History of Family Guy
This is a history of the animated television series Family Guy 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. In 2008, MacFarlane confirmed that the cast were interested in producing a feature film and that he was working on a story. In 2009, a spin-off series The Cleveland Show it premiered on September 27, 2009 as a part of the "Animation Domination" lineup on Fox on. The eighth season of Family Guy premiered on September 27, 2009.
The Life of Larry and Larry & Steve
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]
Half-and hour show
MacFarlane conceived the idea for the Family Guy in 1999, developing it out of his two short films. He caught the attention of Fox, he received a US$50,000 budget to develop a pilot for the show, which was, as MacFarlane stated in a 2006 interview, "[...] about one twentieth of what most pilots cost".[4] . 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.[5] Although Family Guy's cancellation was initially announced after the second season, Fox decided to make a third season,[6][7] 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.[8] 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.[9] The show is contracted to continue producing episodes until 2012.[10]
The show started with five main cast members Macfarlane, Alex Borstein, Seth Green and Lacey Chabert. MacFarlane MacFarlane chose to voice these characters himself, believing it would be easier to portray the voices he already envisioned than for someone else to attempt it.[11] MacFarlane drew inspiration for the voice of Peter from a security guard he overheard talking while attending the Rhode Island School of Design.[12] Stewie's voice was based on the voice of English actor Rex Harrison,[13] especially his performance in the 1964 musical drama film My Fair Lady.[14] MacFarlane uses his regular speaking voice when playing Brian.[11] Borstein was asked to provide a voice for the pilot while she was working on MADtv. She had not met MacFarlane or seen any of his artwork and said it was "really sight unseen".[15] Green went to the casting doing an impression of the "Buffalo Bill" character from the thriller film The Silence of the Lambs during his audition, envisioning how "Buffalo Bill" would sound if he were speaking through a public address system at a McDonald's.[16][17] Chabert voiced Meg Griffin for the first production season (15 episodes), but, because of a contractual agreement, was never credited.[18] Chabert left the series due to time constraints with her acting role in Party of Five, as well as schoolwork.[19] The role was later taken by Mila Kunis.[20] Kunis won the role after auditions and a slight rewrite of the character, in part due to her performance on That '70s Show.[21]
The first season
Family Guy first aired January 31, 1999.[22] MacFarlane's work in animating Family Guy has been influenced by Jackie Gleason and Woody Allen's work, along with examples from The Simpsons and All in the Family.[23] The show has had two pilots the one that aired is Death has a Shadow, the unaired pilot is an 8-minute pilot pitch to Fox that was made on MacFarlane's kitchen table.[24] MacFarlane stated that the pilot for Family Guy took half a year to create and produce.[25]Recalling the experience in an interview with The New York Times, MacFarlane stated, "I spent about six months with no sleep and no life, just drawing like crazy in my kitchen and doing this pilot".[24] Ahsan Haque of IGN called the first season of Family Guy "extremely short but groundbreaking".[26] Haque also named the episodes "Brian: Portrait of a Dog" and "I Never Met the Dead Man" as some of the "best in the series".[26][27] In 2009, the site named Stewie's plan to freeze broccoli crops #1 in "Stewie's Top 10 Most Diobolical Evil Plans".[28]
Season 2 onward
The seconed season started September 23, 1999 with the episode Peter, Peter, Caviar Eater, Family Guy's second season was well-received among critics. Aaron Beierle of DVD Talk said "Often brilliant, extremely witty and darkly hilarious, Family Guy was unfortunately canceled after Fox bumped it around six or seven different time slots. Fans of the show should definitely pick up this terrific sets, while those who haven't seen it should consider giving it a look."[29] Though it has been panned by some media critics. Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly has frequently panned the show, grading it with a "D",[30] and naming it the worst show of the 1999-2000 television season.[31] Tucker responded to a reader's question in 2005 that he continued to dislike the series.[32] Mark Graham noted "MacFarlane's incredibly rocky relationship with both the magazine and its lead television critic, Ken Tucker" in a blog on the New York magazine website.[33]
