Road to Germany
Encyclopedia
"Road to Germany" is the third episode of the seventh season of Family Guy
. It originally aired on October 19, 2008, on Fox
. It is Brian
and Stewie
's fourth road adventure, following "Road to Rhode Island
", "Road to Europe
", "Road to Rupert
", and is succeeded by "Road to the Multiverse
". The episode was written by Patrick Meighan and directed by Greg Colton. The episode received mixed reviews from critics. The episode's guest stars include Brian Blessed
, Gregory Jbara
, Martin Savage
, Jeff Witzke and Robert Boomfield. Mort accidentally goes into Stewie's time machine and is sent to September 1, 1939. Brian and Stewie realize Mort has gone back in time, and go in the time machine to save him.
, Poland
and find Mort in a synagogue
. He believes he is in Heaven
as he sees dead family members there. It does not take long for them to realize that the date is September 1, 1939, the day of the Nazi
invasion of Poland and when the Second World War started.
The three cannot return to the present right away since the return pad gets broken, so they decide to go to England
where they will be safe to fix it. They are chased by the Nazis, forcing them to make a getaway on a motorbike, followed by an elaborate undersea pursuit in a hijacked U-boat
. The three make it to England safely, and see Churchill. Stewie finds that the return pad is out of uranium
fuel, and Brian states that the only place they can find more uranium in this time is at a "secret" nuclear testing facility in Berlin
, Nazi Germany
. The three join the Royal Air Force
and fly a Lancaster bomber as they participate in a dogfight
against the Luftwaffe
, eventually reaching Berlin. After finding a research lab, Stewie disguises himself as Hitler
, while the other two disguise themselves as Nazi Officers, and obtains the needed uranium. They then run into the real Hitler, who orders their execution, but they escape on the return pad back to their time (Hitler offered to spare them if they performed a charming musical number, but Mort cuts the eager Stewie and Brian off at the first line).
The group arrives back in Stewie's room 30 seconds before Mort originally entered the time machine. To keep these events from repeating themselves, Stewie kills the Mort that traveled with them by shoving him into the time machine and then blowing it up. The original Mort then enters the room and, now lacking the time machine "toilet," and seeing Stewie and Brian in Nazi uniform, soils
himself instead.
who had written Road to Rupert
The episode was directed by series regular Greg Colton
, who had worked on Brian Goes Back to College
, No Meals on Wheels
and also 8 Simple Rules for Buying My Teenage Daughter. Peter Shin and James Purdun acted as supervising directors. John Viener worked as an executive story editor. Seth MacFarlane
, Chris Sheridan, David A. Goodman
and Danny Smith
were executive producers. Alec Sulkin
, Wellesley Wild
and Mike Henry acted as supervising producers. Richard Appel
, Brian Scully
, Mark Hentemann
and Steve Callaghan
worked as co-executive producers. After reading the script aloud, Jewish
executive producer David A. Goodman
said, "I'm going to get kicked out of my temple".
"Road to Germany" is the fourth episode of the "Road to" hallmarks of the series, which have aired in various seasons of the show, and the first to be directed by Colton. The episodes are a parody of the seven Road to...
comedy films starring Bing Crosby
, Bob Hope
, and Dorothy Lamour
. The director who directed every previous Road to episodes Dan Povenmire
left Family Guy soon after, following the conclusion of the fifth season
, to create his own series, entitled Phineas and Ferb
, which has since been nominated for seven Emmy Award
s.
