Wasted Talent
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| Family Guy Episode | |
|---|---|
| "Wasted Talent" | |
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| Episode no.: | 27 |
| Prod. code: | 2ACX15 |
| Airdate: | July 25, 2000 |
| Writer(s): | Mike Barker and Matt Weitzman, |
| Director: | Bert Ring |
| Guest star(s): | Adam Carolla |
"Wasted Talent" is an episode from the second season of the FOX animated television series Family Guy, guest starring Adam Carolla as Death.
Contents |
[edit] Plot summary
Lois desperately searches for one piano student who can beat her rival Alexis's student at the piano competition.
Meanwhile, Peter drinks even more Pawtucket beer than usual in an attempt to win a tour of the brewery. Almost ready to give up, he drinks one more beer, which turns out to have the silver scroll. Peter and Brian go to the brewery tour, but split off from the group to try beer that never goes flat despite Pawtucket Pat's warning that they haven't worked out the kinks. When Pat finds Peter and Brian in the forbidden room, he ejects them from the brewery.
Angry at Pawtucket Pat, Peter tries to get Lois's attention by playing the piano, showing that he can play piano perfectly when drunk. Lois decides to enter Peter as her student in the piano competition, and keeps him in a state of constant inebriation. At the competition, Peter can't even find the piano, Lois has to turn him around and move him a couple of inches. Peter and Lois win first place, but Lois frets that she may have harmed his health for her own selfish need to win.
[edit] Notes
Death first appeared in the Season 2 episode Death Is a Bitch, in which he was voiced by Norm Macdonald. From this episode onwards, Death is now voiced by Adam Carolla.
[edit] Modified credits
The sad "Lonely Man" song from the Hulk TV series, which Peter played earlier at Stewie's request, is heard instead of the theme, during the end credits. Stewie again imitates Bill Bixby hitchhiking as a car and a truck roll by.
[edit] Cultural references
- At the beginning of the episode, Meg is reading Popularity for Dummies.
- Death reappears after Death is a Bitch and it is revealed that he drives a Volkswagen Beetle. This may be a reference to Piers Anthony's book, On a Pale Horse. This part, also, reveals Death's face.
- The ear wig which Tom Tucker places in his ear is from the Star Trek Movie The wrath of Khan
- Roughly the first half of the episode is an homage to the film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. Pawtucket Pat and his Chumbawumbas are a parody of Willy Wonka and his Oompa Loompas. Peter Ostrum as Charlie Bucket and Jack Albertson as Grandpa Joe are depicted during the tour of the brewery. The music played when Peter finds his scroll is identical to the music played in Willy Wonka when Charlie finds his golden ticket.
- The Mexican actor Pawtucket Pat hires to stage the shooting is none other than Cheech Marin.
- The Chumbawumba characters are a reference to the band Chumbawamba who are best known in the US for their 1997 hit "Tubthumping," the lyrics of which reference the pleasure of drinking.
- The Great Gazoo from The Flintstones appears.
- Peter's piano repertoire is movie and TV show theme songs, including Dallas, Nine to Five, The Incredible Hulk, The X-Files and The Mary Tyler Moore Show.
- Mary Richards throws her hat in the air at the end of The Mary Tyler Moore Show theme as she did in the opening credits of that show and the hat stays it the air and she is frozen and people see it happening.
- Lois compares Peter to "the idiot" from Shine.
- In a scene, Cap'n Crunch is speaking to the don from There's Something About Paulie, requesting a hit on Count Chocula in retaliation for claims made by Count Chocula stating that Cap'n Crunch cuts the roof of peoples' mouths.
- The last scene, with the last brain cell in Peter's brain, parodies The Twilight Zone episode "Time Enough at Last", in a similar way to the Futurama episode A Head in the Polls.
- The method in which Peter finds his winning scroll is remarkably similar to the Futurama episode Fry and the Slurm Factory. Both Fry and Peter find the winning item to go on a tour of a beverage factory when they accidentally drink and start choking on the item (Fry's is a bottlecap.)
[edit] References
- S. Callaghan, "Wasted Talent." Family Guy: The Official Episode Guide Seasons 1-3. New York: HarperCollins, 2005. 120 - 122.
- A. Delarte, "Nitpicking Family Guy: Season 2" in Bob's Poetry Magazine, 2.May 2005: 27 - 28 http://bobspoetry.com/Bobs02My.pdf
| Preceded by: "The Story on Page One" |
Family Guy Episodes | Followed by: "Fore Father" |
