Family Guy TV Episodes, Video Clips

Peanut Butter Jelly Time Family Guy Video Clip

2006-09-27T15:55:00.000-07:00

Hilarious! Peanut Butter Jelly Time. Where you at? Der you go..

Video Clip of Family Guy Creators

2006-09-05T19:08:00.000-07:00

Excellent Family Guy introduction video with clips from the creator Seth Macfarlane, and some of the actors who do the voices. Seth Macfarlane comments on pushing the envelope in edgy, dark humor and his run ins with FCC and cencorship.

Hitler Video Clip from Family Guy

2006-09-05T19:01:00.000-07:00

Hilarious Family Guy video clip of Hitler where Peter Griffin bothers him while he is working and during his speech.

Family Guy

2006-08-23T01:33:00.000-07:00

The series Family Guy was first released in 1999 by FOX NETWORK thanks to the creator Seth MacFarlane. And although cancelled due to pressure from disgruntled viewers and lack of ratings due to the networks constant changing of the shows timeslot with very little prior notice.

But thanks to a successful DVD and UMD release and a rabid fan base launching petitions and storming the network with mail requesting and demanding it was put back on air, it was reinstated…It was one of the few programs to have been revived in a fashion that rivalled the notorious Japanese ‘Toriyama’ incident which was another revival effort which made waves in the community.

Currently Macfarlane is also working on the sitcom ‘American Dad’ Fox’s fondness of loveable yet blunt characters was once again shown as the main character, is an overweight, incompetent father of three, who is married to an attractive housewife who cares for the children in their suburban home in the town of quahog. The last word in that sentence could easily become Springfield, but the comparisons will be explored in detail later. The writer Seth MacFarlane not only writes the insane plot but takes an active part in the show as he voices several of the characters. The voices of Peter, Brian and Stewie Griffin, Glen Quagmire , The Judge, Principal Shepherd, Pope, Carter Pewterschmidt and Tom Tucker. These are all provided by Macfarlane.

On Family Guy writer Mike Henry also plays his part as Cleaveland, Cleaveland Jr and Greased Up Deaf Guy. The other characters however are played by out by an all star cast. Lacey Chabert played Meg in the first season, but from season 2 the part was in the hands of Mila Kunis, who also plays Jackie Bruckhart in the sitcom ‘That 70’s show. Seth Green, the voice of Chris also played Oz the werewolf in ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ then later Scot Evil in the smash film Austin Powers. Alex Borstein ex MAD TV star, voices the roles of Lois Griffin and Trish Takinawa.

Characters of Family Guy

2006-08-23T01:32:00.000-07:00

Characters-Meet the Griffin’s

The main characters of the show are the Griffin family, head of which is Peter Griffin, the average Joe of America. Although he seems to be built in with an incredible pertinence for stupidity, one that easily surpasses Homer of the Simpson’s (a show which shares more than similarities at some points) he maintains a loveably edge which the latter has lost in recent years. Choosing my words careful I use the word support as loosely as possible as to describe Peter’s trials in the workplace, the said work place being ‘Happy Go Lucky Toys’ a phrase which sums up Peter quite well as he gets into all kinds of trouble ranging from sexual harassment accusations to even killing his own boss. His loving wife Lois who tends to act like an everyday housewife, when is actually of aristocratic blood, which is ironic when reflecting on the Griffin’s current financial situation. Their children, one of which a painfully stereotypical teenage girl, Meg, who’s angst in life is that she is not as attractive or cool as the other kids in school.

Another, the carbon copy of his father maybe even a little more unintelligent that the former mentioned , Chris, is also dealing with the issues of growing up and becoming a man. Finally their sweet baby Stewie, at just a year old he wants to follow in the footsteps of some of the greatest men alive…by ruling the world! The sardonic youngster is also obsessed by trying to rid the world of his mother, something that is constantly being foiled due to some kind of incompetence on either his or someone else’s part. The last addition to the family is their trusty canine, mans best friend, Brian. Brian like all good dogs is toilet trained, quiet and able to drive you home after a night out. Brian is the martini drinking, sarcastic intellect of the family, who was tragically separated from his mother as a child and never saw her again before her death. (where she came to see the light of day as a stuffed animal) He appears to have more problems with the emotional drama that life throws his way than most the family at times due the way he tries to deal with them. And although he and Stewie chat frequently, its apparent that he’s the only one who can see the true nature of the infant as no one else in the family hear what Stewie says in the same context as the viewers.