"Road to Germany", along with the first eight episodes of the seventh season were released on DVD by 20th Century Fox
in the United States and Canada on June 16, 2009, one month after it had completed broadcast on television. The "Volume 7" DVD release features bonus material including deleted scene
s, animatics
, and commentaries for every episode.
occurs where Stewie rides a makeshift skateboard, escapes and has the Nazis crash into a truck of manure. Also, the entrance into Warsaw mirrors Marty's arrival in 1955 Hill Valley. When Stewie picks up a Nazi uniform there is a McCain-Palin
button attached. Stewie and Hitler re-enact the famous "mirror" scene from the Marx Brothers
film Duck Soup. The U-Boat sequence is an adaptation of U-571
when Stewie decides to throw trash outside of the submarine. Furthermore, the U-boat crashing scene is a reference to the police car chase (and subsequential crash) from The Blues Brothers
. The scene where the Hawk Men defeat Nazi air force is a parody of the film Flash Gordon
, with its original soundtrack by Queen
. Stewie, Brian and Mort's escape from their crashing plane is a recreation of the raft scene from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
. The Hebrew wedding scene plays a song titled "Through Poland To A Jewish Village".
rated the episode 9.6 saying, "Featuring gorgeous CGI animation, a genuinely exciting storyline, and some hilariously offensive humor, this Stewie and Brian centric episode of Family Guy easily stands out as one of the best episodes of the show in years." Alex Rocha of TV Guide
was much more critical stating, "it seemed that the show has taken a slight fall back. After having great episodes the past few weeks to get this current season started on a roll, we have witnessed another average, even sub-par episode." In his review of Family Guy, volume 7, Francis Rizzo III of DVD Talk called the episode "hugely memorable", and stated that it "features some of the finest animation the series has ever produced".
According to Seth MacFarlane, Road to Germany was one of three episodes (Along with I Dream of Jesus
and Family Gay
) submitted for consideration for "Outstanding Comedy Series
" in the 61st Primetime Emmy Awards
in 2009. "We picked three of our edgier shows as a choice," he explained, "Ya know, we figured if we are going to be damned, let's be damned for what we really are." The series was ultimately nominated for the award, the first time in 48 years an animated series was nominated for the same category.
Family Guy
Family Guy is an American animated television series created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series centers on the Griffins, a dysfunctional family consisting of parents Peter and Lois; their children Meg, Chris, and Stewie; and their anthropomorphic pet dog Brian...
. It originally aired on October 19, 2008, on Fox
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
. It is Brian
Brian Griffin
Brian Griffin is a character from the animated television series Family Guy. He is voiced by Seth MacFarlane and first appeared on television, along with the rest of the family, in a 15-minute short on December 20, 1998. Brian was created and designed by MacFarlane himself...
and Stewie
Stewie Griffin
Stewie Griffin is a fictional character from the animated television series Family Guy. Once obsessed with world domination and matricide, Stewie is the youngest child of Peter and Lois Griffin, and the brother of Chris and Meg....
's fourth road adventure, following "Road to Rhode Island
Road to Rhode Island
"Road to Rhode Island" is the thirteenth episode from the second season of the American animated television series Family Guy. It originally aired on Fox in the United States on May 30, 2000. In the episode, Brian volunteers to bring Stewie home from his grandparents' house in California, but the...
", "Road to Europe
Road to Europe
"Road to Europe" is the twentieth episode of the third season of the animated comedy series Family Guy. It originally aired on Fox in the United States on February 7, 2002. The episode follows baby Stewie, who becomes obsessed with the fictional British children's television series "Jolly...
", "Road to Rupert
Road to Rupert
"Road to Rupert" is the ninth episode of season five of Family Guy. The episode follows Brian after he inadvertently sells Stewie's teddy bear, Rupert, during a yard sale. In an attempt to retrieve him, Stewie and Brian travel across the United States, eventually discovering he is with a child...
", and is succeeded by "Road to the Multiverse
Road to the Multiverse
"Road to the Multiverse" is the first episode of the eighth season of the animated comedy series Family Guy. Directed by Greg Colton and written by Wellesley Wild, the episode originally aired on Fox in the United States on September 27, 2009...
". The episode was written by Patrick Meighan and directed by Greg Colton. The episode received mixed reviews from critics. The episode's guest stars include Brian Blessed
Brian Blessed
Brian Blessed is an English actor, known for his sonorous voice and "hearty, king-sized portrayals".-Early life:The son of William Blessed, a socialist miner, and Hilda Wall, Blessed was born in the town of Goldthorpe, West Riding of Yorkshire, England...
