No Meals on Wheels

"No Meals on Wheels"

"No Meals on Wheels" is a season five episode of the FOX animated television series Family Guy. Its title is a parody of the Meals on Wheels program.

Plot summary

Peter is annoyed by Mort constantly borrowing his things, so he makes a "Scare-jew" out of his best suit, which is actually a scarecrow modeled after Adolf Hitler. Frustrated, Lois takes him to a secondhand clothing store to get a new suit, where Peter finds some flannel pajamas. While wearing them, he begins to notice that he can shock people with static electricity by rubbing his feet on the carpet. Annoyed by this, Lois has the carpet completely removed. When this is done Quagmire finds an old coin under the carpet, which is sold for fifty thousand dollars (the carpets later return). With the money, Peter and Lois decide to live their dream of owning their own restaurant, naming it "Big Pete’s House of Munch". The restaurant at first is a complete failure; however, Joe promises to bring his friends. Peter is at first excited because he believes it will become a hang out for police officers, only to find that Joe is actually bringing in fellow paraplegics. The restaurant becomes a huge success among handicapped people; however, Peter is convinced handicapped people are "uncool" (citing Mark Harmon as "the greatest actor who ever lived" and as he is not handicapped, that makes it uncool to be) and he bans them from entering. The handicapped people come back and demand access, but are promptly denied. In response, they unite into "CrippleTron" (a giant robot reminiscent of Voltron) and destroy the restaurant while Peter, Chris and Stewie are on the roof. Stewie eventually takes matters into his own hands and defeats the cripples, but they accidentally knock down rubble which fall on Peter, breaking his legs. He is wheelchair bound for two weeks, though it takes forty-five minutes for Peter to realize the difficulty of being handicapped and he apologizes to Joe.

Notes

• The Parents Television Council, which has frequently criticized the series, named the episode the “Worst TV Show of the Week” for the week ending April 6 for its insensitivity toward the disabled and a scene depicting Adolf Hitler as a “Scare Jew.” Seth McFarlane said that it was completely true, and the joke was that it was supposed to be in bad taste. [1]

Cultural references

• In the middle of the show Peter talks about the time Ben Stiller helps him find his true self and when Stiller is gone, Peter says "His movies are terrible". Stiller was voiced by himself but was uncredited.
• At the beginning of the episode, an enraged Tyra Banks sheds her skin, revealing a giant iguana which devours a displeased America's Next Top Model contestant. This is a reference to Tyra’s infamous aggressive behavior toward a misbehaving contestant on the early “cycles”, particularly her blow-up in Cycle 4.
• At the store, Stewie finds an "on the Raggedy Ann" doll, that speaks phrases as if it has PMS.
• Brian recalls the time when he and his African American roommate were watching the verdict in the O.J. Simpson murder case. Brian was shocked by the “Not Guilty” verdict while his roommate was thrilled, reflecting the racial split of public opinion about the trial.
• Peter’s statue at Big Pete’s House of Munch is a parody of the Big Boy statue.
• The show makes a reference to the theme song to Maude and adds more historical references than already existed in the tune (Madame Curie, Clara Barton, Susan B. Anthony, Pocahontas, Indira Gandhi, Babe Zaharias, Amelia Earhart, and Cleopatra are added to the lyrics).
• Peter makes a commercial (directed by M. Night Shyamalan), in which Peter (a la The Sixth Sense) tells a man by his bedside table that "I see good food at competitive prices...at Big Pete's House of Munch! Stop on by!"
• Peter makes a reference to M.C. Escher in a parody of MC Hammer. The setting of the video was based on Escher’s Relativity.
• Peter rudely insults a customer after he is asked whether the restaurant accepts the Discover Card, poking fun at the card’s relatively smaller merchant network.
• The episode makes a reference to Liza Minnelli when Stewie talks about her in a Playboy shoot, and the shot shows her extremely overweight. In that scene Liza cries "Mama, mama, why don't you love me?" It is a reference to the song of My Chemical Romance "Mama" were Liza participated.
• During a montage of Peter in a wheelchair, “I Guess That's Why They Call It the Blues” by Elton John is playing which was done in honor of his 60th birthday since it aired on March 25th.
• The "CrippleTron" sequence is a parody of many Japanese programs that feature smaller robots morphing into a larger one, such as Voltron.
• At the end of the show, after Peter apologizes, Joe invites him to watch Grey's Anatomy to which Peter replies, "Boy Joe, I gotta tell ya, that sounds awful."

Censorship

• The cutaway of Peter speaking with vocal cords he got from Patrick Stewart has two versions. In the FOX version, Peter (in Stewart’s voice) tells Lois that he can list several famous Armenians, including actor Eric Bogosian, tennis player Andre Agassi, and college basketball coach Jerry “Tark the Shark” Tarkanian. On Adult Swim, Peter (in Stewart’s voice) apologizes to Lois for staining the bathroom and blames his faulty urination on having sex with her.

Reception

The episode accumulated a Nielsen rating of 5.0/8 HH, meaning about 7.97 million viewers tuned in.