Original air date: 5/9/1999
Production code: 1ACX-06
After Chris is thrown out of the Youth Scouts (which Chris hates anyway), the family (save Brian) head to Manhattan so they can complain to the head office, but a Potty Emergency from Peter leads to a quick stop at an Indian casino — and Lois' addiction to video poker costs the family their car. Meanwhile, Brian gets hooked on watching reruns of One Day at a Time.
Tropes:
- And Knowing Is Half the Battle: Parodied at the end of the episode when the Griffins make disparaging comments about races or cultures, but immediately pull a "Just Joking" Justification and say good things about them. All except for Peter, who calls Canadians freeloaders and after a pause, reiterates: "Canada sucks."
- Calling Me a Logarithm:Meg: Nice going mom. I finally get my driver's license and you lose the car to a poker machine. How ironic.
Peter: Hey! Don't talk about your mother that way, she is not an i-ron. - Cold Turkeys Are Everywhere: When Peter is suffering his Potty Emergency, he tells everyone he'll be fine so long as he keeps his mind on driving. He proceeds to see nothing but references to using the toilet for a solid minute ("Dump Ahead," "Stools Must Go," and so on).
It's lampshaded when he sees a sign for "Bob's House of Feces"—"Aw, come on, that one's not even real!" - Comically Missing the Point: As Chris struggles to tell Peter that he wants to quit the scouts, Meg gives him some advice on how to do it. Chris being Chris, gets the wrong idea a few times.
- In the first time, she tells Chris to "sit on [Peter's] lap, give him a big kiss on the cheek, look him right in the eye", and explain that he doesn't want to be in Scouts anymore. Chris proceeds to mess up the order by sitting down, telling Peter that the Scouts are no fun... realizes his fumble, and gives his father an awkward kiss on the cheek. Peter is not receptive.
- Later as Peter is set to wander off for his Vision Quest, Meg tells Chris that now it's his chance to be alone with dad.Chris: Are you nuts? I'm not attracted to dad!
Meg: ...tell him you don't want to be in Scouts.
Chris: Oh. Thanks, Meg! (heads to join Peter)
Meg: Yipes.
- Didn't Think This Through: Peter's plan to only have to pay for one ticket to get into the fair? Him and Chris dressing up as a horse. It goes wrong because Chris sneezes while he's dressed as the back of the horse.
- In Harmony with Nature: One of Peter's (ostensibly impossible) tasks during his Vision Quest is to "communicate with nature", to a point where he can "hear the wisdom of the rocks and trees". During a hallucinatory episode, Peter manages to accomplish this, striking up a conversation with the trees.Peter: Uh, hey, uh... Tree... if one of you falls and there's no one around, do you make a noise?
Tree 1: Are you kidding? Scott fell last week, he hasn't shut up about it since!
Scott: Sure, stand there and bitch! But would any of you take the time to help me?!
Tree 2: Ooh! Ooh, (fiddles with his branches) I'm playing the world's smallest violin, Scott. - Let Us Never Speak of This Again: Peter does this after Chris jumps on Peter's lap and kisses him to get out of the Boy Scouts, on Meg's advice.
- Mighty Whitey: Parodied in a way: Peter gets sent on a Native American Vision Quest in order to "prove" his ancestry — largely as a prank by the Native American Casino's tribal council — and he ends up experiencing one for real. Upon discovering Peter's accomplishment, the tribesmen lament how they've never experienced one and ruminate on their spirituality.Leonard Cornfeathers: Man! I guess we've lost touch with our noble roots... I mean, sure this casino's brought our tribe money and prosperity. But what is the price of our souls?
Frank: Uh, 6 million dollars a week.
Leonard: (snaps out of it) Yeah, that sounds about right. - Native American Casino: A bulk of the conflict of the episode is caused by the family detouring into one of these, with Lois quickly becoming addicted and betting their car. Peter claims ancestral ties to the council's tribe in an attempt to get their car back.
- Not So Above It All: Brian is initially displeased to be stuck watching One Day at a Time (1975), but he eventually takes to it.
- This was the first episode to avert Women Are Wiser, as it's Lois who gets addicted to video poker and gamble away the family's car.
- Pantomime Animal: One cutaway involved Peter and Chris dressing as a horse to only have to pay one ticket price at the fair.Peter: One, please.
