Family Guy

Family Guy
File:Family guy logo.png
Created by	Seth MacFarlane
Starring	Seth MacFarlane Seth Green Alex Borstein Mila Kunis
Country of origin	USA
No. of episodes	63 (1999–2002, 2005) List
Production
Running time	21–23 minutes
Original release
Network	FOX Adult Swim
Release	January 31, 1999 – February 14, 2002

Family Guy is an animated television series created by Seth MacFarlane for FOX in 1999. The show was cancelled in 2002, but after extremely positive response to DVDs and reruns on Adult Swim, (a late night block of animation for more mature audiences on Cartoon Network) production of new episodes for FOX resumed in 2005. To date it is the only show in television history to be cancelled and later revived by the power of its fan base.

The title character is Peter Griffin, the buffoonish 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 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).

Seth MacFarlane, the young creator of Family Guy, also serves as a writer on the show, and voices many of the characters. The cast also includes That '70s Show star Mila Kunis, actor Seth Green, MADtv star Alex Borstein, and comedic actor Patrick Warburton.

Characters

File:Family guy promo pic.jpg

The Griffins, from left to right: Chris, Peter, Brian, Stewie, Lois, and Meg

Main article: List of characters from Family Guy

The show revolves around the adventures of Peter Griffin and his family. Peter is an incompetent blue-collar worker (recently got a job as of season 5) and a bumbling, drunken father, yet still a dedicated family man. His wife, Lois, is a stay-at-home mom/piano teacher and the daughter of the Pewterschmidts, wealthy socialites. Their children are the socially awkward, status-conscious Meg Griffin, who is not as homely as everyone says she is, although people in department stores have been known 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 diabolically super-intelligent, Napoleonic and potentially matricidal baby Stewie Griffin. The family also lives with an intelligent, cynical, alcoholic, talking dog named Brian Griffin, although it may be somewhat inappropriate to call him a pet.

Other common characters include the Griffin family's eccentric neighbors: paraplegic police officer Joe Swanson, his perpetually pregnant wife Bonnie and teenaged son Kevin, sex-crazed bachelor Glen Quagmire, and mild-mannered, black deli owner Cleveland Brown, Brown's wife, Loretta, and their hyper-active son, Cleveland Jr, as well as 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 episodes' 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's closet, and the evil chicken, Peter's nemesis, whose fights usually end up causing huge amounts of damage to the city.

Structural and comedic approach

File:FamilyGuyGIJoe.png

A pop culture reference to the G.I. Joe cartoon series and public service announcements from the 1980s.
(Watch it here)

The characters live and work in fictional Quahog, Rhode Island (pronounced "KOH-hog", IPA /kəʊˈhɑg/), a hyperrealistic and intensely satirical version of a small Rhode Island town. 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 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 of variable length. Often initiated when a character refers to a past event (accompanied by phrases such as "remember the time that..." 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 like Peter being a mirror for Kevin Federline.

Though earlier animated series (such as The Critic) experimented with this style, few before Family Guy have 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 (TV series), 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, and the breakup of secondary characters Cleveland and Loretta.

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, Rhode Island, Pawtucket, Rhode Island, Newport, Rhode Island, Natick, Massachusetts, Framingham, Massachusetts, South Attleboro, Massachusetts, Webster, Massachusetts, Warwick, Rhode Island, and Warwick, Massachusetts.

Episodes

Main article: 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.

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). 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

Main article: Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story!

The first Family Guy film, released as a direct-to-video movie on September 27, 2005, focuses on Stewie seeing somebody he believes to be his real father and setting off on a road trip to find him. Originally three separate (though continuous) episodes as part of the fourth season, the DVD puts them together and includes additional materials. You can currently see a one minute scene from the movie (see here).

Opening song

File:Family Guy dance.png

Scene from the opening credits of Family Guy.

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 performance performed by the rest of the immediate family and a line of Rockettes-like dancers.

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 and the Hope-Crosby Road movies.

There has been some much-discussed 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 has been featured from the third season onwards, MacFarlane maintains the lyric has always been "laugh and cry".

An inside joke regarding composers Walter Murphy and Ron Jones occurrs 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 feature on the Family Guy: Live in Las Vegas CD.

Portion of extended lyrics:

Brian: It used to be, a big time star,
Was elegant as Garbo or Hedy Lamarr,
Stewie: Now we get whores like Jenny Lopez –
You wanna curl up and die!

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 and his talking dog, Steve.

After being hired at Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Inc., MacFarlane was given a chance at the tender 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 it a high watt bulb and criticizes Steve for saying that it wasn't a good idea to put the bulb in. 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 says "Luke, I am your father..."

