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Movin' Out (Brian's Song)
Encyclopedia
"Movin' Out" is the second episode of the sixth season of the animated series Family Guy
. It originally aired on Fox
in the United States on September 30, 2007. It was written by John Viener and directed by Cyndi Tang
. In the episode, Peter
convinces Brian
to move in with his girlfriend Jillian and Stewie
tags along to help pay the rent. Meanwhile, Meg
and Chris
get jobs at the convenience store where Chris befriends the manager, prompting Meg to do all the hard work.
The episode marks the end of Brian and Jillian's relationship, which started in season five
.
"Movin' Out (Brian's Song)" contains a gag, in which Quagmire
rapes Marge Simpson
and then kills her and the rest of her family
, but it was cut from the episode's broadcast on Fox. The network executives wanted to "end the feud" between the staff of the two shows and told creator Seth MacFarlane
that the joke was too personal. Ultimately, The Simpsons staff was reportedly very upset by the joke, which caused Fox to tell the staff of the two shows that they could no longer make fun of one another.
"Movin' Out (Brian's Song)" was met with generally positive reviews from critics, who praised it for having a continuous storyline. Critics also considered it sad that Drew Barrymore
's character was written out of the series after this episode. The episode was viewed by 7.95 million viewers in its original airing, according to Nielsen ratings
. "Movin' Out (Brian's Song)" was released onto DVD
along with five other episodes from the season on October 21, 2008.
turns down a chance to see Disney on Ice
with Jillian, so she decides to give his ticket to Peter
. After Peter and Jillian spend the entire day together and greatly enjoy each other's company, Peter convinces Jillian to either force Brian to let her move in with him or leave him. An angry Brian agrees to get an apartment with Jillian. Much to his surprise, Brian has a good time living with Jillian, but he comes to the realization that there is no way he can pay the rent by himself and he decides to allow Stewie
to move in with them, who now makes money with his own paper route
. Brian does not tell Jillian that Stewie is helping with the rent, rather he tells her Stewie misses him. Stewie quickly gets in the way of Brian and Jillian's happiness living together and after arguing with Brian one night while he is having sex
with Jillian, Stewie reveals that he is paying half the rent, prompting Brian to admit he never wanted to move in with Jillian at all. Heartbroken, Jillian leaves Brian.
Meanwhile, Meg
is given a job at a local convenience store. Meg is extremely happy with her job and she decides to help Chris
get a job there, too. Chris immediately becomes friends with the store owner, Carl, and he is given a large promotion
which Carl originally promised to Meg. When Meg takes issue with this, she is fired. Lois
, to whom Meg has told of her plight, explains the situation to Chris and tells him to stand up for Meg by getting her job back. Chris is able to do this after bribing Carl by withholding his opinions of movies he and Carl normally discuss until Carl re-hires her. Meg, in turn, rejects working at the store again, as she only had Chris get her job back to see if he would stand up for her.
After many failed attempts to lift a saddened Brian's spirits, Stewie convinces Brian to try to get Jillian back. Brian goes to her apartment, only to find that she has now moved in with Mayor West
. As the two go their separate ways, Brian moves back in with the Griffins, where he manages to move on with his life.
"Movin' Out (Brian's Song)" was written by series regular John Viener and directed by series regular Cyndi Tang
. Brian's girlfriend Jillian was introduced in season five
and this episode marked the end of what the staff called "the Jillian arc". Executive producer David A. Goodman
praised Drew Barrymore
's voice work as Jillian, saying that "she did such an amazing job with the voice", and was sorry that this was her final episode. The episode was at the time the only Family Guy episode to list the executive producer credits at the end of the episode, because MacFarlane wanted "to wrap it up in kind of a sad way and do it the old-fashioned way." In the original draft of the episode, Jillian had moved in with Quagmire at the end. It was later changed to Jesus
, and then to Mayor Adam West, which was kept for the episode.
The episode includes a gag in which Quagmire rapes Marge Simpson
, who is portrayed as having enjoyed it, and the two later end up in the Simpson family
's house, where Quagmire kills the family by shooting them. The network executives believed the joke was "personal" and told MacFarlane that he could not do a gag with The Simpsons
. MacFarlane responded, saying that they had made fun of Family Guy several times, to which the executives replied that they wanted to "end the feud". MacFarlane, however, claimed that there was no feud and told them; "You are afraid of [Simpsons executive producer] James L. Brooks
. [...] And that's why we can't do it." Fox eventually cut the gag, which left the episode without a joke at the end of the first act. Brooks and Al Jean
were reportedly very upset with the gag, and because of it, Fox told both the Family Guy and The Simpsons staff that they could no longer make fun of one another. However, the gag was included on the DVD set and broadcasts on Adult Swim
. It also aired on Global
in Canada.
