Family Guy is an American animated television sitcom created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series centers on the Griffins, a dysfunctional family consisting of Peter, Lois, Meg, Chris, Stewie, and their pet dog Brian. The show uses frequent cutaway gags, often in the form of tangential vignettes which parody American culture.
Family Guy was conceived by MacFarlane after developing two predecessor animated films, The Life of Larry and Larry & Steve. MacFarlane changed the design of the protagonist Larry and renamed him Peter; he also changed the design of Larry's dog Steve, and developed him into Brian. Shortly after the third season of Family Guy aired in 2003, the series was canceled. However, because of favorable DVD sales and high ratings on syndicated reruns, the network renewed the show in 2004. The setting for the stories is a partially fictional town in Rhode Island, based on MacFarlane's upbringing and education.
Family Guy has been nominated for eleven Primetime Emmy Awards, of which it won three. The show has also been nominated for eleven Annie Awards, and won three times. 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 been challenged with negative criticism, including three notable lawsuits and low reviews for its similarities to the animated series The Simpsons.
The series has spurred release of tie-in media, such as 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 HarperCollins based on the Family Guy universe. In 2008, MacFarlane confirmed that the cast were interested in producing a feature film and that he was working on a story. In 2009, a spin-off series The Cleveland Show, created by Seth MacFarlane, Mike Henry, and Rich Appel premiered on Fox. Family Guy is currently in its eighth season, which premiered on September 27, 2009.
History
Seth MacFarlane created a short film in 1995 entitled The Life of Larry while studying at the Rhode Island School of Design.[2] The short featured a middle-aged slob named Larry Cummings, his cynical talking dog, Steve, supportive wife Lois, and pudgy teenage son Milt.[3] The film begins with a live-action segment where MacFarlane, as himself, briefly describes the show and its characters.[3] After being hired at Hanna-Barbera, MacFarlane was given a chance in 1996 to direct a sequel entitled Larry and Steve,[2] a seven-minute short[4]broadcast as part of Cartoon Network's World Premiere Toons.[2] The film stars MacFarlane, who reprises his role as Larry Cummings and his talking dog Steve, among various background characters, and Lori Alan, who provided additional character voices.[4]
MacFarlane conceived the idea for the Family Guy in 1999, developing it out of his two short films. MacFarlane caught the attention of Fox, and was given $50,000 to make a pilot. McFarlane completed the 11 minute pilot after six months of hand animation. Upon review, Fox gave the green light to Family Guy as a series.[5] Although Family Guy's cancellation was initially announced after the second season, Fox decided to make a third season,[6][7] after which it was truly canceled at the end of 2003. However, reruns on Adult Swim drove up interest in the show, and its DVD releases did quite well, selling over 2.2 million copies in one year, which renewed network interest.[8] Family Guy returned to production in 2004, making four more seasons (for a total of seven) and a straight-to-DVD special, Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story. The show celebrated its official 100th episode during its sixth season in November 2007, resulting in the show's syndication.[9] The show is contracted to continue producing episodes until 2012.[10]
Production
Staff
Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane as well as Daniel Palladino, Lolee Aries and David Zuckerman have all been the executive producers throughout the show's history. Another executive producer is David A. Goodman, who joined the show as a co-executive producer in season three.[11] Alex Borstein, the voice of Lois, has also worked as a producer, both executive and supervising, for the fourth and fifth seasons.[12]
The Family Guy writing crew plot episode ideas together and decide which characters to use. If most of the writers agree on an episode idea, it is then approved by MacFarlane and must then be approved by Fox before production can begin. For the first months of production, the writers shared one office lent to them by the King of the Hill production crew.[13] In interviews and on the DVD commentary of season one, MacFarlane explained that he is a fan of 1930s and 1940s radio programs, particularly the radio thriller anthology "Suspense", and in the manner of that series gave many early episodes ominous titles having to do with death and murder, such as "Death Has a Shadow" and "Mind Over Murder". On the DVD, he further explained that they dropped this practice because it made individual episodes hard to identify using their official titles and that the novelty soon wore off.[14][15] Since the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show controversy, the writers have been required to tone down the show's crude humor for television broadcasts.[16] In 2009, an episode dealing with abortion was refused airing by Fox.[17][18]
