'' is an
American Animated Sitcom created by
Seth MacFarlane for
FOX in
1999 . The show was cancelled in
2002 , but positive response to the show's release on
DVD and reruns on
Cartoon Network 's
Adult Swim led FOX to resume production of the show in
2005 (see "
Return To Television " below). To date it is one of only a handful of shows in television history to be cancelled and later revived by the power of their fan bases, and one of the few shows to be brought back to air by the same network that cancelled it (see
Cagney And Lacey ,
Doctor Who ).
The title character is
Peter Griffin , an inept
Blue-collar Worker head of a
Middle Class Family frequently beset by the consequences of his foolish antics. ''Family Guy'''s brand of humor is notable for the usually brief, frequently nonsensical cutaways (usually featuring oddball
Pop Culture references) and
Flashback s to various points in history, geography, and reality involving the characters and their ludicrous actions (see "
Structure And Comedic Approach " below).
MacFarlane also serves as a writer on the show, and voices many of the characters (Peter, Brian, Stewie, Glen Quagmire, Tom Tucker, and some others). Other voice actors include ''
That '70s Show '' star
Mila Kunis (Meg), actor
Seth Green (Chris), ''former
MADtv '' star
Alex Borstein (Lois, Trisha Takinawa, and cameo of
Bunny Swan ), Writer/Producer
Mike Henry (Cleveland, Cleveland Jr., Herbert, and Greased-up Deaf Guy), and comedic character actor
Patrick Warburton (Joe Swanson).
See Also: List of characters from Family Guy
The show revolves around the adventures of
Peter Griffin , a bumbling but well-intentioned
Blue-collar Worker .
Peter is , who is frequently the butt of jokes for her apparent ugliness; teenage
Chris Griffin , in many respects a younger version of his father; and a diabolically evil infant son,
Stewie Griffin bent on world domination. The family lives with an
Intellectual talking dog,
Brian Griffin , who has repeatedly expressed romantic interest in Lois. Even though Brian has been completely
Anthropomorphized by the show's creators (he walks on two legs, drinks martinis, owns his own car, and engages in normal conversation with the Griffins), the Griffins still consider him a pet in many respects. Occasionally, Brian will act in a stereotypically canine matter, usually for comedic effect (such as his inability to stand up in the back of a car, or his need to chomp at the air coming from a blow-drier), but he objects to any overly submissive domestic behavior.
Other recurring characters include the Griffin family's colorful neighbors—
Paraplegic police officer
Joe Swanson , his perpetually pregnant wife
Bonnie , and their teenage son Kevin, who habitually walks home from school with Meg; sex-crazed bachelor
Glen Quagmire . Glen also is in love with Lois, and when he is enticed by the idea of women exclaims, "Gigity-Gigity," and, "Alright!" Mild-mannered deli owner
Cleveland Brown , his wife (ex-wife as of the fourth-season episode
The Cleveland-Loretta Quagmire ) Loretta and their hyperactive son, Cleveland Jr. (who hasn't appeared again since season 3); news anchors
Tom Tucker and
Diane Simmons ; and the mayor,
Adam West , modeled after and voiced by the actor of "
Batman " fame, who is portrayed as paranoid and mentally ill—as well as other various co-workers and town personalities.
''Family Guy'' does not have an especially large cast of recurring minor characters (though this has changed to an extent in season 4, with many one-shot characters from prior episodes making appearances in new episodes) and most of the episode plotlines center chiefly around the exploits of the Griffin family.
There are also several semi-regular characters whose appearances basically tell the same joke over and over. Examples include the Evil Monkey in Chris's closet; Herbert, the creepy old man who enjoys
"watching" Chris; the Greased-Up Deaf Guy; and the Giant Chicken who originally poked fun at a burger king commercial, Peter's nemesis, whose fights with Peter, which parody Hollywood action films, usually end up causing huge amounts of damage to the city. The incarnation of Death (originally voiced by
Norm MacDonald , but now by
Adam Carolla ) has also made a number of appearances.
