I Take Thee Quagmire
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“I Take Thee Quagmire” is the twenty-first episode of season four of Family Guy, originally broadcast on March 12, 2006.[1] Peter wins free maid service for a week, where he intentionally creates extra work for her. Quagmire meets her and instantly falls in love with her, leading him to propose to her after the second date. After the marriage, Quagmire comes to regret his new relationship, but learns Joan, his new wife will cut herself if he divorces her, so he fakes his own death.[2]
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[edit] Plot
Peter is a contestant on Wheel of Fortune and wins. He chooses the prize of one week of free maid service. When his maid Joan arrives, Peter has her do humiliating things like pulling items out of his belly button, and riding her back to the store. Peter decides to over-work Joan on her last night by giving Meg a watermelon, which explodes in her face. Quagmire meets Joan at the Griffin household. While alone outside, he announces he is in love with her. After dating Joan, Quagmire proposes to her, which she accepts and the couple prepares their marriage ceremony. Lois, Peter and their neighbors visit Quagmire's house, finding that he has changed his personality significantly. Peter still believes this to be a prank and shows Quagmire porno magazines in an attempt to change him back to his former ways. Meanwhile, Lois begins to question whether she should breastfeed Stewie any longer, as he is hurting her when feeding because of his new teeth. Three weeks later, Lois takes Stewie to the park with Brian. She hasn't breastfeed Stewie since talking to Brian and her breasts are now much larger. She asks Brian if she should continue weaning Stewie, since she has gone up two bra sizes.
By the time of Quagmire's wedding, Lois' breasts have gotten even bigger. While at the reception, the top of her shirt rips open. Peter notices that Quagmire is staring at Lois' huge breasts, and spills champagne on them. Peter then "helps" Lois by shaking her, which makes her large breasts jiggle. This arouses Quagmire, and he realizes that he has made a mistake by marrying Joan. He informs Joan that some of his friends think they should get a divorce after discussing it with Peter, Joe and Cleveland, but she threatens to cut herself and him if he divorced her. As a result, Peter decides to help Quagmire fake his death. He shows Joan a video of Quagmire being attacked by a ninja, a Nazi, a "pots and pans" robot, and the body being consumed by a dinosaur held by Peter. Joan is unconvinced by the video. Peter and his friends operate plan B; which consists of Quagmire pretending to suffer a heart attack and dying. Quagmire is buried in a coffin with enough oxygen to last him a short period of time so Peter can return after the funeral has finished and dig him up. However, when Mayor West announces that all coffins must be buried in concrete (to guard against zombies), Peter exclaims he is not dead, and brings Quagmire out of the coffin, alive. Death shows up to retrieve his body. After pleaing for Quagmire's life (and touching Death's arm, thus killing her), Death takes Joan instead, as "she was suicidal and her last name was Quagmire." Lois begins to breastfeed again, delighting Stewie and allowing her breasts to return to normal size.
[edit] Production
This episode is one of the first to begin with a scene which is not the Griffin family household or the town center. It starts by depicting the game show Wheel of Fortune.[3] When Brian is watching Malcolm in the Middle on television, a scene begins showing the mother of the fictional family screaming at the children and father. Jane Kaczmarek was asked to do the voice as she was the original actor in the series, however she refused. MacFarlane said that he gets a message that Kaczmarek wishes to portray that character as likable, and does not wish to jeopardize that.[4] The father during that scene was voiced by Bryan Cranston, the original actor in the series, who accepted the role.[4] Seth MacFarlane comments that "this is the first real Quagmire story we've ever done."[4] A scene was made of Stewie attending a meeting similar to those at Alcoholics Anonymous, however the meeting was designed for those who are too addicted to breast milk.[5] The format of Wheel of Fortune is somewhat similar to the layout of the modern-day program, however the scene also features several aspects which are now no longer broadcast, and were featured in the 1980s.[4]
[edit] Censorship
Two scenes during this episode were censored for television broadcasting. When Quagmire meets Joan and invites her out on a date, Cleveland asks, "Is that a banana in your pocket, or an erection in your pocket?" Although this entire scene was not censored, Fox Broadcasting Company bleeped "erection".[6] The scene where Peter is promoting 'Crystal Pepsi' was shown only on the DVD, because it is prohibited to promote one product over another on television.[4]
[edit] Cultural references
When Mayor West is playing as a contestant on Jeopardy!, he spells the name of the host, Alex Trebek backwards, thus sending him back to the fifth dimension. This is a reference to former animated comedy series: Super Friends.[4], more specifically one of Superman's supervillain Mister Mxyzptlk. When Peter and the children are flying through space and singing, this is a reference to The Great Space Coaster.[4] The two Asian men who meet Peter at the traffic lights when riding Joan's back speak in a very similar tone to Howard Cosell, a reference to 1985 cult film Better Off Dead.[5][4] When Quagmire fantasises about being alone in the forest with Joan and speaking to her in Elvish, this is a reference to a scene from Lord of the Rings.[4][6]
[edit] Reception
Bob Sassone of TV Squad commented that "this episode had one of the more hysterical/disturbing images of this TV season: Lois flashing her breasts to Brian after giving Stewie his lunch."[7] Michael Drucker of IGN noted that "the Volume four episodes are easily funnier than the volume three ones", thus referring to the episode.[8]
[edit] References
- ^ I Take Thee Quagmire (2006). IMDb.com. Retrieved on 2007-12-26.
- ^ I Take Thee Quagmire. British Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved on 2007-12-26.
- ^ Michel, Pete. (2005). Family Guy season 4 DVD commentary for the episode "I Take Thee Quagmire" [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i MacFarlane, Seth. (2005). Family Guy season 4 DVD commentary for the episode "I Take Thee Quagmire" [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
- ^ a b Callaghan, Steve. (2005). Family Guy season 4 DVD commentary for the episode "I Take Thee Quagmire" [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
- ^ a b Goodman, David. (2005). Family Guy season 4 DVD commentary for the episode "I Take Thee Quagmire" [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
- ^ Sassone, Bob (March 12, 2006). Family Guy: I Take Thee, Quagmire. TV Squad. Retrieved on 2007-12-04.
- ^ Family Guy - Volume Four, Drucker, Michael. Retrieved on 2007-12-26
[edit] External links
