Big Man on Hippocampus

Plot

The episode opens with the Griffin family watching television. A commercial for local auditions of the syndicated game show Family Feud is shown, prompting them to try out the next day. The Griffins are chosen for the show and reach the final round. During a fight with Richard Dawson about welching on the prize money, Peter hits his head. This causes him to forget everything about his life, including his family and friends. Lois tries to jog his memory by reintroducing him to his old self, including his children and his sex life. Unfortunately, this causes Peter to believe that he's free to have sexual relations with others in his newfound "bachelorhood." Lois had earlier told him that it is inappropriate to have sex with his children - in response, Meg attempts an incest joke ("Well, I wish you would've told him that BEFORE he lost his memory!"). Most of the family lambaste her for this and Chris kicks her out of the room. Deeply angered, Lois decides to move out, taking the kids. When Quagmire finds out, he jumps on the opportunity to pursue a relationship with Lois.

When Brian returns home to warn Peter about the consequences of this development, Peter reveals that he had regained his memory after Ernie the Giant Chicken hit him on the head with "an odd number of objects" earlier that day. Alerted by Brian's warnings, Peter rushes to reclaim Lois, just as Quagmire's plans had been delayed by guilt-induced impotence when Lois confessed that she "trusts" him. Peter then professes his love for her, and desire to be with her for the rest of his life, causing Lois to love him again. The two walk home, happy in their reunion, leaving Quagmire as he frustratedly attempts increasingly drastic measures to "resuscitate" his genitalia using: a penis pump, intravenous therapy, and a crash cart with a defibrillator in his closet.

Production and development

This episode was written by Brian Scully, older brother of long-time Simpsons writer and producer Mike Scully. This was his second Family Guy episode, the first being "I Dream of Jesus" from the seventh season. Series regular Dominic Bianchi directed the episode, before the conclusion of the eighth production season.

"Big Man on Hippocampus", along with the eleven other episodes from Family Guy's eighth season, was released on a three-disc DVD set in the United States on December 13, 2011. The sets include brief audio commentaries by various crew and cast members for several episodes, a collection of deleted scenes and animatics, a special mini-feature which discussed the process behind animating "And Then There Were Fewer", a mini-feature entitled "The Comical Adventures of Family Guy – Brian & Stewie: The Lost Phone Call", and footage of the Family Guy panel at the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con International.

In addition to the regular cast, actor Dwayne Johnson made a brief live-action appearance in the episode, appearing as himself, along with two action figures of Peter and Lois, which he proceeds to bang on top of each other in order to illustrate a censored sex scene. Commenting on his appearance in the episode, Johnson stated that he was a "big fan" of Family Guy, having quickly befriended show creator Seth MacFarlane after he had a minor role in Johnson's 2010 film Tooth Fairy. While filming the movie, Johnson had reached out to MacFarlane, saying that he would love to "return the favor" by appearing on Family Guy, which eventually led to his role in this episode. Actress Adrianne Palicki and voice actor Rick Pasqualone also guest starred in the episode. Recurring guest voice actors Alexandra Breckenridge and Ralph Garman, along with writers Steve Callaghan, Mark Hentemann, Danny Smith, Alec Sulkin and John Viener, also made minor appearances. Actors Patrick Warburton and Adam West made appearances as well.

Reception

The episode was viewed in 8.1 million homes, and received a Nielsen rating of 3.9/9 in the 18–49 demographic. In addition, it was also the second most viewed and second highest rated show on Fox's Animation Domination lineup, losing slightly to The Simpsons, but continued its lead over both The Cleveland Show and American Dad! in total viewership and ratings.

Reviews of the episode were negative, citing the storyline as "safe," "without any offensive jokes for the sake of being offensive." Ahsan Haque of IGN praised the "cohesive story" as "[succeeding] on its simplicity," but criticized the series for continuing to broadcast in the 4:3 format, as opposed to widescreen like MacFarlane's other two shows. Todd VanDerWerff of The A.V. Club reviewed the episode more negatively, however, criticizing the writers for using "storylines as a thin spine to hang jokes on," giving the episode a D rating. Jason Hughes of TV Squad commended the live-action sequence featuring Johnson, as well as the utilization of Meg's personality to create an awkward situation with the family. Despite the somewhat negative criticism, the episode still ended up on the most downloaded episodes list on iTunes 2010 Rewind.

Australian channel 7mate received criticism for airing the episode on 12 August 2014, 14 hours after the suicide of Robin Williams, who features in a cutaway implying that he is overrated. A spokesperson for the channel subsequently stated "it was a coincidence".