Running Mates (Family Guy)

"Running Mates"
Family Guy episode
Peter vs. Lois in the election.
Episode no.	Season 2 Episode 10
Directed by	John Holmquist
Written by	Neil Goldman Garrett Donovan
Production code	1ACX09
Original air date	April 11, 2000
Guest stars
Patrick Bristow Lee Majors Dwight Schultz James Carville Jack Sheldon
Episode chronology
← Previous "If I'm Dyin', I'm Lyin'" Next → "A Picture Is Worth a 1,000 Bucks"
Family Guy (season 2) List of Family Guy episodes

Running Mates is an episode from the second season of the Fox animated series Family Guy. It is the 17th episode of Family Guy to be aired. The episode first aired on April 11, 2000. It was written by Garrett Donovan and Neil Goldman, and directed by John Holmquist. Lee Majors guest stars as himself. This episode is rated TV-14 LS. It was also the last episode of the first production season of Family Guy.

Plot summary

Lois' campaign for school board president is interrupted when Brian tells Lois that he got a call from the principal, saying that Chris got in trouble after being caught peeking into the girls' locker room. After Peter shows Chris pornography magazines and Chris sells some of the porn to his friends, Lois finally holds a campaign for Head of the School Board of Education.

Meanwhile, Peter runs into his favorite teacher from the past, Mr. Fargus (voiced by Dwight Schultz); he has been reduced from his former peppy, almost loony self to a catatonic old man due to the pills he has been required to take by the school board. Peter is surprised that Mr. Fargus does not remember him, because he was his favorite student, and even taught him to dance in time for the prom; he tells Mr. Fargus to stop taking the pills, which quickly causes Mr. Fargus to go off the edge and subsequently get fired after he and his students begin smashing eggs of the endangered California Condor.

Lois meanwhile, holds a rally, and it is revealed that the school textbooks are from a semi-racist era, as they refer The Civil Rights Movement as "Trouble Ahead." Lois' rival for school board president quits, so Lois wins by default; however, Peter also convinces Lois that if she is president, then she could get Mr. Fargus' job back, but she refuses because she has to agree with the school board's decision, and tells him that the man is obviously unbalanced.

Furious that Lois will not give Mr. Fargus his job back, Peter decides to run for school board president too, so that he can reinstate him to his old position. The two run tight campaigns against each other but a rally held by both leaves Peter in humiliation. Peter mounts a campaign against Lois that shows some promise, but at a debate between them, Lois trounces Peter after Peter accuses her of "freeing" Willie Horton and "nailing" Donna Rice. Desperate to win, Peter airs a political advertisement, using a sexy picture of Lois to discredit her, thus making Lois humiliated.

Lois is shocked and upset when Peter actually wins the school board election in a landslide and does not seem to take his new position very seriously; to calm her down, Peter tells Lois he is going to show her all the great changes he has in store, but all of his proposed "improvements" are ridiculous. A huge scandal erupts for Peter during a TV interview when it is revealed that the kids at Peter's school are reading pornography, and even worse, that Peter supplied it. Peter is advised to pin the whole thing on Lois, but during a press conference, he cannot bring himself to do that because every woman he saw turned into her; in fact, he finds himself apologizing for his horrible behavior and resigns before he and Lois leave on a helicopter, mimicking the final departure of Richard Nixon from the White House.

Cultural references

• In the flashback scene to 8th grade where Peter first notices girls beginning to develop, several girls in the auditorium's breasts immediately pop up, and then after that Peter's breasts immediately pop up. A similar scene in the comedy film Mafia! occurs where the lead character wishes upon a star with a female friend, and her breasts immediately appear.
• Mr. Fargus, Peter's old teacher, is a reference to Mr. Vargus from the movie Fast Times at Ridgemont High.
• The magazines that Peter gives Chris are Playpen Magazines, which is a reference to both Playboy and Penthouse magazines.
• Peter's opening statement at the debate consists of excerpts from the theme songs of Diff'rent Strokes, One Day at a Time, and The Facts of Life. He concludes with "Sit, Ubu, sit. Good dog!" which is from the production credit for UBU Productions, Inc., the production company of executive producer Gary David Goldberg, who created Family Ties and Spin City, among others.
• During the debate, Peter claims that he once "joined some underprivileged youths in saving a community center from being converted into a shopping mall." Lois reminds him that he is referring not to himself but Adolfo "Shabba-Doo" Quinones in the 1984 breakdancing film Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo.
• When Peter shows Tricia Takanawa the school, Peter creates a new version of Schoolhouse Rock's "Conjunction Junction" for the sex ed class. He also shows her the "XL-K" hall pass enforcement robot, which is a reference to the "ED-209" police robot from the film RoboCop.
• When Stewie realizes he misses Lois, he sings "I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face" (from the musical, "My Fair Lady") and in the picture album there is a reference to Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho".

Reception

In his 2008 review, Ahsan Haque of IGN, rating the episode a 9/10, stated that "Running Mates" is "one of the stronger outings of the excellent second season" and said that it is "entertaining, cleverly written" and features "a very strong tightly woven storyline".^[1]

References

1. ^ Haque, Ahsan. "Family Guy: "Running Mates" Review". IGN. http://tv.ign.com/articles/911/911330p1.html. Retrieved 2009-12-02. 

External links

Family Guy portal

• Running Mates at the Internet Movie Database
• "Running Mates" at TV.com

Preceded by If I'm Dyin', I'm Lyin'

Family Guy (season 2)

Succeeded by A Picture Is Worth a 1,000 Bucks