Fifteen Minutes of Shame/References

• The title of this episode parodies the phrase "Fifteen minutes of Fame"
• In the episode’s opening scene, Peter learns to paint from an episode of the PBS art show The Joy of Painting. Peter paints a portrait of the cast of Family Ties, a sketch of the family being painted started the show’s opening credits.
• Meg is embarrassed by Peter acting as the Legendary Clam, comparing it to having Ronald McDonald as a father.
• The new Meg eats a lollipop and wears heart shaped glasses similar to the protagonist in the Stanley Kubrick film "Lolita"
• The story of the founding of Quahog mirrors the founding of “neighboring” Providence, Rhode Island. Providence-founder Roger Williams was exiled for speaking his mind and sought the assistance of Native Americans. Quahog founder Miles Chatterbox Musket is exiled for speaking non-stop and befriends not native people but a magical, talking clam.
• The undersea rescue during the story of the magical clam is a parody of a scene in Disney's The Little Mermaid
• Peter pulls out a Ronald Reagan mask to hide from Meg’s friends and says “I am not a crook,” a famous quote from another President of the United States, Richard Nixon.
• Peter apologizes to Meg’s friends for ruining their slumber party by promising to get Davy Jones for their school dance, a reference to an episode of The Brady Bunch where Marcia tries to get Davy Jones to perform at their school dance.
• The talk show featured is poking fun at many of the talk shows that air during the day such as The Jerry Springer Show or The Jenny Jones Show. There is even a scene that implies one of the producers of that show sees the violence (after the family starts throwing chairs) as a way to increase ratings like some daytime talk shows have been doing for years.
• The plot of this episode parodies MTV’s reality show The Real World (and reality TV in general).
• During the talk show, Stewie and Brian prank calls Diane, asking the question, "Do you have Prince Albert in a can?", followed by, "Well, you better let him out!". This was a common (And corny) prank call question people asked stores, which referred to the historical figure Prince Albert, which was also a brand of smoking tobacco that came in a can. This was not a particularly funny joke, but Stewie and Brian laugh hysterically after the call.
• Bonnie compares Joe to the character Larry from the sitcom Three’s Company.
• A cutaway shows one possible way to write Meg out of The Real Live Griffins: Brian - taking the part of Radar - announces to the operating theater “Meg Griffin’s plane was shot down over the Sea of Japan,” parodying Henry Blake’s death on the show M*A*S*H due to the departure of McLean Stevenson from that series. Stewie then shows up in a dress and high-heeled shoes and says, “Who do I have to see about a [Section 8]?” This is a reference to M*A*S*H character Corporal Klinger’s attempts to prove himself mentally unfit for military service (as well as one of many Family Guy references to Stewie possibly being a closet homosexual).
• Trying to get the cameras on him, Peter acts out a Wayland and Madame routine featuring a ventriloquism dummy. He mentions a song, “The Rainbow Connection,” sung by Kermit the Frog in The Muppet Movie.
• The replacement cast of the Griffins is Tom Arnold as Peter, Fran Drescher (who is later shown in the season five episode “The Tan Aquatic with Steve Zissou”) as Lois, “that fat guy from Boogie Nights” (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) as Chris, and The Olsen Twins as Stewie and Brian.
• The scene where Peter tells Meg that he won’t give her the antidote to the poison she just drank is from the Shanghai nightclub scene in the beginning of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.
• Meg is seen in the end scenes typing on her laptop with the Doogie Howser, M.D. series ending music playing in the background, just as Doogie did at the end of each episode.
• Family Guy references itself in this episode. The scene that is re-enacted by the new Griffins on TV is part of the episode, "Death Has a Shadow."

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