[[quoteright:340:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/deadmanfg.jpg]]

'''Original air date:''' 4/11/1999

'''Production code:''' 1ACX-02

Peter teaches Meg how to drive in time for her road test. When Meg fails for racing a Police car, Peter gets distracted by the FOX reality special, ''Fast Animals, Slow Children'', and hits the town's cable satellite, causing all of Quahog to go without TV, which slowly drives Peter crazy...until Lois rescuing him from an angry mob makes him realize that there's more to life than television. Meanwhile, Stewie uses the town's banged-up satellite to create a weather machine so it can snow all around the world and wipe out the broccoli plant.

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!!"I Never Met The Dead Man" contains examples of:
* AdamWesting: Creator/FrankWelker voices Fred Jones in ''The Scooby-Doo Murder Files'' cutaway.
* AmazinglyEmbarrassingParents: Just an early example of Peter being one where he bursts into Meg's class to reprimand her for not cleaning out the shower after shaving her legs.
* {{Bowdlerization}}: On Channel 4 in the UK (and some free-to-air TV channels in the United States), the part where Tom Tucker and Diane say politically incorrect things now that Quahog has no cable (until the cameraman tells them that they're still on the air in Boston) was edited. Tom's line, "I'm The Lord Jesus Christ. Think I'll go get drunk and beat up some midgets" was shortened to "Think I'll go get drunk and beat up some midgets," while Diane's "Well, Tom, I just plain don't like black people" was cut entirely, making it look as if Diane was laughing at what Tom was saying.
* CharacterizationMarchesOn: This is one of the first episodes to convey Meg as a ButtMonkey. However this is long before she was designated the de facto punching bag of the Family Guy universe, with her abuse in this episode more down to Peter [[CloudCuckooLander being Peter]] and the town's SeriousBusiness attitude towards television.
* ContrivedCoincidence: {{Lampshaded}} with a heavy dose of Meta Humor: Peter has given up TV and Lois tries to entice him back by talking about the broadly-drawn characters, cliché storylines, and convenient coincidences that bring the plot around just in time. Immediately after she says this, Creator/WilliamShatner enters the house, his car having broken down outside on his way to give a speech on how TV keeps families together. (And yes, Shatner's appearance does resolve the plot and get things back to [[StatusQuoIsGod status quo]].)
* DarkerAndEdgier: Parodied with ''The Scooby-Doo Murder Files'', albeit not BloodierAndGorier because the violence is only described.
-->'''Fred:''' Gee whiz, gang. Looks like the killer gutted the victim, strangled him with his own intestines, and then dumped the body in the river.\\
'''Velma:''' Jinkies, what a mystery.
* DidntSeeThatComing: [[BrickJoke Ensign Ricky's]] reaction to Creator/WilliamShatner getting killed by Meg's driving.
* DirtyCoward: Peter blames the accident with the cable satellite on ''his daughter''.
* DiscriminateAndSwitch: Meg laments how if she doesn't get a driver's license, she'll never get married and end up adopting a kid like Creator/RosieODonnell.
-->'''Meg:''' Dad, I have to take my driver's test and get my license. If I don't get a license, I won't drive, I'll never get married and I'll have to adopt a kid like Creator/RosieODonnell!\\
'''Peter:''' [[ComicallyMissingThePoint Meg, are you implying that Rosie O'Donnell can't drive]]?
* DoesNotLikeSpam: Stewie hates broccoli to the point of trying to wipe it off the face of the Earth.
* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: The German sausage clerk taking over a Polish sausage booth and eyeing a Czech one. To make it more obvious, the German clerk looks like a fat version of UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler.
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: Judging by Peter's line after he meets Quagmire ("Him and his crazy get-rich-quick schemes"), it looks like Quagmire was intended to be a greedy character, instead of the [[TheCasanova Casanova]] pervert we all know today.
* EveryCarIsAPinto: Parodied (naturally) during Peter's driving lesson with Meg where they end up racing an amish man on a horse-drawn wagon. At a sharp curve, the horse and wagon go over the ledge (as the man leaps to safety), and among rolling over the wooden wagon blows up, and then the horse gives a nervous look and then [[SpontaneousHumanCombustion he, too, blows up]] after a few seconds!