. The episode acquired a 4.2 Nielsen rating
in the 18–49 demographic. It was the second most watched episode on Fox that night, only behind The Simpsons episode "Homer of Seville
". "Movin' Out (Brian's Song)" finished fourth in its timeslot in total viewership, behind ABC
's Desperate Housewives
, CBS
's Cold Case and NBC
's Sunday Night Football
.
In a simultaneous review of the shows in the "Animation Domination" block, Genevieve Koski of The A.V. Club
praised the episode for having "some actual plot and continuity". She concluded her review, writing, "Jillian has been a pretty good addition to the Family Guy universe, and I think I'm actually sad to see her and Brian break up." She graded the episode B+, the second highest grade of the night. Ahsan Haque of IGN
wrote that the episode "managed to rise about the generic plotline and deliver a pretty solid half hour of entertainment that told a cohesive (and somewhat sad) main story, with just enough gags to fill in the rest of the time." Haque graded the episode 7.8 out of 10, and wrote that it was "definitely sad to see the end of the Brian and Jillian relationship, especially considering the great performance put on by Drew Barrymore." Brad Trechak of TV Squad called it "a fairly pedestrian episode with a few cute gags".
set in the United States on October 21, 2008. The set included brief audio commentaries by the staff for each episode, a collection of deleted scenes, the 100th episode special
and animatics. It also included several featurettes, such as the making of the 100th episode, "I'm Huge (and The Babes Go Wild)" music video and the staff's favorite scenes.
Family Guy
Family Guy is an American animated television series created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series centers on the Griffins, a dysfunctional family consisting of parents Peter and Lois; their children Meg, Chris, and Stewie; and their anthropomorphic pet dog Brian...
. It originally aired on Fox
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
in the United States on September 30, 2007. It was written by John Viener and directed by Cyndi Tang
Cyndi Tang
Cyndi Tang-Loveland is an American animation director. Tang is most notably known for directing several episodes of the animated series Family Guy and King of the Hill....
. In the episode, Peter
Peter Griffin
Peter Griffin is a fictional character and the protagonist of the animated comedy series Family Guy and the patriarch of the Griffin family. He is voiced by cartoonist Seth MacFarlane and first appeared on television, along with the rest of the family in the 15-minute short on December 20, 1998....
convinces Brian
Brian Griffin
Brian Griffin is a character from the animated television series Family Guy. He is voiced by Seth MacFarlane and first appeared on television, along with the rest of the family, in a 15-minute short on December 20, 1998. Brian was created and designed by MacFarlane himself...
to move in with his girlfriend Jillian and Stewie
Stewie Griffin
Stewie Griffin is a fictional character from the animated television series Family Guy. Once obsessed with world domination and matricide, Stewie is the youngest child of Peter and Lois Griffin, and the brother of Chris and Meg....
tags along to help pay the rent. Meanwhile, Meg
Meg Griffin
Meg Griffin is a character from the animated television series Family Guy. She is the eldest child of Lois and Peter and elder sister of Chris and Stewie. Meg is considered as the black sheep of the series due to the lack of attention she receives....
and Chris
Chris Griffin
Chris Griffin is a character from the animated television series Family Guy. He is the son and middle child of Peter and Lois Griffin, brother of Stewie and Meg Griffin. Chris is voiced by Seth Green.-Personality:...
get jobs at the convenience store where Chris befriends the manager, prompting Meg to do all the hard work.
The episode marks the end of Brian and Jillian's relationship, which started in season five
Family Guy (season 5)
Family Guy fifth season first aired on the Fox network in eighteen episodes from September 10, 2006 to May 20, 2007 before being released as two DVD box sets and in syndication. It premiered with the episode "Stewie Loves Lois" and finished with "Meet the Quagmires"...
.
"Movin' Out (Brian's Song)" contains a gag, in which Quagmire
Glenn Quagmire
Glenn Quagmire, often referred to as just Quagmire, is a character from the animated television series Family Guy. Quagmire is a neighbor and friend of the Griffin family. He is best known for his hypersexuality...
rapes Marge Simpson
Marge Simpson
Marjorie "Marge" Simpson is a fictional main character in the animated television series The Simpsons and part of the eponymous family. She is voiced by actress Julie Kavner and first appeared on television in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987...
and then kills her and the rest of her family
Simpson family
The Simpson family is a family of fictional characters featured in the animated television series The Simpsons. The Simpsons are a nuclear family consisting of the married couple Homer and Marge and their three children Bart, Lisa and Maggie. They live at 742 Evergreen Terrace in the fictional town...
