The Perfect Castaway
Encyclopedia
"Perfect Castaway" is the eleventh episode from the fourth season of the FOX
animated series Family Guy
. When Peter
's business as a private fisherman is starting to suffer financially, he, Cleveland
, Joe and Quagmire
decide to go fishing to be able to provide for Peter's family. However, they end up caught in a storm and their boat is destroyed. Stranded on a desert island, their families fear the worst. Rescued by a cruise ship
months later, Peter surprises Lois at home, but finds that she has since married Brian
.
The episode was written by John Viener and was directed by James Purdum
and Peter Shin
. It guest starred Adam Carolla
, Adam West
, Phil LaMarr
, Danny Smith
, and Wally Wingert
. The episode was scheduled to air on September 11, 2005, but was pushed back a week out of sensitivity to Hurricane Katrina
and Hurricane Rita
victims. The episode is a reference to the 2000 films The Perfect Storm
and Cast Away
.
goes in search of fish at Pelican's Reef at the suggestion of Seamus the old salt, with Cleveland
, Joe, and Quagmire
tagging along for the free beer. They find the reef and catch the fish that are seemingly tuna, but a hurricane causes a giant wave that sinks their boat. They survive by floating on a raft
built out of Quagmire's sex doll
s. While floating, Peter reveals that he has been eating Joe's legs. The four men set ashore on a desert island. Several months later, they decided to have an orgy
while a cruise ship passes and rescues them, and the four men return home.
Once Peter returns, however, Lois
tells him that after he was presumed dead, she married Brian
, and that he supports the family by working as a salesman at a Hummer
dealership and that she cannot just leave Brian after all he has done for the family. Peter becomes disappointed and leaves, getting a room in a hotel in downtown Quahog. In an attempt to win Lois back, Peter goes to the house, where Lois finds him naked and lying on the couch. His plan succeeds and they have sex. However, Stewie
finds them and starts screaming in horror, but videotapes and shows the tape to Brian, who goes to the hotel that Peter is staying at. Brian gets to the door of Peter's room and overhears Lois telling Peter that she made a commitment to Brian and must stay with him. Brian changes his mind and leaves without confronting them. When Lois gets home, Brian explains that he knows Lois still feels torn between her two husbands and tells her to go back to Peter, which she does. At the end of the episode Brian becomes annoyed when Lois admits to him that if she had not gotten back with Peter she would have pushed their beds together, implying that she would have had sex with him.
and Peter Shin
. It featured special guest appearances of Adam Carolla
as Death, Adam West
as Mayor Adam West and Phil LaMarr
as Ollie Williams. Also Danny Smith
and Wally Wingert
. This episode was planned to be the season premiere but was changed out of respect for the victims of Hurricane Katrina
and Hurricane Rita
. Instead it was released September 18, 2005.
, as well as the movie Cast Away
, another 2000 film starring Tom Hanks. Cast Away is parodied in things such as Peter growing a beard and his hair getting longer while on the island, and the fact that his wife re-marries when he returns. Peter claims to have built the first time machine, a DeLorean DMC-12 he crashes, a reference to Back to the Future
. When Peter and Lois are in the motel, famous silhouette
of Alfred Hitchcock
is seen through the window. In the episode, Stewie tries out for the MTV
reality show, The Real World
.
reviewer John Nigro felt that "Perfect Castaway" was one of the season's best episodes.
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
animated series Family Guy
Family Guy
Family Guy is an American animated television series created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series centers on the Griffins, a dysfunctional family consisting of parents Peter and Lois; their children Meg, Chris, and Stewie; and their anthropomorphic pet dog Brian...
. When Peter
Peter Griffin
Peter Griffin is a fictional character and the protagonist of the animated comedy series Family Guy and the patriarch of the Griffin family. He is voiced by cartoonist Seth MacFarlane and first appeared on television, along with the rest of the family in the 15-minute short on December 20, 1998....
