"Save the Clam" is the 20th episode of the eleventh season and the 207th overall episode 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 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 May 5, 2013, and is written by Chris Sheridan and directed by

Brian Iles Brian Iles is an American animation director. Iles is known for directing several episodes of the animated TV series ''Family Guy''. Iles has also served as a storyboard revisionist and as a character layout artist on ''Drawn Together'' and ''Th ...

. The episode's plot revolves around

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 ...

and his friends trying to save Quahog’s local bar, The Drunken Clam, from being closed down after the owner Horace is killed in a freak accident during a ball game.

Plot

During a Drunken Clam softball game against Mort's team Goldman's Pharmacy,

Jerome Jerome (; la, Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus; grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος Σωφρόνιος Ἱερώνυμος; – 30 September 420), also known as Jerome of Stridon, was a Christian presbyter, priest, Confessor of the Faith, confessor, th ...

is brought in as a player for Mort's team. To win the game, Horace attempts to strike Jerome out. Unfortunately for Horace, Jerome hits the ball so hard it accidentally flies into Horace's face and fractures his skull, killing him. During the funeral, Jerome express to Peter how awful he feels about it; noting that Horace was a good bartender and a good guy, and wishes there was something he could do for him. Peter reassures Jerome that he did not mean to kill him. After the funeral, the guys go to drink at The Drunken Clam only to find the bar has been

foreclosed Foreclosure is a legal process in which a lender attempts to recover the balance of a loan from a borrower who has stopped making payments to the lender by forcing the sale of the asset used as the collateral for the loan. Formally, a mortg ...

. The guys are forced to drink at Peter's home, but after

Lois Lois is a common English name from the New Testament. Paul the Apostle mentions Lois, the pious grandmother of Saint Timothy in the Second Epistle to Timothy (commending her for her faith in 2 Timothy 1:5). The name was first used by English C ...

objects, they sneak into the Clam for a night of drinking. The next morning, they find the building is about to be demolished and Peter demands they stop as he claims ownership of the bar. During the stand-off, Jerome suddenly appears and reveals that he used his sports earnings from playing

lacrosse Lacrosse is a team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game was extensively ...

(which is also his brother's name) to buy the Clam so he can keep it open to honor Horace's legacy and atone for his role in Horace's death. The trio find the Drunken Clam modified by Jerome and then they are relegated to a space on the floor near a pile of garbage since there are three black guys in their usual booth. In a sub plot, during Horace's

funeral A funeral is a ceremony connected with the final disposition of a corpse, such as a burial or cremation, with the attendant observances. Funerary customs comprise the complex of beliefs and practices used by a culture to remember and respect th ...

;

Meg Meg is a feminine given name, often a short form of Megatron, Megan, Megumi (Japanese), etc. It may refer to: People *Meg (singer), a Japanese singer *Meg Cabot (born 1967), American author of romantic and paranormal fiction *Meg Burton Cahill ( ...

has to use the bathroom and stumbles into an

embalming Embalming is the art and science of preserving human remains by treating them (in its modern form with chemicals) to forestall decomposition. This is usually done to make the deceased suitable for public or private viewing as part of the funeral ...

session. Her lack of squeamishness impresses the

undertaker A funeral director, also known as an undertaker (British English) or mortician (American English), is a professional involved in the business of funeral rites. These tasks often entail the embalming and burial or cremation of the dead, as w ...

and he offers her a job. Soon,

Chris Chris is a short form of various names including Christopher, Christian, Christina, Christine, and Christos. Chris is also used as a name in its own right, however it is not as common. People with the given name * Chris Abani (born 1966), N ...

shows up after being locked out of the house without a key and plays with the deceased bodies to Meg's annoyance. When she goes to dress the body of Mr. Dugan, she finds it is missing and discovers that Chris stole the body, using it to get into "R" rated movies until it fell apart in a swimming pool. Unable to find Dugan's body parts, Chris poses as Dugan during the funeral despite having itchy testicles. As they progress, they learn from Dugan's wife Helen that the deceased face is to be donated for a transplant to a woman who lost her face in a freak

chimpanzee The chimpanzee (''Pan troglodytes''), also known as simply the chimp, is a species of great ape native to the forest and savannah of tropical Africa. It has four confirmed subspecies and a fifth proposed subspecies. When its close relative th ...

accident. Chris becomes furious at Meg for the loss of his own face, now unable to frown due to the transplant.

Reception

The episode received a 2.2 rating in the 18-49 demographic and was watched by a total of 4.79 million viewers. This made it the second most watched show on Fox's

Animation Domination Animation Domination (also called AniDom, Fox AD, and AD) is an American animated programming block which has aired in two iterations on the Fox broadcast network, featuring a lineup solely made up of prime-time animation and adult animation carr ...

line-up that night, beating ''

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 ''

Bob's Burgers ''Bob's Burgers'' is an American adult animated sitcom created by Loren Bouchard that premiered on Fox on January 9, 2011. The show centers on the Belcher family—parents Bob and Linda and their three children, Tina, Gene, and Louise—who r ...

'' but losing to ''

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 ...

''. The episode was met with mixed reviews from critics. Kevin McFarland 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 ...

'' gave the episode a B, saying "That’s a pretty standard way to appreciate anything that ''Family Guy'' does these days, tuning out the deliberately provocative jokes as though they're comments made by an older relative at Thanksgiving who gets a pass because they 'grew up in a different time.' ''Family Guy'' doesn't have that excuse, so when the material doesn't work because it trades in lazy stereotypes, it hurts the episode. Still, I laughed more this week at the remaining bits than I have in a few months." Carter Dotson of TV Fanatic gave the episode three out of five stars, saying "This was a rather pedestrian episode of the show, not a classic but not terrible. If your DVR didn't record it, you didn't miss much."

References

External links

* *

The plot description was adapted fro
Save the Clam
at Family Guy Wiki, which is available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 license. {{Family Guy (season 11) 2013 American television episodes Family Guy (season 11) episodes Television episodes about funerals