The characters live and work in '' and intensely
Satirical version of a small Rhode Island town. A "quahog" is in fact a type of hard shell clam and doubles as a regional slang term for "vagina", much like the word "clam". Characters' lives largely revolve around items and ideas of
Popular Culture , which are incorporated into everyday conversation and events. Some of these references have exaggerated grounding in reality — a paranoid and psychotic version of actor
Adam West serves as Quahog's mayor, and public schools are named for Rhode Island natives
James Woods and
Buddy Cianci — while others unabashedly delve into the realm of fantasy without being questioned. Every episode features at least a celebrity name and other pop culture-related things.
Although ''Family Guy'' sometimes maintains a rough sense of continuity, complicated plots are most often traded for a concentration on comedy that is based largely on pop culture references and
Non-sequitur s. Though this style is often played within the characters' world, the series is also known for its use of
Cutaway s, where the plot is interrupted and segues into unrelated, self-contained
Sketch es — known as "gags" — of variable length. Often initiated when a character refers to a past event (accompanied by phrases such as "like that time when...", "I haven't felt like this since...", or "This is worse than the time..."), these sketches are wildly divergent in topic—ranging from classic
Film scenes to historical events to contemporary
Television Commercials — though many times they encapsulate twisted, humorous takes on reality, and sometimes they are completely nonsensical, such as Peter's being a magic mirror for
Kevin Federline or using his bulk to provide nighttime warmth for
Lara Flynn Boyle .
The show owes a great deal of its comedic inspiration to the
Zucker, Abrahams And Zucker 's ''
Naked Gun /
Police Squad! '' series (
Spoof ,
Parody and screwball), whose structural comedic approach has been homaged by Family Guy. Slapstick gags,
Deadpan one-liners, non sequiturs, flashbacks, absurdity, and mainly parody on pop culture have been an influence on ''Family Guy''. ''Family Guy'' finally parodied this ultimate parody movie in the fourth-season episode called "PTV." Some have also noted that many jokes on the show and the pacing seem like an updated version of the British sitcom ''
The Young Ones ''.
Though earlier animated series (such as ''
The Critic '') experimented with this style, few before ''Family Guy'' wandered the line between reality and fantasy with such aggression. Indeed, the use of this style has been parodied by the show itself; an entire episode was revealed to have been a dream concocted by Pam Ewing, a character from the television series ''
Dallas '', which
Retcon ned an entire season to the same conceit.
Because of this approach, the series reverts to normality by the end of most episodes, and occurrences in past episodes are sometimes ignored. Some changes back to normality are accomplished by tortuous or unlikely means, while others are tacitly implied. The episode and
Cosmetic Surgery is reverted by having Peter have a car accident and land in a
Lard factory, where he consumes a whole vat of lard. In the episode
The Perfect Castaway , Peter is seen eating Joe's legs for food while Peter, Joe, Cleveland and Quagmire are stranded on Quagmire's raft of blow-up dolls in the middle of the ocean. Joe is seen without legs until the end of the episode, and when questioned as to how he got them back, he says he received them from an inmate on death row about to get the chair. Unfortunately for Joe, the man was also a
Paraplegic . In one episode, Brian has shards of glass embedded in his head, is beaten repeatedly with a golf club, shot through both knees, and is roasted by a
Flamethrower , but returns to a perfectly healthy state afterwards - this could be compared to traditional Warner Brother's cartoon style humor
{Link without Title} .
But there are also cases of episodes making changes to continuity that are upheld and even elaborated on in later episodes, such as Peter's occupation being shifted from a
Toy Factory assembly line worker to a
Fisherman , to a lowly worker at a beer factory; the breakup and subsequent divorce of secondary characters Cleveland and Loretta Brown; and the recent birth of Peter's son (via
Sperm Donation ) and Stewie's new rival, Bertram, to a lesbian couple. In a recent fourth-season episode, Brian picked up a rock and hit Peter in the head, telling him that it was revenge for keeping the window rolled up when Brian tried to jump head-first into the family car, which Peter had repainted at the time to resemble the
General Lee , an event that took place in the Season Three episode "
To Live And Die In Dixie ."
