"Mother Tucker" is the second episode of the fifth season of the animated comedy series Family Guy. It originally aired on Fox on September 17, 2006. The episode follows Peter's mother, Thelma, divorcing Peter's father, Francis, and dating news anchorman Tom Tucker. Peter becomes closely attached to Tucker, only for his mother to end the relationship suddenly, leaving Peter feeling abandoned. Meanwhile, Stewie and Brian are employed as DJs on a local radio station, but have creative differences over the tone of the show, which eventually forces Brian to quit.
The episode was written by Tom Devanney and directed by James Purdum. It received mixed reviews for its storyline, and many cultural references. According to Nielsen ratings, it was viewed in 9.23 million homes in its original airing. The episode featured guest performances by Jon Benjamin, Max Burkholder, Phyllis Diller, Phil LaMarr, Joe Lomonaco, Tamera Mowry, Anne-Michelle Seiler, Tara Strong, Nicole Sullivan, Gore Vidal, Gedde Watanabe, and Wally Wingert along with several recurring guest voice actors for the series. "Mother Tucker" was released on DVD along with twelve other episodes from the season on September 18, 2007.
Plot
Peter's mother, Thelma, visits the Griffin family home, and alerts her son, Peter that she has finally left his father, Francis. In an attempt to find her a new husband, Peter's wife, Lois, takes her to a meeting for "single people," where she meets local news anchor Tom Tucker. Thelma and Tom begin dating, which upsets Peter, causing him to attempt to sabotage the new relationship. He is eventually persuaded by Tom that he should let his mother be happy, and the two begin bonding. Eventually, his mother suddenly ends the relationship, however, causing Peter to believe it is his fault. The next day, Peter learns that it is important for fathers and sons to spend time together, and tells Tom that he should spend more time with his own son, Jake, instead.
Meanwhile, after interrupting a broadcast of local radio station WQHG's program "Weenie and the Butt", Brian gets his own radio talk show, when one of the station's producers compliments his speaking voice. Attempting to have an intelligent dialogue with his listeners, and distancing himself from "Weenie and the Butt"'s constant overuse of sound effects, Brian is immediately heckled by Stewie's prank phone calls in an attempt to get him into trouble or worse fired. After first planning to cancel Brian's show following the incident with the comments made from the prank calls, the station's producer later announces that he actually loved the prank calls and decides to let Brian keep his show but he has to hire Stewie as co-host. Brian insists that Stewie keeps his mouth shut when he is broadcasting but unfortunately for him Stewie then steals Brian's show and turns his sophisticated talk show into a lewd, raucous, shock jock-style comedy show called "Dingo and the Baby", much to Brian's chagrin, who is reluctant to accept the new format. Upon discovering that people love the new show, however, Brian decides to play along with Stewie's idea. However, when author Gore Vidal, whom Brian had contacted for an interview on his original show, walks into one of his "Dingo and the Baby" broadcasts and leaves in disgust, Brian quits his job in shame. The show is soon replaced by one featuring Cleveland and Quagmire, entitled "Dark Chocolate and the Rod".
Production
The episode was written by series regular Tom Devanney, and directed by James Purdum. During the "Weenie and the Butt" scene, several sound effects can be heard. Each of these were recorded individually by people who have sung at such venues as the Academy Awards, and other high publicity events. Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane has commented that these sound effect recordings took much longer than expected, as they did not sound professional enough. The episode featured guest performances by actress Phyllis Diller, who has portrayed Peter's mother Thelma in various episodes, and Tamera Mowry in her third appearance. Author Gore Vidal appeared as himself in the episode. In the scene involving Thelma trying to convince Peter to accept that she is dating Tucker, she comments, "Tom here has won a local Emmy for his work with the retardeds". The Fox Broadcasting Company has a specific rule stating that the word "retard" or "retarded" cannot be said on their network, but this scene was nevertheless permitted. MacFarlane has commented that he cannot understand why the word is not permitted on Fox, given that it is allowed on other networks. According to MacFarlane and other episode commentators, the scene provoked an angry reaction among the mental health community.