PTV/References

• The entire opening sequence, from the unmasking of Stewie through the opening credit sequence (which is not the usual Family Guy credits) to the start of the episode is a direct parody of the opening sequence of The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!, when Leslie Nielsen’s character Frank Drebin battles the world’s terrorist leaders hand-to-hand, including the Ira Newborn music used in the movie series. During Stewie’s sword/rubber chicken fight with bin Laden, the choreography mirrors the Yoda vs. Count Dooku lightsaber fight from Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones. (The orchestral fanfare during the fight scene is “Drebin—Hero!” from the second film in the Naked Gun series, Naked Gun 2½.) When Stewie falls onto his bike, it resembles Captain Jack Sparrow (from Pirates of the Caribbean) falling down a cliff after saying his name. Also, the opening credits similarly duplicate those of Police Squad! (the TV show which launched Frank Drebin) and the Naked Gun movies, and uses the Police Squad!/Naked Gun theme music. Stewie rides his tricycle over a cat and though a gay pride parade, then through scenes from The Wizard of Oz, The Shining, Ben-Hur, Doom, Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, and The Sound of Music; the sequence ends with Homer Simpson being chased into his garage as in the opening sequence to The Simpsons, with Homer being flattened by the bike. Peter then opens the door to the garage and remarks, “Hey, Stewie!...Who the hell is that?” (originally, Peter was supposed to imitate Homer Simpson running a la the opening sequence to The Simpsons, but the crew thought it was funnier if they used Homer instead as Seth MacFarlane is a Simpsons fan, despite the supposed rivalry between Seth MacFarlane and Matt Groening). When Stewie rides the bike trough the intro he have many likenesses similar to the show "Bobbys World" which aired on "Fox Kids"
• Shows shown on “PTV”:
  • All in the Family: Archie and Edith get the Jeffersons to move by burning a cross on their lawn while dressed like members of the KKK. The episode that inspired this gag was "Archie and the KKK," where Archie tries to prevent the Klu Klux Klan from burning a cross burning at son-in-law Mike's home.
  • The Waltons: The signature scene of the Waltons where they say their “good nights,” edited where John Boy doesn’t respond, and replies; “Damn it, can’t a guy masturbate in this house?”
  • Midnight Q: Quagmire’s midnight talk/sex show, which he hosts nude. The reference is a culmination of two former adult themed local late night New York cable access shows: Midnight Blue and Interludes After Midnight. The latter was an all-nude talk show where the host wore a big gold medallion around his neck like Quagmire.
  • The Side-Boob Hour: Peter’s own show where he presents the “side boobs” (the partial reveal of a woman’s breast, from the side) from Baywatch and Dynasty, followed by his own.
  • Cheeky Bastard: A sitcom staring Stewie and Brian as bickering roommates, in a style akin to The Odd Couple. To fulfill the claim that the show is "recorded in front of a live audience", Stewie records his own over-enthusiastic laughing and clapping and plays it during his character's punch lines.
  • Dogs Humping: A Discovery Channel-type show that shows animals having sex. According to Peter it is the highest-rating show on PTV’s Wednesday night line-up.
  • Douchebags: A Jackass copycat. The only aired episode shows the segment “I Dare You to Crap Off of That,” which stars Peter defecating off a bridge after being dared to by Cleveland. His feces hits Lois’s car, causing her to have a bad accident and traumatizing Stewie. This scene was cut from the TV showings and only shown on the DVD release.
• Shows censored by the FCC:
  • The Dick Van Dyke Show: The FCC bleeps the name The Dick Van Dyke Show, making it “The (censored) Van (censored) Show, starring (censored) Van (censored),” a reference to “dick” being used as a vulgar slang term for a penis and “dyke” being used as a derogatory term for a lesbian, both of which can’t be said on television (though “dick” is allowed if it’s used as an insult to someone and not as a vulgar slang term for a penis).
  • Three's Company: Chrissy appears with her bikini top censored, despite the fact that she was not exposing anything.
  • The Honeymooners: The quote “One of these days, Alice.. Wham! Zoom! Straight to the moon!” is dubbed over, making it “One of these days, (new voice) I’m going to stimulate the economy by buying an American car.”
• The FCC Board Meeting is told that 20 calls were received complaining about the David Hyde Pierce incident, and that "as we all know" one call equals a billion people. Thus 20 billion people (about three times the current world population) are deemed to have been offended. This exposes the questionable statistical approach often employed by censors in justifying their actions.
• The head of the FCC is Cobra Commander from G.I. Joe.
• Apache Chief from the Super Friends helps Peter with his satellite dish.
• The incident with Hyde-Pierce accidentally revealing a testicle is a reference to the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show incident, in which Janet Jackson accidentally revealed a nipple. Jackson claimed the incident was a “wardrobe malfunction” whereas Diane Simmons refers to Pierce’s incident as a “trouser malfunction.” The actual incident (with Peter as Janet Jackson) is featured in a rapid-cut montage at the end of the FCC song.
• Osama bin Laden appears in the show for the first time since the now-excised “show tunes” scene in “Road to Rhode Island.”
• When Peter sings the FCC Song, the line “You’re gonna have to do her with your ding-a-ling” is a reference to Chuck Berry’s song “My Ding-a-Ling”, a song that was a double entendre.
• When Peter fails to be able to successfully watch the Emmys at Meg’s play, he mentions that it’s worse than his 16th birthday, followed by a sequence where Peter is raped by Jake Ryan, the main love interest in the film Sixteen Candles.
• When Peter is told to start his own TV station by Tom Tucker, he mentions that he hasn’t had a business since a mail-order operation. Wile E. Coyote is seen waiting to return a large Acme slingshot.
• When Peter says “Lois, these eggs are scrambled,” captions say “Lois, these eggs are fried.”
• Meg’s play God and His Magical Rainbow Suspenders is a parody of Godspell. The title of the play may also be a play on the musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.
• The famous Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup commercial (where a chocolate lover and a peanut-butter lover bump into each other, creating the combination of chocolate and peanut butter that Reese’s made famous) that aired in the 1970s. In the spoof, two drunk drivers (one eating chocolate and the other eating peanut butter) get in a car accident. Officer Reeses comes along, tastes the combination of peanut butter and chocolate that has resulted from the horrific crash, then looks furtively around and shoots both drivers to steal their product.
• An Ozzy Osbourne reference is made. The FCC says Ozzy cleaned up his act and stopped biting the heads off bats. The scene cuts to Ozzy on stage at a concert eating a sandwich instead of a bat. The reference made is to the early 1980s, when Ozzy used to throw pig intestines and calves’ livers into the audience and they would throw things back. Someone threw a bat onstage and Ozzy, thinking that it was a fake rubber bat, bit its head off. The bat was real and alive, only stunned by the throw. Ozzy was taken to the hospital and tested for rabies after the show.
• The song lyric: “Any baby with a brain can tell them everybody poops” is a reference to a popular childrens book entitled: Everyone Poops, presenting the myriad forms and shapes of animal and human feces.
• In a flashback, Chris imitates Jackie Mason, a former rabbi who is now a stand-up comedian.
• The tune for the FCC song is taken from Volunteer Fire Picnic, a song from the obscure 1959 Broadway Musical Take Me Along which featured Jackie Gleason.
• The Brady Bunch bathroom scene pokes fun at the fact that the network censors didn’t want a toilet to be seen in the bathroom of the Brady house in any episode.
• When the FCC tells Peter they are going to close PTV he puts on the jetpack from the 007 movie Thunderball and repeatedly runs into the wall.
• The main premise of the episode is similar to the premise of the 1980's Weird Al Yankovic movie UHF.

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