Being a native of
Kent, Connecticut , and a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, MacFarlane has written a number of in-jokes and references into ''Family Guy'' which allude to real life places in Rhode Island and the surrounding
New England area, including
Providence ,
Pawtucket ,
Narragansett ,
Newport ,
Warwick ,
Hartford ,
Natick ,
Upton ,
South Attleboro , and
Webster .
See Also: Criticism of Family Guy
Ever since its initial run, ''Family Guy'' has received much criticism from a variety of sources. Of particular concern to parent watch groups is the show's adult content and disregard for traditional morality. Critics and peers have criticized the show for the derivative and simplistic nature of its comedy.
''Family Guy'' has been panned by certain television critics, most notably from ''''. The
Parents Television Council has also registered their disapproval of the show, giving it second place on their 2000
and 2005[http://www.parentstv.org/PTC/publications/reports/top10bestandworst/main.asp lists of "worst prime-time shows for family viewing".
In addition to TV critics and political groups, those who have publicly criticized ''Family Guy'' include quite a few fellow cartoonists. Criticism was offered by '', in which characters called the show's jokes interchangeable, saying that they had no place in the storyline
{Link without Title} .
The writers of ''
The Simpsons '' have frequently included jokes in their show that suggest they feel that ''Family Guy'' plagiarizes their own program (for example in "Send In The Clones, from Treehouse of Horror XIII, one of Homer's clones is Peter Griffin). In the ''Family Guy'' episode "PTV",
Homer Simpson appears in the opening credits, almost as if it was in fact an episode of ''The Simpsons''. The similarities between these two highly popular animation comedies has been noticed by many viewers and has been well-documented in the media. Peter Griffin is perceived as similar to Homer Simpson because they both are overweight, incompetent, and occasionally have marital problems because they do little to assist in the day-to-day running of the house. Some of these similarities may be due to both shows' ongoing homage to ''The Flintstones'', acknowledged by both shows' creators as the forerunner for prime-time cartoon comedies.
The composition of the Griffin family is nearly identical to that of the Simpsons (the only difference being that the baby Griffin is male whereas the baby Simpson is female). Marge and Lois both get little help from their spouses around the house, but are clearly the most competent members of their respective families. Of course, the
Nuclear Family is a sitcom staple, as are boorish father/husband figures, and the children in the Griffin family are vastly different in terms of personality from their Simpsons counterparts. However these archetypes have been used in dozens of sitcoms before and after The Simpsons.
In the ''Family Guy'' episode "Peterotica", the show aimed yet another volley toward
The Simpsons , when Peter commented on how they used to be a short cartoon on ''
The Tracey Ullman Show '', where the Simpsons first appeared. This is followed by a poorly-animated Griffin family who don't quite look or sound like the characters as they usually appear, paralleling the early Simpson family.
In an April, 2006
interview with
The Onion 's AV Club, Simpsons creator
Matt Groening calls the rivalry between his show and ''Family Guy'' "very affectionate" and compares the situation to the one that existed between ''
The Addams Family '' and ''
The Munsters ''. He has complimentary words for MacFarlane, calling him a "good guy" who does "great work."
See Also: List of Family Guy episodes
In keeping with the humorous tone of the series, most episode titles of ''Family Guy'' are parodies of popular television shows, movies, and mottos. No media product or cultural norm is immune from parody on this show.
For the first half of the first season, the writers tried to work the words "murder" or "death" into the title of every episode (i.e., ''
Mind Over Murder '' and ''
Death Has A Shadow '') to make the titles resemble those of
Old-fashioned radio mystery shows. On a DVD commentary, creator Seth MacFarlane says that the writers stopped doing this when they realized they were beginning to get the titles confused and couldn't remember which title went with which episode.
See Also: Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story
The first film, released to DVD on
September 27 ,
2005 , focuses on Stewie searching for his biological father, who isn't Peter Griffin. Three separate but continuous episodes, originally intended for the fourth season, were combined into a full-length film. A one-minute scene from the movie can currently be viewed
here .
