Road to the Multiverse

Plot

As the Griffin family attend the county fair, Stewie announces that he has bred a winning pedigree pig for the local Quahog Clam Day. Revealing to Brian that he got the pig from a parallel universe, he shows him a remote control that allows access to the various parallel universes. Each universe depicts Quahog in the same time and place but under different conditions. Deciding to test the device, they both visit a universe where Christianity never existed (despite the existence of the Sistine Chapel in that universe), leading an impressed Brian to ask whether the remote can take them to other alternate realities. Stewie guides them both through several more parallel universes, each having its own portrayal of the Griffin family. As time passes, Brian begins to lose his amazement for the device and eventually comes to realize that Stewie has no idea how to return home.

Continuing their explorations, they reach a universe where humans are subservient to dogs. Stewie finally figures out how to modify the remote device so that they can return home; but Brian, overwhelmed by the thought of a world run by dogs like himself, is reluctant to leave and steals the remote. Stewie and Brian fight over the device, ultimately breaking it, which traps them in the alternate universe. In desperation, the two go to the universe's version of the Griffin family – who are all dogs except for their pet Brian, who is human – hoping to find a solution. The dog version of Stewie quickly confronts the two, revealing that he has also developed a universe-traveling device that would allow them to return to their own universe. Before Dog Stewie can fetch them his remote control, Human Stewie bites the dog version of his father, Peter, and is sent to the pound where he is to be euthanized later that day. The two Brians and Dog Stewie go to the human pound to free him, and both Stewie and Brian are sent back to their original universe. As they are being transported, human Brian, dreaming of a better life in a world of intelligent inhabitants, leaps into the inter-universe portal at the last moment and successfully makes it to the original universe with the other two. Excited about his new prospects in life, human Brian begins his optimistic adventure in a brand new universe but is quickly struck by a car.

Production and development

The episode was first announced at the 2008 San Diego Comic-Con International in San Diego, California, on July 26, 2008. It was written by series regular Wellesley Wild and directed by Greg Colton shortly after the conclusion of the seventh production season, which consisted entirely of held-over episodes due to the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike. "Road to the Multiverse" is the fifth episode of the "Road to" hallmarks of the series, which have aired in various seasons of the show, and the second to be directed by Colton. The episodes are a parody of the seven Road to... comedy films starring Bing Crosby, Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour. Though it was not originally intended to be a "Road to" episode, Greg Colton convinced series creator and executive producer Seth MacFarlane and "Spies Reminiscent of Us" director Cyndi Tang to change the episode's title from "Sliders", parodying the science fiction television series Sliders. Colton's suggestion of the new title "Road to the Multiverse" was accepted, as was altering the premise of "Spies Reminiscent of Us", the season's original "Road to" episode. Executive producer and former Star Trek: Enterprise writer David A. Goodman, a fan of science fiction and the series Sliders, played a key role in the episode's original development. The production staff of Family Guy, including Wellesley Wild, watched an episode of Sliders before writing the show. Series regulars Peter Shin and James Purdum served as supervising directors, with Andrew Goldberg and Alex Carter working as staff writers for the episode. Composer Walter Murphy, who has worked on the series since its inception, returned to compose the music for "Road to the Multiverse". Ron Jones and MacFarlane also contributed to the music and lyrics featured in the episode.

The episode features several examples of animation styles that differ greatly from the series' customary appearance. One such example involves the Disney universe, where the characters are drawn in the style of classic Walt Disney animated films. The sequence was animated entirely in Los Angeles by Main Street Productions, which were approached and recruited by series producer Kara Vallow to create the sequence, rather than in South Korea where the show is normally animated. MacFarlane described the scene as "a bit of challenge" and "kind of an experiment" since every character had to be completely redesigned based on the style of such films as "Pinocchio, Beauty and the Beast and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs." Another difference occurs in the dog universe, where the human characters are redrawn as dogs and Brian is redrawn as a human. MacFarlane found redesigning Brian easiest, simply giving him "a big nose and a collar." In addition to traditional animation, the episode included a parody by Sarah E. Meyer, Eileen Kohlhepp, Kelly Mazurowskiof of Robot Chicken, a stop motion series created by Family Guy cast member Seth Green for the Cartoon Network animation block Adult Swim. Green did not take part in the making of the parody; it was instead animated by the Los Angeles company Screen Novelties, which had worked on the early seasons of Robot Chicken.

