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Family Guy is an American animated television sitcom created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series centers on the Griffins, a dysfunctional family consisting of Peter, Lois, Meg, Chris, Stewie, and their pet dog Brian. The show uses frequent cutaway gags, often in the form of tangential vignettes which parody American culture.

Family Guy was conceived by MacFarlane after developing two predecessor animated films, The life of Larry and Larry & Steve. MacFarlane changed the design of the protagonist Larry and renamed him Peter; he also changed the design of Larry's dog Steve, and developed him into Brian. Shortly after the third season of Family Guy aired in 2003, the series was canceled. However, because of favorable DVD sales and high ratings on syndicated reruns, the network renewed the show in 2004. The setting for the stories is a partially fictional town in Rhode Island, based on MacFarlane's upbringing and education.

Family Guy has been nominated for eleven Primetime Emmy Awards, of which it won three. The show has also been nominated for eleven Annie Awards, and won three times. It has garnered three Golden Reel Award nominations, winning once. In 2009, it was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series, the first time an animated series was nominated for the award since The Flintstones in 1961. Family Guy has also been challenged with negative criticism, including three notable lawsuits and low reviews for its similarities to the animated series The Simpsons.

History on TV

Creation

Main article: Larry shorts

Seth MacFarlane created a short film in 1995 entitled The Life of Larry while studying at the Rhode Island School of Design.[1] The short featured a middle-aged slob named Larry Cummings, his cynical talking dog, Steve, supportive wife Lois, and pudgy teenage son Milt.[2] The film begins with a live-action segment where MacFarlane, as himself, briefly describes the show and its characters.[2] After being hired at Hanna-Barbera, MacFarlane was given a chance in 1996 to direct a sequel entitled Larry and Steve,[1] a seven-minute short[3]broadcast as part of Cartoon Network's World Premiere Toons.[1] The film stars MacFarlane, who reprises his role as Larry Cummings and his talking dog Steve, among various background characters, and Lori Alan, who provided additional character voices.[3]

MacFarlane conceived the idea for the Family Guy in 1999, developing it out of his two short films. MacFarlane caught the attention of Fox, and was given $50,000 to make a pilot. McFarlane completed the 11 minute pilot after six months of hand animation. Upon review, Fox gave the green light to Family Guy as a series.[4] Although Family Guy's cancellation was initially announced after the second season, Fox decided to make a third season,[5][6] after which it was truly canceled at the end of 2003. However, reruns on Adult Swim drove up interest in the show, and its DVD releases did quite well, selling over 2.2 million copies in one year, which renewed network interest.[7] Family Guy returned to production in 2004, making four more seasons (for a total of seven) and a straight-to-DVD special, Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story. The show celebrated its official 100th episode during its sixth season in November 2007, resulting in the show's syndication.[8] The show is contracted to continue producing episodes until 2012.[9]

Live performances

Seth McFarlane and some of the other writers and voice actors on the show have begun to perform in "Family Guy LIVE!", which have been enormously successful theater shows. The show usually begins with a read-through of a script from a classic episode from the series, with all of the original voice-actors performing their character's lines, and then moves onto a performance of some songs from the show's history. Towards the end, there is a Q & A session and a clip is shown from one of the new, unaired episodes. There have been performances in New York, Los Angeles, Montreal, and Chicago[10]. Even though an aired episode is usually only 22 minutes long, the script-reading of an episode of the same length can last as long as an hour with all of the pauses for laughter to subside and constant asides to the audience.

References

  1. ^ a b c Lenburg, Jeff (2006). Who's who in animated cartoons: an international guide to film & television's award-winning and legendary animators (Illustrated ed.). New York: Applause Theatre & Cinema Books. p. 221. ISBN 978-1-55783-671-7.
  2. ^ a b Seth McFarlane. The Life of Larry (1995) (Animated short). Retrieved October 21, 2009.
  3. ^ a b Seth MacFarlane, Lori Alan. Larry & Steve (1997) (Animated short). Retrieved October 21, 2009.
  4. ^ "Inside Media at MTR (2006): Family Guy 2". Yahoo! Video. Retrieved August 24, 2009. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  5. ^ "Plenty of Changes at Fox, UPN, Fox Tinkers With its Prime-Time Lineup on 6 Nights, UPN on 3". newsbank. Retrieved October 3, 2009. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  6. ^ "ARTS & TV in Brief; `Family Guy,' `SportsNight' may move to new networks". pqasb. Retrieved October 3, 2009. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  7. ^ McKinley, Jesse (May 2, 2005). "Canceled and Resurrected, on the Air and Onstage". The New York Times. Retrieved December 3, 2007. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help)
  8. ^ ""Family Guy" Celebrates 100 Freakin' Sweet Episodes With Special Retropective Sunday, November 4, On Fox". Fox. The Futon Critic. October 8, 2007. Retrieved September 3, 2009. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help)
  9. ^ Goldman, Eric (May 5, 2008). "Big New Deal for Family Guy's Seth MacFarlane". IGN. Retrieved May 11, 2007. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help)
  10. ^ 'Family Guy' hits the road - Entertainment News, TV News, Media - Variety
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