The friendly neighbourhood hide some very vibrant characters, such as Quagmire, who can be best described as a sexual deviant, and all round pervert. The very plain and reliable Cleaveland brown, who is kept under the thumb of his wife Loretta Brown. Their incredibly energetic son Cleaveland Jr who at one point is taken under the wing of Peter so he can live out his golfing coach fantasy and prove a point to Cleaveland. And of course no street is complete without a watchman on duty, the one in question is officer Joe Swanson, who although paralyzed from the waist down after being attacked by thugs, still chases down the crooks of Quahog. His wife (who must be terminally pregnant for some reason or another ) is an average, if yet a little frisky housewife who has managed to give birth to at least one son, a teenage boy who plays out as Meg’s unattainable love interest. Other Quahog regulars are the local news team Tom Tucker, Diane Simmons and the constantly labelled Asian reporter Trisha Takinawa.

Another famous ‘face’ would be Adam West, the mayor of quahog , a eccentric and delusional character who’s erratic choices are abundant and completely misguided. But no comedy is compete without the regular miscreants that have their 10 seconds of fame, and Family Guy has a trove of them. These are the coupon chicken, Herbert, The Judge, Greased Up Deaf Guy and even an Anthropomorphic personification of Death himself!

Structure and Comedic Style of Family Guy

2006-08-23T01:31:00.000-07:00

Structure-How do they make you laugh?

The way the characters cope with situations is very similar with the Simpson’s in the ‘Closed Loop’ approach where everything is reverted to it’s original state at the end of an episode. But even though most of the episodes are self contained there are exceptions, an example of this is when Peter becomes a fisherman as he has lost his job from killing his previous employer at the toy factory. Or when references are made to previous episodes. The show itself loves to parody just about anything, with references to TV shows, films, actors, singers, books and even historical events. The town of Quahog is undoubtedly based on modern day Rhode Island, this is apparent by the obvious naming of the local public buildings. The show can’t seem to avoid grabbing a celebrity in every few episodes, for example Luke Perry’s sexuality was once again questioned, and answered in the sitcom in its own way in series 2. By Meg publishing an article that Peter had wrote for her, which accused Perry of being homosexual. Which of course is followed by a lawsuit against Meg for defamation of character.

The jokes themselves don’t vary as such, and aren’t as witty as they believe themselves to be. Most follow a simple slapstick routine, or by degrading another character for laughs. Most of the self styled jokes though are separate from the storyline, and are brought in through a character wondering what things would be like if something was different about the current situation, or when they refer to an earlier time using the phrase “Remember that time”

But not all of the gags are based that way, some localized ones are included for MacFarlane’s hometown, not to mention some cross over moments where characters from other FOX programs. Such as one episode where Homer from the Simpson’s was switched with Peter for the introduction, and what was notable is that you don’t notice anything different between the animation styles.

But what Family Guy is well known for is the way it stomps through controversial issues without any refinement or mercy, no matter what the similarities between itself and most animated sitcoms is that it wasn’t afraid to shout about what other shows thought were no go areas. Examples of this are ever so more apparent in the DVD release, where it pushes the mark once more with it mentioning incest and others sensitive issues.

Family Guy Criticism

2006-08-23T01:29:00.001-07:00

Criticism has been a common thing for Family Guy creators to hear since the first episode aired. Because of the outlandish plots which involves adult situations and humors, many adults with kids feel the material is not for younger audiences. The repetitiveness and non-complicated plotlines also tend to irk some watchers.

Familt Guy fans should be happy to know that creator Seth MacFarlene is not sitting back and taking all the criticism without responding. A clear response to the bad press from Entertainment Weekly was given by Family Guy in their only DVD movie release. Parents showed their discontent with the show even further by voting it as one of the worst shows for families to watch in two different years in the past as well.

