Stewie Goes for a Drive

Plot

Peter and Lois are leaving a doctor's office when actor Ryan Reynolds asks them for directions. He seems very appreciative of Peter. The next morning Peter notices that Ryan has moved in across the street, taking Cleveland Brown's former residence. Ryan says he's filming for a movie nearby. Peter attends Ryan's housewarming party that night, at which Ryan tickles him and requests that he return the favor. Later that week, they go out to dinner, but Peter immediately exits the restaurant when Ryan tries to kiss him. The next day, Peter tells Lois he believes Ryan is gay but Lois rejects the idea. Peter confronts Ryan, who replies that he is only attracted to Peter's spirit in the way that a man is attracted to a woman. Angered by Peter's accusation, Ryan orders him to leave and that they can never talk again—but hands him a cell phone so they can "always talk".

Brian picks up Stewie from a play date. On the drive home, Stewie listens to "Before He Cheats" by Carrie Underwood on the radio. He decides to stay in the car by himself to continue listening after they reach home and accidentally hits the gear shift, causing the car to move forward. Thinking he can drive, Stewie takes the car for a ride and is thrilled by the experience. He hears on the car radio a contest to win Justin Bieber concert tickets. Stewie calls the radio station on his cell phone but loses control of the car and crashes into a lamppost. (Herbert is heard on the radio winning the tickets.) Stewie takes the car home with the front of the vehicle completely destroyed. Brian discovers the damage and immediately blames Stewie, who tries to deny his involvement, but Brian points out that Stewie left Rupert in the car. Brian says he'll tell Peter and Lois, and Stewie cries. Afraid of being punished, Stewie runs away. He leaves a CD-ROM for Brian that details his plans. Stewie takes the bus to the airport, but disembarks in the wrong neighborhood. Consuela, the Griffin family's former maid, finds him and takes him home. Brian finds Stewie, and tells him that he did not tell anyone about the accident. They attempt to leave Consuela's home, but she insists on keeping Stewie as her own baby. Stewie steals a gun and shoots her in the foot, but says that he didn't want to hurt her because she had shown kindness to him in the past. Brian and Stewie return home.

Production and development

First announced at the 2011 San Diego Comic-Con International by series showrunners Steve Callaghan and Mark Hentemann, the episode was written by Gary Janetti. Janetti joined the series in its first season, writing "Brian: Portrait of a Dog", as well as the series's landmark 150th episode "Brian & Stewie". It was directed by Julius Wu, who joined the show in its fifth season, directing "The Tan Aquatic with Steve Zissou". Series regulars Peter Shin and James Purdum served as supervising director, with Andrew Goldberg, Alex Carter, Spencer Porter, Anthony Blasucci, Mike Desilets and Deepak Sethi serving as staff writers for the episode. Composer Ron Jones, who has worked on the series since its inception, returned to compose the music for "Stewie Goes for a Drive". An announcement of Reynolds' appearance in the episode was made at the Television Critics Association's summer press tour, along with several other guest voice actors for the season.

In addition to the regular cast, actor and musician Adam Alexi-Malle, actor Ralph Garman, voice actor Joe Lomonaco, voice actress Rachael MacFarlane, actor Ryan Reynolds, and voice actress Tara Strong guest starred in the episode. Recurring guest voice actors Alec Sulkin, writer John Viener and writer Wellesley Wild made minor appearances throughout the episode.

Reception

"Stewie Goes for a Drive" was broadcast on November 6, 2011, as a part of an animated television night on Fox, and was preceded by The Simpsons and Allen Gregory, and followed by Family Guy creator and executive producer Seth MacFarlane's second show, American Dad!. It was watched by 5.73 million viewers, according to Nielsen ratings, despite airing simultaneously with Desperate Housewives on ABC, The Good Wife on CBS and Sunday Night Football on NBC. The episode also acquired a 3.0/7 rating in the 18–49 demographic, beating Allen Gregory and American Dad, in addition to significantly edging out both shows in total viewership. The episode's ratings decreased somewhat from the previous week's episode, "Screams of Silence: The Story of Brenda Q".

Reviews of the episode were mostly mixed, calling the storyline a "much less extreme reversal" of the season two episode "The Story on Page One", in which Peter attempts to seduce actor Luke Perry. Kevin McFarland of The A.V. Club wrote of the episode, "It was disappointing to see Family Guy bury a guest star like Kaitlin Olson in the background for much of her episode as Quagmire's sister last week, but it was even worse to see the show waste Ryan Reynolds." He continued, "He may not fit an empirical definition of a movie star, but I think he’s worth more as a guest than a tired trope like playing himself as a sexual predator towards Peter." McFarland also criticized the episode's two storylines, noting, "Both plots paint themselves into a corner with no time to get out. In the third act, Stewie is trapped at Consuela's house and Peter hadn't succumbed to Reynolds' repetitive and slowly escalating advances or done anything about them, so the show snaps its fingers and ends each one prematurely." He graded the episode as a C-. In a much more positive review, Terron R. Moore of Ology criticized the episode for not featuring Griffin family siblings Chris and Meg, but praised the series for adopting a Stewie-centric storyline. Moore noted of the storyline involving Reynolds, "All pretty funny stuff, but Ryan Reynolds' entire guest slot is based on the fact that you like Ryan Reynolds and his occasionally homoerotic humor, which I can definitely appreciate." He concluded his review by writing, "Not the best Family Guy, but a definite improvement on the week before, using some of the elements it knows best." Andy Neuenschwander of Yidio also gave mixed reaction to the episode, writing, "Something happens whenever a celebrity shows up on "Family Guy" and plays themselves. I can't quite put my finger on it, but everything just feels a bit off. This episode, which featured Ryan Reynolds as Ryan Reynolds, only confirmed that feeling." He also compared it to The Simpsons, noting, "Maybe it's the way the celebrity is treated as a character: in shows like The Simpsons, celebrities who play themselves appear as a relatively normal version of themselves [...] But on Family Guy, celebrities tend to appear as some bizarro version of themselves."