Cancellation and renewal
After only two episodes of the second season, Family Guy was taken off the network's permanent schedule and shown irregularly thereafter. The show returned in March 2000 to finish airing the second season which contained 21 episodes. The third season contained 21 episodes and began airing from July 11, 2001 to February 14, 2002. During its second and third-season runs, Fox frequently moved the show around different days and time slots with little or no notice and consequently, the show's ratings suffered. When Family Guy was shown in the UK, and when the DVDs were subsequently released there (November 12, 2001), the seven episodes of the second season that were produced for season one were included with the first season, balancing them out with 14 episodes each. This resulted in later DVD releases to be labeled inconsistently as compared with original American season (e.g. the Family Guy: Season 6 DVD features Season 5 episodes).[34]
Fox publicly announced that the show had been canceled at the end of the second season in 2002.[35] In spite of the announced cancellation, in 2003 Fox decided to make the third season.[36] Family Guy also had to deal with a very tough time slot (Thursday nights at 8:00 p.m. ET), competing with Survivor and Friends. The situation was later referenced in the show in an episode titled Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story.[37][38] During the third season, Fox announced that the show was canceled for good.[39][40] The series was renewed later in 2005 for its fourth season due to strong DVD sales and its syndication on basic-cable networks.[41][42]
The show had been quite highly successful since, being scheduled to air a total of at least nine seasons.[43][44] The ninth season will mark Steve Callaghan and Mark Hentemann have been promoted to executive producers and named show runners,[43] as well as the first time it will air in high definition.[45][46]
Post-cancellation
Fox ordered 35 new episodes in 2004, marking the first revival of a television show based on DVD sales. [47][48] Fox president Gail Berman said that it was one of her most difficult decisions to cancel the show, and was therefore happy it would return.[49] The network also began production of a film based on the series.[50] "North by North Quahog" was the first episode to be broadcast after the show's cancellation. It was written by MacFarlane and directed by Peter Shin.[51] MacFarlane believed the show's three year hiatus was beneficial because animated shows do not normally have hiatuses, and towards the end of their seasons "... you see a lot more sex jokes and (bodily function) jokes and signs of a fatigued staff that their brains are just fried".[52] With "North by North Quahog", the writing staff tried to keep the show "... exactly as it was" before its cancellation, and did not "... have the desire to make it any slicker" than it already was.[52] Walter Murphy, who had composed music for the show before its cancellation, returned to compose the music for "North by North Quahog". Murphy and the orchestra recorded an arrangement of Bernard Herrmann's score from North by Northwest, a film referenced multiple times in the episode.[53]
Fox had ordered five episode scripts at the end of the third season; these episodes had been written but not produced. One of these scripts was adapted into "North by North Quahog". The original script featured Star Wars character Boba Fett, and later actor, writer and producer Aaron Spelling, but the release of the iconic film The Passion of the Christ inspired the writers to incorporate Mel Gibson into the episode. Multiple endings were written, including one in which Death comes for Gibson. During production, an episode of South Park was released entitled "The Passion of the Jew" that also featured Gibson as a prominent character. This gave the Family Guy writers pause, fearing accusations "[...] that we had ripped them off."[54]
Three days before the episode debuted on television, it was screened at the University of Vermont (UVM) in Burlington, accompanied by an hour-long question-and-answer session with MacFarlane.[55][56] The UVM's special screening of the episode was attended by 1,700 people.[56] As promotion for the show, and to, as Newman described, "expand interest in the show beyond its die hard fans",[57] Fox organized four Family Guy Live! performances, which featured cast members reading old episodes aloud; In addition, the cast performed musical numbers from the Family Guy Live in Vegas comedy album.[57] The stage shows were an extension of a performance by the cast during the 2004 Montreal Comedy Festival.[57] The Family Guy Live! performances, which took place in Los Angeles and New York, sold out and were attended by around 1,200 people each.[58]
