Back to the Woods (17 Feb. 2008)

James Woods gets his revenge on Peter by stealing his identity and moving in with his family. Peter responds by stealing Woods's identity and ruining his career.

Directors:

Brian Iles, Peter Shin

Writers:

Seth MacFarlane (creator), Seth MacFarlane (developer),

Stars:

Seth MacFarlane, Alex Borstein, Seth Green

Cast

Episode credited cast:
Seth MacFarlane	...	Peter Griffin / Brian Griffin / Stewie Griffin / Glenn Quagmire / The Ghost of Vern (voice)
Alex Borstein	...	Lois Griffin (voice)
Seth Green	...	Chris Griffin (voice)
Mila Kunis	...	Meg Griffin (voice)
Mike Henry	...	Cleveland Brown (voice)
Lori Alan	...	Diane Simmons (voice)
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Alexandra Breckenridge	...	Rob's Ex / Spider-Man's Girlfriend (voice)
James Burkholder	...	Various (voice)
Kirker Butler	...	Various (voice)
Evil Dave	...	David Letterman (voice) (as David Van Dam)
Barry Manilow	...	Barry Manilow (voice)
Danny Smith	...	Various (voice)
Stephen Stanton	...	Various (voice)
Alec Sulkin	...	Various (voice)
John Viener	...	Various (voice)

Storyline

At a Barry Manilow concert, Peter loses his wallet. However, a mystery culprit has found it and uses Peter's credit cards to steal his identity. Eventually, Peter and Brian determine that the suspect is James Woods, with whom Peter had an earlier run-in (and defeated by locking him in a crate inside a government warehouse). An embittered James is able to obtain a fraudulent identification card and literally takes over Peter's role as head of the household. The Griffins are outraged and want James arrested, but he fools Lt. Swanson into thinking he is Peter and has the real Peter escorted from "his" home. While James tries to establish himself as "Peter" (even going so far as to wearing Peter's clothing), the real Peter and Brian go to a hotel and plot their revenge ... by stealing James' identity in return. After Stewie presents Peter with a phony identification card of his own, he convinces the public that he is James Woods, all the while making rude and inconsiderate remarks to ruin...

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Plot Keywords:

assumed identity | september 11 2001 | 911 joke | semen in hair | identity theft | 

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Genres:

Animation | Comedy

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Details

Language:

English

Release Date:

17 February 2008 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

20th Century Fox Television, Fuzzy Door Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

30 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

CASTLE THUNDER: Heard at the very end of the "Jewish Eye Surgery" commercial when the announcer says "JEWISH".

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Quotes

James Woods: You're in a lot of trouble Griffin, you motherfucker!

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Connections

References Hungry Bitches (2007)

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Soundtracks

"Ready To Take A Chance Again"
Music by Charles Fox
Lyrics by Norman Gimbel
Sung by Barry Manilow

User Reviews

One of my personal favourite episodes

Reviewing as someone who is a massive fan of 'Family Guy', my rating of 'Back to the Woods' is arguably a bit biased but I'm giving this episode a rating of 10 out of 10 because I genuinely enjoy watching this episode despite certain production errors other viewers may have pointed out.

If you want the plot synopsis of this episode, details will be found on Family Guy Wiki. In a nutshell, the episode opens with Peter Griffin, Glenn Quagmire, Cleveland Brown and Joe Swanson attending a Barry Manilow concert; however, Peter loses his credit card (allegedly leaving it behind after the concert) which turns out to have been wrongly used by James Woods who plans to plot revenge on what Peter last did to him in the preceding episode 'Peter's Got Woods' (Series 4 Episode 11): "Locking him in a crate and forgetting to put an air-hole in it." Because of identity theft - which Woods is inflicting on Peter

• Woods claims that he, himself, is Peter and starts living in the

Griffins' household, much to Lois' grief in particular. Peter plans to plot revenge back on Woods by inflicting the same form of identity theft by mockingly promoting a film.

Overall, this episode flows very well with good pace throughout, a reasonably competent, inventive screenplay; most of the cultural references and jokes/gags are sure to produce more than a chuckle, the cutaway gags are personally suitably placed and nicely organised wherever necessary and a great return by the guest star - that is James Woods - who I remember being the perfectly-matching voice of Hades from 'Hercules'.

I particularly liked how at the beginning of the episode Peter and his friends discuss how unbelievably mediocre and big a joke Barry Manilow's works are... Almost immediately though, they start deciding that actually, his works aren't 'that terrible' until Joe quietly utters, "I love Barry Manilow!" and influences the others' changes of opinion. That scene was an effective way of showing how Barry Manilow can be a 'marmite' act. Away from the point quickly, there was a suggestion made by Andy Parsons on 'Mock the Week' for Scenes We'd Like to See: 'Commercials That Never Aired' which was as follows: "Marmite: you either love it or hate it...or you think it's OK but you'd rather have marmalade." In the case of Barry Manilow, a similar slogan should be: "The works of Barry Manilow: you either love them or hate them...or you think they're OK but you'd rather listen to Alan Menken."

My favourite cutaway gags were: Foghorn Leghorn, Peter's loss of his credit card (resulting in his mini-trilogy of flashbacks featuring his inabilities to pay for his haircut, produce identity for speeding or to rent a movie), the pigeon's poop, Stewie's priceless reaction to the notorious viral video '2 Girls 1 Cup', when Peter tries magic for the blind, after 'Spiderman gets laid'... To name a few.

Overall, a very well-done episode and certainly one of the highlights to the 'Family Guy' UK Season 8 box-set. I highly recommend this episode to any outsider of the hugely successful animated TV sitcom.