Season 9 · Episode 11 · First aired 20 February 2011
German Guy
Episode 11 of Family Guy season 9 (S09E11), the 158th Family Guy episode overall. Written by Patrick Meighan and directed by Cyndi Tang. First broadcast on 20 February 2011.
Story
Told to find a hobby, Chris tries stamp collecting and drinking with Peter before wandering into a new puppet shop and befriending its owner, Franz Gutentag. Herbert recognises him as Franz Schlechtnacht, an SS officer who ran the camp he was held in during the Second World War, but Peter and Lois dismiss the account and invite Franz to dinner. Chris finds a room of Nazi memorabilia in the shop, and Franz takes him and Peter down to the cellar at gunpoint. Chris gets the gun, is talked into doubting which of the two men is his father, shoots Peter and loses the weapon again. He calls to Herbert through a cellar window, and Herbert arrives in uniform. Their slow fight ends when Franz falls from the porch step and dies.
Production and reception
- The premise, a teenage boy befriending a Nazi in hiding, parodies Apt Pupil, the Stephen King novella later filmed with Ian McKellen and Brad Renfro. Wikipedia, German Guy
- The character's two surnames play on German words: one on a greeting meaning good day, the other on a phrase meaning bad night. Wikipedia, German Guy
- Alan Tudyk guest starred, with recurring voices from Alexandra Breckenridge, John G. Brennan, Ralph Garman, Alec Sulkin and John Viener. Wikipedia, German Guy
- Patrick Meighan wrote the episode and Cyndi Tang directed it, the second of the ninth production season for each of them. Wikipedia, German Guy
- Nielsen recorded 6.57 million viewers. Rowan Kaiser of The A.V. Club graded it D minus and objected to Herbert being used as a lead, while Jason Hughes of TV Squad praised the closing fight. Wikipedia, German Guy
Voices
| Voice | Characters |
|---|---|
| Seth MacFarlane | Peter Griffin, Glenn Quagmire, Tom Tucker |
| Alex Borstein | Lois Griffin |
| Seth Green | Chris Griffin |
| Mila Kunis | Meg Griffin |
| Mike Henry | John Herbert, Jesse |
| Alexandra Breckenridge | Girl |
| John G. Brennan | Mort Goldman |
| Ralph Garman | Officer |
| Alec Sulkin | Pimp |
| Alan Tudyk | German Pilot #2 |
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
- Alan Tudyk as German pilot
- Mike Henry as Herbert
- John Viener as Franz Gutentag
Season 9: episode 11 of 18
- E1And Then There Were Fewer
- E2Excellence in Broadcasting
- E3Welcome Back, Carter
- E4Halloween on Spooner Street
- E5Baby, You Knock Me Out
- E6Brian Writes a Bestseller
- E7Road to the North Pole
- E8New Kidney in Town
- E9And I'm Joyce Kinney
- E10Friends of Peter G.
- E11German GuyYou are here
- E12The Hand That Rocks the Wheelchair
- E13Trading Places
- E14Tiegs for Two
- E15Brothers & Sisters
- E16The Big Bang Theory
- E17Foreign Affairs
- E18It's a Trap!
SourceFacts from Wikipedia: Family Guy season 9 and the episode's article (CC BY-SA 4.0). Spotted an error? See corrections.
Provenance
Facts only- Data refreshed
- 6 September 2026
- Verification
- Checked against Wikidata and IMDb: title, date, numbering and credits agree
- 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.