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.[19] Production officially resumed after the end of the strike, with regularly-airing episodes recommencing on February 17, 2008.[20]
Voice cast
Family Guy has five main cast members, most of whom play several roles. MacFarlane voices three of the show's main characters, Peter Griffin, Brian Griffin and Stewie Griffin.[21] He has stated that he already knew what kind of voice he was looking for the main characters so it was easier to do it himself.[22] Peter's voice is inspired by the voice of a security guard MacFarlane overheard talking while attending the Rhode Island School of Design.[23] Stewie's voice was based on the voice of English actor Rex Harrison,[24] particularly on Harrison's performance in the 1964 musical drama film My Fair Lady.[25] Brian's voice is MacFarlane's regular speaking voice.[22] In addition MacFarlane provides the voice of various recurring and one-time characters, most prominently those of the Griffin's neighbor Glenn Quagmire, news anchor Tom Tucker and Lois' father Carter Pewterschmidt.[26][27]
Alex Borstein voices Lois Griffin, Asian correspondent Tricia Takanawa, Loretta Brown and Lois' mother Barbara Pewterschmidt.[28] Borstein was asked to provide a voice for the pilot while she was working on MADtv. She had not met MacFarlane or seen any artwork and said it was "really sight unseen".[29] At the time, she was doing a stage show in Los Angeles, in which she played a redhead mother, whose voice she had based on one of her cousins.[28][29] The voice was originally slower, when MacFarlane heard it, he replied "Make it a little less [...] annoying[...] and speed it up, or every episode will last four hours".[28]
Seth Green primarily plays Chris Griffin and Neil Goldman.[27][30] Green admittedly did an impression of the Buffalo Bill character from the thriller film The Silence of the Lambs during his audition.[31] His main inspiration for Chris' voice was how "Buffalo Bill" would sound if he worked at a drive-thru in a McDonalds (speaking through a PA system).[32]
Mila Kunis and Lacey Chabert have both played the voices of Meg Griffin.[27] Chabert voiced Meg Griffin for the first production season (15 episodes). However, because of a contractual agreement, she was never credited.[33] Chabert left the series due to time constraints with her acting role in Party of Five, as well as schoolwork,[34] while Kunis won the role after auditions, a slight rewrite of the character and because of her performance on That '70s Show.[35] MacFarlane called Kunis back after her initial audition asking her to speak slower; she was called back again later, this time instructed to enunciate more. Kunis said that she had it under control, and MacFarlane hired her.[35] In an interview with a Sun Media correspondent in 2007, Kunis was asked about her character and said: "She's the scapegoat". "Meg gets picked on a lot. But it's funny. It's like the middle child. She is constantly in the state of being an awkward 14-year-old, when you're kind of going through puberty and what-not. She's just in perpetual mode of humiliation. And it's fun."[36]
Mike Henry plays the voices of Cleveland Brown and Herbert, as well as some minor recurring characters such as Bruce the performance artist and The Greased up Deaf Guy.[37] Henry met MacFarlane at the Rhode Island School of Design and kept in touch with him after they graduated.[38] A few years later, MacFarlane contacted him about being part of Family Guy; he agreed and became both a writer and voice actor for the show.[38] During the shows first four seasons, Henry was credited as a guest star; beginning with season five's "Prick Up Your Ears" however, he began being listed as a main cast member.[38]
Other recurring cast members include: Patrick Warburton as Joe Swanson; Adam West playing himself as mayor Adam West; Jennifer Tilly as Bonnie Swanson; John G. Brennan as Mort Goldman; Carlos Alazraqui as Jonathan Weed; Adam Carolla and Norm Macdonald as Death; Lori Alan as Diane Simmons; and Tara Strong as many additional voices, most notably Meg's singing voice.