Carol Burnett Controversy
In March 2007, comedian Carol Burnett filed a lawsuit against 20th Century Fox, claiming that it was a trademark infringement for her Charwoman cleaning character to be portrayed on the show without her permission. Besides that, Burnett stated that Fox violated her publicity rights. She asked for $6 million in damages.[59][60][61] On June 4, 2007, United States District Judge Dean Pregerson rejected the lawsuit, stating that the parody was protected under the First Amendment, citing Hustler Magazine v. Falwell as a precedent.[62]
Bourne Co. Music Publishers Controversy
On October 3, 2007, Bourne Co. Music Publishers filed a lawsuit accusing the show of infringing its copyright on the song "When You Wish Upon a Star", through a parody song entitled "I Need a Jew" appearing in the episode "When You Wish Upon a Weinstein". Bourne Co., the sole United States copyright owner of the song, alleged the parody pairs a "thinly veiled" copy of their music with antisemitic lyrics. Named in the suit were Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp., Fox Broadcasting Co., Cartoon Network, MacFarlane, and Murphy; the suit sought to stop the program's distribution, and unspecified damages.[63] Because "I Need a Jew" uses the copyrighted melody of "When You Wish Upon a Star", without commenting on that song, Bourne argued that it was not a First Amendment–protected parody per the ruling in Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc..[64][65] On March 16, 2009, United States District Judge Deborah Batts held that Family Guy did not infringe on Bourne's copyright when it transformed the song for comical use in an episode.[66]
Art Metrano Controversy
In December 2007, Family Guy was again accused of copyright infringement upon actor Art Metrano filing a lawsuit regarding a scene in Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story, in which Jesus performs Metrano's signature "magic" act involving absurd, faux magical hand gestures while humming the distinctive tune "Fine and Dandy".[67] Metrano's suit claims this performance is protected under terms of the United States' Copyright Act of 1976.[68] 20th Century Fox, MacFarlane, Callaghan and Borstein were all named in the suit which is ongoing.[69]
2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike
During the sixth season, episodes of Family Guy and American Dad! were delayed from regular broadcast due to the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike (which MacFarlane participated in to support the writers while FOX aired three Family Guy episodes without MacFarlane's permission). On February 12, 2008, the strike ended,[70] and the series resumed airing regularly, beginning with "Back to the Woods".
Criticism by other cartoonists
Other cartoonists have criticized the show as well. The show's animation has come under fire by Ren & Stimpy creator John Kricfalusi, who expresses concern that the current generation of aspiring animators will be negatively influenced by the simplistic quality of animation in cartoons like Family Guy.[71]
The show's writing style has also come under criticism by South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone. In a 2006 interview, Parker and Stone revealed that they dislike having their show compared to Family Guy.[72] Their opinions are showcased in the two-part 2006 South Park story arc "Cartoon Wars". The story involves Eric Cartman's hatred of Family Guy and his attempt to get the show canceled.[73] In the episodes, fake Family Guy clips are shown depicting nonsensical cutaway jokes with no apparent relation to the plot. After the episode aired, Stone and Parker received support and gratitude from the staffs of The Simpsons and King of the Hill for "ripping on Family Guy".[74] Cartman's intense dislike of the show is also referred to in the 2008 episode "Canada on Strike".[75]
Parker and Stone clarify their opinions of Family Guy in the DVD commentary for the episodes. They say that, although they respect it for its fans and making people laugh, and having some smart humor, they ultimately hate the show itself and have absolutely no respect for its writing, given its overuse of gag humor.
During his "class day" address at Harvard University on June 7, 2006, Seth MacFarlane addressed Stone and Parker's criticisms in character as Stewie, stating that the "...cutaways and flashbacks have nothing to do with the story. They're just there to be 'funny'. That is a shallow indulgence that South Park is quite above, and, for that, I salute them."