(Chris sneezes)
Clerk: Wait a second! Your ass just sneezed! And horses can't talk! No no no, nothing about this adds up at all! - Parental Sexuality Squick: Stewie is freaked out after accidentally walking in on Peter and Lois having sex the night before. Brian messes with him by suggesting where else they did it.
- Potty Emergency: While driving on the freeway, Peter bemoans having a prune smoothie. To make matters worse, he sees a sign for a town dump, a delivery truck emblazoned with the warning "Wide Load", a sign for a furniture store proclaiming that "All Stools Must Go", a car whose bumper sticker reads, "I love my Shih Tzu", a billboard for "Bob's House of Feces" (though he dismisses that one as it can't be real), and finally a billboard emblazoned with "Craps, Craps, Craps", which was The Last Straw, forcing him to make a pit stop at the casino.
- Pun: Carrot Top at the Indian casino.Carrot Top: (holding a bow) Look, a bow tie. I'm David Bowie. Bo Derek!
Stewie: Very funny! Now tell the one that doesn't suck! - Raised Lighter Tribute: When the trees start singing "Cats in the Cradle," one of them holds up a lighter... and sets the other trees on fire in the process.Tree: Todd, you stupid bastard!
- Repeat What You Just Said: Lois tries to explain her way out of accidentally gambling away the family's car, and Peter notices something:Lois: I'm sorry, Peter! I feel so foolish, but it just seemed like such a good cause; everyone in the tribe gets a share of the casino's profits.
Peter: What did you just say?
Lois: "I'm sorry, Peter"?
Peter: After that.
Lois: "I feel foolish."
Peter: After that.
Lois: "Casino's profits."
Peter: Before that.
Lois: "Everyone in the tribe."
Peter: Now the whole thing.
Lois: "Everyone in the tribe gets a share in the casino's profits?"
Peter: That's it, let's go! - Scout-Out: Chris is a member of a Boy Scout facsimile, and he gets kicked out. The family (minus Brian) sets out on a journey to to get his membership reinstated in New York, but they get sidetracked.
- Self-Deprecation: Peter's "Canada sucks" statement is an in-joke from the episode's writer, Ricky Blitt, who is Canadian himself.
- Snipe Hunt: Skeptical of Peter's claims of having Native American blood, the casino's council sends him on "a really impossible stunt" to prove it: a stereotypical Vision Quest where Peter (and later Chris) must venture out into the wilderness without food or water (or shoes) until he "becomes one with nature" and finds his guiding spirit. Despite the council later admitting to Lois that it was a sham, Peter does end up sincerely experiencing (or hallucinating) the intended effects, even getting his own Spirit Advisor in the form of The Fonz. After he and Chris return and relay their experiences, the management are quite disheartened to hear of someone having a real Vision Quest, evidently having never experienced one themselves.
- Spirit Advisor: Fonzie is this during Peter's vision quest and gives him advice about listening to Chris.
- STD Immunity: Averted when Peter asks The Fonz if, in all the times he slept with women, he ever got a sexual disease:Fonz: Herpes twice. And The Clap. (Beat) Ayyyyyyyyy!!!
- Take That!: While playing charades Lois says she's thinking of a movie. When asked if it's a good movie she responds "it has its moments". Peter correctly, and immediately, guesses Cool Runnings.
- Unusual Euphemism: Schneider from One Day at a Time:Schneider: I'll fix your sink, Miss Romano. And by that I mean I'll have sex with you. And by that, I mean I'll fix your sink. And by sink, I mean your reproductive organ. And by reproductive organ, I mean the thing between your knees. And by the thing between your knees, well, I guess that one's kind of self-explanatory.
- Vision Quest: Peter is sent on one of these as part of a stunt by management of the Native American Casino to prove his claim of having Native American blood. Despite Peter's claim being total hokum, he genuinely starts having a spiritual episode (or at least Helpful Hallucinations), with The Fonz appearing as his guiding spirit, even informing a very real truth: his son, Chris, needs Peter to listen in his time of need.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: Chris was only in scouts because of Peter and struggles with telling him that he hates it.
- World's Smallest Violin: One of the talking trees plays the world's smallest violin for another tree who has fallen and is screaming for help.
- Your Television Hates You: When Brian is watching TV:Man: After years of study, I've discovered the secret to longer life in canines. And that secret is—
Announcer: We interrupt this program for several episodes of One Day at a Time.
