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Family Guy is an American animated television series 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). To date it is one of only a handful of shows in television history to be canceled and later revived by the power of their fan bases, and the only show to be brought back to air by the same network that cancelled it.

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 and flashbacks to various points in history, geography, and reality involving the characters and their ludicrous actions (see "Structural and comedic approach" below).

MacFarlane also serves as a writer on the show, and voices many of the characters. Other voice actors include That '70s Show star Mila Kunis, actor Seth Green, MADtv star Alex Borstein, and comedic character actor Patrick Warburton.

Characters

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The show revolves around the adventures of Peter Griffin and his family. Peter is an incompetent blue-collar worker, and a bumbling, drunken father, yet still a dedicated family man.

Peter is Irish-American and is also directly descended from an African-American slave owned by his wife's ancestors. His wife, Lois, a stay-at-home mom and piano teacher, is the daughter of the Pewterschmidts, a wealthy socialite family. Their children are socially awkward: status-conscious Meg Griffin, whose supposed ugliness has driven people to set themselves on fire and jump out of windows upon seeing her for the first time; the mentally slow yet artistically gifted Chris Griffin; and the diabolical, super-intelligent, Napoleonic and potentially matricidal baby, Stewie Griffin. The family also lives with an intelligent, cynical, alcoholic, talking dog named Brian Griffin. Even though Brian has been completely anthropomorphized, several episodes show that the Griffins still consider him a pet. When, in episode S5E09, Brian is hospitalised (after being hit by Peter in the car). He visits a normal, human hospital.

Other common characters include the Griffin family's eccentric neighbors: paraplegic police officer Joe Swanson, his perpetually pregnant wife Bonnie and their teenaged son, Kevin; sex-crazed bachelor Glen Quagmire; mild-mannered deli owner Cleveland Brown; Brown's ex-wife, Loretta and their hyper-active son, Cleveland Jr.; the local mayor, Adam West, (modeled after and voiced by the actor of "Batman" fame) who is portrayed as paranoid and slightly mentally ill, as well as other various coworkers and town personalities. Unlike The Simpsons, Family Guy does not have an especially large cast of recurring minor characters (though this has changed 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 some semi-regular characters whose appearances basically tell the same joke over and over; examples include the Evil Monkey in Chris' closet; Herbert, the old man who enjoys watching Chris; and the Giant Chicken, Peter's nemesis, whose fights usually end up causing huge amounts of damage to the city.

Structural and comedic approach

The characters live and work in fictional Quahog, Rhode Island (pronounced "KOH-hog", IPA /'kəʊhɑg/), a hyperrealistic and intensely satirical version of a small Rhode Island town. ("Quahog" is a type of hard shell clam. The term also doubles as a slang term for "vagina", similar to the term "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 (voiced by West himself) 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.

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-sequiturs. Though this style is often played within the characters' world, the series is also known for its use of cutaways, where the plot is interrupted and segues into unrelated, self-contained sketches — 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..." or "I haven't felt like this since..."), 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 warmth for Lara Flynn Boyle. A similar style and structure of comedy can be found in NBC's Scrubs.

The show owes a lot to Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker's Naked Gun/Police Squad! series, 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 fifth-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 retconned 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 "He's Too Sexy for His Fat" offers examples of each: Peter's extensive liposuction 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. Stewie's dramatic weight gain in the same episode simply disappears in the final scene.

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, and the breakup of secondary characters Cleveland and Loretta. 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 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 (Rhode Island), and Natick, Upton, South Attleboro, and Webster.

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.

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 McFarlane says that the writers stopped doing this when they realized they were beginning to get the titles confused.

The film

The first film, released to DVD on September 27, 2005, focuses on Stewie searching for his biological father. Originally three separate (though continuous) episodes as part of the fourth season, the DVD slaps them together and includes additional materials. You can currently see a one minute scene from the movie (see here).

Theme Song

Its music 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, à la Archie and Edith Bunker. The song then breaks from the Griffins' living room into a giant chorus-line performance by the rest of the immediate family and a line of Rockette-like dancers.