Composed by
Walter Murphy , the familiar
Theme Music Of The Show begins as a parody of the opening theme of ''
All In The Family '', where Peter and Lois sing at the family piano, similar to
Archie and
Edith Bunker .
There has been some confusion over Stewie's solo line of "laugh and cry". Because it immediately follows a music sting, "laugh and cry" has been mistaken for "
Effin' cry" by both viewers and
Closed-captioning transcribers. Although a clearer recording of the line was featured during the third season, MacFarlane maintains the lyric has always been "laugh and cry". Nevertheless, rumors flew during its ambiguity claiming that "laugh and cry" and "effin' cry" were used interchangeably.
In keeping with the series's malleable comedy, the traditional opening song has been occasionally dropped in favor of different themes, including parodies of ''
Law & Order '', ''
Family Ties '', ''
Police Squad! /
The Naked Gun '',
The Simpsons '' and the
Hope -
Crosby ''Road'' Movies .
''Family Guy'' originates back to in 1997.
Executives at
Fox saw both shorts, and MacFarlane was offered the opportunity to develop a show based on them, which evolved into Family Guy.
The first episode was aired in the
United States on the
Fox Network on
January 31 1999 , after
Super Bowl XXXIII . The show premiered as a regular series in April and ran for six more episodes until the season finale in the middle of May. The first season contained seven episodes and introduced the viewer to the show's main characters. The second season began on
September 23 1999 , and contained 21 episodes. The third season contained 22 episodes and began its run on
July 11 2001 . During its second and third-season runs, Fox frequently moved the show around different days and time slots with little or no notice. Ratings suffered, and after only two episodes of the second season, ''Family Guy'' was taken off the network's permanent schedule and was shown irregularly thereafter.
When ''Family Guy'' was shown in the
UK , and when the
DVD s were subsequently released there (
November 12 2001 ), the first seven episodes of the second season were included with the first season, balancing them out with 14 episodes each.
There was a great deal of debate and rumor during the second and third seasons about whether ''Family Guy'' would be cancelled or renewed. Fox publicly announced that the show had been cancelled at the end of the second season. In an attempt to convince Fox to renew the show, dismayed fans created
Website s, signed petitions, and wrote letters; some even sent diapers and baby food to the network for Stewie.
A shift in power at Fox resulted in thirteen new episodes being ordered, which formed the basis of the third season. The show's writers, aware of the uncertainty of the show's future, referenced it in several episodes. During the third season, Fox announced that the show was cancelled for good.
The news of Fox's cancellation in the third season was met with dismay by fans, and renewed efforts were made to convince Fox to resurrect the show. An online petition was launched, which garnered over 10,000 signatures within a few weeks. The petition gained over 100,000 signatures total, but this along with mass e-mailing and letter writing to Fox executives and organized street protests failed to save ''Family Guy''. Later efforts to get other networks, particularly
UPN , to buy ''Family Guy'' also failed.
In 2003, reruns of the series found a permanent home at
Cartoon Network and its late-night ''
Adult Swim '' block, where,
As Of 2006 , it continues to play. According to a Cartoon Network press release, "FAMILY GUY ranks #1 in its time period on cable among Adults and Men 18–24, and also beats both ''
The Late Show With David Letterman '' and ''
The Tonight Show '' with
Jay Leno in head-to-head competition among Men 18–34 and Men 18–24." (This was only an occasional ratings outcome.)
The series found further success on
DVD , when it was finally released for the US market (
NTSC ,
Region 1 ) on
April 15 2003 . Divided into two volumes, ''Family Guy'' sold 2.2 million DVD units in the first year, reportedly surpassing every other TV-based DVD released in 2003, including ''
Sex And The City '' and ''
Friends '' compilations. The significant Cartoon Network ratings, combined with the unprecedented DVD sales, led to widespread rumors that Fox was in talks to revive the series.
