"Don’t Make Me Over" is the fourth episode of season four of Family Guy. The working title of the episode was Extreme Makeover: Meg Edition. Guest-starring Bob Widmer as the Tin Man, Tara Strong as Meg Griffin singing, and Gene Simmons as himself.
Plot summary
Meg is turned down by a popular boy for a date and begins to feel sensitive about her appearance, so she looks to her family for support. In an effort to cheer her up, Lois takes Meg to the mall to go clothes-shopping, though that has very little effect. Discovering Channel 5 Asian reporter Tricia Takanawa is giving away free makeovers, Lois suggests Meg get the ultimate makeover. After the makeover, Meg becomes extremely attractive and her popularity skyrockets. Meanwhile, the Drunken Clam is suffering due to the aforementioned mall having been built right across the street, so Peter and friends drag out a karaoke machine that Horace had kept in a storage room. When Peter, Cleveland, Quagmire and Joe team up to sing Journey’s song "Don't Stop Believing," people swarm to the bar. Thrilled with their success, the group starts a band and travel to their first gig at a prison. The band, named "Fat, Horny, Black, and Joe," is about to launch into their opening number when they realize at the very last minute they didn't write any songs, and the prisoners riot as a result. Peter’s family, who are attending to support him, hastily take the stage and sing "Buy Me a Rainbow." They are an enormous hit, and they sign a contract with a record executive, Jimmy Iovine (who was imprisoned for stomping on a cat). Here, Meg's singing voice is provided by Tara Strong. Despite the family’s talent, their producer Dr. Diddy is more interested in exploiting Meg’s new look to make her a teen sex symbol. Meg’s newfound stardom goes to her head, causing resentment among the other family members; nevertheless, they travel to New York to perform on Saturday Night Live. Meg is immediately seduced by Jimmy Fallon and loses her virginity to him; she fails to realize that the entire encounter is being aired on live television as part of the show (even as Fallon keeps glancing at the camera and chuckling) until it is too late. Peter attacks Fallon on stage and beats him up; this, however, was because of Fallon's aforemention bad acting and, although he had every intent of coming to Meg's aid, he was oblivious to the fact that Fallon was the culprit. The Griffins return home, where Meg reverts to her old look, saying “being beautiful is too much work.” Lois replies sotto voce, "Well, not for me." It is then revealed that the entire show is on a set, and the Griffins leave the living room and walk to the rest of the cast that appeared in the episode, and Peter thanks everyone in the style of SNL.
Notes
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- The Craig Hoffman character is named after the supervising producer for the first three seasons.
- Gene Simmons of KISS makes a cameo to encourage Peter. Simmons, an old friend of Lois, previously appeared in the episode "Road to Europe".
- This is one of three episodes in Season Four to not have audio commentary, the others being "Fast Times at Buddy Cianci, Jr. High" and "Model Misbehavior".
- While shopping with Meg, Lois describes a shirt she finds as a "pink baby tee". However, the shirt she holds up while she says this is orange.
- The scene were Chris notices his hair was braided before going on stage is cut out in syndication.
- This is the first episode which implies Brian's racism against African Americans. In the recording studio, he suddenly barks at Dr. Diddy but blames the impulse on his father. Later, after watching Peter's SNL-style closing on TV, he abruptly turns off the TV during the opening title sequence of Showtime at the Apollo. Breaking the fourth wall, he justifies this by saying he is tired at 1am, the time at which SNL normally ends and Showtime begins.
Cultural references
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This article or section contains too many minor or trivial fictional references. Mere trivia, or references unimportant to the overall plot of a work of fiction, should be deleted. See also what Wikipedia is. |
- As Stewie rides on Brian’s back, he quotes Yoda from Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back.
- On a dare from Brian, Stewie runs naked through the mall, screaming, "Help! I’ve escaped from Kevin Spacey’s basement!" a reference to tabloid questions regarding the actor’s sexuality. The original line cited Roman Polanski instead of Kevin Spacey.
- News anchor Tom Tucker says that the next news story will concern "Joan Rivers speaking from beyond the grave," despite the fact that the actress is still alive.
- Peter and his friends attempt to revive the Drunken Clam with a Coyote Ugly theme that fails when Joe accidentally kicks himself in the head.
- A cutaway shows Neil Armstrong faking the moon landing at a television studio called Stage 51, a reference to Area 51, a military base well known in conspiracy theory lore.
- Bill Cosby appears before a commercial break as he did in his 1970s-era animated series Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids.
- For their band Peter dresses like a member of Devo, Cleveland like a member of a funk band, Joe as Geddy Lee of Rush , and Quagmire like Tommy Lee, drummer of Mötley Crüe.
- Peter attempts to satisfy angry inmates by telling a story about Lake Wobegon, the setting of Garrison Keillor’s radio show, A Prairie Home Companion, which often featured quaint stories of rural life.
- Dr. Diddy’s name is a cross between Dr. Dre and Diddy, two well-known hip hop music performers and producers.
- Miss Swan shows up when Meg is sassing Lois. Miss Swan was a character from Alex Borstein’s tenure on MADtv. Borstein is also Lois' voice actor. Peter later mocks MADtv, a competitor to Saturday Night Live.
- Upon hearing that he will be on Saturday Night Live, Peter replies “You mean I’m going to get to meet John Belushi, Gilda Radner, Phil Hartman, Chris Farley and Horatio Sanz?” All except Sanze are former cast members who are deceased.
- When Lois worries that Meg might develop a "coke problem," Peter replies "No Coke! Pepsi!" a catch phrase from the "Olympia Cafe" sketches of the show’s late 1970s era. (When Howard Hesseman hosted SNL in 1982, he joked in his monologue that John Belushi would still be alive if he had said "No Coke, Pepsi.")
- During the faux SNL episode ending, in the far right of the screen, Gene Simmons can be seen licking (President) Bush. To the far left of the screen, Meg’s former "real boyfriend" (an obviously dead and decaying person) can be seen getting attacked by a wolf as was shown earlier in the episode.
Music
- During the "1980s fixing-stuff-up montage," "One Foot in Front of the Other" by Bone Symphony is heard.
- When the guys temporarily give the Clam a Coyote Ugly theme, they dance on the countertop to a tune in the style of “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” by The Charlie Daniels Band.
- While the Clam is a karaoke bar, Mort Goldman performs Maureen McGovern’s 1973 hit "The Morning After."
- Peter, Cleveland, Joe, and Quagmire sing "Don’t Stop Believin’," a 1981 hit from Journey.
| Preceded by “Blind Ambition” |
Family Guy Episodes | Followed by “The Cleveland-Loretta Quagmire” |