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. This may be due, in part, to the aggressive facial expression he holds while saying the line, and the general viewer's perception of Stewie as a rude, angry and malignant being, both factors suggesting he could have been swearing (even though technically he wouldn't have been swearing anyway). Although a clearer recording of the line was featured during the third season, MacFarlane maintains the lyric has always been "laugh and cry".

There has also been confusion over the line "Lucky there's a man who'll positively tell you, all the things that make us...". It was thought that the lyric was "Lucky there's a man who positively can do...", but the DVD subtitles say otherwise.

In keeping with the series' malleable comedy, the traditional opening song has been occasionally dropped in favor of different themes, including parodies of Law & Order, Police Squad!, and the Hope-Crosby Road movies.

An inside joke regarding composers Walter Murphy and Ron Jones occurs when Brian is nominated for a "Woody" for his work directing adult films. Walter Murphy, Ron Jones, and John Williams are nominated for "best original score" in an adult film.

An extended version of the theme song is featured on the Family Guy: Live in Vegas CD.

Murphy has also produced a Renaissance version of the original Family Guy theme for the episode "Mr. Saturday Knight", as well as a hip-hop version, featuring Peter Griffin rapping the lyrics, for the episode "Peter Griffin: Husband, Father...Brother?"

History

Creation

While studying at the Rhode Island School of Design, Seth MacFarlane created a short film entitled The Life of Larry about a middle-aged slob named Larry Cummings, his cynical talking dog, Steve, his wife Lois and oversized son Milt. This film includes many of the same gags that would end up on Family Guy.

After being hired at Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Inc., MacFarlane was given a chance at the age of 22 in 1996 to direct a sequel to the short entitled Larry and Steve, a nine minute short which was broadcast as one of Cartoon Network's World Premiere Toons. The short featured two main characters: Larry, a fat, old, balding man who did idiotic things, and Steve, a talking dog who was smarter than most people. The short features Steve in front of a camcorder recording an SOS tape for someone to come and save him from his bumbling owner, Larry. Steve recounts for the tape the misadventures that have ensued ever since Larry bought Steve from the dog pound, focusing on a series of misadventures and hijinks that ensued when the pair went to the mall to buy items for Larry's apartment. While at the mall, the two destroy nearly everything. For example, Larry is looking for a lightbulb for his bedside lamp. He puts in a high-wattage bulb and criticizes Steve for saying that it wasn't a good idea to put the bulb in by commenting that he didn't go to kindergarten for twelve years because he was stupid (but because he got his foot caught in the radiator). When Larry plugs the lamp in, it turns into a wide lightsaber and he cuts the store in half. Of course, while he's doing it, Larry references the "Luke, I am your father..." line from The Empire Strikes Back by saying "Luke, this is your landlord. You still haven't returned my weedwacker." The episode can be seen here.

Executives at Fox Broadcasting Company saw both shorts, and MacFarlane was given the opportunity to develop a show based on the shorts. He agreed, leaving Hanna-Barbera and working on the characters of Larry and Steve, who eventually evolved into Peter and Brian Griffin.

Regardless, both The Life of Larry and Larry and Steve portray vast similarities to Family Guy, including similar voices and character status for Peter and Brian's character.

See Family Guy history for a complete timeline.

Initial run

The first episode was aired in the United States on the Fox Network on January 311999, 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 231999, and contained 21 episodes. The third season contained 22 episodes and began its run on July 112001. 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 DVDs were subsequently released there (November 122001), 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 websites, 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.

Now, in 2005, the show is back on Fox, with 35 Season 4 production episodes ordered and 22 Season 5 Production episode sordered. The show is currently in its 5th season.