, Gregory Jbara
Gregory Jbara
-Early life:Jbara was born in Nankin Township , Michigan, the son of an advertising office manager and an insurance claims adjuster. He is of Lebanese and Irish descent. After graduating from Wayne Memorial High School in Wayne, Michigan, Jbara attended the University of Michigan from 1979 to 1981...
, Martin Savage
Martin Savage (actor)
Martin Savage is a British film, stage and television actor.He appeared in both seasons of Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant's television series Extras as camp scriptwriter Damon Beesley and in The Thick of It television series specials as Nick Hanway...
, Jeff Witzke and Robert Boomfield. Mort accidentally goes into Stewie's time machine and is sent to September 1, 1939. Brian and Stewie realize Mort has gone back in time, and go in the time machine to save him.
Plot
While the neighbors are watching the Academy Awards at the Griffins' house, Mort needs to use the bathroom so desperately that he runs into what he thinks is a portable toilet in Stewie's room. The "toilet" turns out to be a time machine, and Mort is sent to the past. Realizing that Mort does not have a return pad that would be able to bring him back to the present, Stewie and Brian take one of the return pads and go back in time to save Mort. They end up in WarsawWarsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
, Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
and find Mort in a synagogue
Nozyk Synagogue
The Nożyk Synagogue is the only surviving prewar Jewish house of prayer in Warsaw, Poland. It was erected prior to 1902 and was restored after World War II...
. He believes he is in Heaven
Heaven
Heaven, the Heavens or Seven Heavens, is a common religious cosmological or metaphysical term for the physical or transcendent place from which heavenly beings originate, are enthroned or inhabit...
as he sees dead family members there. It does not take long for them to realize that the date is September 1, 1939, the day of the Nazi
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
invasion of Poland and when the Second World War started.
The three cannot return to the present right away since the return pad gets broken, so they decide to go to England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
where they will be safe to fix it. They are chased by the Nazis, forcing them to make a getaway on a motorbike, followed by an elaborate undersea pursuit in a hijacked U-boat
U-boat
U-boat is the anglicized version of the German word U-Boot , itself an abbreviation of Unterseeboot , and refers to military submarines operated by Germany, particularly in World War I and World War II...
. The three make it to England safely, and see Churchill. Stewie finds that the return pad is out of uranium
Uranium
Uranium is a silvery-white metallic chemical element in the actinide series of the periodic table, with atomic number 92. It is assigned the chemical symbol U. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons...
fuel, and Brian states that the only place they can find more uranium in this time is at a "secret" nuclear testing facility in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
. The three join the Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...
and fly a Lancaster bomber as they participate in a dogfight
Dogfight
A dogfight, or dog fight, is a form of aerial combat between fighter aircraft; in particular, combat of maneuver at short range, where each side is aware of the other's presence. Dogfighting first appeared during World War I, shortly after the invention of the airplane...
against the Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe is a generic German term for an air force. It is also the official name for two of the four historic German air forces, the Wehrmacht air arm founded in 1935 and disbanded in 1946; and the current Bundeswehr air arm founded in 1956....
, eventually reaching Berlin. After finding a research lab, Stewie disguises himself as Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
, while the other two disguise themselves as Nazi Officers, and obtains the needed uranium. They then run into the real Hitler, who orders their execution, but they escape on the return pad back to their time (Hitler offered to spare them if they performed a charming musical number, but Mort cuts the eager Stewie and Brian off at the first line).
The group arrives back in Stewie's room 30 seconds before Mort originally entered the time machine. To keep these events from repeating themselves, Stewie kills the Mort that traveled with them by shoving him into the time machine and then blowing it up. The original Mort then enters the room and, now lacking the time machine "toilet," and seeing Stewie and Brian in Nazi uniform, soils
Defecation
Defecation is the final act of digestion by which organisms eliminate solid, semisolid or liquid waste material from the digestive tract via the anus. Waves of muscular contraction known as peristalsis in the walls of the colon move fecal matter through the digestive tract towards the rectum...
himself instead.
