Season 9 · Episode 12 · First aired 6 March 2011
The Hand That Rocks the Wheelchair
Episode 12 of Family Guy season 9 (S09E12), the 159th Family Guy episode overall. Written by Tom Devanney and directed by Brian Iles. First broadcast on 6 March 2011.
Story
Bonnie needs someone to mind Joe and Susie while she is away, and Lois hands the job to Meg. Meg develops a crush, cooks Joe breakfast and follows him about. When Bonnie rings to say she is flying home, Meg plants one of Joe's guns in her luggage at the airport, and the arrest also turns up the cocaine Bonnie was carrying. Over dinner Meg suggests they have a baby and breastfeeds Susie. Warned off by Lois, she throws herself in front of Joe's police car hoping to be paralysed, then recovers in hospital and settles for friendship. Elsewhere Stewie builds a machine meant to restore his cruelty and produces an evil clone, which maims Brian before Brian shoots the double he judges to be the copy.
Production and reception
- The title and the Meg storyline both draw on the 1992 film The Hand That Rocks the Cradle. Wikipedia, The Hand That Rocks the Wheelchair
- The clone's appearance in the empty machine copies a scene from the Star Trek episode The Enemy Within, matching its lighting and piano figure. Wikipedia, The Hand That Rocks the Wheelchair
- The closing shot, with Stewie shown in yellow eyes over recorded laughter from Vincent Price, refers to the video for Michael Jackson's Thriller. Wikipedia, The Hand That Rocks the Wheelchair
- Patrick Warburton announced the episode at the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con. Tom Devanney wrote it, Brian Iles directed and Ron Jones supplied the music. Wikipedia, The Hand That Rocks the Wheelchair
- Guest voices included Patrick Stewart, Jennifer Tilly, Dee Bradley Baker and Colin Ford. Nielsen recorded 6.23 million viewers and a 3.1 rating among adults aged 18 to 49. Wikipedia, The Hand That Rocks the Wheelchair
Voices
| Voice | Characters |
|---|---|
| Seth MacFarlane | Peter Griffin, Brian Griffin, Stewie Griffin |
| Alex Borstein | Lois Griffin |
| Seth Green | Chris Griffin |
| Mila Kunis | Meg Griffin |
| Mike Henry | John Herbert |
| Dee Bradley Baker | Waldorf |
| Alexandra Breckenridge | Lady in Car |
| Colin Ford | Kid |
| Ralph Garman | Old Lady |
| Danny Smith | Airport Employee |
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
- Dee Bradley Baker
- Colin Ford as Kid
- Patrick Stewart as Susie Swanson
- Jennifer Tilly as Bonnie Swanson
- Patrick Warburton as Joe Swanson
- Mike Henry as Herbert
Season 9: episode 12 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 Guy
- E12The Hand That Rocks the WheelchairYou are here
- 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- Sources
- 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.