Episode no. Season 4
Episode 4 Written by Gene Laufenberg Original air date June 5, 2005 | Directed by Sarah Frost Production code 4ACX03 | |
"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". The guest stars are Bob Widmer as the Tin Man, Tara Strong as Meg's singing voice, and Gene Simmons as himself and an anonymous prisoner.
Contents
Plot
After Meg is turned down by a popular boy for a date, she feels sensitive about her appearance. To cheer her up, Lois takes Meg shopping. Tricia Takanawa gives Meg a free makeover, she becomes extremely attractive and her popularity surges, but she acts like a snob.
The Drunken Clam is suffering due to the mall built across the street. Peter and his friends try to fix up the bar but only make it worse. Peter, Cleveland, Quagmire, and Joe team up to sing a karaoke version of Journey's song "Don't Stop Believin'" and people swarm the bar. The group starts a band and has their first gig at a prison. The band realizes they do not know any songs and the prisoners riot.
Peter's family, who are there to support him, take the stage and sing "Gonna Buy Me a Rainbow," a schmaltzy 1970's-style variety-show song, with Meg as lead singer. They are a hit and sign a contract with a record executive, Jimmy Iovine.
Their producer Dr. Diddy states that exploiting Meg's new look will make them rich and Peter agrees. The rest of the family is ignored, especially Brian, who keeps barking at the producer, who is African-American.
Meg's stardom goes to her head, causing resentment among the other family members. They travel to New York City 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 encounter is being aired on live television as part of the "Live from New York, it's Saturday Night!" portion of the show. During the monologue, Peter attacks and beats up Fallon.
The Griffins return home, where Meg reverts to her old look. It is then revealed that the last scene is the final sketch on an episode of Saturday Night Live and Peter thanks the audience for watching. When Showtime at the Apollo starts, the TV screen goes blank. Brian turns to the audience and claims that he only turned off the show because he always goes to sleep at 1:00 a.m., and not because the show has African-American entertainers on it. Brian then angrily barks at the home audience.
Reception
This episode was the most-watched program on the night it originally aired, beating a rerun of Desperate Housewives on ABC. John Eggerton commented about the episode's viewership number that the episode had "language and sexual references...that rival anything on Wisteria Lane and that would make Popeye blush". This episode had a viewership of 7.23 million. L. Brent Bozell III used this episode as an example of how he dislikes the show.