Production
"Road to Germany" is the third episode of Family Guy´s seventh season. It was written by Patrick MeighanPatrick Meighan (writer)
Patrick Meighan is an American animation writer. Meighan is most notably known for writing several episodes of the animated series Family Guy and Titus.Meighan has also served as a production assistant on Dharma & Greg.-Family Guy:...
who had written Road to Rupert
Road to Rupert
"Road to Rupert" is the ninth episode of season five of Family Guy. The episode follows Brian after he inadvertently sells Stewie's teddy bear, Rupert, during a yard sale. In an attempt to retrieve him, Stewie and Brian travel across the United States, eventually discovering he is with a child...
The episode was directed by series regular Greg Colton
Greg Colton
Greg Colton is an American animation director. Colton is most notably known for directing several episodes of the animated series Family Guy and Seth MacFarlane's Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy....
, who had worked on Brian Goes Back to College
Brian Goes Back to College
"Brian Goes Back to College" is the fifteenth episode of Family Guy 's fourth season. The episode originally aired on Sunday November 13, 2005. Guest stars on the show were Ralph Garman, Mark Hentemann and Phil LaMarr. The episode was described by show creator Seth MacFarlane to be "a real treat...
, No Meals on Wheels
No Meals on Wheels
"No Meals on Wheels" is the fourteenth episode of the fifth season of the animated comedy series Family Guy. It originally aired on Fox in the United States on March 25, 2007. The episode features the Griffin family opening a restaurant, and eventually become overwhelmed by Joe Swanson and his...
and also 8 Simple Rules for Buying My Teenage Daughter. Peter Shin and James Purdun acted as supervising directors. John Viener worked as an executive story editor. Seth MacFarlane
Seth MacFarlane
Seth Woodbury MacFarlane is an American animator, writer, comedian, producer, actor, singer, voice actor, and director best known for creating the animated sitcoms Family Guy, American Dad! and The Cleveland Show, for which he also voices many of the shows' various characters.A native of Kent,...
, Chris Sheridan, David A. Goodman
David A. Goodman
David A. Goodman is an American writer and producer and a graduate of the University of Chicago, earning an BA in 1984. He was one of the executive producers of Family Guy, beginning its fourth season, joining the show as a co-executive producer in season three...
and Danny Smith
Danny Smith (writer)
Daniel "Danny" Smith is an executive producer, writer and voice actor on the American animated television series Family Guy. He has been with the show since its inception and throughout the years has contributed many episodes, such as "Holy Crap", "The Father, the Son, and the Holy Fonz", "Chitty...
were executive producers. Alec Sulkin
Alec Sulkin
Alec Sulkin is an American television writer. Most notable for writing and producing several episodes of the animated series Family Guy, he has also contributed to The Cleveland Show, another series by Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane....
, Wellesley Wild
Wellesley Wild
Wellesley Wild is an American animation writer. He is best known for writing and producing several episodes of the animated series Family Guy. He is currently co-executive producer and an occasional voice actor for the show....
and Mike Henry acted as supervising producers. Richard Appel
Richard Appel
Richard "Rich" Appel is an American writer, producer and former attorney. Growing up in Wilmette, Illinois, Appel developed a love of comedy and dreamt of a career as a comedy writer; he attended Harvard University and wrote for the Harvard Lampoon. Following in his mother's footsteps Appel...
, Brian Scully
Brian Scully
Brian Scully is an American television writer and producer.Scully initially worked as a TV salesman before eventually getting a job writing on Out of This World...
, Mark Hentemann
Mark Hentemann
Mark Hentemann is an American animation writer. Hentemann is most notably known for writing several episodes of the animated series Family Guy...
and Steve Callaghan
Steve Callaghan
Steve Callaghan is an American screenwriter, producer and voice actor, best known for his work on Family Guy. He is a graduate of the Department of Public Policy at the UCLA School of Public Affairs...
worked as co-executive producers. After reading the script aloud, Jewish
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
executive producer David A. Goodman
David A. Goodman
David A. Goodman is an American writer and producer and a graduate of the University of Chicago, earning an BA in 1984. He was one of the executive producers of Family Guy, beginning its fourth season, joining the show as a co-executive producer in season three...
said, "I'm going to get kicked out of my temple".
