Family Guy season 8

Family Guy Season 8
Season 8
No. of episodes	21
Release
Original network	Fox
Original release	September 27, 2009 – May 23, 2010
Season chronology

Family Guy's eighth season first aired on the Fox network in twenty episodes from September 27, 2009 to May 23, 2010 before being released as two DVD box sets and in syndication. The animated television series Family Guy follows the dysfunctional Griffin family—father Peter, mother Lois, daughter Meg, son Chris, baby Stewie and dog Brian, all of whom reside in their hometown of Quahog. The eighth season, which premiered with the episode "Road to the Multiverse" and ended with "Partial Terms of Endearment", was executive produced by Chris Sheridan, David Goodman, Danny Smith, Mark Hentemann, Steve Callaghan and series creator Seth MacFarlane. The season's showrunners were Hentemann and Callaghan.

The season received a mixed reception from critics, who cited a lack of original writing. More positive assessments revolved around the "tail end of the season," which "threw out all its old conventions and tried something remarkably different."

Season eight contains some of the series' most acclaimed episodes, including "Road to the Multiverse", "Something, Something, Something, Dark Side" and "Dog Gone", as well as some of the most controversial episodes, including "Extra Large Medium", "Brian & Stewie" and "Partial Terms of Endearment". It was the recipient of a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation and a Genesis Award for television comedy, and was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics.

The Volume Eight DVD box set was released in Region 1 on June 15, 2010, Region 2 on November 1, 2010 and Region 4 on August 17, 2010. Eight of the twenty-one episodes are included in the volume. The remaining eleven episodes of the season will be released on the Volume Nine DVD box set.

Production

Seth MacFarlane served as executive producer for the season, along with several other writers for the series.

Production for the eighth season began in 2008, during the airing of the seventh season. The season was executive produced by series regulars Chris Sheridan, David Goodman, Danny Smith, Mark Hentemann and Steve Callaghan, along with series creator Seth MacFarlane. The showrunners for the eighth season were Hentemann and Callaghan, who replaced Goodman and Sheridan, following the conclusion of the seventh production season.

As production began, Steve Callaghan, Alex Carter, Cherry Chevapravatdumrong, Tom Devanney, Andrew Goldberg, Mark Hentemann, Patrick Meighan, Brian Scully, Chris Sheridan, Danny Smith, Alec Sulkin, John Viener and Wellesley Wild all stayed on from the previous season. Spencer Porter received his first writing credit for the series. Former recurring writers Kirker Butler and Gary Janetti returned to the series, with Butler leaving immediately afterward to work on The Cleveland Show. Matt Fleckenstein, who wrote two episodes for the show, left the series before the beginning of the eighth season.

Joseph Lee received his first directing credit for the series. Dominic Bianchi, Greg Colton, John Holmquist, Brian Iles, Jerry Langford, Pete Michels, James Purdum, Cyndi Tang and Julius Wu all stayed with the show from the previous season. "Blue Harvest" director Dominic Polcino briefly returned to the series to direct the episode's sequel, entitled "Something, Something, Something, Dark Side". Former recurring director Mike Kim left the series.

The main cast consisted of Seth MacFarlane (Peter Griffin, Stewie Griffin, Brian Griffin, Quagmire and Tom Tucker, among others), Alex Borstein (Lois Griffin, Loretta Brown, Tricia Takanawa and Barbara Pewterschmidt, among others), Mila Kunis (Meg Griffin), Seth Green (Chris Griffin and Neil Goldman, among others) and Mike Henry (Cleveland Brown and Herbert, among others).

Kevin Michael Richardson provided the voice for Jerome.

Several new characters were introduced in season eight. The character of Jerome—Peter, Joe and Quagmire's official replacement for Cleveland Brown, who left the series to star in his own spin-off entitled The Cleveland Show—was introduced in the episode "Jerome is the New Black". He was voiced by The Cleveland Show cast member Kevin Michael Richardson. Quagmire's dad, Dan Quagmire, later renamed Ida after undergoing sex reassignment surgery, was also introduced, and voiced by series creator Seth MacFarlane, as well as Quagmire' daughter, named Anna Lee, voiced by Mae Whitman. Other guest stars who made multiple appearances as recurring characters from previous seasons were Carrie Fisher as Peter's boss Angela and Mike Henry as Cleveland Brown, who briefly returned in "The Splendid Source".

