"We Love You, Conrad" is the fourteenth episode in the seventh season of the American animated television series Family Guy. It originally aired on Fox in the United States on May 3, 2009. In the episode, Brian's ex-girlfriend Jillian is getting married. As he tries to move on, he starts dating The Hills star Lauren Conrad and the media begins raving about their relationship. Brian is starting to think they are the perfect match, but realizes he still has feelings for Jillian.
The episode was written by Cherry Chevapravatdumrong and directed by John Holmquist. Drew Barrymore returned as Jillian, and Lauren Conrad and Audrina Patridge guest starred as themselves. In her second guest appearance on the series, Conrad played a smart version of herself, which she said was fun to do. She took the recording sessions seriously and did not do any improvisation with her lines. The show's staff was ultimately impressed with her performance, and series creator Seth MacFarlane praised her stamina and how prepared she was before the recording sessions. The episode also featured live-action sequences with talk show hosts Jay Leno, Craig Ferguson and Jimmy Fallon.
"We Love You, Conrad" was met with generally positive reviews from critics, who enjoyed the episode and praised the live-action footage, in contrast to the negative reactions towards live-action clips of Conway Twitty from previous episodes. According to Nielsen ratings, "We Love You, Conrad" was watched by 6.67 million viewers in its original airing. The episode was released on DVD along with six other episodes from the season on June 15, 2010.
Plot
The Griffins learn that Brian's ex-girlfriend, Jillian, is marrying "the perfect man in every aspect", Derek. Peter has been asked to walk Jillian down the aisle, and the others are invited except for Brian. As Brian feels like he is being excluded, Stewie invites him to go to dinner at a restaurant with him, Jillian and Derek. During dinner, Brian is upset to find that Derek speaks multiple languages, is a natural athlete and a good masseur and has a large penis. After dinner, he goes to a local bar to drown his sorrows. In a drunken stupor, he meets up with Lauren Conrad, the star of The Hills. However, he does not recognize her until they wake up in the same bed the next morning.
Stewie becomes ecstatic when he meets Lauren, and she invites him and Brian onto the set of the show to watch her. Against Brian's express wishes, Stewie leaks the relationship onto the Internet, resulting in a media circus and the claim that Lauren is a dumb blonde. Attempting to break off the relationship, Brian realizes that Lauren is a well-educated, articulate and rather accomplished woman who hides her intelligence from the public as American society derides intelligent women. In fact, she is one of the most intelligent women he has ever met. Brian invites her for dinner with the family, where Peter and Meg become interested in her accomplishments while Lois is not fond of her lectures. However Brian soon becomes even more uncomfortable with the relationship when he cannot keep up with her intelligence and tries comparing himself to Lauren.
Realizing that Brian had never gotten over his breakup with Jillian, Lauren advises him to see if Jillian still has feelings for him. Stewie suggests Brian date another woman in front of Jillian to make her jealous, but the attempt, with Stewie posing as Brian's date, Desiree, fails, though Stewie enjoys receiving attention from various men. The day before Jillian's wedding, Lauren encourages Brian to let her know about his still-strong feelings for her. Brian crashes the wedding ceremony to passionately profess his love for her. Jillian, however, gently tells Brian that he had his chance and blew it as her soulmate, as she decided to move on and he needs to as well. A sad and lonely Brian watches the couple dance and passionately kiss at the reception. Stewie comforts him and assures him he still has Lauren, but Brian admits that he cannot talk to her as he gave her worms.