"Road to the Multiverse", along with the seven other episodes from Family Guy's eighth season, was released on a three-disc DVD set in the United States on June 15, 2010. The DVDs included brief audio commentaries by Seth MacFarlane, various crew and cast members from several episodes, a collection of deleted scenes, a special mini-feature that discussed the process behind animating "Road to the Multiverse" and a mini-feature entitled Family Guy Karaoke. The set also includes a reprint of the script for the episode.

In addition to the regular cast, Japanese actors Kei Ogawa, Kotaro Watanabe and Jamison Yang guest starred in the episode as Japanese-inspired versions of the Griffin family and Glenn Quagmire. Recurring guest voice actor John G. Brennan reprised his recurring role as Mort Goldman and Adam West reprised his role as Mayor Adam West, who appears as an anthropomorphic mouse in the Disney universe. Minor appearances were made by writer and showrunner Steve Callaghan, actor Ralph Garman, writer and showrunner Mark Hentemann and writers Patrick Meighan, Danny Smith, Alec Sulkin and John Viener.

Reception

"Road to the Multiverse" was broadcast on September 27, 2009, as a part of the Animation Domination block on Fox, and was preceded by an episode of The Simpsons and the pilot episode of MacFarlane's new show The Cleveland Show. It was followed by the season premiere of MacFarlane's other show American Dad!. It was watched by 10.17 million viewers in its original airing, according to Nielsen ratings, despite being aired simultaneously with the season premiere of Desperate Housewives on ABC, the season premiere of The Amazing Race on CBS and Sunday Night Football on NBC. The episode also acquired a 5.2 rating in the 18–49 demographic, beating The Simpsons, The Cleveland Show and American Dad!, in addition to edging out all three shows in total viewership. The episode's ratings were Family Guy's highest since the airing of the season six episode "McStroke". The episode's first broadcast in Canada, on Global TV, was watched by 1.29 million viewers, making it first for its timeslot in the week it was broadcast.

"Road to the Multiverse" received critical acclaim, with one calling the storyline "right up there with the best of the early episodes we've seen on the series." In a simultaneous review of the episodes of The Simpsons and American Dad! that preceded and followed the episode respectively and The Cleveland Show pilot, The A.V. Club's Todd VanDerWerff commented that he felt "essentially predisposed to like" the episode, adding that he enjoyed the entire theme of the show, in addition the fact that it was more than just science fiction. In the conclusion of his review VanDerWerff called the episode a "solid start to the eighth season" and rated it as a B+, the best rating between The Simpsons episode "Homer the Whopper", the American Dad! episode "In Country...Club" and The Cleveland Show's series premiere. Ahsan Haque of IGN gave the episode a 9.6 out of 10, saying that the episode featured "plenty of memorable lines, some truly stunning animation [...] and a relentless non-stop barrage of witty jokes." In a subsequent review in January 2010 of "Stewie and Brian's Greatest Adventures", Haque called the episode "creative, visually impressive, and features some of the best random gags we've seen on the show in a long time." Television critic Alex Rocha of TV Guide also found the episode to have "great laughs," saying that the show is "definitely off to a great start" to a new season. Tom Eames of entertainment website Digital Spy placed the episode at number one on his listing of the best Family Guy episodes in order of "yukyukyuks" and described the episode as "another crazy Brian and Stewie adventure". He noted that the story did not have "the most interesting plot", but got "more and more entertaining and so much fun" with every new world they featured in. He concluded that "coupled with Brian and Stewie front and centre, it made for the best Family Guy episode ever." The director of "Road to the Multiverse", Greg Colton, was awarded the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation, for storyboarding the episode, on August 21, 2010, at the 62nd Primetime Emmy Awards's Creative Arts Awards.

Although the Parents Television Council, a frequent Family Guy critic, did not name Family Guy its "Worst TV Show of the Week" for "Road to the Multiverse", it did refer to this episode in its negative review of the following episode, "Family Goy". The review noted that the appearance of the Griffin family's Jewish neighbor, Mort Goldman, in "Multiverse" was notable since, in the Disney parody, Mort was beaten to a bloody pulp by Disney-inspired versions of the cast – a reference to Walt Disney's purported antisemitism. The review goes on to state, "apparently, in Seth MacFarlane's mind, the best way to fight anti-Semitism is with more anti-Semitism. One must wonder what young, angry, disaffected bigots tuning into the show must think. All they see is a nebbish stereotype getting his teeth knocked out of his skull and a blood-soaked Star of David tumbling to the floor."

In a 2012 interview, Seth MacFarlane stated: "As far as the all-around best episode, "Road to the Multiverse" would have to be up there."

Sequel

A video game sequel called Family Guy: Back to the Multiverse was made. It is also a continuation of the season 9 episode "The Big Bang Theory".