The Father, the Son, and the Holy Fonz

"The Father, the Son, and the Holy Fonz"
Family Guy episode
Peter creates the "Church Of The Fonz".
Episode no.	Season 4 Episode 18
Written by	Danny Smith
Directed by	James Purdum
Production no.	4ACX22
Original airdate	December 18, 2005
Guest stars
Charles Durning as Francis Griffin Tom Bosley Marion Ross Gary Cole Sherman Hemsley as Himself Paula Abdul
Episode chronology ← Previous Next → "The Fat Guy Strangler" "Brian Sings and Swings"
Family Guy (season 4) List of Family Guy episodes

"The Father, the Son, and the Holy Fonz" is the eighteenth episode of the fourth season of Family Guy. It was written by Danny Smith, who has written all Family Guy episodes to date to feature Francis, and guest-stars Charles Durning as Francis Griffin, Tom Bosley as Howard Cunningham, Marion Ross as Marion Cunningham, Gary Cole as Bill Lumbergh from Office Space, Sherman Hemsley as himself, and Paula Abdul as herself. The episode follows Peter's decision to find a new religion for himself. After several failed attempts, he chooses the one man who has always been there for him, Fonzie, and starts the First United Church of the Fonz.^[1] The episode accumulated a Nielsen rating of 8.26,^[2] and was received both positively and negatively by critics.

Plot

Peter's devout Catholic father, Francis, visits Quahog. Upon arrival, he insists that Stewie be baptized as a Catholic. After visiting a Church with Peter and Stewie, Francis is informed the holy water is tainted and he will have to wait. Francis is in disbelief, and baptizes Stewie himself. Stewie soon becomes unwell and is informed that he must be quarantined and kept in a germ-free environment by a doctor. Then Lois discovers Peter had Stewie baptized without her knowledge, and tells Peter to stand up for his beliefs and not allow himself to be bullied by his father. Peter converts to Mormonism, but discovers that Mormons cannot drink alcohol; he then tries Jehovah's Witnesses and attempts door-to-door conversion. He finds someone who is actually interested in hearing what he has to say; however, he fails to teach them anything about the religion. As a final attempt, Peter tries Hinduism; when he tackles the Hindu leader to the floor because he believes the red dot on his head is a laser spot from a sniper rifle, he is dismissed from the meeting. Unable to find a religion suited to him, Peter decides to create his own religion, based on Happy Days, calling his newly-founded Church The "First United Church of the Fonz".

To the Griffins' (mainly Lois') surprise, many people turn up for the first worship service, much to the annoyance of Brian, who dislikes the idea that Peter is a religious leader (likely due to Brian being an atheist). In order to stop Peter from continuing his new religion, Brian joins forces with Francis to find a way to deter people from worshiping the Fonz. Representatives from other religions soon turn up at Peter's church during his worship and distract the congregation with other religions, and everyone quickly leaves. Back at home, Lois comforts Peter, who is upset at the failure of his Church, by telling him that if his church embraced the Fonz's values of friendship, it is worthwhile, but Peter highly doubts it, however the scene shifts & Francis is shown looking at a picture of the Fonz, puts it down on a table gets on his knees as if to pray, and claps to the beat of Rock Around the Clock, and the episode ends.

Production

Episode writer and executive show producer Danny Smith has written all Family Guy episodes to date to feature Francis; the first was "Holy Crap".^[3][4] After Francis puts up the Christian cross on the Griffins' dining table, Stewie's line, "Yeah, nothing says 'eat up' like a bleeding, half-naked Jew nailed to a piece of wood," was censored from the FOX and syndicated airings, but retained on the Cartoon Network, TBS, and DVD versions. On Adult Swim, this episode is rated TV-MA, but on TBS, the episode is rated TV-14 for suggestive dialogue (D) and offensive language (L). A sequence shows Peter saying, "I'm sorry, but if another person says taint today, I am going to bust a nut", after the doctor informs him and Lois that Stewie was exposed to tainted holy water, was intended to be included in the episode, but was removed for unknown reasons.^[5] After Stewie is placed in a square box to quarantine him, Lois is shown leaving him half-way through changing his diaper—Stewie then says "finish the job, woman! It smells like New Orleans in here". The script for this episode, including this sketch, was prepared before the events of Hurricane Katrina, so it was never intended to coincide with the events of Katrina.^[3][6] On all airings (including the volume 3 DVD set), Stewie's line has been changed to "It smells like Brian Dennehy in here!"

The Fonz Statue in Peter's church was originally meant to depict The Fonz in a way similar to Jesus's depiction on the Christian cross, but it was rejected due to broadcasting standards.^[6] An animated scene showing the congregation of Peter's church singing the Happy Days theme tune was created but never used as the series producers were unable to obtain the rights to it.^[4] The series producers were not able to get Henry Winkler or Garry Marshall to guest-star in the episode, so to fill the time gap, they created the scene about Madonna, which they deemed to be "quite funny".^[4]

Cultural references

Peter is shown watching Jaws 5 on the television, a sequence which MacFarlane describes as "one of [his] favourite gags [they've] ever done on the show".^[6] Stewie is shown asking viewers to change the channel to one which is showing Desperate Housewives.^[3] When Peter is describing Jesus, he does so in a similar manner to that shown on Quantum Leap.^[6] Peter's failed attempt to use Stewie's megaphone due to its making odd noises is a reference to a sketch from Sesame Street, but a pinball was used in the Sesame Street gag instead of a megaphone.^[6] Peter's stuttering while attempting to say "wrong" is a reference to a scene in which Fonzie was unable to say the word on Happy Days.^[3][5][6][7] The music playing in the background during the end credits is "Rock Around the Clock".^[3]

Reception

"The Father, the Son, and the Holy Fonz" finished 40th in the weekly ratings for the week of December 12–18, 2005, with a Nielsen rating of 8.26.^[2] Ryan Budke, of TV Squad, said, "This was one of the funniest episodes this year." He added, "I was cracking up from beginning to end on this one." He was "a little disappointed that Henry Winkler did not actually show up in the show".^[8] The Parents Television Council (PTC), a frequent critic of the series, labeled "The Father, the Son, and the Holy Fonz" the worst show of the week.^[9] Caroline Schukenburg of the PTC commented: "It isn't the first and certainly won't be the last time that the writers of The Family Guy take something as personal and meaningful as religion and mock it in the most superficial and narrow-minded ways for the sake of being outré during the Holidays."^[9]

References

External links

• "The Father, the Son, and the Holy Fonz" at TV.com
• "The Father, the Son, and the Holy Fonz" at the Internet Movie Database
• The Father, the Son, and the Holy Fonz on Family Guy Wiki, an external wiki