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.

Larry's voice sounds exactly like Peter Griffin, and Steve also sounds exactly like Brian.

Initial run

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 6 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 DVDs 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 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, would frequently make reference to this in several episodes. During the third season, Fox announced that the show was cancelled for good.

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 only 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 2005, 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^[1].)

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^[2], 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, May 1, 2005, 9:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on Fox, where, as of this writing, it continues to play in a regular time slot. 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!, was released on September 27, 2005 (see [3]). 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 [4]).

On September 27, 2005, Variety reported that 20th Century Fox recently quietly greenlighted production of 22 additional all new episodes of Family Guy, another full season of Family Guy. (see [5])

Controversy

Being a largely adult-oriented program, Family Guy has become a lightning rod of controversy for its brusque approach to comedy, which deals with politically sensitive topics without enormous concern for the boundaries of good taste—often considered one of the primary reasons for its initial cancellation. Many episodes were trimmed for controversial content, and one episode, "When You Wish Upon a Weinstein," was initially refused airtime on FOX because its plotline—where Peter attempts to convert Chris to Judaism in hopes of making his son financially successful—was deemed inappropriate under accusations of anti-Semitism. (The episode later aired on Cartoon Network. An edited version eventually aired on FOX, with some content, such as a reference to Deicide, removed.) Other subjects that have been called to attention are the series' controversial jokes about the disabled, racism, abortion, neo-Nazism, conservative bias, alcoholism, terrorism, AIDS and sexuality.

When reruns of Family Guy episodes began to air, controversial episodes were often restricted to broadcast times after 9 p.m. Eastern and Pacific time, in order to avoid more family friendly prime time slots; FOX Network executives feared that viewer complaints to the Federal Communications Commission could have prompted an investigation and a "Notice of Apparent Liability." All new episodes on FOX are preceded by a title card stating that "viewer discretion is advised"; while the show currently rates a "TV-14" by TV Parental Guidelines (recent exception: "Peter's Got Woods" was rated TV-PG DL), there has been some speculation that it may be raised to "TV-MA."

Other stations that have aired the series have also dealt with concerns of controversy. While reruns on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim block are generally unaffected because of its late time slot (from 11:30 p.m. to 12:00 a.m. Eastern/Pacific), TBS Superstation removed afternoon airings of the series, necessitating that a new block of adult-oriented programming, entitled "Too Funny to Sleep," be created for late-night time slots.

Due to the controversies within the show many nations (many of them from the third world) have banned Family Guy, those nations known well by many fans are, Armenia, Indonesia, Malaysia, India, Iran, Thailand, Belarus, South Africa, Egypt, Philippines, Serbia and Montenegro, Vietnam, Taiwan, People's Republic of China (PRC), Albania, Portugal, and South Korea.

Criticism from peers and critics

While the show has an undeniably large and vocal fanbase, Family Guy and Seth McFarlane in particular have featured a great deal of controversy in terms of negative treatment by other comedy writers, animators, and critics.

Many shows and writers have been openly critical of Family Guy. Most famously, three blatant potshots have been featured in The Simpsons:

• In one episode Family Guy was referred to as "crude, low-brow programming" by Fox Executives with it being implied that the show was going to be cancelled due to the show being incapable of turning a profit like The Simpsons and the Matt Groening–created Futurama (ironically, Family Guy's ability to turn a profit on DVD was critical for its return to the airwaves, while "Futurama" was cancelled due to the show being deemed too expensive to keep on the air).
• In one of the recent Treehouse of Horror episodes, Homer creates an army of clones of himself that are each progressively dumber than the real Homer. One of the clones is shown to be Peter Griffin.
• In yet another episode, Bart Simpson was insulted when somebody called him a "Family Guy".

Numerous writers associated with The Simpsons, such as Matt Groening, Al Jean, David X. Cohen, Matt Selman, Tim Long and Joel Cohen have insulted the show during public appearances, in interviews and on DVD commentaries. When a long-lost book of jokes is mentioned on a Simpsons DVD commentary, Al Jean joked that it was stolen by "Family Guy" writers. Executive producer Mike Reiss, however, has said that he enjoys Family Guy and that other Simpsons creators dislike the show because they believe it's inappropriate for their children, although he keeps his fandom low-profile to prevent him from becoming a traitor.

