Movin' Out (Brian's Song)

"Movin' Out (Brian's Song)" is the second episode of the sixth season of the American animated television series Family Guy. The 100th overall, the episode originally aired on Fox in the United States on September 30, 2007. It was written by John Viener and directed by Cyndi Tang. In the episode, Peter convinces Brian to move in with his girlfriend Jillian and Stewie tags along to help pay the rent. Meanwhile, Meg and Chris get jobs at the convenience store where Chris befriends the manager, prompting Meg to do all the hard work. The episode title is a reference to the Billy Joel song "Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)" and the film Brian's Song. This episode marks the end of Brian and Jillian's relationship, which started in season five.

"Movin' Out (Brian's Song)" received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised the episode for having a continuous storyline. Critics also praised

Meanwhile, Meg is given a job at a local convenience store. Meg is extremely happy with her job and she decides to help Chris get a job there, too. Chris immediately becomes friends with the store owner, Carl, and he is given a large promotion which Carl originally promised to Meg. When Meg takes issue with this, she is fired, and tells Lois of her plight. Lois explains the situation to Chris and tells him to stand up for Meg by getting her job back, which he does by threatening to withhold his opinions of movies he and Carl normally discuss until Carl re-hires her. Meg, in turn, rejects working at the store again, but thanks Chris for standing up for her.

Production

"Movin' Out (Brian's Song)" was written by series regular John Viener and directed by series regular Cyndi Tang. Brian's girlfriend Jillian was introduced in season five and this episode marked the end of what the staff called "the Jillian arc". Executive producer David A. Goodman praised Drew Barrymore's voice work as Jillian, saying that "she did such an amazing job with the voice", and was sorry that this was her final episode.^[1] The episode was at the time the only Family Guy episode to list the executive producer credits at the end of the episode, because MacFarlane wanted "to wrap it up in kind of a sad way and do it the old-fashioned way."^[2] In the original draft of the episode, Jillian had moved in with Quagmire at the end. It was later changed to Jesus, and then to Mayor West, which was kept for the episode.^[2]

The episode includes a controversial gag in which Quagmire rapes Marge Simpson, and the two later end up in the Simpson family's house, where Quagmire kills the family by shooting them.^[3] The network executives believed the joke was "personal" and told MacFarlane that he could not do a gag with The Simpsons. MacFarlane responded, saying that they had made fun of Family Guy several times, to which the executives replied that they wanted to "end the feud".^[2] MacFarlane, however, claimed that there was no feud and told them: "You are afraid of [Simpsons executive producer] James L. Brooks. [...] And that's why we can't do it."^[2] Fox eventually cut the gag, which left the episode without a joke at the end of the first act.^[1] Brooks and Al Jean were reportedly very upset with the gag, and because of it, Fox told both the Family Guy and The Simpsons staff that they could no longer make fun of one another.^[2] However, the gag was included on the DVD set and broadcast on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim.^[2] It also aired on Global in Canada.^[3]

Reception

In its original broadcast on September 30, 2007, "Movin' Out (Brian's Song)" was viewed by 7.95 million viewers and dropped in 26% from the season premiere, "