Family Guy

Family Guy
File:FamilyGuyFamilyPromo.png From left: Brian, Lois, Peter, Stewie, Chris, and Meg (The Griffin Family)
Created by	Seth MacFarlane
Developed by	Seth MacFarlane David Zuckerman
Voices of	Seth MacFarlane Alex Borstein Seth Green Lacey Chabert (1999-2000; uncredited) Mila Kunis (2000-) Mike Henry
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	99 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers	Lolee Aries David A. Goodman Seth MacFarlane Daniel Palladino David Pritchard David Zuckerman
Running time	20–23 mins 43 min (Blue Harvest)
Original release
Network	Fox Broadcasting Company
Release	January 31 1999 – February 14 2002 & May 1 2005 – present

Family Guy is an American animated television series about a nuclear family in the fictional town of Quahog (IPA ['koʊhɔg] or ['koʊhɒg]), Rhode Island. The show centers around the fictional Griffin family and its bumbling character Peter Griffin. It was created by Seth MacFarlane for FOX.

The show uses frequent "cutaway gags" — jokes in the form of tangential vignettes that do not advance the story and borrow heavily from popular culture.

Family Guy was cancelled once in 2000 and again in 2002, but strong DVD sales and the large viewership of reruns on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim convinced FOX to resume the show in 2005. It is the first cancelled show to be resurrected based on DVD sales.

MacFarlane voices many of the characters (Peter, Brian, Stewie, Glenn Quagmire, Tom Tucker, and others). Other voice actors include Mila Kunis (Meg Griffin), Seth Green (Chris Griffin), Alex Borstein (Lois, Tricia Takanawa, Loretta Brown), Mike Henry (Cleveland, Cleveland Jr, Herbert, and Greased-up Deaf Guy), Patrick Warburton (Joe Swanson), and Lori Alan (Diane Simmons). Lacey Chabert voiced Meg Griffin for the first production season (15 episodes); however, because of a contractual agreement, she was never credited.

History

Main article: History of Family Guy

Family Guy's first and second seasons were made starting in 1999 after the Larry shorts (its predecessor) caught the attention of the Fox Broadcasting Company during the 1999 Super Bowl commercial. Its cancellation was announced, but then a shift in power at Fox and outcry from the fans led to a reversal of that decision and the making of a third season, after which it was canceled again. Reruns on Adult Swim drove interest in the show up, and the DVD releases did quite well, selling over 2.2 million copies in one year which renewed network interest. Family Guy returned to production in 2004, making two more seasons (for a total of five) and a straight to DVD movie, Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story. The sixth season is in production to air in the Autumn 2007, with a seventh season airing in the Autumn of 2008. In addition, Family Guy went into syndication in Autumn 2007.

Characters

Main article: List of characters from Family Guy

Main characters

The show revolves around the adventures of Peter Griffin, a bumbling but well-intentioned blue-collar worker. Peter is an Irish-American Catholic with a thick Rhode Island / Eastern Massachusetts accent. During the course of the series, he discovers he is part African-American and has been known to have Spanish, Mexican, Scottish, "Huttish" (fictional species from Star Wars), and German ancestors. He is known for his trademark laugh. His wife Lois, who has a similar accent, is a stay-at-home mom/piano teacher, and is a member of the Pewterschmidt family of wealthy Protestant socialites. Peter and Lois have three children: teenage daughter Meg Griffin who is frequently the butt of jokes for her homeliness and lack of popularity; goofy and unintelligent teenage son Chris Griffin, in some respects a younger version of his father; and diabolically evil infant son Stewie Griffin, bent on world domination and the death of his mother. Stewie speaks fluently and eloquently, with an Upper Class English accent and stereotypical arch-villain phrases.

While other characters can hear and understand Stewie, most of his dialogue is ignored or not taken seriously. Brian (the talking pet dog) is the only character that regularly interacts with Stewie on an intellectual level. Stewie refers to his mother and father as "Lois" and "the fat man" respectively. Brian is anthropomorphized in that he walks on two legs, drinks Martinis, owns his own car (a Toyota Prius, circa 2004) and engages in human conversation, though he is still considered a pet in many respects. Occasionally, Brian will act in a stereotypically canine manner, usually for comedic effect (such as his inability to stand up in the back of a car, chasing tennis balls, fear of vacuum cleaners and barking uncontrollably at black people—which he blames on his father's side of the family). He does, however, object to any overly submissive domestic behavior.