* EveryoneHasStandards: Though the town is already an unruly mob after finding out it was Peter that destroyed television, some sound even more outraged that he blamed his own daughter for the accident.
-->'''Parachutist:''' [[VisualPun Well that's the lowest thing I've ever heard.]]
* FailedASpotCheck: "Holy crap! [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries Uhura]]'s Black?!"
* HypocriticalHumor: Peter claims that nothing gets past him, only to suddenly notice that Uhura is black.
* ImplausibleDeniability: During a CutawayGag of Peter in Willy Wonka's factory, the latter asks him if he ate any of his candy. Peter denies it, despite being swollen and purple like Violet in the movie.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Despite passing the blame for the accident off to Meg, Peter winds up caring about his family more once he learns to live without TV.
* KidsHateVegetables: Stewie spends the entire B-plot attempting to destroy his plate of broccoli Lois made him eat for dinner. He ends up trying to feed them to Brian, but Brian just dumps them back onto Stewie's plate.
* MythologyGag: The entire ''[[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries Star Trek]]'' parody came from Creator/SethMacfarlane's short, ''Life of Larry''. However, Ensign Ricky initially said, "Aw, shit" instead of "Aw, crap."
* NoodleIncident: Brian reminds Peter of his trip to the southwest where Peter accidentally ran over [[WesternAnimation/WileECoyoteAndTheRoadrunner The Road Runner from the Looney Tunes]] while driving. His passenger, Wile E. Coyote, didn't mind (of course).
* OhCrap:
** Ensign Ricky (the RedShirt guy) when he's one of the people picked for the landing party.
** When Peter and Meg crash into a cable dish and then realize they've accidentally cut the town's cable.
** Peter and Meg's reaction when they are confronted by an angry mob.
** Lois' reaction when she and Peter are confronted by an angry mob at Meg's school.
** Meg, when driving home in the rain and realizing she accidentally hit both Peter and William Shatner.
* PoliceAreUseless: The cutaway gag of ''Series/CHiPs'', where Ponch (Eric Estrada's character, in playing up his Casanova character from the show) is so focused on sweet-talking a beautiful woman he stopped (apparently for a minor traffic offense) that he fails to notice blatant examples of crime behind him, including a drive-by shooting and a truck carrying a large shipment of cocaine.
* RedShirt: Wonderfully parodied.
-->'''Kirk:''' All right, men, this is a dangerous mission, and it's likely one of us will be killed. The landing party will consist of myself, Mr. Spock, Dr. [=McCoy=], and Ensign Ricky.\\
'''Ensign Ricky:''' [[ThisIsGonnaSuck Aw]], [[OhCrap crap]].
* SanitySlippage: Peter starts wearing a cardboard TV monitor in front of him and becomes convinced that everything he sees is a TV show.
-->'''Peter:''' ''(seeing townspeople advance toward him menacingly)'' Oh man, look at these guys. Looks like some boob's about to get lynched.
* TheScapegoat: Peter blames the accident on Meg and promises to buy her a car if she keeps quiet. After all the abuse she receives, though, she cracks and tells the truth.
* ShoutOut:
** From his prison cell, Charles Manson recites Creator/{{NBC}}'s 1997 slogan, "If I haven't seen it, it's new to me!".
** In Peter's ''Film/TheWizardOfOz''-inspired dream, he sees ''Series/{{ALF}}'', ''Series/GilligansIsland'', the robot from ''Series/LostInSpace'' and ''Series/IDreamOfJeannie'', who turns into Samantha Stephens from ''Series/{{Bewitched}}''.
** In school, when Meg is about to confess that her dad was actually the one who crashed the car, she reflects with an inner voice, a reference to Series/TheWonderYears (1988).
* SplittingPants: When Peter is watching Star Trek: The Original Series, this happens to Captain Kirk, whose underwear reads "Captain's Log" on the seat.
* WeNeedADistraction: After the accident, an angry mob descends on Peter and Meg. Peter tries to distract them by pointing over to Bigfoot. It doesn't work because Bigfoot simply says he doesn't want to be dragged into this.
* WeWantOurJerkBack: The family once they get tired of Peter making them do wholesome activities.
* WereLiveRealization: PlayedWith ''twice''. After Peter knocks out Quahog's television service, Tom Tucker and Diane Simmons feel free to say and do things they can't during their newscast, since no one will be watching... only to be informed that they're still on in Boston. A little later, Tom takes a shot at his wife, confident that she won't hear because she lives in Quahog... only to be told that that the town's service was restored.
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