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Brian Does Hollywood
Season 3, Episode 1
Air date July 13, 2000
Episode Guide
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The Thin White Line
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Mr. Griffin Goes to Washington

Brian Does Hollywood is the first episode and season premiere of the third season of Family Guy, and part two of a two-part special, with "The Thin White Line" being the first. It is the forty-second episode, overall.

Synopsis[]

In the conclusion of a two-part story line, Brian leaves Quahog for Hollywood in order to write films. When the Griffins visit him in Los Angeles, he desperately takes the first job offered to him in order to impress them—and finds himself directing a porno. Faced with fame and loneliness in his new field, Brian realizes that every dog needs a home.

Plot[]

The episode continues where “The Thin White Line” left off, introduced with a “Previously on Family Guy...” sequence, which is often used on TV episodes that pick up where the last left off, showing action-packed events which never actually occurred, parodying Hollywood thrillers.

After completing drug rehab and leaving Quahog, a purpose-seeking Brian moves to Los Angeles, California to live with his cousin Jasper in hopes of fulfilling his ambition to become a screenwriter. However, he struggles to find a producer willing to purchase his scripts and to make ends meet he takes menial jobs including waiting on guests at elite Hollywood parties and washing cars. He initially lies about his success to his family. Brian gets a break when Jasper connects him with an independent film producer who offers a director role; however, Brian soon discovers that the offer more specifically is the directing of pornographic films. Although he is initially hesitant, Brian accepts the offer.

Meanwhile, the Griffins have Stewie audition for Kids Say the Darndest Things to gain a free trip to Los Angeles in order to see Brian (although Stewie has the motive of using this opportunity to unleash a mass hypnosis device on national television, a plot which inevitably fails). Stewie makes the audition and the family travels to Los Angeles where they meet Brian for lunch. Brian, who now has a job as a director, offers to invite them to watch him direct on the film set (though at the time he is unaware of adult genre involved).

Later, when the family tries to visit Brian's set, a shamed and startled Brian has security remove them from the set before they find out his secret. Shortly afterwards, he learns from his cousin Jasper that he has received a directing nomination at the Woody Awards (a fictional film awards ceremony for adult films). Brian goes to the ceremony and is met at the bar by Lois and Peter, who explain that Jasper had told them the truth about Brian's job and that they support him. Brian finally has an epiphany and sees that it was his family that fulfilled his life (just in time to win his nomination).

Whilst at the ceremony, a sleazy producer tries to get Lois to star in a girl-on-girl film, and rather than defend her as she hoped, Peter tells the guy he's been throwing that idea around for 17 years. At the end of the episode, Brian returns home with his family on a transcontinental flight back to Rhode Island, where they all have souvenirs to remember their trip.

Characters[]

Major Roles[]

Minor Roles[]

Quotes[]

Stewie: [to Lois] Easy! Massage the scalp. You're washing a baby's hair, not scrubbing vomit off your Christmas dress, you holiday drunk.

Stewie: [while making out with a Miss Piggy doll] Look at me, having sex with a pig! I've become my father!

Lois: Oh, my God! Tell your father not to start the car!

Stewie: You want my badge number? Here! Here's my freakin' badge number!

Lois: I can't lose this case!
Peter: Lois, the case is already over!

[In a hospital room, Peter is unconscious]
Meg: Face it. He's never coming out of that coma.

Brian: Everyone I've told about the file is dead.

Meg: What do you mean, "Cut the blue wire"? They're all blue wires!

Brian: [as a waiter] Hey, I need more cheese puffs, Manny. Looks like Oprah's off the wagon again. And skip the toothpicks. She'll just hurt herself.

TV Announcer: Now back to Kids Say the Darndest Things.
Bill Cosby: It's okay. Take your time. Then what happened?
Little Girl: He... he said he would kill me if I ever said anything.
Bill Cosby: Do you remember what he looked like?
Little Girl: Yeah. He had a scar on his arm. And he had a big, stupid doo-doo head!
Bill Cosby: "A big, stupid doo-doo head!"

TV Announcer: If you have a child you'd like to exploit for a trip to Los Angeles why not have them try out for our show? Next auditions will be in New York, Chicago, and Quahog, Rhode Island.

Bill Cosby: Stewie, what do you think candy is made out of?
Stewie: Sunshine and farts! What the hell kind of question is that?

Stewie: I was under the impression the name of the show was Kids Say the Darnest Things, not Old Black Comedians Never Shut the Hell Up.

Michael Eisner: [to Brian] See you at Disneyland. Bring money.

[While the Griffins are on the plane to Hollywood]
Man: Oh, great. I always end up sitting next to a damn baby.
Stewie: What? What did you just say?
Lois: Stewie, stop fussing.
Stewie: Not now, Lois. Hey, big man, turn around. If you've got something to say, say it to my face! Oh, you can't hear me now? All right, that's it. I was going to watch the movie, but forget it. For the next 5 hours, you're my bitch. WAH! WAH! My ears are popping, and there's no way to console me! I'm hungry and possibly teething! Maybe I'm wet. Who knows? I'm a baby. WAH! WAH!

