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Family Guy is an animated American television sitcom created by Seth MacFarlane that airs on Fox and regularly on other television networks in syndication. The show centers on a dysfunctional family that lives in the fictional town of Quahog, Rhode Island. The show uses frequent "cutaway gags", jokes in the form of tangential vignettes.
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.
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Quotations
(Stop it.)You're embarassing me!
Cleveland, Jr. took it alright. Straight to the grave. The heartbreak was just too much for him.
Coming up; a New Orleans man says his socks are finally dry.
Face it Peter, you're an easy mark. You couldn't be more of a sucker if you were wrapped in plastic with a stick coming out of your ass.
Hey, Pedro, we're heading down to The Drunken Clam for a couple of beers, and I'm gonna shake the lady tree and see what comes out.
I dont know what you're complaining about Peter, mine goes inside of me when I stand up.
And the Wiener is...
Encyclopedia
Family Guy is an animated American television sitcom created by Seth MacFarlane that airs on Fox and regularly on other television networks in syndication. The show centers on a dysfunctional family that lives in the fictional town of Quahog, Rhode Island. The show uses frequent "cutaway gags", jokes in the form of tangential vignettes.
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 was the first cancelled show to be resurrected based on DVD sales.
History
Family Guy was created 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 three more seasons (for a total of six) and a straight-to-DVD movie, Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story. The show celebrated its official 100th episode during its sixth season in autumn of 2007, resulting in the show's syndication. Season 7 began airing Sunday, September 28, 2008. The show is contracted to continue producing episodes until 2012.
Characters
The show usually 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. His wife Lois is generally 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. Peter and Lois have three children: teenage daughter Meg, who is frequently the butt of Peter's jokes due to her homeliness and lack of popularity; teenage son Chris, who is overweight, unintelligent and, in many respects, a younger version of his father; and son Stewie, a diabolical infant of ambiguous sexual orientation who has adult mannerisms and speaks fluently with an affected upper-class English accent and stereotypical archvillain phrases. Living with the family is Brian, the family dog, who is highly anthropomorphized, walks on two legs, drinks Martinis, smokes cigarettes and engages in human conversation, though he is still considered a pet in many respects.
Many recurring characters appear alongside the Griffin family. These include the family's colorful 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") Loretta Brown with their hyperactive son, Cleveland Jr.; paraplegic police officer Joe Swanson and his perpetually pregnant wife Bonnie; paranoid Jewish pharmacist Mort Goldman, his wife Muriel Goldman and their geeky and annoying son Neil; and creepy old ephebophile Herbert. TV news anchors Tom Tucker and Diane Simmons also make regular appearances (along with Asian Reporter Tricia Takanawa and Blaccu-Weather meteorologist Ollie Williams), as well as mentally disturbed celebrity Mayor Adam West (voiced by and named after the real Adam West).
For its first three seasons Family Guy did not use an especially large cast of recurring minor characters. Since returning from cancellation, many one-shot characters from prior episodes have reappeared in new episodes, although most of the plotlines center on the exploits of the Griffin family.
Setting
The majority of events on the show take place in Quahog, Rhode Island, a fictional suburb of Providence. Seth MacFarlane, the show's creator, resided in Providence when he was a student at Rhode Island School of Design, and leaves unequivocal Rhode Island landmarks from which one may infer intended real-world locations for events. MacFarlane also often borrows the names of Rhode Island locations and icons such as Pawtucket and Buddy Cianci for use in the show. MacFarlane, in an interview with local WNAC Fox 64 News, has stated that the town is modeled after Cranston, Rhode Island.
