Save the Clam

"Save the Clam" is the nineteenth episode of the eleventh season and the 207th overall episode of the animated comedy series Family Guy. It aired on Fox in the United States on May 5, 2013, and is written by Chris Sheridan and directed by Brian Iles. The episode's plot revolves around Peter and his friends trying to save their favorite drinking joint, The Drunken Clam, from being closed down after the owner Horace dies in a ball game gone awry.^[1]

Plot

During a Drunken Clam softball game with Goldman's Pharmacy, Jerome is brought in as a ringer for Mort's team. To win the game, Horace tries to strike him out and Jerome hits the ball which accidentally flies into Horace's face and kills him. During the funeral, Jerome apologizes but Peter admits it was just a random chance occurrence. The guys say their goodbyes and head out to have a blow out at The Drunken Clam only to find the bar is foreclosed. The guys are forced to drink at home and Lois objects. Peter and the guys sneak into the Clam for a night of drinking. When they come to the next morning, they find the building is about to be demolished and Peter pulls out a Mossberg and demands they stop as he claims ownership of the bar. During the stand-off, Joe finds himself in an uneasy position and bails out. Lois shows up and demands he come out. Joe is given the task to talk the guys out but when he enters, he rejoins their side and turns against the police chief. As they are all threatened with arrest, Jerome appears and reveals that he used his sports earnings from lacrosse (which is also his brother's name) to buy the bar and keep it open as a legacy to Horace, stating that it was his fault Horace is dead and that it is seemingly his responsibility to keep the bar open. The guys find the Drunken Clam modified and themselves relegated to a space on the floor near the garbage since there are three black guys in their usual booth.

During the funeral, Meg has to go to the bathroom and stumbles into an embalming session. Her lack of squeamishness impresses the Undertaker and he offers her a job. Chris shows up and plays with the deceased bodies to Meg's annoyance since he got locked out of the house and doesn't have the key. When she goes to dress the body of Mr. Dugan, she finds it is missing and accuses Chris of stealing Mr. Dugan's body. Chris admits that he used it to get into “R” rated movies until it fell apart in the swimming pool and she insists that they find it before she kills him. During the funeral, Chris poses as Mr. Dugan (since they weren't able to find Mr. Dugan's body) despite having itchy balls. As they progress, they learn from Helen Dugan that the deceased face was donated for a transplant to a woman who lost her face in a freak chimpanzee accident and Chris loses his. Back at the house, Chris tells Meg that even though he cannot frown, he is unhappy.

Reception

The episode received a 2.2 rating in the 18-49 demographic and was watched by a total of 4.79 million viewers. This made it the second most watched show on Fox's Animation Domination line-up that night, beating The Simpsons and Bob's Burgers but losing to American Dad!.^[2] The episode was met with mixed reviews from critics. Kevin McFarland of The A.V. Club gave the episode a B, saying "That’s a pretty standard way to appreciate anything that Family Guy does these days, tuning out the deliberately provocative jokes as though they're comments made by an older relative at Thanksgiving who gets a pass because they “grew up in a different time.” Family Guy doesn’t have that excuse, so when the material doesn’t work because it trades in lazy stereotypes, it hurts the episode. Still, I laughed more this week at the remaining bits than I have in a few months."^[3] Carter Dotson of TV Fanatic gave the episode three out of five stars, saying "This was a rather pedestrian episode of the show, not a classic but not terrible. If your DVR didn't record it, you didn't miss much."^[4]

References

• The plot description was adapted from Save the Clam at Family Guy Wiki, which is available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 license.