's business as a private fisherman is starting to suffer financially, he, Cleveland
Cleveland Brown
Cleveland Orenthal Brown is a character from the animated television series Family Guy, and its spin-off series The Cleveland Show. He is voiced by Mike Henry. In the first seven seasons of Family Guy, Brown is a frequently recurring character. As one of Peter Griffin's neighbors and friends,...
, Joe and Quagmire
Glenn Quagmire
Glenn Quagmire, often referred to as just Quagmire, is a character from the animated television series Family Guy. Quagmire is a neighbor and friend of the Griffin family. He is best known for his hypersexuality...
decide to go fishing to be able to provide for Peter's family. However, they end up caught in a storm and their boat is destroyed. Stranded on a desert island, their families fear the worst. Rescued by a cruise ship
Cruise ship
A cruise ship or cruise liner is a passenger ship used for pleasure voyages, where the voyage itself and the ship's amenities are part of the experience, as well as the different destinations along the way...
months later, Peter surprises Lois at home, but finds that she has since married Brian
Brian Griffin
Brian Griffin is a character from the animated television series Family Guy. He is voiced by Seth MacFarlane and first appeared on television, along with the rest of the family, in a 15-minute short on December 20, 1998. Brian was created and designed by MacFarlane himself...
.
The episode was written by John Viener and was directed by James Purdum
James Purdum
James Purdum is an American animation director. Purdum is most notably known for directing several episodes of the animated series Family Guy....
and Peter Shin
Peter Shin
Peter Shin is the:*supervising director of Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story*director of Big Bug Man.*director of Family Guy episodes:**"Death Has a Shadow"**"Emission Impossible"**"North by North Quahog"**"It's a Trap!"...
. It guest starred Adam Carolla
Adam Carolla
Adam Carolla is an American radio personality, television host, comedian, and actor. He currently hosts The Adam Carolla Show, a talk show distributed as a podcast on the ACE Broadcasting Network...
, Adam West
Adam West
William West Anderson , better known by the stage name Adam West, is an American actor best known for his lead role in the Batman TV series and the film of the same name...
, Phil LaMarr
Phil LaMarr
Phillip "Phil" LaMarr is an American actor, comedian and voice actor. One of the original cast members on the sketch comedy series MADtv, he is also known for his small, but memorable role as Marvin in Pulp Fiction...
, Danny Smith
Danny Smith (writer)
Daniel "Danny" Smith is an executive producer, writer and voice actor on the American animated television series Family Guy. He has been with the show since its inception and throughout the years has contributed many episodes, such as "Holy Crap", "The Father, the Son, and the Holy Fonz", "Chitty...
, and Wally Wingert
Wally Wingert
Wallace E. "Wally" Wingert is an American actor and voice artist. He is originally from Des Moines, Iowa but he currently works and lives in Los Angeles, California. He is the current announcer for the second incarnation of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and the current voice of Jon Arbuckle in...
. The episode was scheduled to air on September 11, 2005, but was pushed back a week out of sensitivity to Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was a powerful Atlantic hurricane. It is the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall...
and Hurricane Rita
Hurricane Rita
Hurricane Rita was the fourth-most intense Atlantic hurricane ever recorded and the most intense tropical cyclone ever observed in the Gulf of Mexico. Rita caused $11.3 billion in damage on the U.S. Gulf Coast in September 2005...
victims. The episode is a reference to the 2000 films The Perfect Storm
The Perfect Storm (film)
The Perfect Storm is a 2000 dramatic disaster film directed by Wolfgang Petersen. It is an adaptation of the 1997 non-fiction book of the same title by Sebastian Junger about the crew of the Andrea Gail that got caught in the Perfect Storm of 1991. The film stars George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg,...
and Cast Away
Cast Away
Cast Away is a 2000 drama film directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring Tom Hanks as a FedEx employee stranded on an uninhabited island after his plane crashes in the South Pacific. The film depicts his successful attempts to survive on the island using remnants of his plane's cargo, as well as his...
.
