First Run of Family Guy

In 1999 the first episode of Family Guy was shown after the Super Bowl was played. The regular season of the show began in April of that year and lasted six episodes before the season finale brought it to a close. This short first season had the main goal of allowing viewers to comfort themselves with the characters in the show. A much longer second season of Family Guy began in the following fall. The final, or at least the final at that time, season aired in 2001. Because the show was constantly moved to different timeslots and days, it was hard for the creators to maintain consistent and high ratings. Because of this, Family Guy was never able to establish itself in the lineup for FOX and was shown in weird times during most of it’s duration.

Unlike in the United States, each season of the first two of Family Guy were tabbed at fourteen episodes a piece for the United Kingdoms. This is due to the fact that seven second season episodes were added to the first season.

Many fans of the show began to wonder and argue whether or not the show would be cancelled by the middle of the second and third seasons. After hearing of FOX’s plans to cancel and remove the show from the air, fans reacted in outrage and attempted to sway the network into reviving the show. Multiple petitions and other forms of persuasive methods were used to get a third season.

For a while, the fans efforts seemed to have worked as the third season was indeed ordered and released. There was still no answer to whether or not the show would have a fourth season, however, and the frustration of the creators showed in their jokes during final episodes. Finally FOX announced that they did indeed plan on canceling the show for good and it was done.