Brian Writes a Bestseller

"Brian Writes a Bestseller" is the sixth episode of the

Two hours prior to his appearance, after continuing to verbally abuse Stewie for minor inconveniences, Brian is then informed that Hitchens cannot attend, and that Arianna Huffington and Dana Gould will serve as replacement panelists. Blaming Stewie again, Brian angrily fires him and continues on to the show's panel. While on the show, Maher, Huffington and Gould begin to criticize Brian's book, stating that it fails to meet the expectations of the public and is pretentious, repetitive, unhelpful, banal and manipulative. Brian attempts to defend it by talking down to the panelists, including pettily insulting Huffington's accent and Gould's feminine-sounding first name, but finds himself under pressure from them. In anger and desperation, he insults the panelists for having little sense in literature, but is constantly put down. He ultimately confesses that he too considers the book to be of a low standard, admitting that he wrote it in a day in the hope that it would sell. Maher loses all respect for Brian, stating that a real writer would stand by their work despite what others think. When trying to regain Maher's trust, Brian panics and urinates, prompting Maher to angrily chase him off the set with a newspaper. Humiliated, Brian returns to Quahog and half-heartedly apologizes to Stewie, during which he unsubtly and passive-aggressively continues to blame him for everything that went wrong. Realizing that this is going to be as good an "apology" as Brian can give, Stewie bluntly tells him "You can't write".

Production and development

First announced at the 2010

In addition to the regular cast and that of Real Time with Bill Maher, actor Chris Cox, Christine Lakin, actress Katie Sah and actress Ashley Tisdale also appeared in the episode. Recurring voice actors Alexandra Breckenridge, actor Ralph Garman, writer Alec Sulkin and writer John Viener made minor appearances.

Reception

"Brian Writes a Bestseller" was broadcast on November 21, 2010, as a part of an animated television night on Fox, and was preceded by

Emily VanDerWerff of The A.V. Club gave "Brian Writes a Bestseller" a positive review, writing that it had "just about everything you'd ask for from the show: a story that was just present enough to keep the jokes coming, featuring the show's two best characters [...] lots of gags at the expense of Brian's ego; and a satirical target that's not exactly fresh but at least leaves the show room to maneuver." However, she criticized the sequence with Brian on Real Time with Bill Maher, calling it "bafflingly poor". She rated the episode B.^[5] Jason Hughes of TV Squad praised the episode's satire of self-help books, saying: "Wrapping the message in humor is a clever way to maybe get people to think about it".^[6]

References

1. ^ "20th Century Fox – Fox In Flight – Family Guy". 20th Century Fox. Archived from the original on 2011-07-11. Retrieved 2010-12-17.
2. ^ ^{a b} "Family Guy - "Brian Writes a Best Seller"". Fox Flash. 20th Century Fox. Archived from the original on 2010-10-23. Retrieved 2010-10-18.
3. ^ Seidman, Robert (2010-11-22). "TV Ratings Sunday: Eagles Fly for NBC; American Music Awards Hits Lows". TV by the Numbers. Archived from the original on 2010-11-25. Retrieved 2010-12-27.
4. ^ Gorman, Bill (2010-11-08). "TV Ratings: Sunday Night Football Wins; Desperate Housewives, Brothers & Sisters, Simpsons, Cleveland, Family Guy, American Dad Rise". TV by the Numbers. Archived from the original on 2010-11-12. Retrieved 2010-11-10.
5. ^ VanDerWerff, Emily (2010-10-22). ""The Fool Monty"/"Fat And Wet"/"Brian Writes A Bestseller"/"White Rice"". The A.V. Club. Retrieved 2010-10-23.
6. ^ Hughes, Jason (2010-10-22). "Sundays With Seth: 'Cleveland Show,' 'Family Guy' and 'American Dad' Recaps". TV Squad. Archived from the original on 2010-11-23. Retrieved 2010-10-23.

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