When You Wish Upon a Weinstein

When You Wish upon a Weinstein is an episode of Family Guy that would have first aired in 2000, but because of concerns about its content, remained unaired on FOX until December 10, 2004. (However, it had been airing on Cartoon Network regularly since the show's reruns had begun airing there in 2003.) Its production code of 2ACX05 suggests the episode was meant to take place early on in Season 2. But because it was finally aired after all the other Season 3 episodes, and because it is the last episode in the Season 3 boxed DVD set (as a "bonus un-aired episode"), it is customarily placed at No. 22 in most episode lists (although on the region 2 DVD releases, it was included as the last episode of season 2). It is included in the "Freakin' Sweet Collection". The episode title is derived from that of the famous Disney song "When You Wish Upon a Star".

Written by Ricky Blitt. Directed by Dan Povenmire. Guest starring Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker, Ed McMahon as himself and Ben Stein as Rabbi Goldberg.

Plot summary

File:FGWhenYouWishUponaWeinstein.png

Peter and Chris in Weinstein

Peter gives Lois's "rainy day fund" to a scam artist selling volcano insurance. On that same night Stewie breaks Meg's glasses, because he hates being watched while he sleeps, and so Lois tells Peter that he needs to recover the money to buy their daughter a new pair of glasses. Peter decides that he needs a Jew to handle his money in an elaborate musical number based on When You Wish upon a Star. When a Jewish man named Max Weinstein has car trouble outside the Griffin house, Peter takes it as a sign and after a footchase, Peter pressures Max into helping him get the emergency money back. Max later recovers the money from the scammer. After accompanying Max to synagogue ("Temple Beth Thupporting Actor") and inviting him over for dinner, Peter comes to the conclusion that Chris would get better grades and be more successful if he converted to Judaism. He secretly drives Chris to Las Vegas, Nevada for a quick Bar Mitzvah after Lois displays objection to his idea, but she arrives just in time to stop the ceremony. A crowd, angry that Lois is apparently insulting their religion, chases the Griffins until they escape onto a bus which is full of nuns who are not happy about Peter's straying from Catholicism.

The controversy

Some FOX network executives were concerned that the episode could be construed as anti-Semitic, and made the decision not to air the episode after it had completed postproduction.[1]

On the DVD commentary for the episode, Seth MacFarlane mentions that he showed the script of the episode to two rabbis, both of whom approved the episode "because Peter learns the right lesson at the end." MacFarlane also points out that the writer, Ricky Blitt, is Jewish himself; as is Ben Stein, who plays the Rabbi.

One line considered particularly offensive by some occurs during Peter's song when he sings "Even though they killed my Lord, I need a Jew." MacFarlane recorded an alternate version of the line (replacing "Even though they killed my Lord" with "I don't think they killed my Lord") which was used when Cartoon Network aired the episode and then when FOX aired the episode (TBS also airs this episode with the alternate line, even though the original line is shown in closed captioning), but he defends the original line giving a "consider the source" defense. Plenty of previous episodes, as well as this episode, make the point that Peter lacks very general knowledge (he believes that a volcano could come down the road mere minutes prior to the song) as well as knowledge of his own Catholic religion.

It should be noted that an earlier episode, "Holy Crap" did not cause much of a stir despite depicting Catholics as religious-obsessed and openly mocking the Pope (nor did "Peter Griffin: Husband, Father...Brother?", which includes numerous jokes about the enslavement of Africans in the U.S.).

Cultural references

• Peter claims Math is biology's lesbian sister.

• A short cutscene, which parodies the rumored unsafety of laser eye surgery, references the Star Wars character Luke Skywalker, who wields a lightsaber to execute the surgery on the encouragement of Obi-Wan Kenobi.

• After Stewie breaks Meg's glasses, he holds up a Toblerone, a chewy chocolate candy bar, and asks her if it's that or a poopie.

• At the beginning of the episode there is a parody of the Lifetime channel, making fun of female stereotypes and calling the channel "The Lifetime channel, television for idiots".

• Peter tells Weinstein "Thanks for Spaceballs!", in reference to Spaceballs, the Star Wars parody, written and directed by Mel Brooks, who is Jewish.

• When Peter tells Lois that him and Max solved their financial woes, Lois shakes her head in disbelief while a twangy noise is heard, similar to classic cartoons.

• When Max Weinstein says he has to go to Temple, Peter says "Temple? You mean like Indiana Jones?" The scene cuts to Indiana Jones in front of a monkey statue. He stares at it, then starts juggling a sack, a clear reference to Raiders of the Lost Ark. He does this until Jackie Gleason appears and yells "Will you just pick it up already?!"

• Optimus Prime (leader of the Autobots on Transformers) shows up to the Quahog synagogue for the Sabbath service as the last of a series of persons Peter hadn't expected to be Jewish, such as Bill Nye and Lenny Kravitz, who is shown with only half of his body present, being only half-Jewish. His list is a reference to Adam Sandler's "The Chanukah Song".

• When the nuns are leaving the church and boarding the bus, the Penguin is outside jumping for joy going "Excellent, Excellent!" and delivers his signature laugh.

• A scene depicts William Shatner performing a scene of Fiddler on the Roof. Unexpectedly, he shouts "Khan!!!" as a reference to Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.

• Peter remembers getting an autograph on a book written by Tony Robbins, but he gets hungry, and eats Peter like an boa. Robbins only says one line: "TONY ROBBINS HUNGRY!"

• Stewie references Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray when he tells Meg: "Somewhere in the attic, there's a portrait of you getting prettier."

• The cutaway scene where Stewie is on Star Search and he loses to comedian Sinbad is based on a real episode of Star Search where comedian/Saturday Night Live alum Dennis Miller loses to Sinbad.

• Chris's bar mitzvah is performed by magician Rabbi Copperfeld, a reference to David Copperfield.

• The last few scenes of the episode parody the ending of The Graduate. At the Vegas synagogue, Lois uses a Star of David to lock the door, then she, Peter, and Chris board a bus, sitting all the way at the rear.

Trivia

• The FOX version of this episode not only used the "I don't think they killed my Lord" line instead of the original one, but they also radically shortened the scene where Quagmire is "finding his car keys" for Lois so that it doesn't look as if he is pleasuring himself.
• The synagogue Max Weinstein and the Griffins go to is Reform.