Jumping the (Bigger) Jaws

Family Guy went after major media production on Sunday when Brian has his television pilot aired, but only after some slight alterations were made to the script.

Stewie discovers an old script Brian had written in the basement, and it turns out that the story, which focuses on the hardships of a young father trying to support his daughter while going to college, is actually pretty good. Lois gets the script in front of CBS through her wealthy father, and they agree to produce it.

It becomes clear very quickly in the production process, however, that this will not be Brian's vision. Instead of a serious drama called "What I Learned on Jefferson Lane" starring the depressing Elijah Wood, the producers turn it into a sit-com called "Classholes." James Woods makes his triumphant return as the father, and they turn the daughter into a hot 18-year old who happens to be attending the same college as her dad. In place of Brian's poignant dialogue, Woods ad libs fart jokes. And yes, Rodney Dangerfield did actually make this movie in real life.

The upshot is that Brian is carried along at the thought of actually having his work produced, but after his family and friends humiliate him for selling out, he stands up to the producers and quits. Probably the funniest scene of the episode comes at the very end, when the family is in its usual T.V.-watching tableau. Brian comments that at least he can say he had his television script produced, something most people couldn't. At that very moment, Peter's television pilot comes on, a story about how Jaws and some sailors have to band together to fight a common enemy - Bigger Jaws.

So what's going on here? I think we're meant to compare Brian's experience with what we can imagine Peter's experience in producing Bigger Jaws to have been like, and pull some meaning out of the incongruity. First, we can see that Brian clearly sold out to get his show on television, while Peter did not (Peter had explained Bigger Jaws exactly as it turned out, in all its obviousness and stupidity, earlier in the show). Our next thought is that Peter must have stood up for himself, which we should admire, and we should criticize Brian for giving in. However, I think the writers want us to continue on this train of thought because it brings us to their criticism of the production industry.

The reason that Brian's show was so drastically degraded and changed was because it was too serious, with too much meaning, and not enough entertainment value. Basically, if writers try to create something really good, it's going to get dumbed down for ratings. Peter, on the other hand, created something idiotic, so there was nothing for the producers to do to make it ratings-proof. Peter didn't have to sell out, but he didn't make something that was worth very much in the first place.