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is an episode from the second season of the FOX Animated Television Series '' Family Guy '', guest starring Adam Carolla as Death. The episode's title refers to the phrase "wasted talent", in which someone with a special gift throws it away and does not utilize it in any way. However, in this episode, 'wasted' is used in the sense of 'extremely drunk'.
Lois desperately searches for one Piano student who can beat her rival Alexis’s student at the piano competition.
Meanwhile, in a parody of '' Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory '' Peter drinks even more Pawtucket Beer than usual in an attempt to win a Tour of the Brewery . Almost ready to give up, he drinks one more beer, which turns out to have the silver scroll. Peter and Brian go to the brewery tour. Pat is seemingly killed on his front walkway, but the killer turns out to be Cheech Marin , hired to pull off a gag. Joe is kicked out before the tour begins, since the brewery is not compliant with the Americans With Disabilities Act and does not have wheelchair ramps. During the tour the two split off from the group to try beer that never goes flat. This despite Pawtucket Pat’s ( Michael McKean ) warning that they haven’t worked out the kinks. When Pat finds Peter and Brian in the forbidden room, he ejects them from the brewery.
Angry at Pawtucket Pat, Peter tries to get Lois’s attention by playing the piano, showing that he can play piano perfectly when drunk. Lois decides to enter Peter as her student in the piano competition, and keeps him in a state of constant inebriation. Peter’s piano repertoire is movie and TV show Theme Song s, including '' Dallas '', '' Nine To Five '', '' The Incredible Hulk '', '' The X-Files '' and '' The Mary Tyler Moore Show ''.
At the competition, Peter can’t even find the piano. Lois has to turn him around and move him in a couple of inches. Peter and Lois win first place, but Lois frets that she may have harmed his health for her own selfish need to win. Peter defensively tells her all of his brain cells are intact. But deep inside his brain, there is only one left who just broke his glasses.
- Julia Sweeney makes a brief cameo as the wife of the man in the Bar who says "I'm with my Husband!"
- Death reappears after “ Death Is A Bitch ” and it is revealed that he drives a Volkswagen Beetle . This part, also, reveals Death’s face. From this episode onwards, Death is voiced by Adam Carolla .
- The sad “Lonely Man” song from the Hulk TV Series , which Peter played earlier at Stewie’s request, is heard instead of the theme, during the end credits. Stewie again imitates Bill Bixby hitchhiking as a car and a truck roll by.
- The scene of Peter wincing in pain is referenced again after the '' A-Team '' spoof in the episode “ Brian Goes Back To College .”
- The music playing when Peter is working out how many tickets are left is the same as the bus music in “No Bones About It” in “ Family Guy Viewer Mail 1 .”
- When Peter says "The Catholics have churches, fat people have Wisconsin, and I have the Pawtucket Brewery!" it can be noted that all three statements apply to Peter himself.
- At the beginning of the episode, Meg is reading '' Popularity For Dummies ''.
- The Chumbawumba characters are a reference to the band Chumbawamba who are best known in the US for their 1997 hit “ Tubthumping ,” the lyrics of which reference the pleasure of drinking.
- A scene which Peter is on Password and Tony Randall is the opposite guesser, Peter describes him for the password "Flaming" (" Flaming ".)
- The Great Gazoo from '' The Flintstones '' appears.
- The scene where Tom Tucker admits he lied about the last scroll, he inserts a carnivorous earwig into his head. A parody of
- During Pat's song, he sings the line, "...you'll drive drunker than Oksana Baiul ." This is a reference to the 1997 car crash incident.
- At the end of '' The Mary Tyler Moore Show '' theme that Peter plays, Mary Richards is seen in the audience, whereupon she throws her hat in the air as she did in the opening credits of that show. She and the hat freeze as they do in the credits of ''The Mary Tyler Moore Show'', but in typical ''Family Guy'' bending of the rules, the audience around her keeps moving at normal speed.
- Lois compares Peter to “the Idiot” from '' Shine ''.
- As Joe is being wheeled out of the brewery, he screams, "That's okay, I'm a Coors man! Silver Bullet!", referring to the nickname of Coors Light beer.
- In a scene, Cap’n Crunch is speaking to the don from “ There’s Something About Paulie ” (who himself resembles Vito Corleone ), requesting a hit on Count Chocula in retaliation for claims made by Count Chocula stating that Cap’n Crunch cuts the roof of peoples’ mouths.
- The last scene, with the last brain cell in Peter’s brain, parodies '' The Twilight Zone '' episode “ Time Enough At Last ”.
- The name of "that sad going away song from The Incredible Hulk" that Peter plays and Stewie walks away to is "The Lonely Man."
- S. Callaghan, “Wasted Talent.” ''Family Guy: The Official Episode Guide Seasons 1–3''. New York: HarperCollins, 2005. 120–122.
- A. Delarte, “Nitpicking Family Guy: Season 2” in ''Bob’s Poetry Magazine'', 2.May 2005: 27–28 http://bobspoetry.com/Bobs02My.pdf
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