The criticism given, however, is not limited to simply concerned parents and bored watchers. Many fellow cartoon creators blast the show as well. The creator of popular cartoon Ren and Stimpy felt that Family Guy’s animation design was simple enough to have been created by adolescents, and the crew behind the show do not set their goals high enough. A recent episode of South Park further criticized Family Guy, as the character Cartman went off on how terrible the show was and the creating crew were mocked to be mindless seals who put no thought into their ideas.

Family Guy vs Simpsons

2006-08-23T01:29:00.000-07:00

Some criticism is leveled to Family Guy for the fact that some concepts the show uses seems similar in nature to another popular cartoon in The Simpsons. The Simpsons crew went as far to accuse the show of this fact through animation, by making one of Homer’s clones Peter in an episode for Halloween. Family Guy soon fired back by adding Homer as a cameo to the opening of one of their newer episodes released this season. However, the possibility that Family Guy is copying off of the Simpsons is not a concept only recognized by the Simpsons creators and crews. Many viewers and people in the media feel that this is true as well. Both Peter and Homer are obese and lazy in their day to day activities. Both are married to good-looking wives who are sometimes angered by the lack of work the two do. Of course, these similarities are also shared by a classic cartoon in the Flintstones. So one has to wonder if there really is an argument for either show to say they are original.

More similarities can be found in the fact that each family has six similar members. As mentioned before, both Marge and Lois are stay-at-home moms who are smarter than their husbands and responsible for the up keeping of their families. Also mentioned before, however, is the fact that it is not uncommon to have a male head of the household modeled as Homer or Peter. In addition none of the children in the families bare resemblance to each other. It is important to acknowledge that the Simpsons itself may not be original, and it may be okay to copy the basic ideas behind the show.

Family Guy took another stab at the Simpsons show when they paid homage to the original television series the nation’s favorite animated family first appeared in. To mock how bad the animation was in the original Simpsons, the end of this episode ends with terrible animation and movement from the Griffens.

Don’t feel sorry for the creators of The Simpsons though. Matt Groening seems perfectly content to compete and trade blows with Family Guy and has compared the rivalry to past cartoon battles. In addition, Groening has been quoted as liking MacFarlene personally and respecting him as a colleague.

Family Guy Episodes

2006-08-23T01:28:00.000-07:00

A quirky habit of the Family Guy crew is to name the titles of their episodes after popular media names, such as movies or television shows. Family Guy shows no signs of halting in their constant mocking of popular media objects.

Have you ever noticed that every episode in the beginning has the words murder or death in them? Well that is because the crew intentionally were trying to work the series up as radio murder-show with the titles. Unfortunately for the writers, having so many titles with similar names got confusing and they had to scrap the idea so they could communicate better when discussing ideas and past episodes..

Family Guy Opening Theme

2006-08-23T01:22:00.000-07:00

The beginning of the Family Guy theme song, which was written by Walter Murphy, is an obvious parody of All in the Family. Peter and Lois sing around a piano with their family, much like the theme in the aforementioned show.

In the middle of the theme song Stewie Griffen is heard saying laugh and cry. Many people have mistaken these words for effin cry, a reference to a bad word, because of closed captioning and hard to hear lyrics. Creator Seth Macfarlene addressed this issue by making the theme sound better for the newer seasons and saying that the theme was always laugh and cry. Many fans and critics alike, however, still believe that the original words were indeed effin’ cry and this was changed due to the public response.

As with the show itself, the theme has been known to change to mock other popular shows and media from time to time. Keep a close eye out during the beginning and you may be able to see a different theme!

Family Guy is Born

2006-08-23T01:21:00.000-07:00

In the 90s, Seth MacFarlene created two short animations that featured a fat man and an intelligent dog, like Peter and Brian. One of these cartoons did indeed make it to television and aired in 1997.

After FOX executives got a hold of his work, they were more than happy to set Seth up with his own pilot and paved the way for Family Guy’s creation.

First Run of Family Guy

2006-08-23T01:20:00.001-07:00

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.

