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Family Guy
Genre Animation
Comedy
Created by Seth MacFarlane
Developed by Seth MacFarlane
David Zuckerman
Voices of Seth MacFarlane
Alex Borstein
Seth Green
Mila Kunis
Mike Henry
Country of origin Flag of United States United States
No. of episodes 98 (List of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s) Lolee Aries
David A. Goodman
Seth MacFarlane
Daniel Palladino
David Pritchard
David Zuckerman
Running time 20–25 mins
Broadcast
Original channel Fox Broadcasting Company
Picture format 480i (SDTV)
Original run January 31, 1999 – February 14, 2002
May 1, 2005 – present
External links
Official website
IMDb profile
TV.com summary
Family Guy is an American animated television series about a nuclear family
in the fictional town of Quahog (IPA ['koʊhɔg] or ['koʊhɒg]), Rhode Island.
It was created by Seth MacFarlane for FOX in 1999.
The show uses frequent "cutaway gags" — jokes in the form of tangential
vignettes that do not advance the story.
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.[1]
Creator Seth MacFarlane voices many of the characters (Peter, Brian, Stewie,
Glenn Quagmire, Tom Tucker, and others), and works as a gag writer. Other voice actors include Mila Kunis (Meg Griffin), Seth Green
(Chris Griffin), Alex Borstein (Lois, Tricia Takanawa, Loretta Brown), Mike
Henry (Cleveland, Cleveland Jr, Performance Artist, Herbert, and Greased-up
Deaf Guy) and Patrick Warburton (Joe Swanson). Lacey Chabert voiced Meg
Griffin for the first production season (14 episodes); however, because of a
contractual agreement, she was never credited.[2]
History
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 Fall of 2007, with a seventh season airing in the Fall of 2008. Also,
Family Guy goes into syndication this Fall, 2007.
Characters
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 ugliness; 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
Common rating
Australia M (MA15+ for Season 4)
Canada 14+ Global Television, Teletoon
New Zealand M (PGR or AO when aired)
United States TV-14 (Few episodes are TV-PG, two are TV-MA)
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-goo",
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 ill 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.
Episodes
Some episodes are not yet been aired in full on television because of
profanity or pop culture references. Scenes are either removed in their
entirety from the episode or re-edited to be aired on television. When cut
episodes are broadcast on Adult Swim, the original lines or scenes are
sometimes restored.
In keeping with the humorous tone of the series, most episode titles of
Family Guy are parodies of popular television shows, movies and slogans. 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.
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."
Ratings
United States
In the USA, ratings range from TV-PG (some episodes) to TV-14 (most
episodes). There were two episodes that were rated TV-MA. It only aired, and
continues to air on Adult Swim, a syndicated channel for Family Guy. It was
rated TV-MA because of sexual content and violence. It was violent, because
of when Quagmires wife was trying to kill herself (she was aiming the knife
towards her wrist), and sexual when Lois's breasts were bouncing. It then
later turned to a TV-14 rating, with sub-ratings, which means (content
descriptions). For example TV-PG LVSD
United Kingdom
In the UK, individual episode ratings range from PG to 15. Censored episodes
used to air on Sky One and Channel 4, and were shown before the watershed.
All the DVD boxsets from series 1-5 have been rated 15, as well as Stewie
Griffin: The Untold Story.
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.[3]
Title Sequence
The normal title sequence in Family Guy 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.
* The title sequence since season three has had the singing redone.
Unique title sequences
Entirely new, single episode title sequences include:
* Each of the three "Road Trip" episodes "Road to Rhode Island", "Road to
Europe", and "Road to Rupert" 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 Stewie knocking out Osama Bin Laden,
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". No other episodes have "stage gags".
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.[4][5]
Criticism
Family Guy has been panned by certain television critics, most notably from
Entertainment Weekly,[6] which was in turn attacked by MacFarlane during a
scene in Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story.
