North By North Quahog - Cultural References

Cultural References

The episode opens with Peter telling the rest of the family that Family Guy has been canceled. He lists the following 29 shows, that he says Fox has to make room for: Dark Angel, Titus (though Titus was facing cancellation the same year Family Guy was), Undeclared, Action, That '80s Show, Wonderfalls, Fastlane, Andy Richter Controls the Universe, Skin, Girls Club, Cracking Up, The Pitts, Firefly, Get Real, Freakylinks, Wanda at Large, Costello, The Lone Gunmen, A Minute with Stan Hooper, Normal, Ohio, Pasadena, Harsh Realm, Keen Eddie, The $treet, The American Embassy, Cedric the Entertainer Presents, The Tick, Luis and Greg the Bunny. Lois asks whether there is any hope, to which Peter replies that if all these shows are canceled they might have a chance, the joke being all these shows had indeed already been canceled by Fox. The New York Times reported that, during the first Family Guy Live! performance, "... the longer went, the louder the laughs from the Town Hall crowd ".

Australian-American actor Mel Gibson is prominently featured in the episode; his voice was impersonated by André Sogliuzzo. Gibson directed the film The Passion of the Christ and, in the episode, is seen making a sequel entitled Passion of the Christ 2: Crucify This. The fictional sequel is a combination of The Passion of the Christ and Rush Hour, and stars Chris Tucker, who starred in Rush Hour, and James Caviezel who portrayed Jesus in The Passion of the Christ. Gibson was approached to voice himself but passed on it, which he later regretted because he enjoyed the episode.

The episode contains several references to Alfred Hitchcock's 1959 film North by Northwest. Besides the title of the episode, several scenes in "North by North Quahog" are inspired by the Hitchcock film. In the scene in which Lois is kidnapped by Gibson's associates, the two priests chase Peter through a cornfield, flying a crop-duster, parodying the crop-duster scene from the film. The final face-off between Peter, Lois and Gibson that takes place on Mount Rushmore is also a reference to North by Northwest.

As Peter and Lois are driving to Cape Cod for their second honeymoon, Peter is reading a Jughead comic book and their car crashes. The fictional Park Barrington Hotel, where Peter and Lois steal Gibson's film, is located in Manhattan. The car chase scene through a shopping mall is a recreation of a scene from the 1980 comedy film The Blues Brothers. To stop Meg and Chris from fighting, Brian reads to them from one of the few books Peter owns, a novelization of the 1980 film Caddyshack and quotes a line by Chevy Chase's character, Ty Webb.

The episode contains a number of other cultural references. When Peter and Lois enter their motel room and find a hooker on the bed, Peter warns Lois to stay perfectly still, as the prostitute's vision is based on movement. This is a reference to a scene in the movie Jurassic Park in which Dr. Grant gives this warning in reference to a Tyrannosaurus Rex. Pinocchio appears in a cutaway gag, in which Gepetto bends over and deliberately sets Pinocchio up to tell a lie in an attempt to emulate anal sex. This was based on a joke MacFarlane's mother had told her friends when he was a child. Lois yells out George Clooney's name when she and Peter are having sex. The 1950s sitcom The Honeymooners is also referenced when a fictional episode of the sitcom is shown in which Ralph Kramden, the show's main character, hits his wife, something he would only threaten to do on the show. Meg watches an episode of the CBS sitcom Two and a Half Men, which shows three men in a living room, one of whom is cut in half at the waist and screaming in agony, the other two standing over him and screaming in horror. Fictional army soldier Flint of G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero appears briefly after Chris is caught drinking vodka, and educates the children on drinking and informs them that "... knowing is half the battle". Flint's voice was provided by Bill Ratner, the actor who had voiced the character in the G.I. Joe television series. According to Seth Green, who voices Chris, the reason the Family Guy cast members did not voice Flint themselves is because if you have the original actor providing the voice " you take it with a little bit more gravitas".