Plot summary
With his business as a private fisherman starting to go under, to get food to feed his family, PeterPeter Griffin
Peter Griffin is a fictional character and the protagonist of the animated comedy series Family Guy and the patriarch of the Griffin family. He is voiced by cartoonist Seth MacFarlane and first appeared on television, along with the rest of the family in the 15-minute short on December 20, 1998....
goes in search of fish at Pelican's Reef at the suggestion of Seamus the old salt, with Cleveland
Cleveland Brown
Cleveland Orenthal Brown is a character from the animated television series Family Guy, and its spin-off series The Cleveland Show. He is voiced by Mike Henry. In the first seven seasons of Family Guy, Brown is a frequently recurring character. As one of Peter Griffin's neighbors and friends,...
, Joe, and Quagmire
Glenn Quagmire
Glenn Quagmire, often referred to as just Quagmire, is a character from the animated television series Family Guy. Quagmire is a neighbor and friend of the Griffin family. He is best known for his hypersexuality...
tagging along for the free beer. They find the reef and catch the fish that are seemingly tuna, but a hurricane causes a giant wave that sinks their boat. They survive by floating on a raft
Raft
A raft is any flat structure for support or transportation over water. It is the most basic of boat design, characterized by the absence of a hull...
built out of Quagmire's sex doll
Sex doll
A sex doll is a type of sex toy in the size and shape of a sexual partner for aid in masturbation....
s. While floating, Peter reveals that he has been eating Joe's legs. The four men set ashore on a desert island. Several months later, they decided to have an orgy
Orgy
In modern usage, an orgy is a sex party where guests engage in promiscuous or multifarious sexual activity or group sex. An orgy is similar to debauchery, which refers to excessive indulgence in sensual pleasures....
while a cruise ship passes and rescues them, and the four men return home.
Once Peter returns, however, Lois
Lois Griffin
Lois Griffin is a character from the animated television series Family Guy. She is voiced by writer Alex Borstein and first appeared on television, along with the rest of the family in the 15-minute short on December 20, 1998. Lois was created and designed by series creator Seth MacFarlane...
tells him that after he was presumed dead, she married Brian
Brian Griffin
Brian Griffin is a character from the animated television series Family Guy. He is voiced by Seth MacFarlane and first appeared on television, along with the rest of the family, in a 15-minute short on December 20, 1998. Brian was created and designed by MacFarlane himself...
, and that he supports the family by working as a salesman at a Hummer
Hummer
Hummer was a brand of trucks and SUVs, first marketed in 1992 when AM General began selling a civilian version of the M998 Humvee. In 1998, General Motors purchased the brand name and marketed three vehicles: the original Hummer H1, based on the Humvee; and the H2 and H3 models that were...
dealership and that she cannot just leave Brian after all he has done for the family. Peter becomes disappointed and leaves, getting a room in a hotel in downtown Quahog. In an attempt to win Lois back, Peter goes to the house, where Lois finds him naked and lying on the couch. His plan succeeds and they have sex. However, Stewie
Stewie Griffin
Stewie Griffin is a fictional character from the animated television series Family Guy. Once obsessed with world domination and matricide, Stewie is the youngest child of Peter and Lois Griffin, and the brother of Chris and Meg....
finds them and starts screaming in horror, but videotapes and shows the tape to Brian, who goes to the hotel that Peter is staying at. Brian gets to the door of Peter's room and overhears Lois telling Peter that she made a commitment to Brian and must stay with him. Brian changes his mind and leaves without confronting them. When Lois gets home, Brian explains that he knows Lois still feels torn between her two husbands and tells her to go back to Peter, which she does. At the end of the episode Brian becomes annoyed when Lois admits to him that if she had not gotten back with Peter she would have pushed their beds together, implying that she would have had sex with him.
Production
"Perfect Castaway" was written by John Viener and directed by James PurdumJames Purdum
James Purdum is an American animation director. Purdum is most notably known for directing several episodes of the animated series Family Guy....
and Peter Shin
Peter Shin
Peter Shin is the:*supervising director of Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story*director of Big Bug Man.*director of Family Guy episodes:**"Death Has a Shadow"**"Emission Impossible"**"North by North Quahog"**"It's a Trap!"...