Several episodes of The Simpsons, including "Missionary: Impossible", "Treehouse of Horror XIII", and "The Italian Bob" have poked fun at Family Guy, implying that MacFarlane's show is guilty of plagiarism. However, both MacFarlane and Simpsons creator Matt Groening have said that there is no serious feud between the two of them and their shows.[76][77]
Later seasons
Production for the fifth season began in 2005, during the airing of the fourth season. The season was executive produced by series regulars David A. Goodman, Seth MacFarlane, Chris Sheridan, David Zuckerman and Daniel Palladino.[78]MacFarlane's sister, Rachael MacFarlane, also made her last appearance as Olivia, the child actress, when her character was killed by Stewie in the episode "Chick Cancer".[79] The season ends just short of the series' 100th episode, which presents the funniest clips of the previous 99 episodes. The decision to end the fifth season before the 100th episode was made due to Fox executive's desire to show the Family Guy special hour-long Blue Harvest as the sixth season premiere, which was also then-unfinished, at the end of the fifth season in May 2007.[80]
Season 6 began airing on September 23, 2007 and concluded after 12 episodes on May 5, 2008. The show celebrated the 100th episode episode as Stewie Kills Lois, although the three episodes that made up the DVD movie weren't included in their "official" count. They also counted the hour long episode Blue Harvest, At the 2007 Comic Con, a series of clips was shown at a panel for Family Guy from the season premiere episode, showing the Family Guy characters as Star Wars characters. The episode aired on September 23, 2007, with some slight changes from the clips shown at Comic Con. Parts of this episode were shown at Star Wars Celebration IV, at which Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane, a Star Wars fan since childhood, was a special guest,[81] and again at Comic-Con International 2007.[82] The episode was officially endorsed by Lucasfilm, especially George Lucas, who revealed in his conversation with MacFarlane that he has TiVoed every single episode of Family Guy without having to buy the DVDs and, in addition to Jackass, it's the only show he watches. MacFarlane said they were extremely helpful when the Family Guy crew wanted to parody their works.[83] Due to the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike, this season had a short amount of episodes and three were shown without permission from Seth MacFarlane (who supported the striking writers by refusing to complete any episodes).[70]
Spin-off
In 2009, a spin-off series titled The Cleveland Show premiered on Fox. The Hollywood Reporter initially announced that there were plans to produce a spin-off of Family Guy to be focused on Cleveland. The project was created by MacFarlane, Henry and American Dad! show runner Rich Appel.[84] Cleveland references this at the end of the episode "Baby Not On Board".[85] The series had its premiere on September 27, 2009.[86][87] Due to the cancellation of Mike Judge's King of the Hill,[88] the American adaptation of Sit Down, Shut Up being moved to Saturday nights,[89] and the renewal of American Dad!, The Simpsons is now the only cartoon on Fox's "Animation Domination" line-up that was not created by Seth MacFarlane. The show, which was picked up to air a first season consisting of 22 episodes,[90] was picked up by Fox for a second season, consisting of 13 episodes, bringing the total number to 35 episodes. The announcement was made on May 3, 2009 before the first season even premiered.[91] Due to strong ratings FOX picked up the back 9 episodes of season 2 which would make a 22 episode season and bring the total episode count of the show to 44.[92]
Film
On July 22, 2007, in an interview with "The Hollywood Reporter", MacFarlane announced that he may start working on a feature film, although "nothing's official."[93] In September 2007, Ricky Blitt gave TV.com an interview confirming that he had already started working on the script.[94] Then in TV Week on July 18, 2008, MacFarlane confirmed plans to produce a theatrically released Family Guy feature film sometime "within the next year".[95] He came up with an idea for the story, "something that you could not do on the show, which [to him] is the only reason to do a movie." He later went to say he imagines the film to be "an old-style musical with dialogue" similar to The Sound of Music, saying that he would "really be trying to capture, musically, that feel."[96]
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[97]. 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
- ^ 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.
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(help)"Here is a worthy successor to Arli$$ as The Awful Show They Just Keep Putting on the Air, a phenomenon as inexplicable as where Larry King gets all his suspenders. As long as they keep bringing back Family Guy, a hunk of ugly animation, I'll keep using it to line the bottom of this barrel." - ^ Tucker, Ken. "'Family' Matters". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2009-02-28.
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Family Guy tales, next year should have a ... "Who Done It" ... features James Woods.
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According to Kara Vallows' Twitter feed
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- ^ McFarlane, Seth (writer); Goodman, David A.; Sheridan, Chris (executive producers); Shin, Peter (director); Green, Seth (voice actor). Family Guy: Volume Three: Commentary for "North by North Quahog". Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation.
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(help) - ^ Bourne Co., vs. Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, Fox Broadcasting Company, Twentieth Century Fox Television, Inc., Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainement, Inc., Fuzzy Door Productions, Inc., The Cartoon Network, Inc., Seth MacFarlane, Walter Murphy (United States District Court, Southern District of New York October 3, 2007), Text.
- ^ Hilden, Julie (October 31, 2007). ""The Family Guy" Once Again Tests Parody's Limits: The Copyright Suit Challenging the Show's Use of "When You Wish Upon a Star"". FindLaw's Writ. FindLaw. Retrieved December 9, 2007.
