Brian's Got a Brand New Bag

The episode featured guest performances by Hart Bochner, James Burkholder, Aimee Garcia, Paul Gleason, Jack Samson, Stacey Scowley, Debra Skelton, Reginald VelJohnson, Nana Visitor, Tico Wells, Mae Whitman, and Bruce Willis, along with several recurring guest voice actors for the series.

During a DVD sale at a closing video store, Peter decides to buy Road House and, after watching it, starts roundhouse kicking everything in sight including his family.

Brian attempts to convince the family that Rita is a wonderful, charming woman even if she is significantly older than he is, and invites her to dinner to prove his point.

The episode was directed by former Simpsons artist Pete Michels, and written by Tom Devanney, shortly after the conclusion of the seventh production season.

Prior to providing minor voice-over roles for the series, actress Nana Visitor portrays the episode's featured character, Rita.

[2] "Brian's Got a Brand New Bag", along with the seven other episodes from Family Guy's eighth season, were released on a three-disc DVD set in the United States on June 15, 2010.

While at the movie store's going out of business sale – where Mayor West buys The Garbage Pail Kids Movie – Peter refuses to take the Robin Williams' film What Dreams May Come, even though it's free, causing the DVD to wistfully sing the song "Maybe" from Annie, alongside DVD copies of Harlem Nights, Enemy Mine, Mad Dog and Glory, and Deconstructing Harry.

In a significant decline from the previous week's show, and despite being heavily promoted as an "all-Seth MacFarlane" night, the episode received a Nielsen Rating of 4.3/7 in the 18–49 demographic, and was viewed in 7.38 million homes.

Club gave it a B, saying, "it's weird to see a Family Guy episode that has something approaching an actual story [...] and even the cutaway gags were more muted than usual.

"[6] In a subsequent review of Family Guy's eighth season, Ramsey Isler of IGN listed "Brian's Got a Brand New Bag" as "remarkably unfunny, with lazy and unoriginal writing.