Running Mates (Family Guy episode)
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| “Running Mates” | |
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| Family Guy episode | |
 Peter vs. Lois in the election. |
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| Episode no. | Season 2 Episode 10 |
| Written by | Neil Goldman Garrett Donovan |
| Directed by | John Holmquist |
| Guest stars | Patrick Bristow, Lee Majors, Dwight Schultz |
| Production no. | 1ACX09 |
| Original airdate | April 11, 2000 |
| Season 2 episodes | |
| Family Guy - Season 2 September 23, 1999 – August 1, 2000 |
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| ← Season 1 | Season 3 → |
| List of Family Guy episodes | |
Running Mates is an episode from the second season of the FOX animated series Family Guy. It is the 17th episode of Family Guy, to be aired. The episode first aired on April 11, 2000. It was written by Garrett Donovan and Neil Goldman, and directed by John Holmquist. Lee Majors guest stars as himself.
[edit] Plot summary
Lois' campaign for school board president is interrupted by a call from Chris' principal - apparently Chris was caught peeking into the girls' locker room. While Peter and Lois are at the school talking to the principal, and Lois finally holds a campaign for Head of the School Board of Education. Meanwhile, Peter runs into his favorite teacher from the past, Mr. Fargus (voiced by Dwight Schultz); he has been reduced from his former peppy (almost loony) self to a catatonic old man due to pills he has been required to take by the school board. Peter tells Mr. Fargus to stop taking the pills, which quickly causes Mr. Fargus to go off the edge (he and his students begin smashing eggs of the endangered California Condor) and subsequently get fired. Lois meanwhile holds a rally and it is revealed that the school textbooks are from a semi-racist era, as they refer The Civil Rights Movement as "Trouble Ahead." Furious that Lois will not give Mr. Fargus his job back, Peter decides to run for school board president, too, so that he can reinstate him to his old position.
The two run tight campaigns against each other but a rally held by both leaves Peter in humiliation. Peter mounts a campaign against Lois that shows some promise, but at a debate between them, Lois trounces Peter. Desperate to win, Peter airs a political ad, using a sexy picture of Lois (which Lois gave to Peter for their anniversary) to discredit her, thus making Lois humiliated.
She's especially shocked when Peter actually wins the school board election and then doesn't seem to take his new position very seriously. To calm her down, Peter tells Lois he's going to show her all the great changes he has in store, but, of course, all of his proposed "improvements" are ridiculous. During a TV interview it's revealed that the kids at Peter's school are reading pornography and, even worse, that Peter supplied it. This causes a huge scandal for Peter, who is advised to pin the whole thing on Lois. During a press conference, he can't bring himself to do that because every woman he saw turned into Lois. In fact, he finds himself apologizing to her for this horrible behavior. He resigns and he and Lois leave on a helicopter.
[edit] Censorship
In the syndicated version:
- The part after Peter introduces Chris to porno magazines is cut to remove Peter walking out of the room and hearing thumps behind the door of Chris's room, only to learn that Chris doesn't have his paddle ball.
- The "Vagina Junction" sex-ed lesson is entirely cut.
- Canada's Global TV completely removes any reference to James Carville.
[edit] Cultural references
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- In the flashback scene to 8th grade where Peter first notices girls beginning to develop, several girls in the auditorium's breasts immediately pop up, and then after that Peter's breasts immediately pop up (having male breasts is called Gynecomastia). A similar scene in the comedy film Mafia! occurs where the lead character wishes upon a star with a female friend, and her breasts immediately appear.
- Peter blames one of his sexist remarks on The Six Million Dollar Man star Lee Majors, who happens to be standing in the hall of Buddy Cianci Jr. Junior High School. Majors plays himself. Later, a cutaway shows Peter starring in a low-budget version of The Six Million Dollar Man.
- Mr. Fargas is a take-off on Mr. Vargas from the movie Fast Times at Ridgemont High.
- During the newscast about the school egg drop, the title on the screen says "Weird Science," which was the title of a 1980s teen comedy movie.
- Stewie stomps, shouting "Damn, damn, damn, damn!" shaking the scene in a manner similar to Rex Harrison in My Fair Lady. Seth MacFarlane actually based the voice of Stewie
- Stewie sings a song based on "I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face" from the musical My Fair Lady. The irony in this is that the star of My Fair Lady is Rex Harrison, who Seth McFarlane claims Stewie is based on. During the song, Stewie flips through a photo album of his attempts at killing Lois. The last photo is a parody of the infamous shower scene in 1960 movie Psycho directed by Alfred Hitchcock
- When trying to convince Meg that "winning without honor isn’t really winning at all," Lois tries to get the help of Rob Pilatus of 1990s musical duo Milli Vanilli, who happens to be in the Griffins’ kitchen. This is a reference to the infamous scandal revealing that the duo did not actually sing on their album.
- Channel 5’s Monday Night Debate parodies ABC’s Monday Night Football.
- Peter describes himself as a "huguenot," which is a 16th and 17th century term for a member of the Protestant Reformed Church of France.
- Peter remarks that he's "always cared deeply about young people. As a rich college-bound student, I once joined some underprivileged youths in saving a community center from being converted into a shopping mall." To which Lois replies, "Peter, that wasn't you. That was Adolfo 'Shaba-doo' in Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo. You watched it last night." The "college-bound" character Peter describes is actually "Kelly", not "Ozone".
- Brian reads Faust by German dramatist Johann Wolfgang von Goethe as a bedtime story for Stewie.
- Peter's opening statement at the debate consists of excerpts from the theme songs of Diff'rent Strokes, One Day at a Time, and The Facts of Life. He concludes with "Sit, Ubu, sit. Good dog!" which is from the production credit for UBU Productions, the production company of executive producer Gary David Goldberg, who created Family Ties and Spin City, among others.
- Peter claims that Lois "freed Willie Horton" and "nailed Donna Rice."
- Peter calls Asian reporter Tricia Takanawa "Connie", mistaking her for television journalist Connie Chung.
- Peter creates a new version of Schoolhouse Rock!'s "Conjunction Junction" for the sex ed class with legendary performer Jack Sheldon.
- The "XL-K" hall pass enforcement robot is a take-off on the "ED-209" police robot from the film RoboCop.
- Peter can’t bear to look at James Carville's face, exclaiming "did somebody open the Ark of the Covenant?" a reference to Raiders of the Lost Ark.
- Peter and Lois' exit parodies that of ex-President Richard Nixon after his resignation.
- The scene where Mr. Fargas returns to the school (just before the ending credits) is a play on the intro to the 1970s sitcom Welcome Back, Kotter.
