Peter loses to Lois in a race for the bathroom and finds their other bathroom is occupied by a transfer student from Africa (an elephant), so he begins frequently using the toilet in Cleveland’s old house until it is sold to actors Chevy Chase and Dan Aykroyd. Peter invites the two to his house for dinner to show him some of his comedy bits, including a crude impersonation of John Wayne (mimicking his speech pattern and saying “pilgrims” at the end of each sentence), which Chase and Aykroyd find unfunny. Insulted, Peter spends the rest of the episode working on an improv comedy group with Quagmire and Joe, but his lack of conscious comedic knowledge completely gives way to his John Wayne impersonation when they try to do a live show, which the audience finds funny anyway.

Suspicious as to why Chevy Chase and Dan Aykroyd are living in their neighborhood, Stewie and Brian investigate their house and discover a secret underground military facility, learning that the actors are government spies (having been made real spies by Ronald Reagan after watching their spy comedy movie Spies Like Us). Chase and Aykroyd explain that, during the Cold War, the Soviet Union turned dozens of American citizens into sleeper agents, who would fall into a trance and do the bidding of the KGB when one utters the phrase, “Gosh, that Italian family at the next table sure is quiet,” which no one would ever otherwise say. Stewie, Brian, Chase, and Aykroyd try to warn Mayor West, only to discover that he is a sleeper agent when Aykroyd informs him of the trigger phrase. During the ensuing fight, Aykroyd plants a homing beacon on Mayor West’s leg before West escapes to Russia, allowing the four to follow him.

In Russia, the four are quickly captured under orders of Prime Minister Vladmir Putin, who explains that word of the sleeper agent plan would be an embarrassment to their government, and offers to help them stop West from fulfilling his pre-programmed mission. By the time the four find West, they see him launch a nuclear missile aimed for the United States before he returns to normal. Fortunately, Aykroyd is able to hack into the missile’s guidance system, allowing him to aim the missile’s warhead high above the Earth’s atmosphere and harmlessly explode, fulfilling their mission and saving the country, though the missile’s fuselage ends up crashing onto Cleveland’s new house while he’s in the bathtub, causing Cleveland to once again fall out. Tim the Bear appears and says, “I don’t get it.”

Back home, as the credits are rolling, Stewie and Brian express their disbelief of how so much trouble could have been caused by the phrase “Gosh, that Italian family at the next table sure is quiet.” Upon hearing this, Meg is revealed to be a sleeper agent and goes to say something to a KGB agent over the telephone, though the agent just tells her to shut up.

“Spies Reminiscent of Us” is the third episode of the eighth season of Family Guy. It aired on October 11, 2009 on Fox. The episode is an homage to Spies Like Us, and features guest voices Chevy Chase and Dan Aykroyd as themselves and a live action appearance by James Lipton.

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