, but it was cut from the episode's broadcast on Fox. The network executives wanted to "end the feud" between the staff of the two shows and told creator Seth MacFarlane
Seth MacFarlane
Seth Woodbury MacFarlane is an American animator, writer, comedian, producer, actor, singer, voice actor, and director best known for creating the animated sitcoms Family Guy, American Dad! and The Cleveland Show, for which he also voices many of the shows' various characters.A native of Kent,...
that the joke was too personal. Ultimately, The Simpsons staff was reportedly very upset by the joke, which caused Fox to tell the staff of the two shows that they could no longer make fun of one another.
"Movin' Out (Brian's Song)" was met with generally positive reviews from critics, who praised it for having a continuous storyline. Critics also considered it sad that Drew Barrymore
Drew Barrymore
Drew Blyth Barrymore is an American actress, film director, screenwriter, producer and model. She is a member of the Barrymore family of American actors and granddaughter of John Barrymore. She first appeared in an advertisement when she was 11 months old. Barrymore made her film debut in Altered...
's character was written out of the series after this episode. The episode was viewed by 7.95 million viewers in its original airing, according to Nielsen ratings
Nielsen Ratings
Nielsen ratings are the audience measurement systems developed by Nielsen Media Research, in an effort to determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States...
. "Movin' Out (Brian's Song)" was released onto DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
along with five other episodes from the season on October 21, 2008.
Plot
BrianBrian Griffin
Brian Griffin is a character from the animated television series Family Guy. He is voiced by Seth MacFarlane and first appeared on television, along with the rest of the family, in a 15-minute short on December 20, 1998. Brian was created and designed by MacFarlane himself...
turns down a chance to see Disney on Ice
Disney on Ice
Disney On Ice is a touring ice show produced by Feld Entertainment under agreement with The Walt Disney Company. Aimed primarily at children, the shows feature figure skaters dressed as Disney cartoon characters in performances that each derive their music and plot from elements collected from...
with Jillian, so she decides to give his ticket to Peter
Peter Griffin
Peter Griffin is a fictional character and the protagonist of the animated comedy series Family Guy and the patriarch of the Griffin family. He is voiced by cartoonist Seth MacFarlane and first appeared on television, along with the rest of the family in the 15-minute short on December 20, 1998....
. After Peter and Jillian spend the entire day together and greatly enjoy each other's company, Peter convinces Jillian to either force Brian to let her move in with him or leave him. An angry Brian agrees to get an apartment with Jillian. Much to his surprise, Brian has a good time living with Jillian, but he comes to the realization that there is no way he can pay the rent by himself and he decides to allow Stewie
Stewie Griffin
Stewie Griffin is a fictional character from the animated television series Family Guy. Once obsessed with world domination and matricide, Stewie is the youngest child of Peter and Lois Griffin, and the brother of Chris and Meg....
to move in with them, who now makes money with his own paper route
Paperboy
A paperboy is the general name for a person employed by a newspaper, They are often used around the office to run low end errands. They make copies and distribute them. Paperboys traditionally were and are still often portrayed on television and movies as preteen boys, often on a bicycle...
. Brian does not tell Jillian that Stewie is helping with the rent, rather he tells her Stewie misses him. Stewie quickly gets in the way of Brian and Jillian's happiness living together and after arguing with Brian one night while he is having sex
Sexual intercourse
Sexual intercourse, also known as copulation or coitus, commonly refers to the act in which a male's penis enters a female's vagina for the purposes of sexual pleasure or reproduction. The entities may be of opposite sexes, or they may be hermaphroditic, as is the case with snails...
with Jillian, Stewie reveals that he is paying half the rent, prompting Brian to admit he never wanted to move in with Jillian at all. Heartbroken, Jillian leaves Brian.
