Season 4 · Episode 16 · First aired 20 November 2005

The Courtship of Stewie's Father

Episode 16 of Family Guy season 4 (S04E16), the 66th Family Guy episode overall. Written by Kirker Butler and directed by Kurt Dumas. First broadcast on 20 November 2005.

Story

At the Pawtucket Brewery, Peter misses Employee of the Month and fails to charm his supervisor Angela. Lois is shown Stewie's drawings of her being killed, notices only that Peter is absent from them, and asks him to bond with his son. Nothing works until a box Peter drops onto Lois's head makes Stewie laugh. Peter escalates the pranks, ending by shutting Lois in the boot of the station wagon and pushing it into the lake. When Lois confronts him Peter backs down, and Stewie feels betrayed. To make amends Peter takes him to Walt Disney World, where Stewie is captured and made to sing on the Tiny World ride until Peter frees him and the other children. Meanwhile Chris breaks Herbert's window with a baseball and works off the debt doing chores. Herbert takes him to dinner and imagines a life together, then falls asleep at the table.

Production and reception

This was the first storyline to centre on Herbert; broadcasting standards were uneasy and made the writers cut several gags of Herbert approaching Chris. Wikipedia, The Courtship of Stewie's Father
Herbert's song, Somewhere That's Green, comes from Little Shop of Horrors; on the DVD commentary Seth MacFarlane praised Mike Henry's performance of it. Wikipedia, The Courtship of Stewie's Father
MacFarlane recorded Peter and Stewie's fits of laughter after each attack on Lois himself, without reusing laughter from earlier episodes. Wikipedia, The Courtship of Stewie's Father
Kurt Dumas directed; the flying car scene refers to Back to the Future Part II and the theme park chase alludes to Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Wikipedia, The Courtship of Stewie's Father
More than 9 million viewers watched the first broadcast; the Parents Television Council named it worst show of the week, while TV Squad reviewed it positively. Wikipedia, The Courtship of Stewie's Father

Voices

Voice	Characters
Seth MacFarlane	Peter Griffin, Brian Griffin, Stewie Griffin
Alex Borstein	Lois Griffin, Woman, Woman at Baseball Game
Seth Green	Chris Griffin, Young Jesus, Photographer
Mila Kunis	Meg Griffin
Mo Collins	Ms. Hobson, Kim Cattrall
Carrie Fisher	Angela
Hunter Gomez	Dutch Child, Michael Jackson Boy
Mike Henry	Cleveland Brown, John Herbert, Jesse
Mark Hentemann	Opie, Man in Baseball Game
Phil LaMarr	Ollie Williams

Principal voice credits as recorded by IMDb, which lists up to ten credits per episode, so recurring characters can be missing here. Guest voices below come from Wikipedia and TVmaze.

Guest voices

Mo Collins as Ms. Hobson
Carrie Fisher as Angela
Hunter Gomez
Phil LaMarr
Kim Parks
Kevin Michael Richardson as Soundwave
Jennifer Jean Snyder as Penelope Cruz
Tara Strong
Fred Tatasciore as Michael Eisner
Patrick Warburton as Joe Swanson
Adam West as Mayor Adam West
Mark Hentemann as Opie
John Viener as Joe

Season 4: episode 16 of 30

Season hub with air dates and credits for all 30 episodes

SourceFacts from Wikipedia: Family Guy season 4 and the episode's article (CC BY-SA 4.0). Spotted an error? See corrections.

Provenance

Facts only

Sources: Wikipedia: The Courtship of Stewie's Father
Wikidata Q980824
IMDb
TVmaze
Data refreshed: 6 September 2026
Verification: Checked against Wikidata and IMDb: title, date, numbering and credits agree
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Licence: Facts are not copyrightable. Source text on Wikipedia is CC BY-SA 4.0; Wikidata is CC0; IMDb data is used for verification under its non-commercial terms.
Note: The story summary and notes were written for this site from the sources listed, by Claude in Claude Code on 2026-09-08, awaiting editorial review. Facts only; no dialogue is reproduced. Voice credits: Information courtesy of IMDb (https://www.imdb.com). Used with permission. Guest cast data from TVmaze (https://www.tvmaze.com), CC BY-SA.