Clerks director Kevin Smith and David Mandel, co-producer on Smith's short-lived Clerks animated series, have gone on record as Family Guy haters: in the final episode of their cartoon they included a scene in which a bad comedy writer consults a book entitled "How To Write Cartoons by Seth McFarlane (sic)." Upon consulting the book, he suggests that the writers send the characters to Gilligan's Island and make gay jokes about them, illustrating their opinion that the show lazily attempts to disguise poor writing by alternating between pop-culture references and offensive humor. On the DVD commentary, Smith refers to "Family Guy" as the show's nemesis. When it is pointed out that "Family Guy" won an emmy, Mandel refers to it as "Emmy Award-winning shit".

South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone have expressed their discontent at being put at the same comedic level as "Family Guy". When questioned about the meanest thing anyone ever said to them, Stone replied "When people say to me, 'God, you guys have one of the best shows on television. You and Family Guy.' That fucking hurts so bad." to which Parker agreed: "Very well said. It's such a kick in the balls."[6].

The show's animation has also come under fire by Ren & Stimpy creator John Kricfalusi, who expressed concern over the fact that the current generation of aspiring animators will be negatively influenced by the animation present in Family Guy (see [[7]]): "If you're a kid wanting to be a cartoonist today, and you're looking at Family Guy, you don't have to aim very high. You can draw Family Guy when you're ten years old. You don't have to get any better than that to become a professional cartoonist. The standards are extremely low."

In addition, Family Guy has faced vicious attacks by the media critics itself. The show was voted one of the top 10 worst shows in 2001 by Entertainment Weekly, ranking at number 2. "EW" contributor Ken Tucker is the most vocal critic of the show on the magazine's staff, comparing the show to Arli$$ and describing them both as terrible shows that couldn't be killed. In response Seth MacFarlane included a gag in "Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story" in which evil baby Stewie breaks the neck of an EW reporter after being asked if he had heard any news about Futurama's future. Furthermore, in the episode "There's Something About Paulie", Peter Griffin uses a page of Entertainment Weekly as toilet paper when he sees that the roll is finished. It should be noted, though, that EW hasn't been nearly as harsh in more recent reviews of the show, even positive at times. A recent Mad Magazine cover proclaimed "We Salute Family Guy, TV's Most Original Animated Series". The accompanying illustration featured the Griffins slightly altered to resemble their Simpsons counterparts, clearly making fun of the show's alleged unoriginality. A three-page spread within the magazine, entitled "Mad's Exclusive Backstage Tour of the Family Guy" is full of allegations of unoriginality, plagiarism and poor writing.

MacFarlane has admitted that the show was strongly influenced by "The Simpsons" and many jokes, even episodes, are extremely similar. Given the similarities between "The Simpsons" and "Family Guy" and the fact that they're on the same network with only 30 minutes between them, the comparisons are unavoidable.

The Simpsons episode Treehouse of Horror XIV (which aired in November 2003 during Family Guy's cancellation) features a story entitled "Reaper Madness" in which Homer takes over the duties of being the Grim Reaper. Many Family Guy fans have claimed that it's hypocritical to suggest that Family Guy steals from the Simpsons when the story to this Simpsons episode is very similar to the Family Guy episode entitled "Death is a Bitch" in which Peter assumes the role of death. However, others point out that the story of a mortal taking on the duties of the Grim Reaper has been used several times before "Family Guy" or "The Simpsons".

DVDs

Region 1

• Family Guy Volume 1, Seasons 1 & 2 is a four-disc DVD box set that includes all the episodes from Seasons 1 and 2 of Family Guy. The set contains eight audio commentary tracks.
• Family Guy Volume 2, Season 3 is a three-disc DVD box set that includes all episodes from the third season of Family Guy, including the previously un-aired episode, "When You Wish Upon a Weinstein". The set contains six audio commentary tracks.
• Family Guy—The Freakin' Sweet Collection, released in December 2004, is a five-episode sampler including the episodes "When You Wish Upon a Weinstein," "Road to Rhode Island" (including the restored scene involving Osama Bin Laden), "To Live and Die in Dixie," "I Am Peter, Hear Me Roar," and "Lethal Weapons." The set includes new commentaries and previews for Family Guy Season 4 and American Dad!, another cartoon created by McFarlane, which premiered after Super Bowl XXXIX on FOX.
• Family Guy Presents Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story was formally released on September 27, 2005. In July of 2005 an advance copy of the film began circulating through Internet circles. The copy is dated "June 29, 2005," and appears to have been leaked from a production facility. The plot is focused around Stewie trying to find his real father after a life-changing incident. The retail version includes commentary and deleted scenes.
• Family Guy Volume 3 is a three-disc DVD box set that includes all episodes from the fourth season of Family Guy. The release date is November 29th, 2005. [8]
• A collection of select episodes will be available as a UMD Video for the Sony PlayStation Portable sometime in the near future.