Recurring characters

These characters include the Griffin family's colorful neighbors: paraplegic police officer Joe Swanson, his perpetually pregnant wife Bonnie, and sex-crazed airline-pilot bachelor Glenn Quagmire who lusts after Lois and just about any other female. When sexually aroused, Quagmire exclaims, "Giggity-giggity!", or, "All right!" with his trademark head-bob. Other characters include mild-mannered deli owner Cleveland Brown, his wife (ex-wife as of the fourth-season episode The Cleveland-Loretta Quagmire) Loretta Brown and their hyperactive son, Cleveland Jr. (who hasn't appeared since Season 3, except briefly in the funeral scene in 'Perfect Castaway'), news anchors Tom Tucker and Diane Simmons along with Asian Reporter Trisha Takanawa and Ollie Williams, the weather forecaster, who shouts everything he says in his "Black-u-Weather" forecast (a pun on AccuWeather) and appears to be an "angry black man" version of Al Roker, and mentally disturbed celebrity mayor Adam West (actually voiced by Adam West, star of the 1960s TV show Batman).

Family Guy has not used an especially large cast of recurring minor characters (though this has changed to an extent in Season 4, with many one-shot characters from prior episodes reappearing in new episodes), and most of the episode plotlines center on the exploits of the Griffin family.

There are also several semi-regular characters who serve as running gags. Examples include the Evil Monkey in Chris's closet; Herbert, the creepy old man who enjoys "watching" Chris; the Greased-Up Deaf Guy; Jake Tucker, anchorman Tom Tucker's son (who has an upside-down face, and no 'bottom' i.e. buttocks); and Peter's nemesis the Giant Chicken (who originally poked fun at a Burger King commercial), whose fights with Peter parody Hollywood action films and usually cause huge amounts of damage to the city and can last upwards of 7 minutes. The incarnation of Death (originally voiced by Norm MacDonald but now by Adam Carolla) has also made a number of appearances. Olivia, a former partner of Stewie's in From Method to Madness, makes a second appearance in the episode Chick Cancer, but their relationship quickly turns into a traditional marriage.

Words and phrases

The show has coined several words and phrases for humorous effect. In some cases, existing terms (e.g. chumbawumba and shipoopi) have been mistakenly credited to the show. Some words have only been used in one episode (such as "hic-a-doo-lah" in "Fore Father"), while a few have been used in several episodes.

Quagmire's exclamation has been used in many episodes. A single "giggity" followed by "awwwright..." was the number 3 ring tone for the week ending February 7, 2007.

Peter's use of the word "sideboob" in the episode "PTV" inspired the creation of the website www.sideboob.org ([3]) which posts sideboob pictures of singers, actresses and models.

Episodes

Template:Infobox TV ratings

Main article: List of Family Guy episodes

For the first half of the first season, the writers tried to work the words "murder" or "death" into the title of every episode to make the titles resemble those of old-fashioned radio mystery shows. On the DVD commentary for "Death has a Shadow", creator Seth MacFarlane says that the writers stopped doing this when they realized they were beginning to get the titles confused. Beginning with A Hero Sits Next Door, the episodes feature titles descriptive of their plots.

Most episodes debut on Fox, and are seen internationally. The show has gone into syndication.

Some episodes are not aired in full in their initial broadcast because of profanity or pop culture references. Scenes are either re-edited or removed entirely from the episode. Some cut material is restored for later broadcast on other venues, such as Adult Swim. DVD releases also contain the uncensored material.

Feature length productions

Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story

Main article: Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story

Originally released as a direct-to-DVD movie, Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story comprises three episode length segments with a wraparound story. Different edits, both adding and deleting material, were eventually televised as "Stewie B. Goode", "Bango Was His Name Oh!" and "Stu and Stewie's Excellent Adventure."

Feature film

In a July 23 2007 report, creator Seth McFarlane told The Hollywood Reporter that a Family Guy feature film is a possibility for the future. He said, "We have been trying to figure out how to do that and the series at the same time without the series suffering."

Music and music video

The show often incorporates music numbers in Broadway style as part of its episode technique, either as tangential flashbacks or to advance the plotline. On April 26 2005 Family Guy: Live in Vegas was released and was a collaboration between Walter Murphy and Seth MacFarlane. It features a show tune theme. Only one song is related to the show; the theme song. Also included was the music video "Sexy Party".

Podcast

Twenty-eight episode podcasts were released on US iTunes, and are also made available on the official site. These are audio-only promos where cast members talk about upcoming episodes and joke amongst themselves.

