Send In Stewie, Please
Stewie's therapy session reveals his secrets and fake accent.
The twelfth episode of the sixteenth season of the animated sitcom Family Guy, it aired on Fox on March 18, 2018. Written by Gary Janetti and directed by Joe Vaux, the episode features guest star Ian McKellen as a child psychologist who conducts a therapy session with Stewie Griffin. It is notable for its extended monologue and for explicitly addressing Stewie's ambiguous sexuality.
Quick Facts
- Series
- Family Guy
- Season
- 16
- Episode
- 12
- Writer
- Gary Janetti
- Director
- Joe Vaux
- Production
- FACX10
- Air date
- 18 March 2018
- Length
- 25 minutes
Facts from the source article.
Plot
Stewie Griffin is sent to see child psychologist Dr. Cecil Pritchfield at Quahog Preschool. He opens the session with casual observations, then proudly mentions his British accent. The doctor claims he cannot hear it, which irritates Stewie. When Pritchfield says he feels he already knows Stewie a little, Stewie picks up a photo of the doctor on vacation with his husband, Michael. Stewie dissects their relationship with startling accuracy, exposing Pritchfield's discomfort and insecurity over being significantly older than his partner. The psychologist counters by noting that Stewie seems very lonely, causing Stewie to suddenly cry. Pritchfield's aide, Barbara, hands him tissues. Once Stewie calms down, the doctor brings up the reason for the visit: Stewie pushed a classmate named Tyler down the stairs. Stewie insists he did it because he liked Tyler and feared the feeling wasn't mutual. He denies being gay, stating he is confident in his heterosexuality. He also explains his trouble fitting in, since other boys do not share his passions for musicals and world domination. He confesses to pulling out his own hair due to anxiety and laments that he cannot perform on Broadway. To demonstrate, he sings part of a number from Hamilton, struggling with hiccups and a runny nose. Accepting an offer of tea, Stewie listens as Pritchfield begins recounting his childhood as an orphan in Britain during World War II. Stewie cuts him off, steering the conversation back to his own struggles with difference and belonging. He admits to crafting a persona to conceal his true self, then drops his British accent to reveal he actually speaks with an American one. He considers revealing this to others, but changes his mind and reverts to the British accent when he realizes it would make him just like everyone else.
Production
The episode was revealed at the TCA winter press tour in Pasadena on January 4, 2018, during Fox’s first day of presentations. Gary Janetti, a long-time Family Guy writer who had focused on Stewie and Brian Griffin stories since the show’s debut, wrote the script as a freelancer. He had wanted to craft an extended monologue for Stewie for a while but never found the right moment until he framed the episode as a therapy session. Stewie’s five-and-a-half-minute speech ended up being longer than Janetti originally planned. For the character Dr. Cecil Pritchfield, Janetti specifically had Ian McKellen in mind, calling him a “formidable adversary” for Stewie. This came after Janetti worked with McKellen on the British sitcom Vicious, which Janetti co-created. When Janetti asked McKellen about the role, McKellen responded, “I’d love to do it! I love Stewie!” McKellen, who is openly gay and a well-known LGBT rights activist, had come out publicly in 1988. Janetti connected Stewie’s fake British accent to his deeper insecurities, saying it made sense that someone who felt like an outsider would adopt an artificial persona. Stewie’s performance of “Alexander Hamilton” from Hamilton was originally written just as him struggling with a runny nose during the song, but director Joe Vaux added emotion and suspense, turning what Janetti called a simple stage direction into a tour de force. After the announcement, Fox promoted the episode as Family Guy’s first “limited-commercial-interruption” episode, running 25 minutes. The format came about after a table read that went so well the writers usually would have trimmed it down. Fox executive Jonathan Gabay asked how they could cut it and suggested running it without commercials. Fox chairman Gary Newman approved the idea, saying they would do it with or without a sponsor. PlayStation ended up as the sole sponsor, airing a 60-second God of War ad before and after the episode.
Reception
Critics were sharply divided over "Send In Stewie, Please," with some calling it one of Family Guy's finest hours and others ranking it among the show's worst. Originally scheduled for March 11, 2018, it aired a week later on March 18. The episode drew 2.24 million American viewers and scored a 1.0 Nielsen rating with a 4 share in the 18–49 demographic. In a pre-air review, Kevin Fallon of The Daily Beast praised it as one of the series' best in years and "one of the most nuanced and edgy coming out episodes of a TV show," noting that Stewie's sexuality remains ambiguous. Steve Greene of IndieWire gave it a B-, commending the bottle episode format and absence of cutaway gags, but felt Stewie's American accent reveal lacked weight in a show that often resets itself by the end. Looking back, Padraig Cotter of Screen Rant called it the series' darkest episode, especially its ending, and lauded the voice work of Seth MacFarlane and Ian McKellen. Billy Fellows of Collider named it the show's best-written episode, highlighting its dialogue and character focus. Michael Boyle of /Film placed it among the five worst, dismissing it as a weaker follow-up to "Brian & Stewie." At the 70th Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards in September 2018, MacFarlane was nominated for Outstanding Character Voice-Over Performance for voicing Stewie and Brian, but lost to co-star Alex Borstein for "Nanny Goats." The following February, writer Gary Janetti received a nomination for Outstanding Writing in Animation at the 71st Writers Guild of America Awards, losing to Stephanie Gillis for The Simpsons episode "Bart's Not Dead." Before this episode aired, Stewie's ambiguous sexuality had never been directly addressed on the show. MacFarlane had previously discussed it, telling The Advocate in January 2008 that he and the writers "feel that Stewie is almost certainly gay," mentioning an unproduced coming-out script in a September 2009 Playboy interview, and then tweeting in February 2013 that "Stewie's not gay. We haven't decided what he is."
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