| Main cast members |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Seth MacFarlane |
Alex Borstein |
Seth Green |
Mila Kunis |
Mike Henry |
| Peter Griffin, Stewie Griffin, Brian Griffin, Glenn Quagmire, Tom Tucker, Carter Pewterschmidt, others |
Lois Griffin, Loretta Brown, Barbara Pewterschmidt, Tricia Takanawa, others |
Chris Griffin, Neil Goldman, others |
Meg Griffin |
Cleveland Brown, Herbert, others |
Setting
The skyline of
Providence, as viewed from the northwest looking southeast, and its animated
Family Guy counterpart.
MacFarlane resided in Providence when he was a student at Rhode Island School of Design, and includes in the show distinct Rhode Island landmarks from which one may infer intended real-world locations for events.[33][39] MacFarlane 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.[40]
Several times every episode, the actual Providence skyline can be seen in the distance.[33] 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 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, 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.[41]
Production issues
Cancellation and renewal
After only two episodes of the second season, Family Guy was taken off the network's permanent schedule and shown irregularly thereafter. The show returned in March 2000 to finish airing the second season which contained 21 episodes. The third season contained 21 episodes and began airing from July 11, 2001 to February 14, 2002. During its second and third-season runs, Fox frequently moved the show around different days and time slots with little or no notice and consequently, the show's ratings suffered. When Family Guy was shown in the UK, and when the DVDs were subsequently released there (November 12, 2001), the seven episodes of the second season that were produced for season one were included with the first season, balancing them out with 14 episodes each. This resulted in later DVD releases to be labeled inconsistently as compared with original American season (e.g. the Family Guy: Season 6 DVD features Season 5 episodes).[42]
Fox publicly announced that the show had been canceled at the end of the second season in 2002.[43] In spite of the announced cancellation, in 2003 Fox decided to make the third season.[44] Family Guy also had to deal with a very tough time slot (Thursday nights at 8:00 p.m. ET), competing with Survivor and Friends. The situation was later referenced in the show in an episode titled Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story.[45][46] During the third season, Fox announced that the show was canceled for good.[47][48] The series was renewed later in 2005 for its fourth season due to strong DVD sales and its syndication on basic-cable networks.[49][50]
Lawsuits
In March 2007, comedian Carol Burnett filed a lawsuit against 20th Century Fox, claiming that it was a trademark 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 asked for $6 million in damages.[51][52][53] On June 4, 2007, United States District Judge Dean Pregerson rejected the lawsuit, stating that the parody was protected under the First Amendment, citing Hustler Magazine v. Falwell as a precedent.[54]
On October 3, 2007, Bourne Co. Music Publishers filed a lawsuit accusing the show of infringing its copyright on the song "When You Wish Upon a Star", through a parody song entitled "I Need a Jew" appearing in the episode "When You Wish Upon a Weinstein". Bourne Co., the sole United States copyright owner of the song, alleged the parody pairs a "thinly veiled" copy of their music with antisemitic lyrics. Named in the suit were Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp., Fox Broadcasting Co., Cartoon Network, MacFarlane, and Murphy; the suit sought to stop the program's distribution, and unspecified damages.[55] Because "I Need a Jew" uses the copyrighted melody of "When You Wish Upon a Star", without commenting on that song, Bourne argued that it was not a First Amendment–protected parody per the ruling in Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc..[56][57] On March 16, 2009, United States District Judge Deborah Batts held that Family Guy did not infringe on Bourne's copyright when it transformed the song for comical use in an episode.[58]
In December 2007, Family Guy was again accused of copyright infringement upon actor Art Metrano filing a lawsuit regarding a scene in Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story, in which Jesus performs Metrano's signature "magic" act involving absurd, faux magical hand gestures while humming the distinctive tune "Fine and Dandy".[59] Metrano's suit claims this performance is protected under terms of the United States' Copyright Act of 1976.[60] 20th Century Fox, MacFarlane, Callaghan and Borstein were all named in the suit which is ongoing.[61]
Characters
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.[62] 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.[63] 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 an upper-class affected English accent and stereotypical archvillain phrases.[64] Living with the family is Brian, the family dog, who is highly anthropomorphized, drinks martinis, smokes cigarettes, drives a car, and engages in human conversation, though he is still considered a pet in many respects.[65]
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")[66] 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 homosexual ephebophile Herbert. TV news anchors Tom Tucker and Diane Simmons, reporter Tricia Takanawa and Blaccu-Weather meteorologist Ollie Williams also make frequent appearances. Quahog mayor, Mayor Adam West (voiced by and named after the real Adam West) also appears regularly.
