"I Never Met the Dead Man" is the second episode of the first season of the animated comedy series Family Guy, originally aired on Fox in the United States on April 11, 1999. The episode follows Peter Griffin as he teaches his daughter Meg how to drive. Due to his horrible advice they crash into a satellite dish, knocking out the city's cable. Peter begins to suffer from television withdrawal but finds new life in outdoor activities, driving his family to exhaustion. Meanwhile, Stewie plots to destroy the world's supply of broccoli with a weather control device so Lois cannot force him to eat the vegetable.
"I Never Met the Dead Man" was written by Chris Sheridan and directed by Michael Dante DiMartino, both firsts in the Family Guy series. Much of the episode's humor, in standard Family Guy fashion, is structured around cutaway sequences that parody popular culture, including those centered around Star Trek, Wizard of Oz, ALF, Gilligan's Island, Bewitched, and Beverly Hills, 90210. The title "I Never Met the Dead Man" was derived from 1930s and 1940s radio programs, particularly the radio thriller anthology Suspense, which featured several elements pertaining to death and murder. The episode featured guest performances by Erik Estrada, Butch Hartman, Aaron Lustig and Joey Slotnick, along with several recurring voice actors for the series. This episode was rated TV-14.
Critical responses to the episode were favorable; several television critics singled it out as among the "most memorable" episodes in the series and considered it to be an improvement over "Death Has a Shadow".
Read more about I Never Met The Dead Man: Plot, Production, Cultural References, Reception
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—Jo Eisinger, and Jules Dassin. Harry Fabian (Richard Widmark)
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