Partial Terms of Endearment starts off with Peter and Lois going to Lois' 20 year high school reunion. When the couple runs into a former lover of Lois', a woman named Naomi (Julia Sweeny of Saturday Night Live note), Peter is both flabbergasted and happy to learn that his wife did some experimenting in her earlier days. When Naomi asks Peter and Lois for a favor, he immediately draws certain conclusions and starts to get eager for Naomi's visit in a few days. While the appearance of Naomi's husband along with Lois' old friend baffles Peter briefly, he still firmly believes that one of his fantasies will come true.
This all comes crashing down though when the other couple reveals that they can't have children naturally and would like Lois to carry their baby. The enraged Peter demands Lois not accept, but she does anyway, and when the Griffin family learns that a massive accident has killed both Naomi and her husband, they are left wondering what to do with the newly implanted zygote.
Here is where most of the controversy starts. Granted, most of the episode is filled with references to both male and female reproductive organs, and I'm sure that helped the censors' decision to not air the show, but a lot of it stemmed from the Griffins trying to decide whether or not to abort the pregnancy.
As you can see, this isn't really a typical episode of Family Guy and Partial Terms of Endearment seems to take things a bit farther than they normally do, but is this one episode worth an entire DVD? Well, a lot of what makes this DVD appealing comes from its special features. The disc basically has every conceivable way to watch the episode all tied up in a bow. There is, of course, the normal episode with optional commentary, but it also contains an animatic version and a live-reading featuring most of the cast as well as Sweeny on stage in front of an audience.
To sweeten the pot, Family Guy: Partial Terms of Endearment also comes with "Seth and Alex's Almost Live Comedy Show." Here, series creator and the man behind many of the voices, Seth MacFarlane, goes on stage with Alex Borstein (Lois) to entertain the audience. This half-hour show touches on a lot of things, and not all of it is related to Family Guy. These skits and gags range from failed Fox TV pilots to screen tests gone wrong to the pair's own comedic works and there is even a "surprise" guest appearance by Marlee Matlin, the deaf actress from Children of a Lesser God and The West Wing.
The DVD also contains an album of original Family Guy songs that you can put into your computer and import into iTunes, but I had a lot of trouble with the transfer application and it kept crashing when I would go to actually import the music.
Besides the issue with the music (which could very well just be an issue with my computer), the overall package is worth looking into. I would still caution the purchase of the DVD for younger viewers, but those who know what they are getting into and understand that this particular episode actually goes a little over the line the show normally crosses will find Partial Terms of Endearment very funny.
