2024 hasn’t been kind to Family Guy. After being taken off Fox’s Animation Domination Sunday night line-up last spring, it was quietly moved to Wednesday nights. And now that it’s the fall, it won’t be appearing on Fox at all. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing since American Dad moved to TBS and has been doing fine for years, but it’s still jarring. All Family Guy fans can look forward to this fall are two holiday specials exclusive to Hulu. The Christmas special won’t air until November 25th. So until then, all we have to tide ourselves over with is the Halloween special, “Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Cheater”. Is it worthy of being called a “Halloween special”? Not really, but it is considered the premiere of season 23, and it’s a fun ride.
In the A-story, Joe has grown a giant pumpkin and is excited to enter it into the town’s contest and beat his rival, Patrick McCloskey. Voiced by guest-star Glen Powell, McCloskey may or may not be having an affair with Joe’s wife Bonnie, but Joe insists he hates him because of “pumpkin stuff”. Peter, Quagmire, and Cleveland get annoyed by all Joe’s pumpkin talk and think it would be funny to hide his pumpkin. This quickly results in the destruction of the 307-pound pumpkin and Joe finding out. However, Peter weighs exactly 307 pounds, so he crawls into the pumpkin and remains there for the duration of the contest.
The B-story sees Stewie wanting Brian to take him trick-or-treating. Stewie gets excited about the idea of them going as Sonny and (with Stewie dressed as Cher, naturally). He takes their performance too seriously, so Brian quits and decides to spend Halloween with some friends (that he obviously doesn’t have). Stewie then attempts a Frankenstein-like procedure to bring his stuffed teddy bear, Rupert, to life so that he could play Sonny. Stewie fails and then goes to bed wishing Brian were dead. However, Rupert springs to life and vows to kill Brian. Stewie is happy that Rupert is alive and agrees to dress as Sonny, but Rupert would rather go after Brian than go trick-or-treating.
Both stories were solid Halloween plots. Joe’s over the top rivalry and Peter’s poor impulse control were enough to drive that plot, but Stewie’s story ended up having more meat to it. Stewie has
always had an unhealthy and, at times, romantic attachment to Rupert. On more than one occassion, Stewie has fantasized Rupert having a buff body, so, naturally, he gives him attributes like Stephen Hawking’s brain and Zac Efron’s abs when bringing him to life. Family Guy has done love triangle-type stories with Brian/Stewie/Rupert before, and like those other times Rupert is only used to create a rift between Stewie and Brian that has to be repaired by the end of the episode. At least this time, Rupert has a real personality and some agency. Accomplished British actor Derek Jacobi plays Rupert (whose real name is apparently Jerry), and it’s absolutely the correct choice. It’s just a shame he spends more time stalking Brian than interacting with Stewie.
The episode was entertaining but not stand out or exceptional. Half the cast vanishes after some quick gags at the Halloween store in the beginning, and the jokes in general were funny but not hilarious. It’s called a “special”, but it wasn’t any longer than the average episode. The Simpsons may have their Treehouse of Horror specials every year, and Family Guy usually reserves its experimental format for their “Road To” episodes or themed trilogies. Come to think of it, the “Three Kings” episode, where they inserted their characters into three shorts based on Stephen King novels, felt more like a Halloween special than “Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Cheater”. I liked their “Happy Holo-ween” episode from a couple seasons ago with the Hologram Peter. At least that had a supernatural aspect to it. Joe’s story about trying to win a pumpkin contest is fairly mundane for a Halloween episode.
I don’t want to seem like I’m too hard on the episode. Family Guy is at its worst when it relies on overly long gags or is too mean-spirited towards the characters. The jokes here worked well, and no one came across as too pathetic. It’s funny to see Brian reach out to someone he barely knows and use awkward slang like “hang sesh” to sound cooler than he actually is. Even Joe gets a bit of a victory by the end of the episode. “Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Cheater” was merely the first episode of the season and one of two episodes we’re getting in 2024. I had hoped it would be a little better since it was billed as a “Halloween special”, so I had higher expectations for this one. As it stands, it feels like it was wasted po-tench, as Brian would say.
