"Quagmire's Baby" is the sixth episode of the eighth season of the

animated Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most anim ...

comedy series Television comedy is a category of broadcasting that has been present since the early days of entertainment media. While there are several genres of comedy, some of the first ones aired were variety shows. One of the first Television in the United ...

Family Guy ''Family Guy'' is an American animated sitcom originally conceived and created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The show centers around the Griffin family, Griffins, a dysfunctional family consisting of parents Peter Griff ...

''. It originally aired on

Fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...

in the United States on November 15, 2009. The episode centers on neighbor

Glenn Quagmire Glenn Quagmire, often referred to by just his surname, is a fictional character from the American adult animated series ''Family Guy''. He is a neighbor and friend of the Griffin family and is best known for his hypersexuality and his catchphra ...

, who suddenly discovers that he is the father of a newborn baby girl after she is left at his doorstep. While he takes care of the baby, whom he names Anna Lee, Quagmire quickly becomes reluctant to give up his sex life, and must decide whether to keep her or to give her up for adoption. Meanwhile,

Griffin family The Griffin family is a fictional family which appears in the List of animated television series, animated television series ''Family Guy''. The Griffins are a dysfunctional family consisting of the married couple Peter Griffin, Peter and Lois G ...

baby Stewie decides to create a dumbed-down version of himself, in order to perform various tasks for him and serve as his slave, and the intrigued family dog,

Brian Brian (sometimes spelled Bryan in English) is a male given name of Irish and Breton origin, as well as a surname of Occitan origin. It is common in the English-speaking world. It is possible that the name is derived from an Old Celtic word me ...

, also wants one. The episode was written by series regular

Patrick Meighan Patrick Meighan (born 1949) is an American saxophonist and educator who specializes in classical music, while also performing in jazz, rock, and pop styles. Meighan has been described in ''Musical America ''as "...most exceptional, with an otherw ...

, and directed by Jerry Langford. It received positive reviews from critics for its storyline and many cultural references. According to

Nielsen ratings Nielsen Media Research (NMR) is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre, films (via the AMC Theatres MAP program), and newspapers. Headquartered in New York City, it is best known for the Nielsen rat ...

, it was viewed in 8.28 million homes in its original airing. The episode featured guest performances by Luke Adams,

John Bunnell John Edwin Bunnell (born May 25, 1944) is a former American sheriff of Multnomah County, Oregon. Bunnell is best known for presenting ''World's Wildest Police Videos'' between 1998 and 2001 and its revival briefly in 2012. Background Bunnell was ...

Max Burkholder Maxwell Henry Wolf Burkholder (born November 1, 1997) is an American actor most notable for his role as Max Braverman in the comedic television drama on NBC, '' Parenthood''. Prior to that, he became known as a voice actor for his roles as Chom ...

, Noah Gray-Cabey,

Christine Lakin Christine Helen Lakin (born January 24, 1979) is an American actress and director. She is best known for her role as Alicia "Al" Lambert on the 1990s ABC/CBS sitcom '' Step by Step''. She also played Joan of Arc on Showtime's ''Reefer Madness'' ...

Brittany Snow Brittany Anne Snow (born March 9, 1986) is an American actress. She rose to prominence after appearing in the CBS soap opera ''Guiding Light'' (1998–2001), for which she won a Young Artist Award for Best Young Actress and was nominated for two ...

Mae Whitman Mae Margaret Whitman (born June 9, 1988) is an American actress and singer. She began acting in commercials as a child, making her film debut at the age of six in the romantic drama '' When a Man Loves a Woman'' (1994). She achieved recognition as ...

, and Tom Wilson, along with several recurring guest voice actors for the series. "Quagmire's Baby" was released on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...

along with seven other episodes from the season on June 15, 2010.

Plot

Peter Peter may refer to: People * List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Peter (given name) ** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church * Peter (surname), a sur ...

buys an

amateur radio Amateur radio, also known as ham radio, is the use of the radio frequency spectrum for purposes of non-commercial exchange of messages, wireless experimentation, self-training, private recreation, radiosport, contesting, and emergency communic ...

at Quagmire's

garage sale A garage sale (also known as a yard sale, tag sale, moving sale and by many other namesSome rarely used names include "attic sale," "basement sale," "rummage sale," "thrift sale," "patio sale," "lawn sale," and "jumble sale".) is an informal ...

and finds out that he can use it to communicate with the spirit of

Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...