Title sequence

The normal title sequence in Family Guy parodies, in part, All in the Family with its nostalgic longing for values of days past. The sequence has had only small changes since the first episode in 1999:

• Stewie, Meg, and Chris' pictures in the background originally contained outlines, but beginning with "A Picture is Worth a 1,000 Bucks", the pictures have shown the actual characters.
• Because so many people thought Stewie sang "F-in' cry!" instead of "Laugh and cry", Seth MacFarlane resang that line to make "laugh and cry" more clear. The rerecording first appeared at the beginning of "Mr. Saturday Knight" and has stayed since.
• Starting Season 4, Brian's vocals during the part "He's a family guy!" has been muted.

Unique title sequences

File:Sethmilaalex.jpg

Seth MacFarlane, Alex Borstein, and Mila Kunis at Family Guy Live in Los Angeles

Entirely new, single episode title sequences include:

• The three "Road Trip" episodes ("Road to Rhode Island", "Road to Europe", "Road to Rupert") – each has instead a sequence of still drawings representing that episode's road trip over an introductory musical fanfare taken from Road to Morocco
• "Fast Times at Buddy Cianci Jr. High" – title sequence replaced with a parody of the series Law & Order.
• "PTV" – title sequence replaced with Osama Bin Laden going through various bloopers while trying to record a terrorist video before being beaten up by Stewie, followed by a Naked Gun parody finishing with a parody of The Simpsons title ending.
• "Stu and Stewie's Excellent Adventure" – title sequence replaced with a parody of the series 24 recapping events from the previous two episodes along with an unrelated clip from The Chevy Chase Show.
• "Whistle While Your Wife Works" – same as the normal title sequence until the "musical stage" sequence, where Peter trips down the stairs and crushes one of the dancers. Peter, oblivious to the suffocating dancer, complains he'll have a swollen foot. Stewie then pops up in front of the camera saying "You know we should-- we should-- we should probably go ahead and shut that off".
• "On the season 6 primere episode "Blue Harvest" the opening sequnce is replaced with a parody of the opening sequence of "Star Wars IV: A New Hope" relaying the whole plot.

Awards

The series has been nominated for an Emmy award a total of six times, winning twice--once in 2000 for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance (Stewie Griffin), and once in 2002 for Outstanding Music and Lyrics. The show has also been nominated for nine Annies, of which it has won twice, both in 2006. The show has also been nominated for a Golden Reel Award three times, of which it has won once.

Criticism

Main article: Criticism of Family Guy

Family Guy has been panned by certain television critics, most notably from Entertainment Weekly, which was in turn attacked by MacFarlane during a scene in Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story.

File:Mad 0905.jpg

Cover of Issue 423 of Australian Mad Magazine.

The show is criticized for using story premises and humor similar to those used in episodes of The Simpsons, another animated series on the Fox network. The Simpsons depicts Peter Griffin as a "clone" of Homer Simpson in a Halloween special, and as the fugitive "Plagiarismo" (implying plagiarism) in the episode "The Italian Bob". Family Guy is also mocked in a two-part episode of South Park, in which characters call the show's jokes interchangeable and unrelated to storylines; the writers of Family Guy are portrayed as manatees who write by pushing rubber "idea balls" inscribed with random topics into a bin. Seth McFarlane's response to criticism on the Volume 4 box set DVD commentary regarding the interchangeable and unrelated jokes is that the criticism is completely founded and true, even giving reference to many skits and jokes that were meant for previously scripted episodes and later cut and recycled in future episodes.

Other cartoonists who have publicly criticized Family Guy include John Kricfalusi, creator of Ren and Stimpy: "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... The standards are extremely low."

The show's penchant for irreverent humor led to a controversy over a sequence in which Peter Griffin dances, in classic musical fashion, around the bed of a man with end-stage AIDS, singing about his diagnosis.

Lawsuits

In March of 2007, famed 73-year-old comedian Carol Burnett filed a lawsuit against 20th Century Fox, claiming that it was a copyright 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 was asking for $6 million in damages. On June 4, 2007, U.S. District Judge Dean Pregerson tossed out the lawsuit, stating that the parody was protected under the First Amendment, using Hustler v. Falwell as a precedent.

External links

• Family Guy official website
• Family Guy at IMDb
• Family Guy Wiki

Preceded by 3rd Rock from the Sun 1998

Super Bowl lead-out program 1999

Succeeded by The Practice 2000