Season 8 · Episode 19 · First aired 16 May 2010

The Splendid Source

Episode 19 of Family Guy season 8 (S08E19), the 145th Family Guy episode overall. Written by Mark Hentemann and directed by Brian Iles. First broadcast on 16 May 2010.

Story

Chris is suspended from school for repeating a dirty joke he heard from Quagmire. Peter hears it, soils himself, and is caught out again and again by Joe and Quagmire until he takes to wearing Quagmire's trousers. He sets out to find where the joke began, tracing it back through Bruce and a long chain of tellers to a bar in Stoolbend, Virginia, where Cleveland points them to a bellhop in Washington. Gunmen attack the group on the road, and they are knocked out and flown to a remote island where the Secret Order of Dirty Joke Writers keeps some of the world's great minds at work. Refused permission to leave, they escape by plane with a joke written by a dying member, and the compound burns behind them.

Production and reception

Nielsen figures put the first broadcast at 7.59 million homes, with a 3.8 rating among viewers aged 18 to 49, ahead of American Dad!, The Simpsons and The Cleveland Show. Wikipedia, The Splendid Source
The plot is based on a Richard Matheson short story of the same name, first published in Playboy in May 1956. Wikipedia, The Splendid Source
Mike Henry returned to voice Cleveland Brown, having left the main cast to lead the spin off series. This was the first crossover between the two programmes. Wikipedia, The Splendid Source
Mark Hentemann announced the episode at Comic-Con in San Diego on 25 July 2009. Wikipedia, The Splendid Source
A cutaway set during the trip to Washington drew complaints that it insulted Vietnam veterans. Wikipedia, The Splendid Source

Voices

Voice	Characters
Seth MacFarlane	Peter Griffin, Glenn Quagmire, Old Writer
Alex Borstein	Lois Griffin, Mom
Seth Green	Chris Griffin
Mila Kunis	Meg Griffin, Meg Griffin
Mike Henry	Cleveland Brown, Rallo Tubbs, Bruce the Performance Artist
Marc Alaimo	Dean of the Secret Order of Dirty Joke Writers
Gary Cole	Principal Shepherd
Chris Cox	Facility Worker, Best Man
Ralph Garman	Vietnamese Civilian
Ioan Gruffudd	Man

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

Marc Alaimo as the Dean of the Secret Order of Dirty Joke Writers
Gary Cole as Principal Shepherd
Ioan Gruffudd as John Payne
Sanaa Lathan as Donna Tubbs, Donna Tubbs-Brown
David Lynch as Gus the Bartender, Gus
Kevin Michael Richardson as Cleveland Brown, Jr.
Wally Wingert as Wally
Patrick Warburton as Joe Swanson
Jennifer Tilly as Bonnie Swanson

Season 8: episode 19 of 21

Season hub with air dates and credits for all 21 episodes

SourceFacts from Wikipedia: Family Guy season 8 and the episode's article (CC BY-SA 4.0). Spotted an error? See corrections.

Provenance

Facts only

Sources: Wikipedia: The Splendid Source
Wikidata Q4051308
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.