Family Guy/PTV

PTV
Season 4, Episode 14
Airdate	November 6, 2005
Production Number	4ACX17
Written by	Wellesley Wild, Alec Sulkin
Directed by	Dan Povenmire
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Family Guy — Season Four

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PTV is the fourteenth episode of the fourth season of Family Guy, and the sixty-fourth episode overall.

In this episode dealing with television censorship and the Federal Communications Commission, Peter is inspired to start his own TV network of uncensored, indecent programming after the FCC begins an effort to ramp up censorship on television. The fallout that results from Lois' outcry are a key point in this episode.

"PTV" was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program (for Programming of Less Than One Hour). The Simpsons episode "The Seemingly Never-Ending Story" was the winner.

Guest Stars: John Viener (Various), Chris Sheridan (James), Mark Hentemann (Various), Ralph Garman (Various), Phil LaMarr (Various), Patrick Warburton (Joe), Mike Henry (Various), Johnny Brennan (Various), Danny Smith (Various), Anne-Michelle Seiler (Various), Fred Tatasciore (Various)

Plot

The Griffins watch a broadcast of the Emmy Awards, where presenter David Hyde Pierce has an accident involving his trousers, exposing his private area. Following a media blitz, the Federal Communications Commission steps up its efforts to censor television. The result is very-strictly monitored programming, with shows and dialogue censored at even the slightest hint that it would be offensive. Peter's frustration reaches a boiling point and decides to do something about it: With help from his friends, Brian and Stewie, Peter starts a network called "PTV."

PTV is a network full of smutty programming and uncensored versions of older network TV shows. The network is a huge success, much to the more conservative Lois' chagrin, who is worried about changes in Peter's behavior and the influence it will have on their children and others. When Peter refuses to relent, Lois contacts the FCC and asks that her husband be forced to cease and desist. When the FCC arrives to issue their stop order, Peter, Stewie and Brian respond with an elaborate musical number scorning the perceived strict regulations of the FCC, at the same time making their case for unregulated, unmonitored broadcasting. The FCC agents are impressed, but still demand that the network close down. Undaunted, Peter warns the FCC that it will be impossible to censor "who they are" or "how they live."

"Oh, no?" the FCC in essence responds. They decide to do just that, censoring foul language and inappropriate behavior on sight throughout Quahog. At one point, the FCC agents place a "black bar" over Peter's genitals immediately after he gets out of the shower. At first, Lois seems to approve, given that Peter needs a lesson in decency and appropriate behavior. But eventually, Lois begins to grow frustrated when the FCC agents begin to interrupt her private life, and joins Peter in an effort to lobby Congress to relax the FCC's restrictions on television broadcasting. When Congress initially resists, Peter makes a claim that various landmarks resemble body parts — most notably, the Washington Monument's resemblance to an erect penis, and that the chair in the Lincoln Memorial is supposedly a toilet. Congressmen don't have a response and decide they have no choice but to reverse the FCC's restrictions on broadcasting. It isn't long before life returns to normal in Quahog.

Trivia

Shows airing on PTV

• All in the Family — The plot where Archie and Edith dress as members of the Klu Klux Klan and try to force the Jeffersons to move by burning a cross on their lawn is a parody and reversal of the classic sitcom's episode "Archie and the KKK" (in the AitF version, Archie actually attempted to prevent a cross-burning on son-in-law Mike's lawn).

• Baywatch and Dynasty — Blackout gags from the two TV series are featured on Peter's show, The Side-Boob Hour.

• Jackass — Douchebags is a direct parody of the MTV series.

• The Odd Couple — The sitcom "Cheeky Bastard," starring Stewie and Brian, features a pair of bickering, polar-opposite roommates who are much like Oscar Madison and Felix Unger.

• Playboy After Dark — The acts on Quagmire's talk show, Midnight Q, are inspired by the lineups featured on the Playboy Channel's adult TV series.

• The Waltons — The signature ending, where the Waltons say their "good nights," only with off-colored remarks.

Shows censored by the FCC

As part of the episode's theme of censorship, the Griffins watch several shows that were censored, often for dubious reasons:

• The Dick Van Dyke Show — The words "Dick" and "Dyke" are bleeped, the former because of misinterpretation as a vulgar slang term for penis, and the latter because it was also a derogatory synonym for lesbian.

• The Honeymooners — Because it was perceived as endorsing or condoning spousal abuse, Ralph's quote, “One of these days, Alice ... Pow! Right in the kisser!” is dubbed over.

• Three's Company — Most of the double entendre, which ends up having innocent connotations, is censored.

Other references

• 2004 Super Bowl halftime show — The "wardrobe malfunction" involving David Hyde Pierce's trousers on a live broadcast of the Emmy Awards is inspired by a similar incident involving pop singers Justin Timberlake and Janet Jackson during their performance at the 2004 Super Bowl.

• The Brady Bunch — The tag scene features the Bradys telling bathroom jokes on an episode from the classic 1970s TV series. The ending of this gag features the signature ending of the final act, where each of the family members' squares appearing on the screen, one at a time, using one of the show's act-ending music cues.

• G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero — The FCC chairman is Cobra Commander, a character from the 1980s animated TV series.

• Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat — Meg produces a play called "God and His Magical Rainbow Suspenders," which is inspired by the rock musical.

• "My Ding-a-Ling" — Peter's anti-censorship song includes the lyric, "You’re gonna have to do her with your ding-a-ling," the euphenism/double-ententre that served as the title of the 1972 Chuck Berry No. 1 pop song.

• The Naked Gun and The Simpsons — The episode opening — Stewie riding his tricycle through various video game and movie scenes, before riding into the family garage and running down Homer Simpson is an outtake of both the Naked Gun and the opening sequence to the long-running FOX animated TV series.

Other films and video games included in the sequence include The Wizard of Oz, The Shining, Ben-Hur, "Doom," Star Wars and The Sound of Music.

• Ozzy Osbourne — A gag features a reformed version of the glam/heavy metal rock music performer eating a peanut butter sandwich during a rock concert, a reference to his famous 1982 concert in Des Moines, Iowa, where he supposedly bit the head of a live bat while on stage.

• Reese's Peanut Butter Cups — A gag pays homage to the classic commercial, where two teen-agers enjoying either a chocolate bar or peanut butter, collide and complain about getting either "chocolate in my peanut butter" or "peanut butter on my chocolate" before getting an idea.