Family Guy Review: "Excellence in Broadcasting"

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We have to give Family Guy credit.  No, not because the left-wing show featured conservative political commentator Rush Limbaugh (more on that later).  But because they stuck with the outcome of last week's season premiere.

Rush Limbaugh on Family Guy

We definitely thought last week was a special and the show's murder of several characters would never be referenced again.  However, we were hilariously surprised to see the episode open with Tom Tucker asking where Diane was, only to hear Ollie scream, "She dead."  Amazing.

So our question is, does that mean we'll never see James Woods' hilarious characterization of himself or the lovely Mrs. Mort again?  Okay, so we could care less about the latter, but we'll at least miss the Tucker-Sawyer bickering each week.

Back to the episode on hand, "Excellence in Broadcasting." While it should be considered impressive that Family Guy, which often pushes its liberal views and mocks conservatives featured Rush Limbaugh, we're actually much more impressed with the latter for coming on the show.

Clearly when Rush was given the script or read the lines, he must have known how much he and his views were being mocked.  Or maybe his ego couldn't say no to being voiced on the show or being given an awesome fight scene.

We're all for political humor when it's funny, but to base an entire episode on it when only a few of the jokes actually worked?  It was definitely a weak episode to us.  

Every attempt by the show to even mention Brian's new conservative views were done in such a mocking way, we'd take Stephen Colbert or Stan Smith (nice cameo btw!) more seriously as they expressed them.  At least they properly can deliver the satire.  Shame on you Seth MacFarlane and all your usual voice work talent.

At least we got to see a hilarious "Brian is a dog" bit before he went off to dominate the entire episode.  Come on, the begging for the food in the brown bag?  Hilarious.

Now for our favorite Family Guy quotes from the political half hour:

Rush Limbaugh: I'll be around. Where there's a rich white guy in need of another tax break, I'll be there. Wherever there's a brain dead woman in need of expensive life support her husband doesn't want, I'll be there. Wherever there's a country that needs invading for reasons that don't quite pan out, I'll be there. | permalink
Rush Limbaugh: The fact you would give a woman credit for anything, it means you're a liberal. | permalink
Brian: Oh no! It's a multi racial TV gang, including white guys. | permalink
Tom Tucker: Hi, I'm Tom Tucker. Where's Diane, Ollie?
Ollie: She dead! | permalink

Excellence in Broadcasting Review

Editor Rating: 2.7 / 5.0
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User Rating:

Rating: 3.0 / 5.0 (55 Votes)

Eric Hochberger is the programmer of TV Fanatic, so please forgive his mediocre writing. His programming is far better. Follow him on Twitter and/or email him. Just don't request threaded comments. They're coming.

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Family Guy Season 9 Episode 2 Quotes

Tom Tucker: Hi, I'm Tom Tucker. Where's Diane, Ollie?
Ollie: She dead!

First I'm gonna stare at this brown paper bag that I'm pretty sure has food in it

Brian