Cultural References
The title for this episode is a take off of the title of the 1989 Don Bluth animated film, “All Dogs Go To Heaven”
The subplot of this episodes revolves around the cast of the TV show
“Star Trek: The Next Generation”.
Patrick Stewart,
Jonathan Frakes,
LeVar Burton,
Michael Dorn,
Gates McFadden,
Marina Sirtis,
Brent Spiner,
Denise Crosby &
Wil Wheaton all appear and provided their own voices.
Peter: “Yeah like that old gypsy did to Britney Spears in that Stephen King book”
Gypsy: {touching Britney's cheek} “Thicker”
Peter is referring to King's novel “Thinner”.
The 1984 novel is about a fat lawyer that accidentally kills a gypsy woman and as punishment her father puts a curse on the lawyer by rubbing his cheek and saying “thinner” causing him to loose weight at an alarming rate.
Peter: “Well it was 1992 & I couldn't be bothered with anything that didn't involve Dan Cortese”
Dan Cortese began his entertainment career on Mtv hosting a extreme sports show called
“Mtv Sports” (1992-1996).
He later had acting roles on
“Veronica's Closet” (1997-2000) &
“Melrose Place” (1995) and other guest spots.
Stewie: “I gotta forward this to my buds”
Stewie's bud is none other then “Calvin” from the long running comic strip “Calvin & Hobbes” (1985-1995) written and illustrated by Bill Watterson
Stewie: “...Jackass number 2”
Stewie is referring to the
Johnny Knoxville movie
“Jackass Number Two” where Johnny and his friends perform dangerous and gross stunts.
Announcer: “Up next, Kirk Cameron to talk about God”
Allusion to the fact that
Kirk Cameron, the former child star of
“Growing Pains” (1985-1992) became a born again Christian after his sitcom ended and now spends his time doing Christian tv and movies telling everyone they're going to hell.
Peter: “Dear Lord, please give me the cheat codes for Mike Tyson's Punch Out...”
“Mike Tyson's Punch Out” is a boxing video game for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) developed and published by Nintendo in 1987
Denise: “But you're a baby”
Stewie: “Yes that's right Denise Crosby”
Denise getting killed seconds after her arrival in Stewie's transporter is an allusion to the fact her character of Lt. Tasha Yar is killed off three quarters into the first season of “Star Trek: Next Generation” in the episode “Skin of Evil”.
Stewie: “Hey, did you hook up w/ Whoopi Goldberg on the show?”
Patrick: “All the time”
Whoopi Goldberg played the character
“Guinan” on
“Star Trek: The Next Generation”.
The joke may also be an allusion to the fact the characters Picard and Guinan seemed to have a relationship that went beyond friendship at times.
Brian: “Look at the Hubble Telescope, it's discovered untold wonders of a vast unexplored universe but not one picture of a guy w/ a beard sitting around on a cloud. I mean what's he doing up there?”
The scene after Brian's line is a reference to the 1980 movie
“Flash Gordon” w/ God dressed as Flash, complete w/ the title song
“Flash” performed by
Queen Peter: “You keep talking like that God's going to get you Brian. Oh God's gonna get you with the Kodak Disc”
Peter sings the commercial jingle for the Kodak Disc camera. The camera was popular from 1982 to 1999. The film was unique consisting of a small disc of film instead of a roll.
Patrick: {smacking Wil's face into the window} “You'll get nothing and like it!”
The same quote is said by the character “Judge Smails”
(played by Ted Knight) from the 1980 movie
“Caddyshack” After Brian retrieves the cross that Meg through, she tries to take it from him, but he growls at her. The scene continues until Meg has Brian growl the 1988 song "You Got It (The Right Stuff)" by New Kids on the Block.
Meg: “...so I got his younger brother from Growing Pains”
Jeremy Miller played “Ben Seaver”, Kirk's younger brother from
“Growing Pains”.
He retired from acting after
“Growing Pains” & despite the joke there's no evidence he was ever involved in drug use of any kind.
Also, the character of “Jason Seaver”
(played by Alan Thicke), the father of characters Mike & Ben makes an appearance.
Peter: “You know who doesn't have all these problems? Marmaduke.”
Peter is referring to the comic strip “Marmaduke”. “Marmaduke” was created by Brad Anderson in 1954 and still continues today.
The strip revolves around the Winslow family and their Great Dane, Marmaduke.
Peter: “...or Howard Huge. Let's get Howard Huge”
“Howard Huge” is a comic strip produced by Bunny Hoest (creator of “The Lockhorns”), which appears in “Parade Magazine”
The bottle of Jägermeister in Brian's hallucination, with a German accent, says,
"Get to the chopper." The line is a reference to
Arnold Schwarzenegger's line from the 1987 movie
“Predator”Michael: “For mine put Dirk Diggler”
Michael Dorn wants to use the name of
Mark Wahlberg's porn star character from 1997's
“Boogie Nights” During the book burning Meg throws in the titles, “Origin of the Species” by Charles Darwin, “A Brief History of Time” by Stephen Hawkings & the fictitious title “Logic for First Graders”