Family Guy

Family Guy is an American animated television series created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series centers on the Griffins, a dysfunctional family consisting of parents Peter and Lois; their children Meg, Chris, and Stewie; and their anthropomorphic pet dog Brian. The show uses frequent cutaway gags, often in the form of tangential vignettes which parody American culture.
MacFarlane conceived Family Guy after developing two animated films, The Life of Larry and Larry & Steve. MacFarlane redesigned the films' protagonist Larry and his dog Steve, and renamed them Peter and Brian, respectively. Shortly after the third season of Family Guy aired in 2001, Fox canceled the series. However, favorable DVD sales and high ratings for syndicated reruns convinced the network to renew the show in 2004. The series takes place in the fictional town of Quahog, Rhode Island (pronounced /ˈkoʊhɒɡ/), based on MacFarlane's upbringing and education.
Family Guy has been nominated for 12 Primetime Emmy Awards and 11 Annie Awards, and has won three of each. It has garnered three Golden Reel Award nominations, winning once. In 2009, it was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series, the first time an animated series was nominated for the award since The Flintstones in 1961. Family Guy has also received negative criticism, including unfavorable comparisons for its similarities to The Simpsons.
Many tie-in media have been released, including Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story, a straight-to-DVD special released in 2005; Family Guy: Live in Vegas, a soundtrack-DVD combo released in 2005, featuring music from the show as well as original music created by MacFarlane and Walter Murphy; a video game and pinball machine, released in 2006 and 2007, respectively; and, since 2005, six books published by Harper Adult based on the Family Guy universe. In 2008, MacFarlane confirmed that the cast was interested in producing a feature film and that he was working on a story for film adaptation. A spin-off series, The Cleveland Show, premiered on September 27, 2009, as a part of the "Animation Domination" lineup on Fox. The eighth season of Family Guy premiered on the same night.

The show revolves around the adventures of the family of Peter Griffin, a bumbling, but well-intentioned, blue-collar worker. Peter is an Irish American Catholic with a prominent Rhode Island and Eastern Massachusetts accent.[84] His wife Lois is a stay-at-home mother and piano teacher, and has a distinct New England accent from being a member of the Pewterschmidt family of wealthy socialites.[85] Peter and Lois have three children: Meg, their teenage daughter, who is frequently the butt of Peter's jokes due to her homeliness and lack of popularity; Chris, their teenage son, who is overweight, unintelligent and, in many respects, a younger version of his father; and Stewie, their diabolical infant son of ambiguous sexual orientation who has adult mannerisms, and speaks fluently with stereotypical archvillain phrases, and an accent based on old British movie stars such as Rex Harrison.[86] Living with the family is Brian, the family dog, who is highly anthropomorphized, drinks martinis, smokes cigarettes, drives a Prius, and engages in human conversation, though he is still considered a pet in many respects.[87]
Many recurring characters appear alongside the Griffin family. These include the family's neighbors: sex-crazed airline-pilot bachelor Glenn Quagmire; mild-mannered deli owner Cleveland Brown and his wife (ex-wife as of the fourth-season episode "The Cleveland–Loretta Quagmire")[88] Loretta Brown, with their hyperactive son, Cleveland Jr.; paraplegic police officer Joe Swanson, his wife Bonnie and their baby daughter Susie (it should be noted that Bonnie is pregnant with Susie from the show's beginning until the 7th episode of the 7th season); paranoid Jewish pharmacist Mort Goldman, his wife Muriel and their geeky and annoying son Neil; and elderly ephebophile Herbert. TV news anchors Tom Tucker and Diane Simmons, Asian reporter Tricia Takanawa, and Blaccu-Weather meteorologist Ollie Williams also make frequent appearances. Quahog mayor, Mayor Adam West, is in various episodes.

Family Guy has received many positive reviews from critics. Catherine Seipp of the National Review Online described it as a "nasty but extremely funny" cartoon.[101] Caryn James of The New York Times, called it a show with an "outrageously satirical family" and "includes plenty of comic possibilities and parodies."[102] The Sydney Morning Herald named Family Guy the "Show of the Week" on April 21, 2009, hailing it a "pop culture-heavy masterpiece".[103] Frazier Moore from The Seattle Times called it an "endless craving for humor about bodily emissions". He also thought it was "breathtakingly smart" and said a "blend of the ingenious with the raw helps account for its much broader appeal". He finished up summarizing it as "rude, crude and deliciously wrong".[104] The series has also attracted many celebrities, including Emily Blunt, who has stated that Family Guy is her favorite series, and has expressed strong interest in becoming a guest star on the show.[105] George Lucas 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 is the only show that he watches. MacFarlane said Lucasfilm was extremely helpful when the Family Guy crew wanted to parody their works.[106] The New Yorker's Nancy Franklin said that Family Guy is becoming one of the best animated shows there is, commenting on its ribaldry and popularity, even saying that it was better than The Simpsons, in terms of quality.[107] The show has also become a hit on Hulu, becoming the second highest viewed show after Saturday Night Live.[108]


Cover of issue 458 of Mad Magazine, showing the Family Guy characters crossed over with characters from The Simpsons.

Criticism and controversy

Family Guy has also received its share of negative treatment. For example, Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly has frequently panned the show, grading it with a "D",[109] and naming it the worst show of the 1999–2000 television season.[110] The Parents Television Council, a watchdog group founded by L. Brent Bozell III, has published outspoken critical views of Family Guy. Family Guy made the PTC's 2000,[111] 2005[112] and 2006[113] lists of "worst prime-time shows for family viewing", and several Family Guy episodes were chosen as "Worst TV Shows of the Week" for reasons of profanity, animated nudity, and violence. The Council has frequently noted that the series was among the most popular shows among children aged two to 12, cautioning parents that children will be attracted by the show because of its animated format, while asserting that the series is suitable only for adults.[114]
The series has frequently been criticized for using story premises and humor similar to those used in episodes of The Simpsons. The Simpsons depicted Peter Griffin as a "clone" of Homer Simpson in a Halloween special,[115] and as a fugitive accused of "Plagiarismo" in the episode "The Italian Bob". Family Guy is also mocked in the two-part episode, ("Cartoon Wars Part I" and "Cartoon Wars Part II"), of South Park,[116] 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. MacFarlane responded to the criticism, saying it was 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.[117]
In February 2010, the show came under attack by Fox News commentator and former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, for its portrayal of a girl with Down syndrome whom Chris admires. In one line, the girl says that her mother is a former governor of Alaska. Palin, whose youngest son has Down syndrome, called the episode a "kick in the gut".[118][119][120] The voice actor who portrayed Palin's daughter, Andrea Fay Friedman, who also has Down syndrome, responded by saying, "In my family we think laughing is good. My parents raised me to have a sense of humor and to live a normal life. My mother did not carry me around under her arm like a loaf of French bread the way former Governor Palin carries her son Trig around looking for sympathy and votes."[121]