Meanwhile, Meg
Meg Griffin
Meg Griffin is a character from the animated television series Family Guy. She is the eldest child of Lois and Peter and elder sister of Chris and Stewie. Meg is considered as the black sheep of the series due to the lack of attention she receives....
is given a job at a local convenience store. Meg is extremely happy with her job and she decides to help Chris
Chris Griffin
Chris Griffin is a character from the animated television series Family Guy. He is the son and middle child of Peter and Lois Griffin, brother of Stewie and Meg Griffin. Chris is voiced by Seth Green.-Personality:...
get a job there, too. Chris immediately becomes friends with the store owner, Carl, and he is given a large promotion
Promotion (rank)
A promotion is the advancement of an employee's rank or position in an organizational hierarchy system. Promotion may be an employee's reward for good performance i.e. positive appraisal...
which Carl originally promised to Meg. When Meg takes issue with this, she is fired. Lois
Lois Griffin
Lois Griffin is a character from the animated television series Family Guy. She is voiced by writer Alex Borstein and first appeared on television, along with the rest of the family in the 15-minute short on December 20, 1998. Lois was created and designed by series creator Seth MacFarlane...
, to whom Meg has told of her plight, explains the situation to Chris and tells him to stand up for Meg by getting her job back. Chris is able to do this after bribing Carl by withholding his opinions of movies he and Carl normally discuss until Carl re-hires her. Meg, in turn, rejects working at the store again, as she only had Chris get her job back to see if he would stand up for her.
After many failed attempts to lift a saddened Brian's spirits, Stewie convinces Brian to try to get Jillian back. Brian goes to her apartment, only to find that she has now moved in with Mayor West
Adam West (Family Guy)
Adam West, also known as Mayor West, is a character from the animated television series Family Guy. The character, voiced by the actor of the same name, is the eccentric mayor of the town of Quahog, Rhode Island, where the series is set.-Character:...
. As the two go their separate ways, Brian moves back in with the Griffins, where he manages to move on with his life.
Production
Cyndi Tang
Cyndi Tang-Loveland is an American animation director. Tang is most notably known for directing several episodes of the animated series Family Guy and King of the Hill....
. Brian's girlfriend Jillian was introduced in season five
Family Guy (season 5)
Family Guy fifth season first aired on the Fox network in eighteen episodes from September 10, 2006 to May 20, 2007 before being released as two DVD box sets and in syndication. It premiered with the episode "Stewie Loves Lois" and finished with "Meet the Quagmires"...
and this episode marked the end of what the staff called "the Jillian arc". Executive producer David A. Goodman
David A. Goodman
David A. Goodman is an American writer and producer and a graduate of the University of Chicago, earning an BA in 1984. He was one of the executive producers of Family Guy, beginning its fourth season, joining the show as a co-executive producer in season three...
praised Drew Barrymore
Drew Barrymore
Drew Blyth Barrymore is an American actress, film director, screenwriter, producer and model. She is a member of the Barrymore family of American actors and granddaughter of John Barrymore. She first appeared in an advertisement when she was 11 months old. Barrymore made her film debut in Altered...
's voice work as Jillian, saying that "she did such an amazing job with the voice", and was sorry that this was her final episode. The episode was at the time the only Family Guy episode to list the executive producer credits at the end of the episode, because MacFarlane wanted "to wrap it up in kind of a sad way and do it the old-fashioned way." In the original draft of the episode, Jillian had moved in with Quagmire at the end. It was later changed to Jesus
Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
, and then to Mayor Adam West, which was kept for the episode.
The episode includes a gag in which Quagmire rapes Marge Simpson
Marge Simpson
Marjorie "Marge" Simpson is a fictional main character in the animated television series The Simpsons and part of the eponymous family. She is voiced by actress Julie Kavner and first appeared on television in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987...
, who is portrayed as having enjoyed it, and the two later end up in the Simpson family
Simpson family
The Simpson family is a family of fictional characters featured in the animated television series The Simpsons. The Simpsons are a nuclear family consisting of the married couple Homer and Marge and their three children Bart, Lisa and Maggie. They live at 742 Evergreen Terrace in the fictional town...
's house, where Quagmire kills the family by shooting them. The network executives believed the joke was "personal" and told MacFarlane that he could not do a gag with The Simpsons
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
. MacFarlane responded, saying that they had made fun of Family Guy several times, to which the executives replied that they wanted to "end the feud". MacFarlane, however, claimed that there was no feud and told them; "You are afraid of [Simpsons executive producer] James L. Brooks
James L. Brooks
James Lawrence Brooks is an American director, producer and screenwriter. Growing up in North Bergen, New Jersey, Brooks endured a fractured family life and passed the time by reading and writing. After dropping out of New York University, he got a job as an usher at CBS, going on to write for the...