The show is criticised for using story premises and humor similar to those
used in episodes of The Simpsons, another animated series on the Fox
network. (Peter Griffin cameo'd in a halloween special of the Simpsons, in
which Homer was cloned.)[7]
The show was mocked in a two-part episode of South Park,[8] in which
characters call the show's jokes interchangeable and unrelated to
storylines. In the two-part episode "Cartoon Wars," the writers of Family
Guy were portrayed as manatees who wrote by pushing rubber "idea balls"
inscribed with random topics into a bin.
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."[9]
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.[10][11]
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 by the First Amendment. [12]
Broadcasters
Country Network(s)
Flag of Argentina Argentina FOX
Flag of Australia Australia FOX8, Comedy Channel, Seven Network, Southern
Cross Tasmania (Ten and Seven networks)
Flag of Brazil Brazil FOX, Rede Globo
Flag of Canada Canada Global, Teletoon
Flag of Chile Chile FOX
Flag of Colombia Colombia FOX
Flag of Ecuador Ecuador FOX
Flag of Finland Finland MTV3
Flag of France France Canal+
Flag of Germany Germany ProSieben, MTV
Flag of Greece Greece Macedonia TV
Flag of Republic of Ireland Ireland Channel 6, FX
Flag of Israel Israel Yes, yes stars 2
Flag of Italy Italy Italia 1, FOX
Flag of Mexico Mexico FOX, XHGC
Flag of New Zealand New Zealand TV3, C4
Flag of Norway Norway TV3, ZTV
Flag of Peru Peru FOX, América Televisión
Flag of Philippines Philippines Jack TV
Flag of Poland Poland TV4
Flag of Portugal Portugal FOX, SIC Radical
Flag of Russia Russia Ren TV
Flag of Spain Spain FOX, La Sexta
Flag of Sweden Sweden TV3, TV6, ZTV
Flag of Switzerland Switzerland SF zwei
Flag of Thailand Thailand True Series
Flag of Turkey Turkey CNBC-e
Flag of United Kingdom United Kingdom BBC Two, BBC Three, FX
Flag of United States United States FOX, Cartoon Network, TBS, WGN
Superstation (Fall 07)
References
1. ^ USAToday. USAToday.com. Retrieved on 2007-02-04.
2. ^ Daniel Robert Epstein. Interview with Seth MacFarlane, creator of The
Family Guy. UGO.com. Retrieved on 2007-05-23.
3. ^ FOXCAST. FOX.com. Retrieved on 2006-07-14.
4. ^ IMDB Family Guy Awards Page.
5. ^ 2004-2005 Emmy Nominations.
6. ^ Tucker, Ken (2005). The 5 Worst. EW.com (Entertainment Weekly and Time
Inc.). Retrieved on 2006-07-14.
7. ^ Family Guy's Stewie Has an Untold Story. TV Guide. Archived from
cc-A51B-308EB2529BBA%7D&cmsSrch=true the original on 2006-10-25. “You know,
it's funny. Matt Groening and I actually have a great relationship. We've
talked several times in the past few weeks and joked about this. One day out
of nowhere this rumor pops up in papers and magazines. Actually, it was
probably one comment that was taken out of context in Blender. Matt's just a
cool guy, and fortunately neither of us was ruffled by any of that stuff. We
just laughed it off.”
8. ^ ;"Cartoon Wars Part I, Cartoon Wars Part II." Created by Matt Stone and
Trey Parker. South Park. Comedy Central.
9. ^ John Kricfalusi; "AMID" (31 August 2004). The John Kricfalusi
Interview, Part 2. Cartoon Brew. Retrieved on 2006-07-14.
10. ^ Carpenter, Amanda (2006-08-29). Why Aren't You Watching Family Guy?.
associatedcontent.com. Associated Content. Retrieved on 2007-04-12.
11. ^ Adams, Bob (2005-08-22). "Family Guy" has fun with AIDS. Advocate.com.
PlanetOut Inc.. Retrieved on 2006-12-12. “... showcases a comic musical
number called “You Have AIDS.” Overburdened AIDS service organizations are
not amused.”
12. ^ [1] [2]
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