No Meals on Wheels

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“No Meals on Wheels”
Family Guy episode
The Griffins open their restaurant.
Episode no.	Season 5 Episode 14
Written by	Mike Henry
Directed by	Greg Colton
Guest stars	Patrick Stewart Ben Stiller
Production no.	5ACX09
Original airdate	March 25, 2007
Season 5 episodes
Family Guy - Season 5 September 10, 2006 – May 20, 2007
Stewie Loves Lois Mother Tucker Hell Comes to Quahog Saving Private Brian Whistle While Your Wife Works Prick Up Your Ears Chick Cancer Barely Legal Road to Rupert Peter's Two Dads The Tan Aquatic with Steve Zissou Airport '07 Bill and Peter's Bogus Journey No Meals on Wheels Boys Do Cry No Chris Left Behind It Takes a Village Idiot, and I Married One Meet the Quagmires

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List of Family Guy episodes

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

[edit] 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 $50,000 (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. Joe states that the handicapped are "a proud people" to which Peter replies that they are always gambling and drinking on their "reservations." The handicapped people come back and demand access, but are promptly denied as Peter shows them a sign that reads:

No Shoes

No Shirt

No Legs

No Service

In response, the handicapped 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.

[edit] 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]
When a customer sends their food back to the kitchen Stewie responds by pouring a large amount of wine down a rat's throat, causing it to throw up on the food before sending it back to the customer. In actuality, rats don't have a gag reflex and won't vomit no matter how much wine is used.[2]

[edit] Cultural references

Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines.
The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.

In the middle of the show Peter talks about the time Ben Stiller helps him find his true self, Stiller is portrayed as of having giant ears. 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. The scene ends in a Mexican Standoff.
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!", but says he couldn't air it because "it turns out M. Night Shyamalan was involved with 9/11"
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; the shot shows her extremely overweight.
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."

[edit] Censorship

The cutaway of Peter speaking with vocal cords he traded with Patrick Stewart has two versions. In the FOX and ABC 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. However, 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.