In "Peter's Progress," we get a look at the true founding of Quahog as we look into a past life of Peter's where he is exiled from England because the king (played by Stewie) wants Peter's fiancee, Lois as Lady Redbush. This is an amusing tale as Griffin Peterson establishes the new colony and attempts to get over his lost love in another woman ... oddly enough, portrayed by Meg.
For me, one of the top ranked episodes this Volume is "Three Kings" where the Family Guy characters retell Stephen King books ... or to be more precise, movies that were inspired by books. In this episode, we get to see shortened versions of "Stand By Me," "The Shawshank Redemption" and "Misery." This episode featured guest stars like Richard Dreyfuss and Roy Scheider (filmed not long before his death) who both play inner-voices/narrators in the "Stand By Me" spoof. This gets really funny when the pair start reminiscing about Jaws.
Another episode with great guest stars is "Spies Reminiscent of Us" where Chevy Chase and Dan Aykroyd move into Cleveland's old house (this is the season where his spin-off starts) and are apparently actual spies given commissions by Reagan after their movie Spies Like Us. Apparently this was supposed to be the season's "Road To" episode, but that spot was taken by another episode (more on that later). As it turns out, an old Russian sleeper agent has been living in Quahog for many years waiting to be triggered by a very unlikely phrase. When the agent is activated, Dan, Chevy, Brian and Stewie end up traveling to Russia in order to stop the impending nuclear attack. Meanwhile, Peter, Joe and Quagmire decide to create an improv group (inspired by the two comedian's appearance on their street).
While "Spies Reminiscent of Us" was supposed to be the "Road To" episode this time around, when the creators started working on an episode involving Stewie and Brian hopping across multiple universes, "Road to the Multiverse" got that honor. The pair's journey has them encountering a universe drawn by Disney (with a great song about pie), one where everything is a political cartoon, another that is the Flintstones, and, best of all, a Robot Chicken universe, which of course strikes up a brief argument involving Chris about the quality of the show.
Besides a few commentaries and a slew of deleted scenes, there are two major special features in Family Guy: Volume Eight. One of these is Family Guy Karaoke where you can sing along with pretty much every song from the show, complete with words and bouncing ball. The other two deal with "Road to the Multiverse." In the DVD case is a booklet containing the entire script to the episode, which is a nice addition for any fan. On the disc itself is a featurette for the episode talking about the work that went into it, the song, "It's a Wonderful Day for Pie," and getting former Disney animators together for one of the longer segments of the episode.
Family Guy: Volume Eight puts together a great collection of episodes, and while there are quite a few that are sure to offend someone somewhere, most Family Guy fans will know what to expect and should enjoy this DVD set.