Several times every episode, the actual Providence skyline can be seen in the distance.The three buildings that are depicted are, from left to right and furthest to closest, One Financial Center, 50 Kennedy Plaza, and the Bank of America Tower. This ordering of buildings and the angle at which they are viewed (see figure at left) indicates that Quahog is primarily west of downtown Providence if it is to have a real-world counterpart. However, in a few episodes Quahog is shown to have a coastline (see "Fifteen Minutes of Shame", "Fore Father" and "Perfect Castaway"), which only Cranston and Providence possess. This is supported by the fact that the real-world "31 Spooner Street" is located in Providence, immediately west of Roger Williams Park. This could be a coincidence, as MacFarlane has said in a DVD commentary that the street was named after Spooner Hill Road, along which is his boyhood home. In "E. Peterbus Unum", a map of Rhode Island is shown with Quahog shown in red with Quahog appearing to be in the vicinity of Tiverton.
According to Mayor Adam West in "Fifteen Minutes of Shame", the town was founded by a sailor of a New York colony-bound boat who was thrown overboard for his loquaciousness. A magical clam rescued him and brought him to shore. Together the two founded a new town named Quahog, a quahog being a type of clam. On MacFarlane's part, the choice of name is a nod to the state's characteristic staple. Although quahogs are common throughout New England, the small state of Rhode Island produces one quarter of the country's catch.
Cast
The main cast and their main parts are as follows:
The main cast do voices for several recurring characters other than those listed, as well as impersonate celebrities and pop-culture icons.
Recurring cast members include: Patrick Warburton as Joe Swanson; Adam West as the mayor Adam West; Jennifer Tilly as Bonnie Swanson; John G. Brennan as Mort Goldman; Carlos Alazraqui as Jonathan Weed (until the character was killed off in season three); Adam Carolla as Death (excluding Death's first appearance, during which the character was voiced by Norm MacDonald); Lori Alan as Diane Simmons.
Lacey Chabert voiced Meg Griffin for the first production season (15 episodes); however, because of a contractual agreement, she was never credited. She was eventually credited at the end of The Family Guy 100th Episode Special, which featured clips of her voice work on the show.
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 the first episode "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.
Some episodes are not aired in full in their initial broadcast because of profanity or cultural 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.
Entire episodes can be streamed online on three VOD websites: Hulu, a jointly owned site between Fox and NBC, Adult Swim Video, the of , and Fox on Demand.
Crossovers with American Dad!
The show has periodically featured the inclusion of certain elements from American Dad!, another animated comedy series created and produced by Seth MacFarlane. Appearances include:
- "Meet the Quagmires" – Roger, the alien who lives with the Smiths, makes a last-minute cameo in this episode, asking the Griffins, "Who ate all the Pecan Sandies?". His line is a reference to a line he said early in the American Dad! pilot episode, asking Francine if she bought Pecan Sandies while she was out shopping.
- "Blue Harvest" – Roger can be spotted conversing with one of the alien bar patrons while holding a glass of wine during the cantina scene.
- "Lois Kills Stewie" – CIA agent Stan Smith, the main character of American Dad!, as well as his supervisor Avery Bullock and the CIA Headquarters, are featured in this episode. Though the story is considered non-canon, these elements play a more prominent role in this episode, making this the first episode to have an actual crossover. Stan and Bullock were voiced by their usual American Dad! voice actors, Seth MacFarlane (in addition to his regular Family Guy characters) and Patrick Stewart, respectively.
Currently, there has never been an official crossover between the two. However, Seth MacFarlane said there might be one during the current seventh season of Family Guy.
DVD releases
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 the three-part season four finale ("Stewie B. Goode", "Bango Was His Name, Oh!" and "Stu and Stewie's Excellent Adventure")
Feature film
In an interview with TV Week on July 18, 2008 , Seth MacFarlane announced plans to produce a theatrically released Family Guy movie sometime "within the next year". He recently came up with an idea for the story, "something that you could not do on the show, which [to him] is the only reason to do a movie." He later went to confirm that he is currently contracted to produce the film, which he imagines to be "an old-style musical with dialogue" similar to The Sound of Music, saying that he would "really be trying to capture, musically, that feel."
