Brian: Portrait of a Dog

Brian: Portrait of a Dog is an episode of Family Guy from Season One. First aired on May 16, 1999. Written by Gary Janetti. Directed by Michael Dante DiMartino. Guest starring Dick Van Patten as Tom Bradford. Production code 1ACX07.

Plot summary

A record heat wave hits Quahog and the Griffins desperately want an air conditioner, but can not afford one. When Peter learns that the Rhode Island dog show Championship is being held in town with a top prize of $500, he pressures Brian to enter. Brian finds the idea demeaning but reluctantly agrees. When he is asked to beg for a treat during the show, he angrily leaves. Brian finds that life is hard for a dog on his own: he is unwelcome at restaurants and shunned for drinking from a "people" water fountain. Soon he is reduced to begging for change on the streets and arrested, just as Peter realizes how much Brian means to the family. Brian is scheduled to be put to sleep and the family asks for an appeal before the city council. Brian mounts a persuasive argument, but the council refuses to listen to a mere dog; Peter resolves the situation by giving an inspirational speech and later offering each member $20.

References to other TV shows

The family watches an episode of Eight is Enough in which Tom Bradford slaps his daughter Nancy more than eight times.

Peter writes a letter to MacGyver actor Richard Dean Anderson to save his dog using the enclosed rubber band, paper clip and straw.

The end scene in which Brian drinks from the "people" water fountain is a reference to the ending of the novel and TV movie, The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, in which the title character, a black woman in the segregated South, does the same at a "white" water fountain.

In the 1979 movie "All That Jazz", where a director struggles with life/drugs/sex, etc. and before a show, he would use eye drops, take a deep breath, and say "Showtime!". This is what Brian does before he participates in the Dog Show.