVD commentary for the episode "Road to Rupert"| medium=DVD|publisher=20th Century Fox}}</ref> The entire scene of Stewie singing and dancing in order to secure rental of the helicopter is a reference to the [[1945 in film|1945]] musical film ''[[Anchors Aweigh (film)|Anchors Aweigh]]''.<ref name="MacFarlane"/> The reflection of the original character ([[Jerry Mouse]] from ''[[Tom and Jerry]]'') can be seen on the floor. When Stewie and Brian crash the helicopter down the mountain and Brian visualises Stewie as the [[devil]], this is a reference to such a scene in ''[[Planes, Trains and Automobiles]]''.<ref name="MacFarlane"/> The crash itself is caused due to a [[sector whiteout]].<ref name="MacFarlane"/> The background music during the Peter/Meg montage is "[[I'm Into Something Good]]" by 60's rock band [[Herman's Hermits]]. ==Reception== In a slight improvement over the previous week, the episode was viewed in 8.8 million homes in its original airing, according to [[Nielsen ratings]]. The episode also acquired a 3.1 rating in the 18-49 demographic, slightly edging out both ''[[The Simpsons]]'' and ''[[American Dad!]]''.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://abcmedianet.com/web/dnr/dispDNR.aspx?id=013007_05|title=Weekly Program Rankings |publisher=ABC Medianet |date=2007-01-30 |accessdate=2010-05-01}}</ref> The episode received mixed comments from [[TV Squad]], with Brett Love commenting that "the suspended license plot was a little thin, but that's forgivable given that this was the b-story for the episode, and there are only 22 minutes to work with."<ref name="TVSquad">{{cite web|url=http://www.tvsquad.com/2007/01/29/family-guy-road-to-rupert/|title=Family Guy: Road to Rupert|accessdate=2008-01-15|year=2007|publisher=Tvsquad.com}}</ref> Love comments positively on the Stewie and Brian relationship in the episode, commenting that, "the Stewie and Brian story is what made the episode for me. It was very well done, right down to the goofy little details."<ref name="TVSquad"/> [[IGN]] commented that, "...for Family Guy to have a great episode, it takes a good story and humorous "[[Cartoon Wars Part II|manatee]]" gags. "Road to Rupert" was able to deliver on both these fronts, with the majority of the episode's attention focused on Stewie and Brian's road story, meshed with many laugh out loud gags."<ref name="IGN">{{cite web|url=http://uk.tv.ign.com/articles/759/759248p1.html|title=Family Guy: "Road to Rupert" Review|accessdate=2008-01-15|publisher=Tv.ign.com}}</ref> ==References== {{Reflist|2}} ==External links== {{wikiquote|Family_Guy/Season_5#Road_to_Rupert|Road to Rupert}} {{Portal|Family Guy}} * {{Tv.com episode|830947}} * {{imdb episode|0863492}} {{Sequence | prev=[[Barely Legal (Family Guy)|Barely Legal]] | list=[[Family Guy (season 5)]] | next=[[Peter's Two Dads]] }} {{Family Guy (season 5)}} {{Road to episodes}} {{good article}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Road To Rupert}} [[Category:Family Guy (season 5) episodes]] [[Category:2007 television episodes]] [[es:Road to Rupert]] [[nl:Road to Rupert]] [[ru:Road to Rupert]]'