On
November 19 2003 , the
E! Entertainment Television Channel and its website (see
Below ) reported that Fox was negotiating with ''Family Guy'' creator
Seth MacFarlane to revive the show with 35 new episodes. On
February 27 2004 , in an interview with
IGN , Seth MacFarlane confirmed that ''Family Guy'' would resume production. MacFarlane provided even more information in a BBC interview. (see
IGN interview ,
BBC interview )
On
March 26 2004 , 20th Century Fox Television officially announced that it had committed to producing at least 22 more episodes of ''Family Guy'' to be rebroadcast on ''
Adult Swim '' in early 2005. The Fox Network has retained a window to run these episodes, starting on
May 1 2005 . Seth MacFarlane was quoted as saying, "I'm just incredibly excited that we're back in business on ''Family Guy''. Now all those crazy kids who've been hounding me to bring the show back can stop bothering me and move onto more serious matters—like saving ''
Coupling ''."
The fourth-season premiere of ''Family Guy'' took place on Sunday, on Fox, and immediately poked fun at the situation by listing all of the Fox shows that would have to fail (and did) before 'Family Guy' would be able to return.
One aspect that has helped the show's current success is its placement on Sunday night with the other Fox animated programs. Reruns of the fourth season began play during ''Adult Swim'' on
June 9 ,
2005 .
Furthermore, a ''Family Guy'' '', which was a collection of 3 ''Family Guy'' episodes strung together in one collected plot with additional added scenes, was released on
September 27 2005 (see
{Link without Title} ). The 87-minute film is unrated and includes commentary, deleted material, and other bonus features.
A ''Family Guy'' video game is currently in production under the ,
Xbox , and
PlayStation 2 .
[http://xbox.ign.com/articles/693/693857p1.html .
On
September 27 2005 , ''
Variety '' reported that
20th Century Fox green lighted production of 22 additional all new episodes of ''Family Guy'', (see
{Link without Title} ).
- In the UK, BBC Two started showing Season 3 in September 2005 along with American Dad . The fourth season of Family Guy was released on DVD on 24th April 2006 in the UK. New episodes of the programme are shown on the Fox channel, FX .
- In Australia , the show has made its long awaited return, airing Thursday nights on the Seven Network during the summer non-ratings period. This was shifted to a later timeslot on the resumption of the ratings year. It is also shown 6 days a week on The Comedy Channel and FOX8 , which is broadcast on the cable networks Foxtel and Austar .
- In Canada , it is shown on the Global Television Network , often simultaneously with the Fox telecasts across the border. Also, Teletoon shows unedited reruns of the series. Reruns of the first three seasons are also presentend in dubbed french version on Télétoon french language network.
- In )
- on ZTV . Family Guy is also shown Fridays on TV3 around 19:00 CET.
- In Flanders ( Belgium ) the show has always been broadcast by Kanaal Twee , although with lengthy interruptions. The fourth season hasn't been shown yet. Episodes are never dubbed, they are subtitled in Dutch instead (as with most animated shows in Flanders).
- In Norway the show is sent on ZTV weekdays at 18:30. It was also shown on TV2, but was taken of after a few episodes.
- In Latin America the show is broadcasted by FOX Latinoamerica on Mondays and Tuesdays at midnight.
- In the Middle East the show runs on the Free-to-air emarati satellite channel One TV. It can be received either through Arabsat or Nilesat .
- Israel Israeli viewers can receive the show via yes sat. television.
- In Ireland , viewers can watch it on Channel 6 , or the UK channels BBC Two and FX .
- In Spain , viewers can watch the last season on the FOX Channel and the new free-to-air channel La Sexta has just started to broadcast the first season.
- In Kuwait . KTV 2 showed the 1&2 seasons.
- In UAE , One TV shows an episode every Thursday.
A free
Podcast is available to download as an
MP3 from the official site. 17 episodes have been released for it. On several of the podcasts, cast members discuss upcoming episodes.
''Family Guy'' is currently the number one television show listed on student profiles on
Facebook .