. Peter becomes fond of his friendship with the spirit until he is found out as

Rich Little Richard Caruthers Little (born November 26, 1938) is a Canadian-American impressionist and voice actor. Sometimes known as the "Man of a Thousand Voices", Little has recorded nine comedy albums and made numerous television appearances, including ...

impersonating Reagan. He goes to return the radio to Quagmire, noticing a baby in a basket by his door. The baby turns out to be Quagmire's

illegitimate Legitimacy, in traditional Western common law, is the status of a child born to parents who are legally married to each other, and of a child conceived before the parents obtain a legal divorce. Conversely, ''illegitimacy'', also known as ''b ...

daughter. Quagmire takes her in and names her Anna Lee. However, she greatly affects his sex life. Quagmire decides to put Anna Lee up for

adoption Adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting of another, usually a child, from that person's biological or legal parent or parents. Legal adoptions permanently transfer all rights and responsibilities, along with filiation, from ...

. However, Quagmire is unable to stop thinking about Anna Lee, so the group head to her adoptive house to regain her. Quagmire realizes that Anna Lee's new parents treat her better and decides to leave her with them. Meanwhile, Stewie clones a less intelligent assistant and names the simpleton duplicate "Bitch Stewie". After

meets Bitch Stewie, he becomes interested in having a clone of his own. Stewie and Bitch Stewie comply by creating "Bitch Brian", who is even less intelligent than Stewie's clone and incapable of doing the simplest of chores, due to Stewie being too lazy to create him and having Bitch Stewie do it instead. The clones eventually disintegrate due to their instability.

Production and development

The episode was written by series regular

, in his first working episode of the season. It was directed by Jerry Langford, also in his first working credit of the season although he would direct "

Brian Griffin's House of Payne "Brian Griffin's House of Payne" is the 15th episode of the eighth season of the animated comedy series '' Family Guy''. It originally aired on Fox in the United States on March 28, 2010. The episode features Brian after he discovers an old scri ...

". "Quagmire's Baby", along with the seven other episodes from ''Family Guy''s eighth season, were released on a three-disc

set in the United States on June 15, 2010. The sets included brief audio commentaries by Seth MacFarlane and various crew and cast members for several episodes, In addition to the regular cast, actor Luke Adams, sheriff and television narrator

, voice actor

, actor Noah Gray-Cabey, voice actress

, actress

, voice actress

and actor Tom Wilson guest starred in the episode. Recurring guest voice actors Danny Smith, writer

Alec Sulkin Alexander Matthew Sulkin (born February 14, 1973) is an American screenwriter, producer, and voice actor known for his work on ''Family Guy'' and ''The Cleveland Show''. Career Sulkin began as a writer for ''The Late Late Show (CBS TV series)#C ...

and writer John Viener made minor appearances.

Reception

"Quagmire's Baby" was broadcast on November 15, 2009, as a part of an animated television night on Fox, and was preceded by an episode of ''

The Simpsons ''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical depiction of American life, epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, ...

'' and MacFarlane's newest series ''

The Cleveland Show ''The Cleveland Show'' is an American animated sitcom created by Seth MacFarlane, Richard Appel, and Mike Henry for the Fox Broadcasting Company. A spin-off of ''Family Guy'', the series centers on Cleveland Brown, his new wife Donna Tubbs, a ...

''. It was followed by MacFarlane's second show ''

American Dad! ''American Dad!'' is an American animated sitcom created by Seth MacFarlane, Mike Barker and Matt Weitzman for the Fox Broadcasting Company. Since 2014, the series has been airing new episodes on TBS. ''American Dad!'' is the first television ...

''. In a significant improvement over the previous week's two episodes, "Quagmire's Baby" was viewed in 8.28 million homes in its original airing, according to

. The episode was the second most watched episode of the night, following ''

'' episode " The Devil Wears Nada", despite airing simultaneously with '' Sunday Night Football'' on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

, ''

Desperate Housewives ''Desperate Housewives'' is an American comedy-drama soap opera television series created by Marc Cherry and produced by ABC Studios and Marc Cherry, Cherry Productions. It aired for eight seasons on American Broadcasting Company, ABC from Octobe ...

'' on

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

and '' Three Rivers'' on

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

. The episode also acquired a 4.1 rating in the 18–49 demographic, beating ''The Cleveland Show'' and ''American Dad!''. The episode received generally positive reviews from critics, citing "Quagmire's quirky storylines" and the pairing of Brian and Stewie as a good combination. Ahsan Haque of

IGN ''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...

noted that the episode possessed "some memorable jokes", and that "this episode manages to entertain from start to finish". Emily VanDerWerff of ''

The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...

'' reviewed the episode much more negatively, going on to state, "Tonight's episode started out promisingly", and found Bitch Brian to be "the sole saving grace of an episode that sort of meandered around after the first five or ten minutes".

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Quagmire's Baby 2009 American television episodes Family Guy (season 8) episodes Television episodes about cloning