"North by North Quahog" is the first episode of season four of Family Guy, and is the first new episode of Family Guy after the series revival. It premiered at University of Vermont in Burlington at a special screening on April 28, 2005 and was first broadcast publicly on Fox on May 1, 2005. The episode accumulated a Nielsen rating/share of 6.3/9 on its first airing, making it the most-watched episode in the series. In the opening scene, Peter jabs at FOX by listing shows that had minor successes on the network but ended too quickly, many of which did so while Family Guy was off the air. The show was saved by very high DVD sales and cable ratings on Adult Swim.
The episode’s plot revolves around Peter and Lois as they try to help their marriage by taking a second honeymoon, but the two are chased by Mel Gibson after Peter steals the sequel to The Passion of the Christ from Gibson’s private hotel room. Much of the plot and many of the technical aspects of the episode, as well as the title, are direct parodies of the 1959 Alfred Hitchcock movie North by Northwest.
Like the very first episode of the series, "Death Has a Shadow," "North by North Quahog" was written by Seth MacFarlane and directed by Peter Shin, who won an Annie Award for Directing in an Animated Television Production for this episode. The episode itself was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program.
This episode was a special feature on the "Blue Harvest" DVD.