Region 2

• Family Guy Season One contains all fourteen episodes from Season 1, including the seven episodes that were produced in the first season but aired in the second.
• Family Guy Season Two contains all fifteen episodes produced for season 2 (which aired along with some season-one episodes, see above), including the unaired "When You Wish Upon A Weinstein".
• Family Guy Season Three contains all episodes of season 3 in a box set.
• Family Guy Family Sized DVD Collection is a box set containing the above three sets (the Season 3 collection is repackaged in one plastic case) plus a bonus 2-disc set, Family Guy Uncovered, containing special features, including deleted scenes, featurettes, and 14 previously released episodes with added audio commentaries.

Some British critics complained about the omission of the audio commentaries from the Region 2 releases. The Family Size Collection goes some way to address those complaints, although inevitably some buyers complained about having to buy the same discs a second time in order to get the bonus material, which was not released separately.

Region 4

• Family Guy Season One contains all fourteen episodes produced for season 1, including those that aired during season 2.
• Family Guy Season Two contains all fifteen episodes produced for season 2, including the unaired "When You Wish Upon A Weinstein".
• Family Guy Season Three contains all twenty-one episodes from season 3
• Family Guy—The Freakin' Sweet Collection, released in December 2004, is a five-episode sampler including the episodes "When You Wish Upon a Weinstein," "Road to Rhode Island" (including the restored scene involving Osama Bin Laden), "To Live and Die in Dixie," "I Am Peter, Hear Me Roar," and "Lethal Weapons." The set includes new commentaries and previews for Family Guy Season 4 and American Dad!, another cartoon created by McFarlane, which premiered after Super Bowl XXXIX on FOX.

Like the Region 2 releases, no special features are contained on the discs, but it is expected that a box set of the first three seasons—like Region 2—will eventually emerge, with extras.

Trivia

• The character of Adam West on Family Guy is actually voiced by Adam West. He played Batman in the 1960s, and in the recent episode "The Cleveland-Lorretta-Quagmire", was revealed to live in a mansion similar to Bruce Wayne's.
• In the first season, the voice of Meg was provided by Lacey Chabert, not Mila Kunis, though she was not credited.
• Stewie's middle name is "Gilligan" and Chris' middle name is "Cross". It is disputed whether this is an homage to Christopher Cross or Kris Kross.
• On occasion other MADtv actors such as Phil LaMarr, Nicole Sullivan, and Will Sasso have done guest roles on the show.
• During the first three seasons the Griffin family's ages are as follows: Peter, 42; Lois, 40; Meg, 16; Chris, 13; Stewie, 1; Brian, 7.
• Many Star Trek actors have appeared on the show, some even reprising their roles. These include Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, Michael Dorn, LeVar Burton, Rene Auberjonois, Colm Meaney and Dwight Schultz.
• The Griffin family and others in Quahog can usually understand what Stewie says, but considering the fact that he is a one year old nobody except for Brian takes what he says seriously.
• Stewie Griffin has not decided if he is gay or straight, for now he plays as both, although very effetely.

Technical Details

• The show is produced the same way as recent seasons of The Simpsons (and American Dad!). The show is storyboarded, laid out, and timed by Americans (the "pencil sketch"), and then sent overseas to Korea (although it is banned there) for in-betweening and computer coloring. On return to the U.S. the show is cut, and any additional animation is laid out and timed and sent overseas. When that comes back, the show is cut to final length, at which time no additional edits can be made because the soundtrack would be out of sync. The music and effects are then laid down.[9]
• Many of the da-da cut-away gags are fully animated jokes from previous episodes that had to be cut for time.

See also

• List of characters from Family Guy
• List of Family Guy episodes
• American Dad!
• Stewie Live
• Family Guy Live

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 [adult swim]

Fan sites

• Planet Family Guy
• Quahog 5 News Multimedia Site
• Quag's Corner and New Quahog forums
• Family Guy Reference Archives
• Family Guy Multimedia Archive
• Family Guy Wiki
• Drinking Game
• Family Guy Defined

Info

• http://www.familyguyfiles.com/main.php Family Guy Reference Archive (Contains tons of info, facts about every episode)
• Family Guy at the Big Cartoon DataBase
• Family Guy at IMDb
• Family Guy at TV.com
• Template:Google Video Search1
• Family Guy at RetroJunk.com

Clips from the show using Google Video

• The Kool Aid Man (Family Guy)
• Family Guy GI Joe
• Seth MacFarlane at Family Guy Live #1
• Seth MacFarlane at Family Guy Live #2