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Family Guy Season 3 Episode 17

Brian Wallows and Peter's Swallows

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8.3

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Episode Summary

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AIRED: 1/17/02

Brian falls in love with a bitter old woman who he is forced to do community service for. Meanwhile, Peter grows a beard and finds a family of swallows have built a nest in it.

FAN RECAP

Fan Episode Reviews (19)

Brian had to do community service while Peter takes care of swallows

10

By fsaenz0125, Apr 05, 2012

Brian falls in love with a bitter old woman who he is forced to do community service for. Meanwhile, Peter grows a beard and finds a family of swallows have built a nest in it. I thought this episode was perfect. I liked Peter's plot a little better than Brian's. It was much hilarious since I kept laughing at what the swallows on Peter's beard do. Brian's plot wasn't as funny as Peter's plot but there were still some tolerable parts such as the song. A few more funny moments include the guys hanging out to cheer Brian up, the laser parts, Brian drinking while driving, Peter getting a beard after watching a show, and the swallows appeared on Peter's beard. Overall, this episode was perfect. It seems underrated, I'm gonna be the second person to get the perfect score. 10/10moreless
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Gah, Brian starts to love a woman, but Peter's plot was funny

5.0

By jmbsonic555, Oct 10, 2011

Brian falls in love with a bitter old woman who he is forced to do community service for. Meanwhile, Peter grows a beard and finds a family of swallows have built a nest in it.

God

Brian's plot- boring, like usual

Peter's plot- really funny

But a mediocre episode

5/10
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Funny, but......

4.0

By ssimonds1, Apr 03, 2011

This is a very funny episode, but most of it is "stolen" from other shows. The Peter story line is pieced together from two Simpsons episode(The Frying Game and Two Dozen and One Greyhounds) and the pilot of the Sopranos. The Brian story has been done to death. Person A meets an angry elderly person nad then finds that behind that hard exterior they find a wonderful human being. Now don't get me wrong, I am a huge fan of FG. I just feel that this episode was "borrowed" way to much from other shows. I just expect better from Seth and the crew.moreless
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The staff identifies this as the only episode of the series to contain "real human emotion" the only emotion i had was boredom.

3.0

By oceanic6, Apr 03, 2011

In it; Brian must take care of a bitter old woman following a DUI and initially hates her but they fall in love 20 minutes later, Peter's new beard becomes home to some swallows who he also gets attached to. A show that thinks its funny is one thing but a show that thinks it has the poignancy of an animated Titanic is unbearable. All Family Guy has is it's witty humour and by shelving that in place of two schmaltzy plots that could be bettered by any DVD watched by a newly dumped person with a box of tissues and chocolates, is a poor way to repay the fans who stuck by the show no matter how many cancellations. Aside from a terrific musical number, the episode offers nothing special or memorable.

Seth Macfarlane does do a good job as Brian and suprised as Peter when the mood changes but he's clearly the only male voice artist on the show, the bevy of idiotic extras he voices that sounds like Brian quickly kills the effect. While this episode is boldly declared as the only non - comedic, i beg to differ. The final one minute of soppiness they found the strength to make at the end does not discount the previous half hour of drek that is only non - comedic in the sense that it isn't funny at all. Getting hit by a bus on TV has become the transportational equivalent of throwing a pie in someone's face, if they really wanted to make Pearl's death heartbreaking they should've gone with an alternative method. And as for Peter's story, it may be just me but i find it hard to get emotionally attached to birds in someone's beard. Almost all of the comic and dramatic potential in this episode is wasted. It's neither moving nor funny and is the skeleton in the great closet of Family Guy.moreless
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great

8.0

By futuramarama, Feb 04, 2011

Brian gets a DUI and as a result, he must take care of an elderly woman for community service. But, the woman treats him like crap and he wishes for her to "do the world a favor and fall down and die." But that is until Brian learns who this woman actually is, and starts to like her.

Peter grows a beard that has baby swallows in it, and he becomes attached to them. Will he be able to let them go?

It was OK of an episode. Some good parts. The song part was my favorite. Pearl dying could have been handled a little better but it was kind of emotional. B+ or so as a grade seems fairmoreless
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Cast & Crew: STARS

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Seth Green	Chris (and various)
Alex Borstein	Lois (and various)
Mila Kunis	Meg (season 2+)
Seth MacFarlane	Peter / Stewie / Brian / Quagmire / Tom Tucker (and various)

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Cast & Crew: RECURRING AND GUESTS

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A.J. Benza	Himself	Guest Star
Adria Firestone	Voice	Guest Star
Melora Hardin	Voice	Guest Star
Lori Alan	Diane	Recurring Role
Mike Barker	Various	Recurring Role
Gary Cole	Various	Recurring Role

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Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