During the sixth season, episodes of Family Guy were delayed from regular broadcast due to the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike. Series creator and executive producer Seth MacFarlane sided with the Writers Guild and participated in the strike until its conclusion. Because of this the seventh season consisted entirely of hold-overs. "Road to the Multiverse" was the first episode to be produced and aired after the strike ended. The season featured the series' 150th official episode, entitled "Brian & Stewie", which broke from the show's usual reliance on cutaways and cultural references and featured only Brian and Stewie trapped together in a vault. The season included a banned episode, entitled "Partial Terms of Endearment" for the first time since season three's "When You Wish Upon a Weinstein." The episode centered on Lois becoming a surrogate mother and being conflicted over whether or not to abort her best friend's baby, after her best friend dies. The episode was independently released on DVD on September 28, 2010, shortly after the ninth season premiere of Family Guy.

Reception

The eighth season premiere received a 5.2 rating share in the Nielsen ratings among viewers age 18 to 49, attracting 10.17 million viewers overall, the highest rated episode of the season. Both of these figures were significantly higher than those of the seventh season finale. In the weeks following "Road to the Multiverse", viewership ratings hovered around 7 million. Aside from the premiere, "Family Goy", the second episode for the season, garnered the most views with 9.66 million, a high for the eighth season. The episode "Dial Meg for Murder" received the lowest amount of viewers for the season with 6.21 million viewers.

Episodes of the eighth season won and were nominated for several awards. On July 8, 2010, the song entitled "Down Syndrome Girl" from "Extra Large Medium" was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Music and Lyrics at the 62nd Primetime Emmy Awards. Series creator Seth MacFarlane and composer Walter Murphy were nominated for their work on the song's lyrics and music. On July 24, 2010, MacFarlane gave a live performance of the song at the San Diego Comic-Con International, to an audience of nearly 4,200 attendees. At the Creative Arts Awards on August 21, 2010, "Down Syndrome Girl" lost to the USA Network series Monk. Greg Colton, director of "Road to the Multiverse", was awarded the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation for storyboarding the episode. In February 2010, "Dog Gone" won the Sid Caesar Comedy Award, at the annual Genesis Awards, for television comedy.

Executive producer David A. Goodman responded to criticism by the PTC.

The Parents Television Council, a frequent critic of Family Guy, branded "Family Goy", "Dial Meg for Murder", "Extra Large Medium", "Go Stewie Go", "Brian & Stewie" and "Quagmire's Dad" as the "worst show of the week." In response to this criticism executive producer David Goodman claimed that Family Guy is "absolutely for teenagers and adults", and that he does not allow his own children to watch the show.

The season received varied reviews from critics. Ramsey Isler of IGN wrote mixed comments about the season, saying, "There was a time when [Family Guy] was one of the funniest shows on TV; it was comedy gold. But somewhere along the line, the show's shine faded, its image was tarnished, and the magic disappeared", but added, "That's not to say that FG hasn't been good at all lately. Season 8 certainly had a few good episodes including the season opener, "Road to the Multiverse", which had a clever premise that was executed well. But after the first episode, the quality of the stories started to decline". He listed "Brian's Got a Brand New Bag", "Jerome Is the New Black", "Go Stewie Go", "Peter-assment" and "April in Quahog" as the worst episodes of the season. Isler praised the "tail end of the season", however, citing "Brian & Stewie" as "one of the better efforts the show has ever put out." In his review for the Family Guy volume eight DVD, Frank Rizzo of DVD Talk said, "The episodes stand on their own, whether you care about the dependence on easy gags and gimmicky concepts or not, because they are simply funny." Rizzo commented on the DVD release: "Fans of "Family Guy," or any of MacFarlane's series for that matter, have to be concerned that the very reason the series continues to air, the DVDs the fans buy, are getting diluted and weakened, especially when you're getting less extras, less MacFarlane, and, for the first time, less of the commentaries that give you a peek into the show's creation."

Episodes

See also: List of Family Guy episodes

Key

• In the # column, the number refers to the episode number within its season
• In the Total column, the number refers to the order it aired during the entire series .

