The Fat Guy Strangler - Production

Production

The origins of the episode and the character of Patrick began when Robert Downey, Jr. telephoned the show production staff and asked if he could produce or assist in an episode creation, as his son is a fan of the show, so the producers came up with the character of Patrick for Downey. Show producer Seth MacFarlane believes Downey "did a great job," and brought a "very kind of half crazy, and maybe just eccentric personality to that character that really worked out great." When Patrick makes his second appearance in Season 10's "Killer Queen", he is not voiced by Downey. Instead, recurring guest voice actor and writer Danny Smith voiced Patick. Bob Barker voiced himself presenting The Price Is Right; but the actual sequence took years to make. Barker has provided his voice for the show twice, although MacFarlane has never met him. MacFarlane also notes, in the DVD commentary, that he likes this episode, because it is rare when the show produces an episode where a lot of it takes place in the home, and where it would be possible to do it in a live action series. John Veiner voiced Bobby McFerrin falling down a flight of stairs. The ball-in-a-cup scene is commented upon by MacFarlane, where he states that "the voice-overs work, the drawings work" and that Walter Murphy "did a great job of creating a piece of deliberately annoying music." Several jokes had been pitched for Peter's words after killing an evil dragon, but all were dropped, as they weren't deemed funny enough by production staff.

MacFarlane notes that he was surprised they were allowed to do the pickle gag, which consisted of Stewie placing a cucumber on the sofa where Patrick's imaginary wife is sitting, but inserting it into her imaginary vagina (to see if it would turn into a pickle), but suggests that maybe broadcasting standards did not fully understand the scene. The music song by the overweight people at a funeral for a murdered obese man was only shown on the DVD version and not televised, for timing purposes, and for potential boredom to viewers. The musical composition was recorded at Fox studios on the Gary Numan stage, and described by MacFarlane to be "beautifully, beautifully sung by our studio singers." The chicken falling out of an obese man's mouth when outside James Woods was used in a promotional sequence for Fox. George W. Bush is portrayed hiding in a tree house and being informed by Brian of Hurricane Katrina. Bush was offered the opportunity to voice himself, but declined.

A deleted scene had been made which showed the family traveling on board an airplane showing Peter, rather than using the airplane toilet as "he is too fat to get out of his seat," urinates in his seat, but unknowingly urinates on Brian in the process, as he is in a dog cage below Peter's seat. If this scene had been used in the episode, it was intended for Brian, after throwing a rock aimed at Peter's head to say "that's for pissing on me!" The gag produced for the episode showing Brian throwing a rock at Peter's head and shouting "that's for rolling up the damn window when I tried to jump into The General Lee" is a reference to "To Love and Die in Dixie."