"Road To Rhode Island" Notes

As I revealed in my award-winning "Top 5 Episodes" post a while back {;-)}, "Road To Rhode Island" is my 2nd favorite episode. Well, with every viewing, it shaves the lead of my beloved "Brian: Portrait Of A Dog". As I dubbed a copy of it to a comp tape, a few things that occurred to me.

1.)When Stewie is called about the declining of the credit card, he says, "No, no, no need to come up! Blast!" Well, when Stewie & Brian need to elude the bat-wielding hick, they simply slide out the window onto the grass. The following shot reveals that the whole building is one floor. "Come up" where?

2.)Brian & Stewie are in Palm Springs, Florida, a southeastern city. They need to get to the Northeastern seaport that is Quahog, Rhode Island. "Fate" brings them to Austin, Texas. Now, why would they be hitching rides that are only taking them to the complete opposite corner of the country? I guess I just don't get it.

Still, after hearing it at least a dozen times, Stewie's eulogy is still hilarious: "Yea and God said to Abraham, 'You will kill your son, Isaac.' And Abraham said, 'I'm sorry, I can't hear you. You'll have to speak into the microphone.' And God said, 'Oh, I'm sorry. Is this better? Check, check, check. Jerry, pull the high end out, I'm still getting some hiss back here.'"

Plus, the song of the same name as the episode is my favorite in FG history and Stewie's indignant reaction to Lois sending Brian.

Given their itinerary, Stewie and his grandparents were staying in Palm Springs CA. (It's safe to say that Brian rented a car and drove out from LAX, as many people do; the Palm Springs airport is much smaller than the "normal"-sized place we see on the episode. I'd also be really surprised if there were direct flights between Providence and Palm Springs.)

-YL

[snip]

I haven't seen that episode recently, but I suspect that Stewie is saying that to whomever called him. "Come up" in this context probably means "come up" from whatever city the caller is in at the time of the call. It doesn't necessarily have to be a location south of (or above) where Stewie is, even; it's just a saying, in effect.

What are you talking about? He told the desk clerk of the one-story motel "not to come up". Where are you getting "another city"?

As I said, I haven't seen that episode recently. It wasn't clear to me until you wrote what you did above that Stewie was talking on the phone with the desk clerk. However, what I wrote later stands: "It doesn't necessarily have to be a location south of (or above) where Stewie is, even; it's just a saying, in effect."

It's good, but it can't compare with "We Only Live To Kiss Your Ass".

"I would rather have a German division in front of me than a French one behind me" - General George S. Patton.

Funny, that's my LEAST favorite song EVER on FG. It blows, to be frank. Part of the song is about Peter's flatulence. That is just useless as far as good songs go...

The basement! The trap door! Hell! ... or from some office downtown, down the block, or down the highway...

I'm still waiting on Seth to announce to the world that [insert network here] has decided to resurrect the show for an all new fourth season.

[email] (The Heel) wrote:

It's a colloquialism, just the way some people express things. The motel guy was "down at the office", so he'd have to "come up" to the room. It's a reflection of a mindset, not a physical reference. Maybe influenced by room numbers--I've seen little motels where the office is Room 1, so all the other rooms are "up" from there.

Palm Springs is in California, not to be confused with Palm Beach which is in Florida.

...Sean.

Okay, so how do you explain this:

<http://www.fl-property.com/florida_real_estate.asp?ID=909>

I'm not saying I didn't have a mental lapse and forget about California. However, there IS a Palm Springs, Florida, so who can be sure?

Palm Springs, FL is a dinky little town of under 12,000 as of the year 2000 and is part of the larger metro area called Palm Beach, FL.

Palm Springs, CA had a population of over 42,000 the same year and is what people mean when they say Palm Springs, almost without exception. For example, when people say "Brooklyn," they almost always mean part of New York City, not the Brooklyn in Wisconsin that is not far from where I live. When people say, Peru, they mean the country, not a town in Indiana that I drove by once.

Except for the 12,000 who live in Palm Springs, FL, or the tens of thousands more who live in and around Palm Beach, and the hundreds of thousands more who live in, who have visited, or who otherwise know about southern Florida. Almost without exception?

Yep. Contrast that with the population of the rest of the world. ;)

The locals don't count. I live in Wisconsin and am near Brooklyn, Oregon, Rio, perhaps other places you may "recognize." And I bet that even those in Palm Springs, FL say they are from Palm Beach pretty often. In every suburb around here, most people from the surburb say they are from [insert larger metro area name].

I don't think I've ever met anyone who really was from Chicago, but I've met a lot who say they are. (Chicago has about 10 million suburbs spread throughout "Chicagoland"; I've never heard anyone say they are f rom Chicagoland, either.)

thousands

more

Florida.

Locals don't count? Maybe that was part of the problem when Palm Beach turned in its first vote tally in November 2000...

Locals definitely count, because obviously they know about it, and there's just as much probability that they watch Family Guy as any one anywhere else (as long as their cable providers carry the Cartoon Network, TBS, Fox, or any other station it might have aired on).

Now THERE's a hip, topical joke! ;-)

You'd think Brian or Stewie said it... Oh, but I give myself too much credit.

nyuk nyuk

yawn. The locals don't "count" precisely because of what I wrote above. Of course people who live in Palm Springs, FL know that there is a Palm Springs, FL. I don't care if the whole fucking state of Florida knows about Palm Springs, FL; when someone in an internationally-distributed show mentions Palm Springs, they most certainly mean the world-famous Palm Springs that is in California, not the one in Florida. Same goes for everyone outside Florida -- yes, "almost without exception." Deal with it. Or be obstinate. I can't be bothered to discuss this further.

Forgot to add: I live very close to Brooklyn, WI, but when people in my city say Brooklyn, we don't hardly ever mean that town very close to us. Most people here don't even know that Brooklyn, WI exists even though it's very close. With their populations closer in size, Palm Springs, FL and Palm Beach, FL people probably know about each other better.

But, Family Guy is an internation TV show. Palm Springs, CA is world-famous. Palm Springs, FL is not. They obviously meant Palm SSprings in California. In fact, they may not have even known that there was a Palm Springs in Florida.