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TRIVIA (1)
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- During the Dinner scene, the food starts out as Chicken and then a few seconds later it's Meatloaf.
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QUOTES (8)
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- Bird Scientist: This bird is a very rare species; The endangered white-rumped swallow.
  Chris: (laughs) Rump.
  Peter: This isn't funny, Chris! (laugh) Swallow.
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- Dr. Hartman: Right through here. Just tell the disorderly when you're ready to leave.
  Brian: Don't you mean the orderly?
  Dr. Hartman: No, the disorderly. (Laughs) Thats a little medical joke. We also like Kevin Pollack.
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- Stewie: Ah-hah! So they do make bigger diapers. That deceitful woman told me I'd have to learn to use the toilet! Well, fie on the toilet! It's made slaves of you all. I've seen it sitting in there: lazy, slothful, porcelain lay-about, feeding on other people's doo doos while contributing nothing of its own to society. You get a job!
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- Pearl: What is this, spit soup?
  Brian: Tomato bisque.
  Pearl: What is this, snot soup?
  Brian: Tomato bisque.
  Pearl: What is this, diarrhea soup?
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- Brian: Uh! Excuse me, would you like to taste my smoked meat log?
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- Brian: Why don't you do the world a favor and drop dead!
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- Brian: (singing)
  The '60s brought the hippie breed,
  And decades later, things have changed indeed.
  We lost the values, but we kept the weed.
  You've got a lot to see!
  The Reagan years have laid the frame for movie stars to play the White House game.
  We're not too far from voting Feldman-Haim.
  You've got a lot to see!
  The town of Vegas has got a different face, because it's a family place with lots to do.
  Where in the '50s, a man could mingle with scores of all the seediest whores... Now his children can, too!
  You heard it from the canine's mouth,
  The country's changed, that is, except the South!
  No one really knows, my dear lady friend just quite how it all will end,
  So, hurry 'cause you've got a lot to see!
  The baldness gene was cause for dread, but That's a fear that you can put to bed.
  They'll shave your ass and glue it on your head!
  You've got a lot to see!
  The PC age has moved the bar
  A word like 'redneck' is a step too far.
  The proper term is country-music star!
  You've got a lot to see!
  Our flashy cell phones make people mumble Gee whiz, look how important he is, his life must rule!
  You'll get a tumor, but on your surgery day, the doc will see it and say "wow, you must really be cool!"
  Tom Tucker: There's lots of things you may have missed.
  Adam West: Like Pee Wee and his famous wrist.
  Cleveland: Or Sandy Duncan's creepy phony eye.
  Neil: That awesome Thunder Cats cartoon.
  Diane Simmons: Neil Armstrong landing on the moon.
  Meg: Neil Armstrong? Wait, was he that trumpet guy?
  Brian: (singing) So, let's go see the USA.
  They'll treat you right unless you're black or gay or Cherokee.
  But you can forgive the world and its flaws, and follow me there because
  you've still got a hell of a lot to see
  You've got a lot to see!
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- Lois: Hey Brian... you're home early. What happened with your date?
  Brian: Same thing that always happens, she was an idiot.
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NOTES (3)
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- During the musical number on the FOX version, one of the tarot cards was changed from George W. Bush to Jerry Springer. Also the World Trade Center towers were digitally removed after 9/11 (the same reason why the George W. Bush tarot card was changed to Jerry Springer). Both of these deleted parts have been shown on Cartoon Network.
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- Episode won an Emmy for its musical number.
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- While this was not the SOURCE of the episode's material, CBC Radio One ran a segment on its show As it Happens about a man named Grant Griffen who's apartment in Florida was overrun with bats that he could not have exterminated or removed because they were endangered. This story ran June 27, 2002, long after this episode was ever written or aired, but it sure is a cute bit of irony that a man with nearly the same name has a real life problem like this.
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ALLUSIONS (7)
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- The Miracle Worker
  
  Professor: Binary code is the language of computers in which words are translated into sequences of zeros and ones. Anything at all can be expressed in binary as we demonstrate it in this famous scene from The Miracle Worker.
  
  The Miracle Worker is a play about the famous Helen Keller, a deafblind american author from Alabama who struggled with her disease - she was both blind and deaf. The scene we saw was when Anne Sullivan, her mentor, was teaching her to understand with the help of cold water.
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- Final Destination
  
  Pearl being killed by the bus is similar in how the character Terry Chaney is killed in the movie Final Destination.
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- Waco
  
  Peter tried using music to drive the birds away, but it doesn't work. This same tactic was used by the F.B.I. against David Koresh and the Branch Davidian cult in Waco, Texas.
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- School House Rock
  
  Bird Scientist: It's Great to Learn...'Cause Knowledge is Power.
  This quote is a reference to the old animated series, School House Rock!. At the beginning of every episode, they would tell you that "Knowledge is Power."
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- The Music Man
  
  When Lois and Brian are having a conversation by singing to the tune "Jonas" is playing, it is a play on a scene from Meredith Wilson's "The Music Man," a musical that has been made into a movie twice. Originally, one of the main characters and her mother are arguing about her dating habits. It is the same tune, which was played by a little girl named Amerillis.
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- Neil Armstrong/Louis Armstrong
  
  Meg: ...and Neil Armstrong landing on the moon, hey wasn't he that trumpet guy?
  
  Neil Armstrong was an astronaut. Louis Armstrong was a trumpet player in the early 30's.
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- Jon Benet Murder
  
  Peter: Mr. and Mrs. Ramsey, Jon Benet's untimely death is a tragedy; and I will not rest until I find her killler, or killers...
  
  In this scene, Mr. and Mrs. Ramsey both react quite nervously to Peter's dedication to their murdered daughter. This is a reference to the 1997 murder of Jon Benet Ramsey who was found strangled to death in the family's basement in their Colorado home. They were absolved of all charges, but many suspected that they were guilty of the crime.
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