page_title: Brian Sings and Swings
section_title: Production
hierarchical_section_title: Brian Sings and Swings / Production
caption_attribution_description: Michael Rowe, of Futurama, at the 2009 Comic Con in San Diego.
context_page_description: "Brian Sings and Swings" is the 19th episode of the fourth season of Family Guy. The episode was first broadcast on January 8, 2006. Brian meets Frank Sinatra Jr. and begins to perform on stage with him, and they are shortly joined by Stewie. Meanwhile, Meg pretends to be a lesbian after being offered a chance to join the Lesbian Alliance Club at her school.
  The episode was written by Michael Rowe and directed by Chuck Klein and Zac Moncrief. It received mostly positive reviews from critics for its storyline and many cultural references. The episode featured guest performances by Mark Borchardt, James Burkholder, Don LaFontaine, Mike Schank, Stacey Scowley, Frank Sinatra Jr., Nicole Sullivan, Fred Tatasciore, Audrey Wasilewski, along with several recurring guest voice actors for the series.
context_section_description: Scripts and other production materials were altered and modified extensively.  The rhythm and pacing of the show required frequent rewrites due to the inclusion of musical performances. MacFarlane comments that "having Frank Sinatra, Jr. on board was a pleasure to the team." The scene where Meg sees Chris in the bathroom parodies the scene from The Empire Strikes Back where Darth Vader has his helmet placed on his head. The producers acknowledged that John Williams had forbidden re-recordings of his music so the actual recording of "The Imperial March" was used with permission by Williams and Lucasfilm.
  The synopsis for this episode partially focuses on Meg becoming a lesbian; this was because Seth MacFarlane believed the United States loved lesbians, which he describes as "the best kind of love". As Brian and Stewie move back and forth on the stage when performing with Frank Sinatra Jr., the scene originally appeared wrong, as the characters did not match the movement of the background. Brian makes a comment about Stewie's weird laugh when he finds something really funny. This is the only time on Family Guy when MacFarlane has not voiced Stewie; instead, the laughing was performed by Ricky Blitt, a former writer of Family Guy.
caption: Michael Rowe wrote the episode.
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