. [...] And that's why we can't do it." Fox eventually cut the gag, which left the episode without a joke at the end of the first act. Brooks and Al Jean
Al Jean
Al Jean is an award-winning American screenwriter and producer, best known for his work on The Simpsons. He was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan and graduated from Harvard University in 1981. Jean began his writing career in the 1980s with fellow Harvard alum Mike Reiss...
were reportedly very upset with the gag, and because of it, Fox told both the Family Guy and The Simpsons staff that they could no longer make fun of one another. However, the gag was included on the DVD set and broadcasts on Adult Swim
Adult Swim
Adult Swim is an adult-oriented Cable network that shares channel space with Cartoon Network from 9:00 pm until 6:00 am ET/PT in the United States, and broadcasts in countries such as Australia and New Zealand...
. It also aired on Global
Global Television Network
Global Television Network is an English language privately owned television network in Canada, owned by Calgary-based Shaw Communications, as part of its Shaw Media division...
in Canada.
Reception
In its original broadcast on September 30, 2007, "Movin' Out (Brian's Song)" was viewed by 7.95 million viewers and dropped in 26% from the season premiereBlue Harvest (Family Guy)
"Blue Harvest" is the hour-long premiere to the sixth season of the FOX series Family Guy and the first part of the series' trilogy Laugh It Up, Fuzzball. It originally aired on September 23, 2007. The episode is a retelling and parody of the 1977 blockbuster film, Star Wars Episode IV: A New...
. The episode acquired a 4.2 Nielsen rating
Nielsen Ratings
Nielsen ratings are the audience measurement systems developed by Nielsen Media Research, in an effort to determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States...
in the 18–49 demographic. It was the second most watched episode on Fox that night, only behind The Simpsons episode "Homer of Seville
Homer of Seville
"Homer of Seville", also known as "The Homer of Seville", is the second episode of The Simpsons nineteenth season. It first aired on the Fox network in the United States on September 30, 2007. In the episode, Homer gains an operatic ability to sing following an accident, and becomes a professional...
". "Movin' Out (Brian's Song)" finished fourth in its timeslot in total viewership, behind ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
's Desperate Housewives
Desperate Housewives
Desperate Housewives is an American television comedy-drama series created by Marc Cherry and produced by ABC Studios and Cherry Productions. Executive producer Cherry serves as Showrunner. Other executive producers since the fourth season include Marc Cherry, Bob Daily, George W...
, CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
's Cold Case and NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
's Sunday Night Football
Sunday Night Football
Sunday Night Football is a weekly American football game held throughout most of the season by the National Football League. Sunday night games have been played regularly since 1987 and have thus far aired on three different television outlets:...
.
In a simultaneous review of the shows in the "Animation Domination" block, Genevieve Koski of The A.V. Club
The A.V. Club
The A.V. Club is an entertainment newspaper and website published by The Onion. Its features include reviews of new films, music, television, books, games and DVDs, as well as interviews and other regular offerings examining both new and classic media and other elements of pop culture. Unlike its...
praised the episode for having "some actual plot and continuity". She concluded her review, writing, "Jillian has been a pretty good addition to the Family Guy universe, and I think I'm actually sad to see her and Brian break up." She graded the episode B+, the second highest grade of the night. Ahsan Haque of IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
wrote that the episode "managed to rise about the generic plotline and deliver a pretty solid half hour of entertainment that told a cohesive (and somewhat sad) main story, with just enough gags to fill in the rest of the time." Haque graded the episode 7.8 out of 10, and wrote that it was "definitely sad to see the end of the Brian and Jillian relationship, especially considering the great performance put on by Drew Barrymore." Brad Trechak of TV Squad called it "a fairly pedestrian episode with a few cute gags".
Home release
"Movin' Out (Brian's Song)", along with the five other episodes from Family Guys sixth season, were released on a three-disc DVDDVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
set in the United States on October 21, 2008. The set included brief audio commentaries by the staff for each episode, a collection of deleted scenes, the 100th episode special
The Family Guy 100th Episode Special
"The Family Guy 100th Episode Special" is a special episode from the sixth season of Family Guy. The episode aired on November 4, 2007 and was followed by the actual 100th episode, "Stewie Kills Lois". It was hosted by Seth MacFarlane, who presented the funniest clips of all 99 previous episodes...
and animatics. It also included several featurettes, such as the making of the 100th episode, "I'm Huge (and The Babes Go Wild)" music video and the staff's favorite scenes.