Brian Goes Back to College/References

• Peter and his friends impersonate the A-Team a a television convention at the Quahog Convention Center; with Peter as John “Hannibal” Smith, Quagmire as “Faceman” Peck, Joe as H.M. "Howling Mad" Murdock (misspelled “Murdoch” in the intro) and Cleveland as B.A. Baracus. Cleveland says, “I pity the fool,” a catch phrase associated with Mr. T, the actor who played B.A. on the show, although the line actually originated from his character Clubber Lang, in the film Rocky III, not The A-Team, where he mostly restricted himself to calling people “fools.”

• When Brian is doing his Rocky IV training montage, the song playing alongside is “Heart’s on Fire” by Rhode Island native John Cafferty.

• The original A-Team opening went as follows:

“In 1972, a crack commando unit was sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn’t commit. These men promptly escaped from a maximum security stockade to the Los Angeles underground. Today, still wanted by the government, they survive as soldiers of fortune. If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire...THE A-TEAM.”

For this episode, it was changed to:

“In 2005, a group of local misfits won a costume contest at an ’80s TV convention. These men promptly returned home and drank some beer. Today they survive as soldiers of fortune. If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire...THE A-TEAM.”

• During the opening, as Quagmire is introduced, a Cylon centurion from Battlestar Galactica is seen walking across the screen. Dirk Benedict who played 'Face' also starred as 'Starbuck' in the original Battlestar Galactica.

• At the convention, Peter mistakes Brian for Alf, the snouted, furry extraterrestrial of the sitcom of the same name. With this black tie, Brian says that he is actually impersonating Douglas Brackman from the drama L.A. Law.

• Bill Cosby is seen leading a group of similarly dressed men in aerobics that imitate Cosby’s mannerisms.

• The MC of the convention says that Alan Thicke, star of Growing Pains “will be up in a minute to answer your hate mail.”

• Stephen Hawking is parodied through-out as Steve, down to simulated sex with a wife, called Helen. Steve is taken in by Brian, who cheats on an assignment to stay in college.

• Brian watches an episode of the sitcom The Facts of Life in which a masculine Jo asks mentor Mrs. Garrett if it’s okay that her penis touched her vagina.

• Small Wonder, a 1985-1989 sci-fi sitcom, is referenced in this episode. When Peter and his friends visit the ’80s television convention, a booth for Small Wonder is seen in the background. Tiffany Brissette is seen sitting in the booth, with a sign that says Tiffany “Vicki” Brissette. Tiffany played the main character of the series, a robot named Victoria “Vicki” Ann-Smith Lawson.

• A sign says “In loving memory of Ubu,” the mascot of UBU Productions which produced shows such as Family Ties.

“This spray is definitely not for me.”

• In a cutaway, Peter tries “TAG Body Spray for Sick Cats.” This parodies commercials for TAG, in which men simply spray TAG on themselves, and women flock to them. Peter has a similar experience, only with actual sick cats instead of women.

• A flashback shows Stewie performing at the 1969 Woodstock Festival where he tells the hippies not to smoke weed, and then begins to sing a song praising the establishment.

• After he is fired from his job at The New Yorker, Brian encounters a “No Dogs Allowed” sign, hears a booming voice enforcing the rule and then lays on top of a doghouse. This parodies the Peanuts character Snoopy in the 1972 film Snoopy, Come Home.

• Chris says he saw an after-school special about dropping out of college and that “it didn’t work out too well for Kristy McNichol. But then again, nothing did.” McNichol, star of the 1970s drama Family, has been out of the spotlight. Family Guy made another joke about McNichol in the episode “Holy Crap.”

• A cutaway parodies the execution of Louis XVI of France as a simple job firing.
• Gary Coleman takes Stewie’s place while he’s at Brown University. Coleman combines his catch phrase with one of Stewie’s to form “Whatchoo talkin’ ’bout, vile woman?”, because he owed Stewie.

• Actress Kelly McGillis hosts an educational video on college dating.

• Stewie buys a poster of a work by Dutch graphic artist M.C. Escher. He mistakenly calls it “Crazy Stairs.” Its actual title is Relativity.

• When Stewie points out to Brian that “lots of people cheat,” the scene cuts to Ashlee Simpson’s infamous performance on the Saturday Night Live episode hosted by Jude Law where she gets caught lip-synching and dances awkwardly before leaving the stage. The background music, however, is Paul Robeson performing “Ol’ Man River” from the musical Show Boat.

• Looking at the scoreboard when Brian and Stewie are at the Brown University football game, you can see the opposing team to be “the Board of Education” a reference to the famous court case Brown v. Board of Education, which declared unconstitutional the segregation of public schools.

• The scene where Stewie falls to the floor, legs twitching just within frame with the camera still running after seeing Meg undress through his video camera is reminiscent of the final scene in the 1999 horror film The Blair Witch Project.

• Roger Williams Park is an actual park in Providence, Rhode Island, named after Rhode Island founder Roger Williams.

• Lois scares Brian with a Hoover vacuum cleaner. In “Brian Does Hollywood,” Lois mentions that “Brian’s come a long way from getting scared by the vacuum cleaner,” and in the season two episode “Fore Father,” Brian is seen using a vacuum cleaner without being scared of it.

• Peter complains that the recent Playboy pictorial of 1980s pop star Debbie Gibson came too late.

• Stewie plays Ultimate Frisbee at Brown. Brown’s Ultimate team was the 2005 National Championship Team in US College Ultimate.

• When Stewie tells Brian that instead of writing to the New Yorker, he should work on his novel, then Brian hits him with a book. This is a reference to the episode, Brian the Bachelor, where Stewie goes on and on about a novel Brian was planning on writing.

Previous Episode's References /// Brian Goes Back to College's References \\\ Next Episode's References