The episode features Peter after he goes back in time to live the single life a little longer, before he meets future wife Lois.

This causes Quagmire to make his own move on Lois, and they ultimately end up marrying and having children; Peter is horrified by this "alternate timeline" and resolves to go back in time again and set things right.

Death is summoned to The Drunken Clam on a false alarm (thinking that Horace had died), and decides to grant Peter's wish by sending him, along with Brian, back to 1984 for one night.

Back in the present day, Peter discovers that his past actions have had drastic effects on the world: he and Molly have been married for 20 years; Judd Nelson crashes at their house once or twice a week; Lois is married to Quagmire; Al Gore is now the President of the United States; Chris, Meg, and Stewie have Quagmire's chin, nose, and mannerisms; and Chevy Chase is the host of The Tonight Show.

Despite Brian's objections about leaving his idea of a "perfect" world (in which there are flying cars that run on vegetable oil and Gore has killed Osama bin Laden by strangling him with his bare hands), Peter wants to go back to the past so he can undo his mistake.

This seems to be a challenge because Death can only be summoned if someone dies, and Brian believes Al Gore's universal health care and zero-tolerance gun control laws have led to people living much longer.

Series creator Seth MacFarlane, David A. Goodman, Danny Smith, Mark Hentemann, Steve Callaghan and Chris Sheridan acted as executive producers.

[3] Due to Warner Bros.'s ownership of Hanna–Barbera, the scene involving The Jetsons was completely reanimated by Povenmire, including the backgrounds and scenery for the sequence.

In the opening scene of the episode, Horace the bartender is suddenly knocked unconscious after falling off a ladder, causing Death to appear.

[6] Rejecting her offer, Peter decides to go partying with Cleveland instead, and play the video game Menstrual Ms. Pac-Man, in addition to making out with actress Molly Ringwald.

[6][7] While there, Brian gets into verbal dispute, and instructs the bar patron to meet him on top of the World Trade Center to fight him at eight A.M. on September 11, 2001.

Returning to the present, Peter and Brian decide to watch television, and are shocked to discover that actor Chevy Chase is now the host of The Tonight Show.

[6] In the alternate reality, Death refers to the Dick Cheney hunting accident, explaining that the "Chairman of Halliburton" accidentally shot and killed Karl Rove, Antonin Scalia, and Tucker Carlson (Brian groans that Peter and he shouldn't change his idea of a "wonderful" future, and Peter comments, "I don't know who any of those people are").

[6] Later, Peter and Cleveland, dressed up as Michael Jackson in the iconic red jacket of his video clip "Thriller," dance to the Beverly Hills Cop theme.

After crashing through the vent to the stage, the band begins playing "Earth Angel" by The Penguins,[8] and, after Peter kisses Lois, Brian sings the 1987 single "Never Gonna Give You Up" by musician Rick Astley.

[7] In another positive review, Brett Love of TV Squad called the episode "solid," and praised the scenes set in 1984, and the alternate world.