Love Thy Trophy

Mike Barker and Matt Weitzman wrote the episode.

"Love Thy Trophy" is the fifth episode of the second season of the animated series Family Guy, a holdover from season 1. It originally aired in the United States on Fox on March 14, 2000. In the episode, Peter and his neighbors create an award-winning float at a local parade. The trophy in question quickly becomes the neighbors' obsession, and they begin fighting when it disappears. Meanwhile, Meg acquires a Prada purse with money from her new job as a waitress. She has falsely claimed that she is a teen mom and that baby Stewie is her neglected son for increased tips, subsequently causing him to be removed from his family and placed in a foster home. The neighbors set aside their differences and recover Stewie, losing Meg's Prada purse in the process. The end of the episode reveals that Brian buried the trophy due to his natural urge to bury shiny things.

Plot

For Quahog's yearly harvest festival parade with floats, the theme by Peter, "The episode of Who's the Boss? where Tony sees Angela naked in the shower", is randomly selected.

The float built by Peter, Quagmire, Cleveland, and Joe wins, but the men cannot agree at whose house the Golden Clam trophy should reside. They decide to place it above the road, suspended by the statues from the float. The next day the trophy is missing; everyone immediately suspects each other of stealing it.

Meg gets a job at a pancake house so she can buy herself a Prada bag. She lets the restaurateur, Flappy, believe that Stewie is her baby so she will get the job. She realizes that allowing customers to think Stewie is a crack-addicted baby and she is his single mother results in higher tips. Stewie plays along because he loves the restaurant's pancakes.

A woman from Child Protective Services asks Flappy for Meg's address. On Spooner Street the neighbors fight over the missing trophy and Joe, Quagmire and Cleveland are quick to badmouth the Griffins, leading CPS to place Stewie in a foster home where he lives with children from a variety of ethnic origins. The neighbors put their conflict aside to retrieve Stewie. When an espionage mission fails, they trade Meg's Prada bag for Stewie. That night, Rod Serling reveals that Brian buried the trophy in the Griffins' yard. Brian assaults Serling with a shovel and proceeds to bury him. Meanwhile, Quagmire has sexual intercourse with the woman from Child Protective Services.

During the credit roll, Stewie is seen in bed with a fever after withdrawing from Flappy's pancakes; he hallucinates another version of himself crawling across the ceiling and then spinning its head around (in a reference to the film Trainspotting).

Production

The episode was written by writing team Mike Barker and Matt Weitzman and directed by Jack Dyer before the conclusion of the second production season.

In addition to the regular cast, voice actress Tara Strong, and actress Debra Wilson guest starred in the episode. Recurring guest voices include Lori Alan, Mike Henry, Danny Smith, Jennifer Tilly, and Patrick Warburton.

Reception

In his 2008 review, Ahsan Haque of IGN rated the episode a 9.3/10, saying that "the story in this episode flowed remarkably well" and the cutaways were "kept to a minimum", thus the story giving most of the humor. He also noted that "Love Thy Trophy" had "a few interesting character revelations".^[1]

References

• Callaghan, Steve. “Love Thy Trophy.” Family Guy: The Official Episode Guide Seasons 1–3. New York: HarperCollins, 2005. 56–59.
• Delarte, Alonso. “Nitpicking Family Guy: Season 2.” Bob’s Poetry Magazine May 2005: 11–12.

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Love Thy Trophy

• Love Thy Trophy at the Internet Movie Database
• "Love Thy Trophy" at TV.com