Family Guy Flashback: "Running Mates" Review

After Peter's favorite teacher is fired and Lois insists that she won't re-hire him if elected, Peter decides to run against her for School Board President. In what turns out to be a timely satirical interpretation of the dirty politics and mud-slinging that goes on in actual election campaigns, this episode focuses on this main story thread for the entire episode.

There are some hilarious political references here, such as how the focus of a campaign can slip away from actual issues and quickly transform into a character attack, or the sporting event type hype and spectacle that surround political debates, or even a hilarious parody of television election ads that feature the candidates themselves. Family Guy has always been very strong at political satire, and this episode's filled with clever expressions, references, and caricatures of the entire political process.

Peter's opening remarks at the televised debate was filled with blended theme songs from various television shows and was brilliantly entertaining. It's pretty obvious that Lois was clearly the better focused candidate - Peter was only in it to save a teacher's job. The gloves come off fairly quickly and Peter doesn't hesitate to go where he really shouldn't in digging up dirt on his wife. As a result, he ends up winning the election after he showed off a sexy picture of Lois to the public in one of his television ads, where he asked voters if this is the kind of woman they'd want to represent them.

The irony of the situation is that it turned out that pornography was what brought on Peter's downfall. Prior to the election, Peter gave Chris his sizable pornography collection in order to keep his son from being a peeping tom. After winning the election he is interviewed by Asian Reporter Tricia Takanawa (there's a clever Connie Chung reference at the beginning of this scene) and gives a tour of the school to show off the progress he's made since being elected. When the media crew visit the library, it's discovered that kids in the library are all hooked on the magazines Peter had given Chris. When Peter admits to being the one who gave the material to his son, the call for his resignation is made, and with a a parody of Richard Nixon boarding a helicopter, Peter's days as School Board President are over with.

Other story developments in this episode focused on Stewie missing his mother while she was busy running for the election. While he doesn't want to admit it, Stewie actually feels a little lost without the presence of his mother. There's a great musical number during one of these scenes as well. Stewie also fires off a classic line where he sarcastically tells Brian that he misses his mother like he misses colic and rectal thermometry.

The rest of the characters don't get to do much here. Brian and Chris have a couple of relevant scenes, but as usual, Meg's presence here is pretty insignificant.

Entertaining, cleverly written, and featuring a very strong tightly woven storyline, this episode delivers. The numerous political references and hilarious jokes inject "Running Mates" with more than enough humor to keep you laughing throughout the episode. This is definitely one of the stronger outings of the excellent second season, and even after repeat viewings, you're bound to find some new clever message or reference that you might not have caught previously.

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