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"It Takes a Village Idiot, and I Married One"
Family Guy episode
Adam West and Lois Griffin run for Mayor.
Episode no.	Season 5 Episode 17
Written by	Alex Borstein
Directed by	Zac Moncrief
Production no.	5ACX12
Original airdate	May 13, 2007
Guest stars
Keith Olbermann as Bob Grossbeard Don Most as Himself
Episode chronology ← Previous Next → "No Chris Left Behind" "Meet the Quagmires"
Family Guy (season 5) List of Family Guy episodes

"It Takes a Village Idiot, and I Married One" is a season five episode of the FOX animated television series Family Guy. Keith Olbermann is a guest voice in this episode playing the voice of Bob Grossbeard. The title is a reference to Hillary Clinton's book It Takes a Village.

Plot summary

The Griffin family vacations at Quagmire's cabin. When the family goes swimming in Lake Quahog, they discover that a nearby oil refinery is dumping toxic waste into the lake. As the family flees from the lake their hair falls out, and they are forced to wear powdered wigs until it grows back. Lois complains to Mayor Adam West, who admits that he sanctioned the dumping in exchange for free oil for his hair. Outraged, Lois decides to run against West in the upcoming mayoral election.

Peter and his friends become strong supporters of Lois's campaign, realizing should she become mayor, they would be able to get away with almost anything because of their relationship to her.

Lois' campaign falters as Mayor West proves more politically savvy than she—while Lois bores voters with detailed plans to improve the city, Mayor West uses glittering generalities and statements completely unrelated to the questions posed to him. Following some advice from Brian, to "give short, simple answers", Lois resorts to similar tactics, dropping controversial terms such as "Jesus" and "9/11" in meaningless ways. She eventually gains the support of the populace and wins the election.

Alex Borstein wrote the episode.

Lois uses fear tactics to raise funds for cleaning up the lake. She has cash remaining after the clean-up and embezzles $600 to purchase a purse, much to Brian's disappointment. Peter, of course, has also succumbed to the perks of being the mayor's husband. Later, at the Britches and Hoses store, Lois is tempted to buy a $4,300 fur coat. Bob Grossbeard (Keith Olbermann), the president of the local oil company, offers to buy the coat if Lois allows him to dump his oil runoff in the lake, and Lois reluctantly accepts. At the opening of the new runoff pipe, Lois realizes the error of her ways and closes the valve to the pipe, and resigns her position as mayor. Adam West arrives and asserts that he is once again mayor. At this point, a random bystander points out that West has no legal justification to do so, prompting West to pull out a gun and shoot him, as well as two others whom he believes objected.

Production

Borstein stated that the episode grew out of a one-woman show she was working on: "Women and Jews: Why We'll Never Be President".^[1] She characterized the episode as an "homage to Hillary Clinton".^[2] A book Family Guy: It Takes a Village Idiot, and I Married One, written by Borstein and Cherry Chevapravatdumrong, was published as a companion to this episode.^[2]

Critical reception

According to Ahsan Haque of IGN, the episode had "quite a few funny jokes", but the storyline was "predictably unoriginal", and he felt the "political statement [...] was stretched too thin." He graded the episode 6.8 out of 10.^[3]

Brett Love of TV Squad noted that the story was very similar to Running Mates, but noted the episode was "pretty solid" with "some great moments".^[4]

Footnotes