Fox-y Lady

"Fox-y Lady"

"FOX-y Lady" is the tenth episode of the seventh season of Family Guy. The episode originally aired on March 22, 2009 on FOX, and will air in the UK on Sunday 14 June 2009.

Plot

A reporter for FOX News is fired when her first appearance on HDTV exposes all her facial wrinkles and makes her unattractive, leaving a job opportunity open. Lois auditions for the part, despite Brian's claims that FOX News is a heavily biased network. After she is chosen as the new reporter she happily runs home with her contract (a reference to Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory when Charlie finds the ticket.) She is assigned to do an exposé on Michael Moore to prove that he is homosexual, but when she spies on him outside of his house, she sees Rush Limbaugh coming out, leading her to conclude that Moore and Limbaugh are in a gay relationship.

The executives at FOX News refuse to allow any material against fellow conservative Limbaugh to be broadcast, leading Lois to realize that Brian was right about them. Lois and Brian decide to take the story into their own hands and confront who they expect to be Moore and a naked Limbaugh in the same bedroom, only to discover Moore with a rubber Limbaugh costume. It would appear that Rush Limbaugh has always been Michael Moore in disguise, only for him to reveal that he is in fact Fred Savage, and that Moore and Limbaugh are characters he created and would portray to satisfy his need for acting; he also created Tony Danza, Camryn Manheim, Malcolm-Jamal Warner, Kevin Nealon, John Forsythe, and Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich. Lois and Brian realize that Fred Savage is the greatest actor in the world and successfully pitch this story instead.

Meanwhile, taking full advantage of Lois's connections with FOX, Peter, Chris and Meg decide to make their own cartoon series about a group of handicapped ducks called Handi-Quacks, but Meg is let go due to her questioning of the development. Although it is heavily suggested that the crudely animated and developed pilot episode (its characters voiced by Cleveland, Quagmire and Joe) will fail miserably, FOX CEO Peter Chernin enjoys it and agrees to air the show, though Peter becomes greatly offended when Chernin offers a minor change in character design (suggesting that a character's nose be a plum instead of a tomato). Peter's passion about his work impresses Chernin into allowing Peter to air the show the way it is, but Peter, in another of his huge miscalculations, ends up refusing to let Handi-Quacks be aired at all, though he's later seen regretting it.

At the end of the episode, Lois states that she no longer works for FOX News; however, she doesn't bother to reveal how or why, since no one really cares. As no one has any more jokes to add, Peter abruptly waves to the television audience, "See ya, folks."

Reception

According to Zap2it, this episode received a 4.5/7 Nielsen Rating. Ahsan Haque of IGN gave the episode a score of 7.6 out of 10, saying, "While it's far from perfect, this episode was definitely a lot better than the terrible O.J. Simpson episode from last week. The "Handi-Quacks" scenes were fantastic, and while Lois' storyline wasn't their greatest, there were still a couple of decent laughs thrown in. It's definitely a step in the right direction." Alex Rocha of TV Guide said, "All in all, a pretty dull episode, but with some bright humorous spots."