#	Total	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original air date	Prod.
1	127	"Road to the Multiverse"	Greg Colton	Wellesley Wild	September 27, 2009 (2009-09-27)	7ACX06
2	128	"Family Goy"	James Purdum	Mark Hentemann	October 4, 2009 (2009-10-04)	7ACX01
3	129	"Spies Reminiscent of Us"	Cyndi Tang	Alec Sulkin	October 11, 2009 (2009-10-11)	7ACX03
4	130	"Brian's Got a Brand New Bag"	Pete Michels	Tom Devanney	November 8, 2009 (2009-11-08)	7ACX02
5	131	"Hannah Banana"	John Holmquist	Cherry Chevapravatdumrong	November 8, 2009 (2009-11-08)	7ACX05
6	132	"Quagmire's Baby"	Jerry Langford	Patrick Meighan	November 15, 2009 (2009-11-15)	7ACX04
7	133	"Jerome Is the New Black"	Brian Iles	John Viener	November 22, 2009 (2009-11-22)	7ACX08
8	134	"Dog Gone"	Julius Wu	Steve Callaghan	November 29, 2009 (2009-11-29)	7ACX07
9	135	"Business Guy"	Pete Michels	Andrew Goldberg & Alex Carter	December 13, 2009 (2009-12-13)	7ACX11
10	136	"Big Man on Hippocampus"	Dominic Bianchi	Brian Scully	January 3, 2010 (2010-01-03)	7ACX09
11	137	"Dial Meg for Murder"	Cyndi Tang	Andrew Goldberg & Alex Carter	January 31, 2010 (2010-01-31)	7ACX12
12	138	"Extra Large Medium"	John Holmquist	Steve Callaghan	February 14, 2010 (2010-02-14)	7ACX14
13	139	"Go Stewie Go"	Greg Colton	Gary Janetti	March 14, 2010 (2010-03-14)	7ACX15
14	140	"Peter-assment"	Julius Wu	Chris Sheridan	March 21, 2010 (2010-03-21)	7ACX16
15	141	"Brian Griffin's House of Payne"	Jerry Langford	Spencer Porter	March 28, 2010 (2010-03-28)	7ACX13
16	142	"April in Quahog"	Joseph Lee	John Viener	April 11, 2010 (2010-04-11)	7ACX18
17	143	"Brian & Stewie"	Dominic Bianchi	Gary Janetti	May 2, 2010 (2010-05-02)	7ACX20
18	144	"Quagmire's Dad"	Pete Michels	Tom Devanney	May 9, 2010 (2010-05-09)	7ACX19
19	145	"The Splendid Source"	Brian Iles	Mark Hentemann	May 16, 2010 (2010-05-16)	7ACX17
20	146	"Something, Something, Something, Dark Side"	Dominic Polcino	Kirker Butler	May 23, 2010 (2010-05-23)	6ACX21/ 6ACX22
21	147	"Partial Terms of Endearment"	Joseph Lee	Danny Smith	June 20, 2010 (2010-06-20) (UK) Unaired (US)[a]	7ACX10

Notes

• ^a Fox has stated this episode has been refused airtime on their network. However, it premiered on British television on June 20, 2010 on BBC Three, marking the first time an episode has premiered in the United Kingdom before the United States. An airdate has not been given for the United States, but it was released on DVD on September 28, 2010.

Ratings

Order	Episode	Viewers (millions)	Rating	Share
1	"Road to the Multiverse"	10.17	5.6	9
2	"Family Goy"	9.66	5.5	8
3	"Spies Reminiscent of Us"	8.88	5.1	8
4	"Brian's Got a Brand New Bag"	7.38	4.2	7
5	"Hannah Banana"	7.73	4.1	10
6	"Quagmire's Baby"	8.28	4.8	7
7	"Jerome is the New Black"	7.38	4.2	6
8	"Dog Gone"	8.48	4.9	7
9	"Business Guy"	7.67	4.4	7
10	"Big Man on Hippocampus"	8.10	4.6	7
11	"Dial Meg for Murder"	6.21	3.6	5
12	"Extra Large Medium"	6.42	3.7	6
13	"Go Stewie Go"	6.72	3.9	6
14	"Peter-assment"	6.65	3.9	6
15	"Brian Griffin's House of Payne"	7.27	4.1	6
16	"April in Quahog"	6.93	3.4	9
17	"Brian & Stewie"	7.69	3.7	10
18	"Quagmire's Dad"	7.22	3.8	10
19	"The Splendid Source"	7.59	3.8	10
20	"Something, Something, Something, Dark Side"	6.39	3.0	8
21	"Partial Terms of Endearment"	—	—	—

DVD release

The remaining episodes of the seventh season and the first eight episodes of the eighth season were released on DVD by 20th Century Fox in the United States and Canada on June 15, 2010. The DVD release features bonus material including two featurettes, "Road to "Road to the Multiverse"" and "Family Guy Sings-A-Long Karoke", along with audio commentaries and deleted scenes.

Family Guy Volume Eight
Set details			Special features
15 episodes 3-disc set 1.33:1 aspect ratio Languages: English (Dolby Digital 5.1, with subtitles) Spanish (Dolby Digital, with subtitles) French (Dolby Digital, with subtitles)			Optional commentary Deleted/extended scenes with optional commentary "Road to the Multiverse" featurette Family Guy Karaoke
Release dates
Region 1	Region 2	Region 4
June 15, 2010	November 1, 2010	August 17, 2010

See also

• List of Family Guy episodes
• Family Guy

References

General

• Family Guy season eight episode guide. IGN Retrieved 2010-07-02.

Specific

External links

• Season 8 at TV.com
• Season 8 at IMDB