"Road to Germany" is the fourth episode of the "Road to" hallmarks of the series, which have aired in various seasons of the show, and the first to be directed by Colton. The episodes are a parody of the seven Road to...
Road to...
Road to ... refers to a series of seven comedy films starring Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, and Dorothy Lamour. They are also often referred to as the "Road" pictures or the "Road" series. The movies were a combination of adventure, comedy, romance, and music...
comedy films starring Bing Crosby
Bing Crosby
Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby was an American singer and actor. Crosby's trademark bass-baritone voice made him one of the best-selling recording artists of the 20th century, with over half a billion records in circulation....
, Bob Hope
Bob Hope
Bob Hope, KBE, KCSG, KSS was a British-born American comedian and actor who appeared in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in radio, television and movies. He was also noted for his work with the US Armed Forces and his numerous USO shows entertaining American military personnel...
, and Dorothy Lamour
Dorothy Lamour
Dorothy Lamour was an American film actress. She is best remembered for appearing in the Road to... movies, a series of successful comedies starring Bing Crosby and Bob Hope .-Early life:Lamour was born Mary Leta Dorothy Slaton in New Orleans, Louisiana, the daughter of Carmen Louise Dorothy...
. The director who directed every previous Road to episodes Dan Povenmire
Dan Povenmire
Daniel Kingsley "Dan" Povenmire is an American television director, writer, producer, storyboard artist, and actor associated with several animated television series, best known as the co-creator of the Disney animated series Phineas and Ferb in which he also voices the show's villain, Heinz...
left Family Guy soon after, following the conclusion of the fifth season
Family Guy (season 5)
Family Guy fifth season first aired on the Fox network in eighteen episodes from September 10, 2006 to May 20, 2007 before being released as two DVD box sets and in syndication. It premiered with the episode "Stewie Loves Lois" and finished with "Meet the Quagmires"...
, to create his own series, entitled Phineas and Ferb
Phineas and Ferb
Phineas and Ferb is an American animated television comedy series. Originally broadcast as a preview on August 17, 2007, on Disney Channel, the series follows Phineas Flynn and his English stepbrother Ferb Fletcher on summer vacation. Every day the boys embark on some grand new project, which...
, which has since been nominated for seven Emmy Award
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
s.
"Road to Germany", along with the first eight episodes of the seventh season were released on DVD by 20th Century Fox
20th Century Fox
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...
in the United States and Canada on June 16, 2009, one month after it had completed broadcast on television. The "Volume 7" DVD release features bonus material including deleted scene
Deleted scene
In Entertainment, especially the film and television industry, Deleted scenes are parts of a film removed or censored from or replaced by another scene in the final "cut", or version, of a film...
s, animatics
Traditional animation
Traditional animation, is an animation technique where each frame is drawn by hand...
, and commentaries for every episode.
Cultural references
The episode begins with a swing band version of the orchestral theme from the 1980s miniseries The Winds Of War / War And Remembrance. When Brian, Stewie and Mort are chased by Nazis, a recreation of the chase scene, including music, from Back to the FutureBack to the Future
Back to the Future is a 1985 American science-fiction adventure film. It was directed by Robert Zemeckis, written by Zemeckis and Bob Gale, produced by Steven Spielberg, and starred Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Crispin Glover and Thomas F. Wilson. The film tells the story of...
occurs where Stewie rides a makeshift skateboard, escapes and has the Nazis crash into a truck of manure. Also, the entrance into Warsaw mirrors Marty's arrival in 1955 Hill Valley. When Stewie picks up a Nazi uniform there is a McCain-Palin
John McCain presidential campaign, 2008
John McCain, the senior United States Senator from Arizona, launched his second candidacy for the presidency of the United States in an unsuccessful bid to win the 2008 presidential election. His candidacy, in the works for a number of years, was informally announced on February 28, 2007 during a...
