To Love and Die in Dixie
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
I wish I was in Dixie, hooray, hooray / in Dixieland I'll take my stand, to love and die in Dixie.
—"Dixie", traditional song
"To Love and Die in Dixie" is an episode of the third season of Family Guy. Country music singer Waylon Jennings guest-stars in his last ever screen appearance. This episode is also included in the Freakin' Sweet Collection "best of" DVD. The title is a reference to a line in the traditional Confederate Civil War song "Dixie".
Contents |
[edit] Plot summary
Chris gets a newspaper route to pay for a birthday gift for a girl he likes. At a convenience store, he witnesses a robbery and identifies the thief out of a lineup. However, Peter shows up and tells the thief (not knowing he's the thief) that he's here to pick up Chris who was going to "finger the guy who held the convenience store" and then stupidly proceeds to give the thief a picture of Chris with a list of his school schedules and his greatest fears. When the thief escapes and swears revenge on Chris (shortly after he bangs his girlfriend), the family is placed in the Witness Protection Program. The Griffins are relocated to Bumblescum, a tiny town in the deep South. Peter (after making his car look like The General Lee and playing The Dukes of Hazzard) becomes sheriff with Brian as his deputy. Stewie joins a hillbilly jug band (called "Stewie and the Cowtones"), Meg becomes popular with her classmates and Chris meets Sam (Kathleen Wilhoite), whom he assumes is a boy.
Chris (after Sam kisses him) assumes Sam is gay. As Chris writes in a journal about what happened with Sam, Brian hears the whole thing (as Chris was thinking out loud). Chris explains that kissing Sam kinda felt right. When they meet again, Chris tells Sam that he likes him but only as a friend. Sam seems cool with this and when they are about to go swimming it is reveled to Chris (by the bra and long hair) that Sam is a girl. Due to the fact that Chris has had bad experience with girls (as seen in the beginning of the episode) he now feels awkward around Sam. At the hootenanny (or hoedown), Sam explains to Chris that he had no problem talking to her, when he thought she was a guy, so she tells Chris to think of her as a boy who he can make out with. The criminal tracks Chris down to Bumblescum (because the FBI told him where Meg was but not Chris) but during the confrontation the criminal is shot by Sam's father.
Despite offending the town earlier when Peter corrected their Civil War reenactment, they still were willing to take care of their neighbors. With the criminal gone, the Griffins return to Quahog and Chris has to leave Sam behind.
[edit] Episode-specific cast
- Waylon Jennings – balladeer/narrator
- Dakota Fanning – eight-year-old mother
[edit] Censorship
- When the bank robber who has just escaped prison says "Yeah, I'm gonna go bang my girlfriend and then I'm gonna kill Chris Griffin!", Stewie remarks "Can he really say 'bang my girlfriend' on TV?", a jab at what the censors on network TV (or the FCC) can and can't allow in terms of language and content. As it happens, the FOX rerun and syndicated versions of this episode do bleep out the "bang" in "bang my girlfriend", but it is intact on other airings (TBS and Adult Swim) and on DVD.
- Changes made in syndication:
- During the ALF E! True Hollywood Story gag, ALF's line "They had to cut the crap out of my fur before each taping" is cut.
- Meg and Peter calling Chris a "lardo" and blaming him for having to move to the South.
- The scene where Peter and Brian make their first jump in the General Lee is cut.
- When Chris and Sam poke the dead body, Chris' line "It's true. The best things in life really are free" is removed.
- The scene where the Griffins say goodbye to their new Southern friends and where Chris and Sam kiss is removed.
[edit] Notes
 |
Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones. |
- The burglar looks like the Mass Media Murderer from "The Kiss Seen Around the World", as well as the kidnapper to be in the store at the beginning of "Breaking Out Is Hard to Do".
- In "The Fat Guy Strangler", Brian hits Peter with a rock for not rolling down the windows of the General Lee, a reference to an accident occurring in this episode.
- This episode marks the first appearance of Herbert, the creepy old pedophile.
- On some versions of the Family Guy season three DVD set, there is an animatic of an alternate scene with ALF, in which, instead of an E! True Hollywood Story about ALF, there was an actual episode where the Tanner family finds out that he's just a puppet. ALF also makes a cameo appearance in the episode "I Never Met the Dead Man", when Peter dreams about a world without television that parodies Dorothy's dream trip to Oz in The Wizard of Oz.
- According to the DVD commentary in this episode, the episode was originally supposed to end at the scene where Chris and Sam hug just before he goes home. But the writers decided to add the final scene with telephone messages from Herbert.