Bringing Back Family Guy

2006-08-23T01:20:00.000-07:00

As with the first cancellation attempt, fans were not happy with the decision by the network to cancel Family Guy after the third season. One petition received thousands of signatures and support within a very short time span. But all the signatures in the world, along with multiple mail efforts could not save Family Guy from being cancelled by FOX. Even a last ditch effort to get another network to renew Family Guy failed and all hope seemed to be lost.

Family Guy TV Return

2006-08-23T01:19:00.000-07:00

Cartoon Network decided to add Family Guy to it’s block of cartoons for adults in 2003 and has continued to air the show for three years now. Family Guy was so successful in this block that the network boasted that it got the highest ratings of any show on at it’s time for the age group they were aiming for. This included popular talk shows on public channels.

Another way fans were able to watch their favorite cartoon was through the DVD releases which started around the same time as the reruns did. Initially released in two parts, the DVDs had the greatest success of any box-set of a TV show has ever had, selling millions in it’s first year alone. Because of the popularity of the show both during it’s syndication and during it’s DVD releases, some people began to muse that it was a possibility for the show to be renewed.

Finally in late 2003, after seeing the success the show had, magazines began to claim that FOX was in talks to bring back Family Guy. A few months later it was confirmed by the show creator that the popular cartoon would indeed return. More details were provided in in-depth interviews by Seth.

An even more official announcement came from the network of Cartoon Network, which claimed that twenty-two new episodes were set to premier later in the year. FOX itself had the rights to use these episodes starting in the year 2005. The show creator’s, Seth MacFarlene, excitement was plainly shown in interviews given as he commented how happy he was to be back with the show.

Showing no signs of slowing down in it’s constant mocking of the FOX network, the first new episode of Family Guy made fun of every failed launch the network attempted to make while the popular cartoon was cancelled. This episode aired in May of 2005.

The new season has had good success on television, again partially due to the fact that it is constantly aired by Cartoon Network at nights. Every new episode has been rerun on Adult Swim within a few days or weeks.

Family Guy also used it’s new found success to almost make their way to the big-screen. A DVD release featuring Stewie’s adventures while trying to find his “real” father was made for a direct-to-DVD movie. The DVD contains many extras as well as the entertaining movie.

Want to play as you favorite characters? A video game is currently in the works and should be out within a few months! Play as Peter, Stewie, or even Brian in this game adaptation of the Griffens.

Finally happy with the ratings of the show, FOX has indeed allowed the initial order of twenty-two episodes to pass so far.

Family Guy TV Syndication

2006-08-23T01:16:00.000-07:00

The United Kingdom viewers can view Family Guy on the channel BBC 2 as well as buying the sets on DVD for their own viewing pleasure. Newer episodes of the series, season four, are shown on FX for now.

The Seven Network hosts Family Guy in Australia, showing the episodes on Thursdays all summer long. Australia also shows the show on several other networks for reruns and not new episodes

Canada, which also receives FOX, shows Family Guy on the Global Television Network. Teletoon presents reruns of the show in both English and French languages for the Canadian viewers.

Thursdays on Pro 7 is where German viewers can see Family Guy currently.

Swedish people can watch Family Guy reruns on ZTV and TV3.

Belgium shows the show with many advertisements and other breaks on their channel of Kanaal Twee. There is no dubbed version of the cartoon, however, for this country.

As with Sweden, ZTV hosts reruns of Family Guy for Norway. TV2 has also been known to show episodes in the past.

A branch of FOX in Latin America airs the popular cartoon on different days of the week.

Only a satellite channel known as One-TV airs Family Guy for the Middle East, a region which is oft-made fun of in the show.

Israeli viewers can see Family Guy on the YES channel.

Irish people have the same choices as the UK in viewing Family Guy, the BBC Two and FX.

La Sexta airs reruns of Family Guy for Spain, while FOX, just like in the States, airs newer episodes.

KTV shows reruns in Kuwait.

As with the Middle East, One-TV shows Family Guy for UAE.

Finally, reruns of the Family Guy are shown on TV3 and C4 in New Zealand.