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(help) - ^ "News Corp. Wins Suit Dismissal Over 'Family Guy' Song (Update1)". bloomberg.
{{cite web}}
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(help) - ^ "Magician sues over cartoon Jesus". Cortle. June 12, 207. Retrieved August 29, 2009.
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(help) - ^ Surette, Tim (December 7, 2007). "Family Guy sued ...again". TV.com. Retrieved December 9, 2007.
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(help) - ^ Arthur Metrano, vs. Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, Seth MacFarlane, Steve Callaghan and Alex Borstein (United States District Court, Central District of California December 5, 2007), Text.
- ^ a b "Strike over, Hollywood writers head back to work". CNN.com. 2008-02-13. Retrieved 2008-05-06.
- ^ Amid Amidi (2004-08-31). "The John Kricfalusi Interview, Part 2". Cartoon Brew. Cartoon Brew LLC. Retrieved 2007-03-26.
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.
{{cite web}}
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value (help) - ^ "Trey Parker and Matt Stone". Exclaim!. 2005. Retrieved 2007-03-26.
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ignored (help) - ^ Currie, Duncan (2006-05-06). "The Cartoon Wars Are Over". The Weekly Standard. Retrieved 2009-08-07.
- ^ Nick, Gillespie (December 2006). "South Park Libertarians". Reason. Retrieved 28 August 2009.
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suggested) (help) - ^ Modell, Josh (2008-04-03). "South Park: "Canada On Strike"". A.V. Club. Retrieved 2009-08-07.
- ^ Nathan Rabin (2006-04-26). "Interview: Matt Groening". The A.V. Club. Onion Inc. Retrieved 2006-12-12.
The rivalry is very affectionate...
- ^ Family Guy "Timeline at familyguy.tktv.net".
You know, it's funny. Matt Groening and I actually have a great relationship...
{{cite web}}
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value (help) - ^ "IGN: Family Guy: Season 5". IGN.com. Retrieved 2009-10-28.
- ^ "Rachel MacFarlane: Credits". TV Guide. Retrieved October 17, 2009.
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(help) - ^ Adalian, Josef (September 24, 2007). "'Family Guy' meets 'Star Wars'". Variety. Retrieved 2009-10-19.
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(help) - ^ "The Force is With Family Guy". IGN. May 30, 2007. Retrieved 2007-09-24.
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(help) - ^ "Programming for Saturday July 28". Comic-Con. Retrieved 2007-10-02.
- ^ Burton, Bonnie (September 21, 2007). ""Family Guy" Creator Reveals Star Wars Cred". Starwars.com. Retrieved 2007-09-21.
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(help) - ^ "The Hollywood Reporter". hollywoodreporter.com. Retrieved February 29, 2008.
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(help) - ^ "Baby Not On Board". Family Guy. Season 7. Episode 4. November 2, 2008. Fox.
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suggested) (help) - ^ "FOX Announces Fall Premiere Dates For The 2009-2010 Season". The Futon Critic. June 15, 2009. Retrieved August 23, 2009.
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(help) - ^ "Fox Primetime - The Cleveland Show - Fact Sheet". Fox Flash. Retrieved August 29, 2009.
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(help) - ^ "Fox Not Renewing King of the Hill". comingsoon.net. October 31, 2008. Retrieved May 25, 2009.
- ^ "Exclusive: Fox to "Sit Down" in Late Night this Fall".
- ^ "EW: Fox orders full season of 'Family Guy' spin-off".
- ^ "The Cleveland Show renewed before it begins".
- ^ "Fox orders second full season of The Cleveland Show".
- ^ Szalai, Georg (July 23, 2007). ""Family Guy" movie possible, MacFarlane says". Reuters. Retrieved August 31, 2009.
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(help) - ^ "Family Guy feature film is in the works!". TV.com. September 26, 2007. Retrieved August 23, 2009.
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(help) - ^ "TCA Video: Family Guy Spoilers; Movie Plans". TV Week. Retrieved August 23, 2009.
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(help) - ^ Dean, Josh. "Seth MacFarlane's $2 Billion Family Guy Empire". FastCompany.com. Retrieved October 21, 2008.
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(help) - ^ 'Family Guy' hits the road - Entertainment News, TV News, Media - Variety