Hallmarks
Cutaway
In the majority of episodes, the plot is interrupted by at least one cutaway segment. The segment usually has little to do with the actual story of the episode and usually is a general pop culture reference. Many of the cutaways feature guest stars, at times using live-action footage such as Conway Twitty in three separate episodes, Will Ferrell in the episode "Jungle Love", and occasionally a mixture of live-action and animation, as in a tap dance duet between Stewie and Gene Kelly in "Road to Rupert". Such cutaways have been criticized heavily by both critics and other cartoonists, who claim the show relies too much on "cutaway gags as opposed to plot-driven humour".[67][68][69]
Music
Family Guy uses music in many of its episodes, mostly in the form of musical numbers. These musical numbers are used as both part of the plot, like in the episodes "Brian Sings and Swings" and "From Method to Madness", as well as for comedic affect or satire, such as in "FCC Song" from "PTV" and "Vasectomy" from "Sibling Rivalry". During the opening sequence of the 59th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards, Stewie and Brian performed a duet titled "You can Find It On TV", which poked fun at television shows in 2007. Two Family Guy songs have been nominated for (but did not win) an Emmy for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics: "My Drunken Irish Dad" from "Peter's Two Dads", nominated in 2007,[70] and "You've Got a Lot to See" from "Brian Wallows and Peter's Swallows" in 2002.[71] Many of the musical numbers are included in Family Guy: Live in Vegas as well as several original songs.[72]
Reception and achievements
Critical reception
Family Guy has received many positive reviews from critics. Catherine Seipp of the National Review Online called it a "nasty but extremely funny" cartoon.[73] Caryn James of the The New York Times, called it a show with an "outrageously satirical family" and "includes plenty of comic possibilities and parodies."[74] The Sydney Morning Herald named Family Guy the "Show of the Week" on April 21, 2009, calling it a "pop culture-heavy masterpiece".[75] Frazier Moore from the Seattle Times called it an "endless craving for humor about bodily emissions". He also called it "breathtakingly smart" and said a "blend of the ingenious with the raw helps account for its much broader appeal". He finished up by calling it "rude, crude and deliciously wrong".[76] 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.[77]
However, 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",[78] and naming it the worst show of the 1999-2000 television season.[79] 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,[80] and as a fugitive accused of "Plagiarismo" in the episode "The Italian Bob". Family Guy is also mocked in a two-part episode ("Cartoon Wars Part I" and "Cartoon Wars Part II") of South Park,[81] 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.[82]
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".[83] In addition, 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.[84][85]
Awards
Family Guy and its cast have been nominated for eleven Emmy Awards, with three wins. MacFarlane won the Outstanding Voice-Over Performance award for his performance as Stewie, Murphy and MacFarlane won the Outstanding Music and Lyrics award for the song "You Got a Lot to See" from the episode "Brian Wallows and Peter's Swallows", and Steven Fonti won the Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation award for his story-board work in the episode "No Chris Left Behind".[86]
The show has also been nominated for eleven Annies, and won three times, twice in 2006 and once in 2008. The show has also been nominated for a Golden Reel Award four times, winning once.[86] In 2009, it was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series. This was a significant accomplishment considering that the last animated program to be nominated was The Flintstones in 1961 and that The Simpsons has never been nominated in this category.[87]