- A running gag for this episode features a raccoon attacking Peter several times by jumping out of awkward places, first it leaps out of the TV, then the fridge, then from between Lois' cleavage and finally from Peter's gun.
- The scene where Stewie plucks the banjo string was used for TBS commercials of Family Guy.
[edit] Cultural references
|
|
This article or section contains too many minor or trivial fictional references. Mere trivia, or references unimportant to the overall plot of a work of fiction, should be deleted. See also what Wikipedia is. |
- Waylon Jennings (in his last televised appearance) provides narration during a freeze-frame of Peter and Brian mid-air in a car, being chased by the angry civil war veterans. The scene mimics a technique found in most episodes of The Dukes of Hazzard television show, which lead into most commercial breaks in an identical matter. Jennings was the narrator of that series, doing similar voice over, even calling Brian and Peter "them boys", his traditional nickname for the lead characters, the Duke cousins.
- A flashback Peter's first job was with Simon and Garfunkel. He wanted to title "Mrs. Robinson" "Mrs. Fleckenstein" (one of the writers on Family Guy 's staff is named Fleckenstein) and sing "parsley, sage, rosemary and Lawry's Seasoning Salt" instead of "parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme" in "Scarborough Fair/Canticle". After Paul Simon criticizes his ideas, Peter says "That's it, I'm goin' to 'Nam".
- One of the criminals in the lineup at the beginning of the episode is Morpheus from The Matrix.
- Peter chides Chris for not claiming that the robber of the convenience store was Celine Dion, calling the opportunity "our one chance to put that show-boating Canadian wench behind bars".
- The FBI agents are a reference to The Odd Couple. "We'll be watching your house together, even though he's a slovenly liberal and I'm a fastidious conservative", one of them says "I smell a sitcom!".
- Jeff Foxworthy shows up (celebrity voice impersonated) inside the closet of the Griffins' new home. After he makes a bad joke Stewie proceeds to scream "You suck!" at him and slam the closet door on his face.
- Peter spots a "Crunch Berry", a variation of Cap'n Crunch breakfast cereal beneath the refrigerator.
- After plucking a banjo string, Stewie explains "Oh, I feel so deliciously white trash. Mommy, I want a mullet!", referring to the derided hair style stereotypically associated with poor, rural whites.
- After Stewie plays a song on the banjo, he screams "I got blisters on me fingers!", which is what Ringo Starr screams at the end of The Beatles song "Helter Skelter".
- A DJ on a country music station says "We just heard Merle Haggard with 'I Kissed My Sweetie with My Fist'".
- The pig in the classroom shares traits similar to Arnold Ziffel, the pig on the sitcom Green Acres, who also attended school.
- After Lois says that she made dinner with Shake 'N' Bake, Stewie says "And I helped!", a line directly from Shake 'N' Bake commercials.
- Chris jokes that "Hell is UPN", a second-tier TV network that ceased operations in 2006.
- There is a humorous Southern version of a Civil War re-enactment, which plays off of real history, as Robert E. Lee was a teetotaller, while Ulysses S. Grant was forced to resign from the military in 1854 because of a drinking problem (he did not return until 1861).
- Peter confuses the "Mason-Dixon" in Mason-Dixon Line with Bosom Buddies actress Donna Dixon.
- One of the FBI agents staying at the Griffins house draws "boobs" on an Etch-A-Sketch toy.
- A segue between scenes shows Buck Owens, host of Hee Haw, another popular television show that takes place in the rural south.
- Sam compares Chris to a "skinny Garth Brooks".
- When the robber asks for the names of Peter and Brian, Peter claims he is "T. J. Hooker" and Brian is "McMillan and Wife", referring to two police dramas.
- After the locals kill the thief on the dock, Peter says that all Southerners "suffer from the gum disease known as gingivitis", in the same manner as the voice on a 1990s commercial for Listerine, an oral hygiene product.
- After Peter shows Brian the his version of The General Lee Brian sarcastically says "The Duke boys would be proud", a reference to Bo Duke and Luke Duke from The Dukes of Hazzard.
- Chris tells Brian "I haven't been so confused since the end of No Way Out", a reference to a 1987 film starring Kevin Costner. The thing that confused Chris, however, was "How does Kevin Costner keep getting work?".
- The part where Jeff Foxworthy appears in the closet, is a reference to his comedy routine.
[edit] References
- Callaghan, Steve (2005). Family Guy: The Official Episode Guide Seasons 1–3. Orion Books. ISBN 0-7528-7399-7.
- Official Episode Guide (Requires Macromedia Flash and Internet Explorer)
- List at epguides.com (Referenced From tv.com)