Revival efforts

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 contained the following message, addressed to Gail Berman and Sandy Grushow, the President of Entertainment and Chairman of Fox at the time:

To: FOX Broadcasting

Dear Ms. Gail Berman and Mr. Sandy Grushow,

We are avid watchers of FOX programming, especially the show "Family Guy". We have recently heard that FOX Broadcasting has cancelled this show. We are informing you of a boycott of FOX Broadcasting, FX, FOX Sports Channel, and all products shown on FOX Broadcasting, FX, and FOX Sports Channel. We are all willing to comply with the boycott and do whatever it takes to get our favorite FOX show ("Family Guy") back on the air.

We will not only be boycotting your stations, we will be boycotting every product shown on those stations. These products include, but are not limited to: Nyquil, Schick, Valvoline, Gold Bond, Subway Sandwiches, Buick Motor Vehicles, Alka-Seltzer, Monistat 7, Diflucan, Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC), Heartguard, Frontline, any product on TimeLife.com, Ranger Bass Boats, The Xtractor, any product made by MGM, 1-800-COLLECT, Hunt's Manwich, any product made by Reeses', any product made by Walt Disney, and Gevalia coffee and coffee makers.

As you can see, we are taking this cancellation very seriously. We will contact our local newspapers, and television stations; and with that we will gain more people in our "quest" to get "Family Guy" back on television.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

The petition gained over 100,000 signatures, 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.

Return to television

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 152003. 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 192003, 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 272004, 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 262004, 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 12005. 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, May 1, 2005, 9:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on Fox. Reruns of the fourth season began play during Adult Swim on June 9, 2005.

Furthermore, a Family Guy direct-to-DVD movie, titled Family Guy Presents Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story!, which was a collection of 3 Family Guy episodes strung together in one collected plot with additional added scenes, was released on September 272005 (see ). 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 Take-Two Interactive banner, slated for a 2006 release on an unnamed system (see ).

On September 272005, Variety reported that 20th Century Fox greenlighted production of 22 additional all new episodes of Family Guy, (see ).

In the UK, BBC Two started showing Season 3 in September 2005 along with American Dad, but are yet to announce the showing of Season 4. In Australia, the show has made its long awaited return, airing Thursday nights on the Seven Network during the summer non-ratings period. It is interesting to note that altough the fourth season hasn't been shown yet, the fourth season of Family Guy will be released on DVD on 24th April 2006 in the UK.

Podcast

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.

See also

• List of characters from Family Guy
• List of Family Guy episodes
• Trivia and Pop Culture References in Family Guy
• Criticism of Family Guy
• Family Guy DVDs
• American Dad!

References

• Netherby, Jennifer. "DVD keeps Family alive". Video Business. March 29, 2004.
• Battaglio, Stephen. "The Second Life of Brian". TV Guide. May 1-7, 2005.

External links

Official

• Official Family Guy Website
• Family Guy at
• Family Guy at

Fan sites

• Planet Family Guy
• Quahog 5 News Multimedia Site
• Quag's Corner and New Quahog forums
• The Family Guy Neoseeker Portal
• Family Guy Reference Archives
• Family Guy Multimedia Archive
• Family Guy Wiki
• Drinking Game
• Family Guy Defined
• Freakin' Sweet Family Guy Website
• Family Guy Central - Episode Downloads
• Hosts hundreds of Family Guy Clips
• Stewie's Lair

Info

• Family Guy at the Big Cartoon DataBase
• Family Guy at IMDb
• Family Guy at TV.com
• Template:Tviv
• Template:Google Video Search1
• Family Guy at RetroJunk.com

Clips from the show

• Family guy video clips
• Collection of Family Guy Clips
• Seth MacFarlane at Family Guy Live #1
• Seth MacFarlane at Family Guy Live #2
• Stewie's version of "Rocket Man" by Elton John
• The FCC Song
• Life of Larry
• Take on me featuring Chris

Soundboards

• Peter Griffin (Family Guy) Soundboard #1
• Peter Griffin (Family Guy) Soundboard #2
• Family Guy Defined's Sound Boards

• Animated television series
• Comedy television series
• Family Guy
• Fox network shows
• Sitcoms
• 1990s TV shows in the United States
• 2000s TV shows in the United States
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