North by North Quahog/Notes/Trivia

• “North by North Quahog” is the first episode of the fourth season of Family Guy and is the first new episode of Family Guy after the series revival. It premiered at University of Vermont in Burlington at a special screening on April 28, 2005 and was first broadcast publicly on Fox on May 1, 2005. The episode accumulated a Nielsen rating/share of 6.3/9 on its first airing.

• In the beginning, Peter mentions some of the shows that got canceled by FOX during FG's absence. Some of the shows that Peter missed include "American Juniors", "Paradise Hotel", "Method and Red", "Oliver Beane", "Point Pleasant", and "Tru Callng".

• The episode’s plot revolves around Peter and Lois as they try to help their marriage by taking a second honeymoon, but the two are chased by Mel Gibson after Peter steals the sequel to The Passion of the Christ from Gibson’s private hotel room. Almost the entire plot and many of the technical aspects of the episode are direct parodies of the 1959 Alfred Hitchcock movie North by Northwest.

• Like the very first episode of the series, “Death Has a Shadow,” “North by North Quahog” was written by Seth MacFarlane and directed by Peter Shin, who won an Annie Award for Directing in an Animated Television Production for this episode. The episode itself is regarded as one of the best Family Guy episodes and was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program.

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