YMMV / Family Guy S 2 E 13 Road To Rhode Island

• Award Snub: Widely considered the greatest episode of Family Guy and is Seth MacFarlane’s favorite episode to date. Yet it lost the Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program to The Simpsons episode, "Behind the Laughter".
• Best Known for the Fanservice: A considerably rare example where people still acknowledge the main plot of this episode (that is, Brian and Stewie going on a cross-country adventure), but the subplot where Peter and Lois try to rekindle their marriage is only remembered thanks to the marriage counseling videos they purchase, which introduces us to Dr. Amanda Rebecca.
• Growing the Beard: The episode is considered one of these for the development of the comedy team of Brian and Stewie. At first, Brian was intended to be Peter's sidekick, while Stewie was a loner who aimed to kill his mother and take over the world. This episode established the Brian-Stewie relationship that has become one of the show's hallmarks.
• Harsher in Hindsight: Osama bin Laden getting weapons through airport security by singing showtunes. This episode aired a year and a half before 9/11. Even more awkward when you realize that, had Seth MacFarlane not missed his flight due to an agent's error (and a hangover), he would have died that day - he was booked on American Airlines Flight 11. Because of this, the scene is effectively banned forever (unless you have the "Freakin Sweet" DVD collection, the iTunes version, the Hulu version, or the UK or German DVD version), even after Osama bin Laden was found and killed (making the shot of him singing I Hope I Get It from A Chorus Line funny in a sick way). Adding on to that, Brian, whom Seth has admitted is his Author Avatar, gets drunk at the airport, indirectly causing him to miss his flight.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • "Off on the Road to Rhode Island" has one particular lyric - "Until we're syndicated/FOX will never let us die. Please?" Family Guy was briefly canceled after Season 2 finished airing due to subpar ratings, only to get a last-second reprieve. In 2002, the show was canceled again, but this time, syndication rights were sold to Adult Swim for peanuts. The show would net sublime ratings in the block, DVDs released around the same time of syndication sold gangbusters, and Family Guy would be revived. Not only did they become one of FOX's flagship shows, but Family Guy is heralded as one of the premier examples of TV shows being revived because of syndication and DVD sales.
  • Brian claims the farmer need not worry about him impregnating his daughter, because he's of a different species. Several seasons later, Brian finds out he has a human son named Dylan after having sex with a woman.
  • At one point, a man at the airport asks Stewie "Aren't you a little young to be traveling alone?" The director of this episode was Dan Povenmire, who would go on to become one of the co-creators of Phineas and Ferb, in which the line is used as a Running Gag.

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