"The Old Man and the Big 'C" is the third episode of the eleventh season of the animated

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 ...

'' and the 191st episode overall. It originally aired on the

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 ...

network in the United States on November 4, 2012. It was initially going to be aired on October 21, 2012 but due to a previous

rainout A rainout is the process of precipitation causing the removal of radioactive particles from the atmosphere onto the ground, creating nuclear fallout by rain. The rainclouds of the rainout are often formed by the particles of a nuclear explosion it ...

, the

NLCS The National League Championship Series (NLCS) is a best-of-seven playoff and one of two League Championship Series comprising the penultimate round of Major League Baseball's (MLB) postseason. It is contested by the winners of the two National ...

Game 6 bumped all the sitcoms of

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 ...

Plot

At a Boston Red Sox ballgame,

Quagmire A mire, peatland, or quagmire is a wetland area dominated by living peat-forming plants. Mires arise because of incomplete decomposition of organic matter, usually litter from vegetation, due to water-logging and subsequent anoxia. All types ...

accidentally loses his toupée going for a fly ball, and it was put up on the scoreboard and YouTube. When he becomes a laughingstock both at the game and due to a Kia Motors-sponsored story with the slogan, "Too bad it's a Kia," on Quahog 5, he decides to ditch the wig. The change in his appearance affects his attitude. The guys become reluctant to hang out with him and convince him to get a hair transplant. At the hospital for Quagmire's hair transplant, Brian wanders off and overhears that Carter has terminal cancer. He returns and tells Stewie who confirms it via online camera in the Pewterschmidt house. Brian tells

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 ...

who rounds up the family and heads for her parents' home, but when they arrive they find Carter in good health, Lois becomes angry at a stunned Brian for surprising her like that, with Meg shaming him, and Peter saying "he will get it when he drinks". Brian suspects that Carter is an impostor in order to protect the family business interests and convinces Stewie to come with him to prove his theory. Brian and Stewie follow Carter around in Pewterschmidt Industries in order to prove he is an impostor. They hear Carter talking to one of his executives about a "Specimen Z" in the sub-levels that might be the description for the "real" Carter Pewterschmidt. While sneaking into a sub-level medical facility to find "Specimen Z," Brian and Stewie discover that "Specimen Z" is actually for a chemical that is the cure for cancer. Carter finds them in the room where it is being held and reveals that he has been sitting on the cure since 1999 in order to protect his sales of treatment pharmaceuticals. Carter then has the

security guard A security guard (also known as a security inspector, security officer, or protective agent) is a person employed by a government or private party to protect the employing party's assets (property, people, equipment, money, etc.) from a variety ...

s throw Brian and Stewie out. As Brian fumes on their way home, Stewie reveals that he stole the cure. They take it home to show Lois, but Carter arrives with his men to take it back and Brian tells what it is. Lois is appalled, but Carter refuses to show pity until she brings up some of his closest loved ones possibly dying of cancer. After an argument with Lois, Carter promises to reveal the cure. The next day in a press release, Carter only gives the news of a new type of deodorant for mentally disabled people called "Slow Stick" (a parody of

Speed Stick Speed Stick is an American brand of deodorant/antiperspirant produced by multinational healthcare company Colgate-Palmolive. It was formerly known as "Mennen Speed Stick" prior to Colgate-Palmolive's purchase of The Mennen Company. Currently, th ...

), which is also apparently edible. Lois calls to find out why he did not reveal the secret as Carter reveals that he lied before hanging up on her. The episode ends with Peter assuring to Lois that they will get over the fact that Carter's a bad man when he is shown on the cover of '' Forbes Magazine'' with devil-like horns.

Reception

The episode received a 2.5 rating and was watched by a total of 5.11 million people, this made it the second most watched show on

that night, beating '' Bob's Burgers'', '' The Cleveland Show'' and ''

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 ...

'' but losing to '' The Simpsons'' with 5.54 million. The episode was met with mixed reviews from critics. Kevin McFarland of '' The A.V. Club'' gave the episode a B, saying "But even without an emotionally sweet turn, this is still the funniest episode of ''Family Guy'' so far this season. Tons of throwaway lines get laughs, and a surprising number of cutaways actually worked." Carter Dotson of ''TV Fanatic'' gave the episode three out of five stars, saying "Even the cancer cure plot seemed half-baked. It was the typical glazing over of a message that was to be presented: just a top-level message that rich corporations would rather make money by treating cancer rather than curing it. A simple one, and handled by the show in the way that it usually does, like in the “legalize pot” episode: present the point and change nothing."

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Old Man And The Big C, The 2012 American television episodes Family Guy (season 11) episodes