Family Guy is an Emmy Award-winning American animated television series about a nuclear family in the fictional town of Quahog, Rhode Island. It was created by Seth MacFarlane for Fox Broadcasting Company 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.
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 began airing in Autumn 2007, with a seventh season airing in the Autumn of 2008. In addition, Family Guy went into syndication in Autumn 2007. Family Guy was available to buy at XBOX Live and the iTunes store in September 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, "Huttese" (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). Drew Barrymore is the voice of Jillian, Brian's girlfriend.
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 [citation needed]. Some words have only been used in one episode (such as "hic-a-doo-lah" in "Fore Father" and "festisio" in "The Thin White Line"), 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.
Cast
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
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
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." In another report made on October 1, 2007, Seth has considered the possibility of a live-action project., but seemed to be joking as he said he would have Rosie O'Donnell be the part of Peter.
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 remained through the end of season three, but the original recording returned when the show resumed airing on FOX in 2005, and has remained since.
Starting Season 4, all main characters' vocals during the part "He's a family guy!" have been muted.
Unique title sequences 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
Carol Burnett
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.
"I Need a Jew"
On October 3, 2007, Bourne Co. Music Publishers filed a lawsuit accusing Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp., Fox Broadcasting Co., the Cartoon Network, and others of infringing upon its copyright of the song "When You Wish Upon a Star." The lawsuit references a parody made in the episode When You Wish Upon a Weinstein entitled "I Need a Jew". Bourne Co., the sole U.S. copyright owner of the song, alleges that the parody was a "thinly veiled" copy of the music from "When You Wish Upon a Star," paired with anti-Semitic lyrics. They are hoping to stop the program's distribution and are seeking unspecified damages.
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