Jasper: Brian, they're your family. They'll love you even if you made a couple of crappy movies. I mean, Blythe Danner still loves Gwyneth Paltrow. Ooh, score one for me!

Stewie: Does anyone else smell AstroGlide?

Stewie: Um, all right, one more. One more. Rob Lowe.
Make-up Artist: Straight.
Stewie: No!
Make-up Artist: Yes.
Stewie: Come on, stop!
Make-up Artist: Ho-hum.
Stewie: Pull over.
Make-up Artist: Absolutely.
Stewie: Really?
Make-up Artist: Yes.
Stewie: Oh, well, he hides it well.
Make-Up Artist: Yeah, he wishes.

Trivia[]

  • The actual annual awards ceremony for the American pornographic film industry is the Adult Video News Awards.
  • Woody nominees for best musical score include Walter Murphy and Ron Jones, both of whom have scored Family Guy episodes, and John Williams, famous for his many science fiction and fantasy cinematic scores.
  • Michael Eisner, whose car Brian washes, will appear later in the season in “Family Guy Viewer Mail #1,” in the fourth seasons “Brian the Bachelor,” and “The Courtship of Stewie's Father.” Ricardo appears again in "You May Now Kiss the Uh ... Guy Who Receives."
  • Among the stars that Brian lampoons are Val Kilmer and Kevin Costner, Keanu Reeves, and Oprah Winfrey.
  • On the set of Brian’s film, Stewie asks: “Does anyone else smell Astroglide?”, mentioning a lubricant commonly used in pornographic movies. Also, Chris asks if Samuel L. Jackson is in the film, since “he’s in everything,” a nod to Jackson’s reputation as the “hardest working man in Hollywood. Jackson is, in fact, in the film.
  • While hypnotized by Bill Cosby, Stewie says Cosby’s film Ghost Dad was the greatest movie since Leonard Part 6 another Cosby film. He also says he likes pudding; beginning in the 1970s, Cosby had been the spokesperson for Jell-O Pudding.
  • Jasper comes back from Club Med with a Filipino boyfriend, admitting to Brian that he is a rice queen.
  • While on the line with his phone company, Peter hears the 1977 Barry Manilow song “Looks Like We Made It”.
  • Just before his Kids Say appearance, Stewie tries to guess whether Rob Lowe is gay or straight.
  • The script that Brian reads supposedly resembles Bang the Drum Slowly, “except the drum’s a chick.”
  • Bill Cosby mentions playing "Buck, Buck" as a child. "Buck, Buck" is a track on Cosby's 1967 album Revenge, in which he describes playing the game as a child. [1]
  • John Williams is nominated for Best Score in an Adult Film, as well as Family Guy composers Ron Jones and Walter Murphy. Williams is nominated for a lavish orchestral score (one of Williams’ trademarks) whereas the Jones and Murphy scores are performed on synthesizer. Ron Jeremy announces the nominees.

Cultural References[]

  • The episode title references the 1970s pornographic movie, Debbie Does Dallas.
  • The pre-theme opening parodies typical cliffhanger endings in American dramas and action television series. Various trademark settings and characters are featured, e.g. the pastel suits that Peter and Cleveland wear whilst driving a speedboat around a “Miami-like” environment is an homage to the 1980s television show Miami Vice, while Brian’s remark that “everyone [he’s] told about the file is dead” is a reference to The Net. Stewie shooting at the helicopter and falling through glass is much like the helicopter scene from The Matrix.
  • A flashback shows that Peter used to live with mass murderer Charles Manson’s “family.” Peter tells them he got an invitation to a party at Sharon Tate’s house. Manson and his followers murdered Tate and four others in 1969.
  • When waiting in line for his audition Lois points out Tom Tucker’s disfigured son also waiting for an audition, and Stewie asks in disgust “I mean really, how am I supposed to follow that act? Bite the head off a chicken?” referring to the typical behavior of a carnival side-show “geek” although perhaps also referring to a mythical stage incident involving a bat and rocker Ozzy Osbourne.
  • Meg’s star map shows “the actual gutter where the policeman fell over laughing when Eddie Murphy told them he was just giving the transvestite a ride home,” referring to a notorious 1997 incident.
  • The Griffins dine at the Musso & Frank Grill, an actual Hollywood attraction. Brian is correct that writers Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner drank there. Peter wonders where the screenwriter of the 1982 sex comedy Porky’s frequented.
  • Peter is beaten by the Los Angeles Police Department in a manner similar to Rodney King, although he asked them to beat him as a photo opportunity.
  • Brian’s porno films Add Momma to the Train, The Purple Head of Cairo, You’ve Got Male Genitalia, and Shaving Private Ryan are spoofs of actual films Throw Momma from the Train, The Purple Rose of Cairo, You’ve Got Mail and Saving Private Ryan.
  • Joan and daughter Melissa Rivers host the Woody Awards red-carpet arrivals, just as they have done for other award shows. Joan Rivers’ interview with Brian parodies her age and earlier stints on The Tonight Show.