In the 1000th issue of Entertainment Weekly, Brian Griffin was selected as the dog for "The Perfect TV Family."[88] Wizard Magazine rated Stewie the 95th greatest villain of all time.[89] British newspaper The Times rated Family Guy as the forty-fifth best American show in 2009.[90] Family Guy was named the seventh of the top one-hundred animated series by IGN.[91]
Other media
Video game
Family Guy Video Game! is a 2006 action game released by 2K Games and developed by High Voltage Software. It appears on the Xbox and PlayStation 2 consoles, and the handheld PlayStation Portable. The game's story reflects the episodic structure of the series with adventure game play.[92] The game received very mixed reviews, averaging 50% for PS2,[93] 51% for PSP,[94] and 53% for Xbox[95] on review aggregator Metacritic, receiving praise for its humor[96] but being criticized for its short playtime[97] and "uninteresting gameplay".[98]
Spin-off
In 2009, a spin-off series titled The Cleveland Show premiered on Fox. The Hollywood Reporter initially announced that there were plans to produce a spin-off of Family Guy to be focused on Cleveland. The project was created by MacFarlane, Henry and American Dad! show runner Rich Appel.[99] Cleveland references this at the end of the episode "Baby Not On Board".[66] The series had its premiere on September 27, 2009.[100][101] Due to the cancellation of Mike Judge's King of the Hill,[102] the American adaptation of Sit Down, Shut Up being moved to Saturday nights,[103] and the renewal of American Dad!, The Simpsons is now the only cartoon on Fox's "Animation Domination" line-up that was not created by Seth MacFarlane. The show, which was picked up to air a first season consisting of 22 episodes,[104] was picked up by Fox for a second season, consisting of 13 episodes, bringing the total number to 35 episodes. The announcement was made on May 3, 2009 before the first season even premiered.[105] Due to strong ratings FOX picked up the back 9 episodes of season 2 which would make a 22 episode season and bring the total episode count of the show to 44.[106]
Film
On July 22, 2007, in an interview with "The Hollywood Reporter", MacFarlane announced that he may start working on a feature film, although "nothing's official."[107] In September 2007, Ricky Blitt gave TV.com an interview confirming that he had already started working on the script.[108] Then in TV Week on July 18, 2008, MacFarlane confirmed plans to produce a theatrically released Family Guy feature film sometime "within the next year".[109] He 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 say he imagines the film 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."[110]
Merchandise
As of 2009, six books have been released about the Family Guy universe, all published by HarperCollins since 2005.[111] The first book based on Family Guy, Family Guy: Stewie's Guide to World Domination (ISBN 9780060773212) by Steve Callahan, was released in April 26, 2005. Written in the style of a graphic novel, the plot follows Stewie's plans on ruling the world, despite his only being a child.[112] Other books include Family Guy: It Takes a Village Idiot, and I Married One (ISBN 9780752875934), which covers the entire events of the episode "It Takes a Village Idiot, and I Married One",[113] and Family Guy and Philosophy: A Cure for the Petarded (ISBN 9781405163163), a collection of seventeen essays exploring the connections between the series and historical philosophers.[114]
Family Guy has been commercially successful in the home market.[115] The show was the first to be resurrected because of high DVD sales.[116][117] The first volume, covering the show's first two seasons, sold a total 1.67 million units, topping TV DVD sales in 2003, while the second volume sold another million units.[117][118] Both the volume six and seven DVDs debuted fifth in United States DVD sales;[119][120] volume seven was the highest television DVD, selling 171 thousand units by June 21, 2009.[120] Family Guy Presents Blue Harvest, the DVD featuring the Star Wars special "Blue Harvest", was released on January 15, 2008 and premiered at the top of United States DVD sales.[121] The DVD was the first Family Guy DVD to include a digital copy for download on the iPod.[121]
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