button attached. Stewie and Hitler re-enact the famous "mirror" scene from the Marx Brothers
Marx Brothers
The Marx Brothers were an American family comedy act, originally from New York City, that enjoyed success in Vaudeville, Broadway, and motion pictures from the early 1900s to around 1950...
film Duck Soup. The U-Boat sequence is an adaptation of U-571
U-571 (film)
U-571 is a 2000 film directed by Jonathan Mostow, and starring Matthew McConaughey, Bill Paxton, Harvey Keitel, Thomas Kretschmann, Jon Bon Jovi, Jack Noseworthy, Will Estes, and Tom Guiry...
when Stewie decides to throw trash outside of the submarine. Furthermore, the U-boat crashing scene is a reference to the police car chase (and subsequential crash) from The Blues Brothers
The Blues Brothers
The Blues Brothers are an American blues and soul revivalist band founded in 1978 by comedy actors Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi as part of a musical sketch on Saturday Night Live...
. The scene where the Hawk Men defeat Nazi air force is a parody of the film Flash Gordon
Flash Gordon (film)
Flash Gordon is a 1980 British/American science fiction film, based on the comic strip of the same name created by Alex Raymond. The film was directed by Mike Hodges and produced and presented by Dino De Laurentiis. It stars Sam J. Jones, Melody Anderson, Topol, Max von Sydow, Timothy Dalton, Brian...
, with its original soundtrack by Queen
Queen (band)
Queen are a British rock band formed in London in 1971, originally consisting of Freddie Mercury , Brian May , John Deacon , and Roger Taylor...
. Stewie, Brian and Mort's escape from their crashing plane is a recreation of the raft scene from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is a 1984 American adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg. It is the second film in the Indiana Jones franchise and prequel to Raiders of the Lost Ark . After arriving in India, Indiana Jones is asked by a desperate village to find a mystical stone...
. The Hebrew wedding scene plays a song titled "Through Poland To A Jewish Village".
Reception
Reception of the episode was mixed. Ahsan Haque of IGNIGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
rated the episode 9.6 saying, "Featuring gorgeous CGI animation, a genuinely exciting storyline, and some hilariously offensive humor, this Stewie and Brian centric episode of Family Guy easily stands out as one of the best episodes of the show in years." Alex Rocha of TV Guide
TV Guide
TV Guide is a weekly American magazine with listings of TV shows.In addition to TV listings, the publication features television-related news, celebrity interviews, gossip and film reviews and crossword puzzles...
was much more critical stating, "it seemed that the show has taken a slight fall back. After having great episodes the past few weeks to get this current season started on a roll, we have witnessed another average, even sub-par episode." In his review of Family Guy, volume 7, Francis Rizzo III of DVD Talk called the episode "hugely memorable", and stated that it "features some of the finest animation the series has ever produced".
According to Seth MacFarlane, Road to Germany was one of three episodes (Along with I Dream of Jesus
I Dream of Jesus
"I Dream of Jesus" is the second episode of the seventh season of Family Guy. It originally aired on Fox in the United States on October 5, 2008. In the episode, Peter finds an incognito Jesus Christ working at a record shop, and convinces Jesus to make his second coming public.The episode was...
and Family Gay
Family Gay
"Family Gay" is the eighth episode of the seventh season of the animated television comedy series Family Guy. It originally aired on Fox in the United States on March 8, 2009. In the episode, Peter Griffin purchases a brain damaged horse who ends up causing a great deal of collateral damage at the...
) submitted for consideration for "Outstanding Comedy Series
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series
The Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series is an Emmy given to the best television comedy series of the year.-Winners and nominees:...
" in the 61st Primetime Emmy Awards
61st Primetime Emmy Awards
The 61st Annual Primetime Emmy Awards took place on September 20, 2009. CBS broadcast the Primetime event and E! the Creative Arts event; both take place at Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles, California. The nominations for the Awards were announced on July 16....
in 2009. "We picked three of our edgier shows as a choice," he explained, "Ya know, we figured if we are going to be damned, let's be damned for what we really are." The series was ultimately nominated for the award, the first time in 48 years an animated series was nominated for the same category.