Music and music video
The show often incorporates musical numbers in Broadway style as part of its episode technique, either as tangential vignettes or to advance the plotline. On April 26, 2005 Family Guy: Live in Vegas was released and was a collaboration between composer Walter Murphy and Seth MacFarlane. It features a show tune theme. Only one song, the theme song, is related to the show. Also included was the music video "Sexy Party".
Writers' strike
During the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike, official production of the show was halted for most of December 2007 and various periods afterwards. Fox continued producing episodes without creator Seth MacFarlane's final approval, which he termed "a colossal dick move" in an interview with Variety. Though MacFarlane refused to work on the show, his contract under Fox required him to contribute to any episodes it would subsequently produce. Production officially resumed after the end of the strike, with episodes airing regularly from February 17, 2008, onward.
Podcast
28 episode podcasts were released on 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. As of October 2008, these podcasts were no longer available on the US iTunes market.
Awards
Family Guy and its cast have been nominated for 8 Emmy Awards, with three wins:
- 2000: Outstanding Voice-Over Performance – Seth MacFarlane for "Stewie Griffin"
- 2002: Outstanding Music and Lyrics – Walter Murphy (composer), Seth MacFarlane (lyricist)
- 2007: Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation – Steven Fonti (storyboard artist)
The show has also been nominated for ten Annies, and won three times, twice in 2006 and once in 2008. The show has also been nominated for a Golden Reel Award three times, winning once.
Criticism
Family Guy has been panned by certain television critics, most notably from Entertainment Weekly, which was in turn attacked by MacFarlane with a scene in "There's Something About Paulie" in which Peter uses a copy of the magazine as toilet paper, and another scene Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story where Stewie snaps the neck of a reporter for the magazine.
The show is criticized for using story premises and humor similar to those used in episodes of The Simpsons. The Simpsons depicts Peter Griffin as a "clone" of Homer Simpson in a Halloween special, and as a fugitive accused of "Plagiarismo" (faux-Italian for plagiarism) in the episode "The Italian Bob".
Family Guy is also mocked in a two-part episode "Cartoon Wars" 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 MacFarlane responded to the criticism on the Volume 4 box set DVD commentary, 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.
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 do not have to aim very high. You can draw Family Guy when you're ten years old. You do not have to get any better than that to become a professional cartoonist. 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 musical revue fashion, around the bed of a man with end-stage AIDS, delivering the patient's diagnosis in song.
Spin-off
The Hollywood Reporter announced that there are plans to produce a spin-off of Family Guy to be focused on Cleveland Brown. The project is named The Cleveland Show and will be created by Seth MacFarlane, Mike Henry (the voice of Cleveland) and American Dad! showrunner Rich Appel. This was spin-off by Cleveland on the show at the very end of the episode "Baby Not On Board" (where he asks Quagmire if he knew he was getting a spin-off).
Lawsuits
Carol Burnett
In March 2007, 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 rejected 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 the show of copyright infringement upon the song "When You Wish Upon a Star" by a parody song entitled "I Need a Jew", from the episode When You Wish Upon a Weinstein. Bourne Co., the sole U.S. copyright owner of the song, alleges the parody pairs a "thinly veiled" copy of their music with antisemitic lyrics. Named in the suit are Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp., Fox Broadcasting Co., Cartoon Network, Seth MacFarlane, and composer Walter Murphy; the suit seeks to stop the program's distribution, and unspecified damages.
Because "I Need a Jew" uses the copyrighted melody without commenting on that song, it may not be a First Amendment–protected parody per the Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc. ruling.
Art Metrano
In December 2007, actor/comedian Art Metrano filed a lawsuit accusing the show of copyright infringement over a scene in Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story in which Jesus performs Metrano's signature "magic" act which involved absurd faux magical hand gestures (such as making a finger "jump" from one hand to the other) while humming the distinctive tune "Fine and Dandy". Metrano's suit claims this performance is protected under terms of the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976. Named in the suit are 20th Century Fox, show creator Seth MacFarlane, and collaborators Steve Callaghan and Alex Borstein. Metrano performed this routine on programs such as The Tonight Show, where he made several appearances.
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