. It featured special guest appearances of Adam Carolla
Adam Carolla
Adam Carolla is an American radio personality, television host, comedian, and actor. He currently hosts The Adam Carolla Show, a talk show distributed as a podcast on the ACE Broadcasting Network...
as Death, Adam West
Adam West
William West Anderson , better known by the stage name Adam West, is an American actor best known for his lead role in the Batman TV series and the film of the same name...
as Mayor Adam West and Phil LaMarr
Phil LaMarr
Phillip "Phil" LaMarr is an American actor, comedian and voice actor. One of the original cast members on the sketch comedy series MADtv, he is also known for his small, but memorable role as Marvin in Pulp Fiction...
as Ollie Williams. Also Danny Smith
Danny Smith (writer)
Daniel "Danny" Smith is an executive producer, writer and voice actor on the American animated television series Family Guy. He has been with the show since its inception and throughout the years has contributed many episodes, such as "Holy Crap", "The Father, the Son, and the Holy Fonz", "Chitty...
and Wally Wingert
Wally Wingert
Wallace E. "Wally" Wingert is an American actor and voice artist. He is originally from Des Moines, Iowa but he currently works and lives in Los Angeles, California. He is the current announcer for the second incarnation of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and the current voice of Jon Arbuckle in...
. This episode was planned to be the season premiere but was changed out of respect for the victims of Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was a powerful Atlantic hurricane. It is the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall...
and Hurricane Rita
Hurricane Rita
Hurricane Rita was the fourth-most intense Atlantic hurricane ever recorded and the most intense tropical cyclone ever observed in the Gulf of Mexico. Rita caused $11.3 billion in damage on the U.S. Gulf Coast in September 2005...
. Instead it was released September 18, 2005.
Cultural references
The episode's title and several aspects of its plot references the 2000 film The Perfect StormThe Perfect Storm (film)
The Perfect Storm is a 2000 dramatic disaster film directed by Wolfgang Petersen. It is an adaptation of the 1997 non-fiction book of the same title by Sebastian Junger about the crew of the Andrea Gail that got caught in the Perfect Storm of 1991. The film stars George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg,...
, as well as the movie Cast Away
Cast Away
Cast Away is a 2000 drama film directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring Tom Hanks as a FedEx employee stranded on an uninhabited island after his plane crashes in the South Pacific. The film depicts his successful attempts to survive on the island using remnants of his plane's cargo, as well as his...
, another 2000 film starring Tom Hanks. Cast Away is parodied in things such as Peter growing a beard and his hair getting longer while on the island, and the fact that his wife re-marries when he returns. Peter claims to have built the first time machine, a DeLorean DMC-12 he crashes, a reference to Back to the Future
Back to the Future
Back to the Future is a 1985 American science-fiction adventure film. It was directed by Robert Zemeckis, written by Zemeckis and Bob Gale, produced by Steven Spielberg, and starred Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Crispin Glover and Thomas F. Wilson. The film tells the story of...
. When Peter and Lois are in the motel, famous silhouette
Silhouette
A silhouette is the image of a person, an object or scene consisting of the outline and a basically featureless interior, with the silhouetted object usually being black. Although the art form has been popular since the mid-18th century, the term “silhouette” was seldom used until the early decades...
of Alfred Hitchcock
Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood...
is seen through the window. In the episode, Stewie tries out for the MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
reality show, The Real World
The Real World
The Real World is a reality television program on MTV originally produced by Mary-Ellis Bunim and Jonathan Murray. First broadcast in 1992, the show, which was inspired by the 1973 PBS documentary series An American Family, is the longest-running program in MTV history and one of the...
.
Reception
The episode received positive reviews from Ryan J. Budke from TV Squad praised that the episode embraced its irreverance, also liking the animated nudity that appeared on the episode, at the end calling it a great episode. The Pitt NewsThe Pitt News
The Pitt News is an independent, student-written and student-managed newspaper for the main campus of the University of Pittsburgh in Oakland which has been active in some form since 1910. It is published Monday through Friday during the regular school year and Wednesdays during the summer...
reviewer John Nigro felt that "Perfect Castaway" was one of the season's best episodes.