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Watch ‘Family Guy’ take on Broadway in theater-themed episode

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[This post has been updated.]

“Family Guy” on Fox gave its satirical regards to Broadway on Sunday in a new episode in which Brian and Stewie face off as rival playwrights battling for supremacy in the Griffin household.

Sunday’s episode featured several theater-world references, including comedic homages to Peter Shaffer’s “Amadeus” -- another play about creative jealousy -- and Tennessee Williams’ “A Streetcar Named Desire.” It also featured fake cameos by playwrights David Mamet and Yasmina Reza, and a real vocal cameo by British playwright Alan Bennett.

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Brian, the Griffin family dog, finds local fame when his new play “A Passing Fancy” is a hit at a local Quahog, R.I., theater. His success inspires Stewie to pen his own play, “An American Marriage.” When Brian discovers that Stewie’s play is a masterpiece, he channels Salieri by plotting to sabotage his friend’s writing career.

Stewie eventually sees his play produced on Broadway at the Shubert Theatre, home to such long-running hits as “A Chorus Line,” “Spamalot” and “Memphis.” While in New York, Brian and Stewie meet Mamet, Bennett and Reza, who are portrayed as mean-spirited and self-obsessed.

Sunday’s episode contained many theater in-jokes, but theater buffs may notice at least one factual error -- Reza never won a Pulitzer Prize. (She’s won two Tony Awards.)

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Seth MacFarlane, the creator of “Family Guy,” often incorporates Broadway-style musical sequences in the show. Sunday’s episode featured a flashback sequence from the musical “Little Shop of Horrors,” in which a young Peter Griffin plays Audrey II, the overgrown venus fly-trap plant.

The full episode can be viewed here, but there are viewing restrictions. To get a taste of the episode, you can watch the clip above.

[Updated: A previous version of this post said that the Alan Bennett vocal cameo was fake. Representatives of Fox and the playwright confirmed that Bennett in fact recorded his own cameo for the episode.]

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