| Do and Die | |
|---|---|
| Season 1, Episode 4 | |
| Air date | February 21, 1999 |
| Episode guide | |
| Previous Mind Over Murder | Next A Hero Sits Next Door |
Synopsis
When The Mayor of Quahog resigns, famous actor, Adam West starts running for mayor. Lois does not want someone as loose and silly as him, becoming mayor, and runs against him, pushing a very strict agenda. Peter and his friends worry that Lois might win the election and enforce a ton of new rules on the town, so they go crazy, enjoying everything fun about their current legal system, before it becomes illegalized.
Plot
The Beer Bar Buddies drink some beer at The Drunken Clam, when Horace tells them that they're soon to be closing up shop. Sad that their party is coming to an end, Peter asks if he can take their beers to go. Horace allows it as surprisingly, there's no law saying that they can't do that. This leads to The Beer Bar Buddies drinking while driving and getting into tons of trouble.
A cop takes a very wasted Peter home and tells Lois that he wrecked a bunch of cars and buildings and killed a bunch of people, while he was drunk. Lois is shocked that her husband's about to go to jail but the cop says that there's no need to worry. Quahog law says that "inebriated felonies" are not illegal, since you can't blame someone for doing something bad, while intoxicated. While relieved that her husband isn't going to jail, she still thinks that this law is completely nonsensical and highly dangerous.
News gets out that Quahog's mayor, Buddy Cianci was forced to resign from his job after being charged with racketeering, while sober, putting him under arrest for four years. Now that he was arrested, this opens up a new spot for a new mayor to seize control of Quahog. Lois is happy that this is going to happen, now that she knows that hopefully, the new mayor will be good and put an end to all these messed up laws. However, her hopes are instantly crushed when the first guy to run for mayor is the cockamamie celebrity, Adam West.
Adam West does great with the citizens as he's famous and amazing and he proposes to make a whole bunch of new ridiculous laws and rules. Lois will not stand for this, so she runs against him.
Peter and The Beer Bar Buddies freak out. They know that if Lois becomes mayor, then all the great things they loved doing will come to an end. Fearing that she might actually become mayor, they do all of the things she plans to illegalize, while they still can.
When the results come in, Adam West becomes the new mayor, much to the disappointment of Lois and the delight of Peter. However, Mayor Adam West's reign over Quahog isn't all that it's cracked up to be. The next time Peter goes on another one of his drunken crime sprees, "Batman" shows up and kicks his ass and says that he's dishing out some justice in this messed up city with a corrupt mayor. When Peter reports this to Adam West, saying that someone beat him up for doing something perfectly legal, Adam just says that there's no way he'll be able to catch this smooth and slick vigilante as he gives a smug little wink.
Apparently Mayor Adam West is going to pretend to be a horrible mayor, while his alter-ego goes around, righting all of his wrongs, bringing an unconventional but successful form of justice to this crime-ridden town. The episode ends, Batman style with Mayor Adam West looking off into the night, while the bat signal flares up into the dark midnight sky, while a bolt of lighting strikes down, dramatically.
Characters
Major Roles
- Peter Griffin
- Lois Griffin
- Chris Griffin
- Meg Griffin
- Stewie Griffin
- Brian Griffin
- Glenn Quagmire
- Cleveland Brown
- Mayor Adam West
- Buddy Cianci
Minor Roles
Trivia
- The title of this episode is a pun on the phrase, "Do or Die".
- This episode marks the first appearance of the Performance Artist, also known as Bruce, The Drunken Clam bartender Horace and the Wacky Nutcase American actor Adam West.
- Adam West first becomes mayor in this episode.
Cultural References
- This episode satirizes the rocky history of Buddy Cianci, the mayor of Providence, Rhode Island and how he had been found guilty of felonies such as racketeering, which led to him being forced to resign from his job as mayor and get sent to jail for four years for racketeering.
