Death Has a Shadow

Season 1, Episode 1, Aired
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Episode Summary

After Peter heavily drinks at a bachelor party, even though he told Lois he would not, he gets fired from his job at the Happy-go-Lucky toy factory for being hung over. Peter soon applies for welfare, but after a mix-up, gets sent a check for $150,000. Eventually, Lois finds out, and Peter decides to return the money by dumping it from a blimp at the Super Bowl. He is arrested as a result, and his family ends up coming to his rescue.moreless
8.6
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EPISODE RATING: Great
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Fan Episode Reviews (79)

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  • It's the pilot episode of "Family Guy" and it was almost perfect

    9.5
    "Superb"
    By tigerdude22, Jan 18, 2012 Report Abuse
    After Peter heavily drinks at a bachelor party, even though he told Lois he would not, he gets fired from his job at the Happy-go-Lucky toy factory for being hung over. Peter soon applies for welfare, but after a mix-up, gets sent a check for $150,000. Eventually, Lois finds out, and Peter decides to return the money by dumping it from a blimp at the Super Bowl. He is arrested as a result, and his family ends up coming to his rescue. I thought that this was an excellent episode of "Family Guy". It's not my favorite episode or even my favorite pilot episode for a show but it was pretty close though. The storyline was handled very well and a lot of parts made me laugh. My score is a tad low because I didn't like how Peter screwed up his family by drinking so much beer and a couple of parts were a tad dragged. Other than that, this is just an all-around enjoyable start to a very funny show even though it did lose some of its charms in the later seasons. There was a lot of parts that made me laugh such as the cutaway with Peter having his first fart and then he says "What the hell was that?", The Kool-Aid jumping through the court wall and say "Oh yeah" when "Oh no" was said like three times, the Super Bowl scene with Peter and Brian in the blimp so Peter can dump all of the money at the stadium and then everyone including one of the football reports are getting the money (probably the funniest part in this episode), Stewie threatening the judge with his laser gun which makes the judge decide to let Peter off with a warning, and many more. Like I said, I really liked it for the most parts. Some shows have weak pilots and some shows have strong pilots. This is one of those shows that has a strong pilot which made me happy. Overall, a hilarious and very creative pilot episode of "Family Guy". 9.5/10moreless

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  • Superb pilot for the show

    9.0
    "Superb"
    By fsaenz0125, Dec 16, 2011 Report Abuse
    I thought this pilot of Family Guy was superb. It was not my favorite and I thought a few scenes were a tad boring. Other than those, I enjoyed this first episode. My favorite/funny parts were the opening, the cutaways where Peter do something stupid (eat ice cream, say something at a movie, getting drunk at church, etc.), the guys watching a porn and then Statue of Liberty video shows up, Peter sleeping on the job, Peter saying weird stuffs about being fired, Stewie using a tuna sandwich, Peter and Brian at a NFL game, and the last part. Speaking of Stewie, he was really funny in this one and that' s why the older Stewie was 10 times better than the newer and gayer Stewie (he still make me laugh). Overall, this episode was superb. 9/10moreless

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  • The earlier episodes suck. There, I said it.

    3.5
    "Bad"
    By JusticeLeaguer8, Nov 11, 2011 Report Abuse
    Am I the only one that doesn't like the earlier episodes? The animation's really ugly, the lines are thick and inconsistent and the pauses are static-y. And the jokes just aren't funny, not even the usually-enjoyable cutaways. The story was barely there, either; fatman loses job, nothing interesting there. I will give them credit for the Stewie bits, though... if only we could transplant old Stewie into new episodes, then we'd have a winning combination. But still, milder Stewie aside, I'll take the newer, post-uncancellation episodes any day... even though I've already seen them a hundred times already. Tee hee...moreless

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    5 8

  • Great pilot episode for Family Guy!

    9.0
    "Superb"
    By marebear2009, Sep 29, 2011 Report Abuse
    For the most part, I thought this was a pretty great start to Family Guy. It wasn't one of the best episodes in my opinion, but it was still pretty awesome, especially for a pilot episode and had a lot of funny jokes, like the flashbacks of Peter being drunk, the Kool-aid man appearing in the court room, and the joke with the bunk beds in the jail cell. I also thought Stewie's parts in this episode were funny, and the ending with Peter apologizing for what he did was very heartwarming. So, overall, it wasn't my favorite episode, but it still made me laugh pretty hard at parts and was a pretty great start to the show.:) Final grade: A-. Marebear2009, out!moreless

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  • great

    8.0
    "Great"
    By futuramarama, Jun 29, 2011 Report Abuse
    Peter gets drunk at a stag party, and is too sleepy to do his job, and as a result, he gets fired. He tries to get welfare but the check is much higher than he thought it would be, and he is arrested. Will he go to jail?

    What I liked: the kool-aid man, Stewie hypnotizing (is that what he did?) the judge, "What did you promise you wouldn't do?" "Drink at the stag party" "And what did you do?" "Drink at the stag p- Whoa! Almost walked right into that one." Not one of my favorite pilots, or even favorite episodes of the show, but it was pretty OK. Final grade would have to be a low "B".moreless

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Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

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  • Trivia

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    • If you look carefully at the cheerleaders, you can see they are not wearing skirts.

      Edit
    • Peter's shirt, throughout the entire series, is buttoned on the girl's side -- right over left. Edit
    • In the flashback where Peter gets drunk from butter rum ice cream, his eyes constantly change size. Edit

  • Notes

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    • The fifteen minute version of this episode that Seth pitched to the network is available on the Family Guy: Volume 2 DVD. Seth animated it entirely by himself at home, being paid only $50,000 from the network, where a pilot pitch normally runs around $1,000,000. Edit
    • The transitional music heard in this episode is not heard again throughout the series. Edit
    • Death Has a Shadow and the next 3 episodes are from a time when Seth MacFarlane wanted to do all the episodes like old Radio shows. Most of the old radio mysteries were stuff like Death Has a Shadow, Death Knocks Twice, Driver Death, and so on. However this proved unmanageable as the writers and producers found it hard to talk about the episodes unless they alluded to actions, not the titles such as The One Where Peter is Under House Arrest. Edit

  • Quotes

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    • Peter: How the hell am I going to break this to Lois? If she finds out I got fired for drinking, she's going to blame me! Edit
    • (on TV: The Brady Bunch) Jan: Mom, Dad, I found cigarettes in Greg's jacket. Mike: Greg were you smoking cigarettes? Greg: No Dad. Mike: Well he's lying. There's no doubt about that. Greg I'm afraid your punishment will be 4 hours in the snake pit. Maybe that'll give you some time to think about what you've done. Greg: Aw man. Jan: That'll teach him. Mike: And Jan I'm afraid you've earned a day in the Chamber of Fire for tattling on your brother. Edit
    • Stewie: You know mother, life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're going to get. Your life, however, is more like a box of active grenades! Edit

  • Allusions

    ADD ALLUSIONS
    • Tienanmen Square When Peter says "I didn't really hold up that tank in Tienanmen square." it is a reference to the incident in Beijing China on June 4th 1989, where a single protest referred to as the unknown rebel stood in front of an oncoming tank to halt is progress. Edit
    • G.I. Joe
      The G.I. Jew is a parody of the popular American hero. Edit
    • Forrest Gump Stewie: You know, Mother, life is like a box of chocolates... you never know what you're going to get. Your life, however, is more like a box of active grenades!
      The first part of the quote comes from the movie Forrest Gump. Edit

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