"He's...a...Family Guy!"
Family Guy is an American animated sitcom created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The first episode was created in 1999.
Plot
The series centers on the Griffins, a family consisting of parents Peter and Lois; their children, Meg, Chris, and Stewie; and their anthropomorphic pet dog, Brian. The show is set in the fictional city of Quahog, Rhode Island.
Why Seasons 1-6 Rock
- Being a show that was created in 1999 like SpongeBob, it's currently one of the longest-running cartoons that's still putting out new episodes.
- Had a crossover with The Simpsons and American Dad!, though The Simpsons crossover was poorly recieved.
- Decent animation.
- Likable characters, especially Peter, Brian, Stewie, Cleveland, Joe and Lois.
- Covers topics that are usually shunned by the public.
- Amazing voice acting, especially Seth MacFarlane himself.
- Tries to see how much it can get away with its dark humor and delightfully controversial jokes.
- Brilliant and creative episodes, such as the "Road to..." series.
- Hilarious parodies such as The Passion of the Christ 2: Crucify This!.
- Great songs, such as "The Freakin' FCC" and "The Bird is the Word".
- Helped to prove that people can have different opinions about shows despite potentially having bad reviews from critics.
- Considerably realistic character designs.
- Memorable gags, especially the Quagmire gags and Peter's violent rivalry with Ernie the Giant Chicken.
- Got saved from cancellation twice.
Bad Qualities
- The episode where Brian gets attacked by the town only because he's an atheist was frustrating even though it was purposely trying to show the stupidity of religious people.
- Not for the easily offended.
- Mild overuse of violence, sex, abuse, and farting due to how vulgar the show is.
- Some of the voice acting is pretty annoying. Like Alex Borstein as Lois Griffin in the later seasons.
- Extreme amounts of toilet humor especially on the new seasons
- Went drastically downhill since the 7th season's 11th episode with a massive overuse of mean-spirited episodes, unlikable/personality flanderized characters, offensive stereotypes, hypocritical, nasty, and egotistical humor, and flawed toilet humor. Peter went from a good hearted father to a sociopathic moron, Brian went from an atheist and the voice of reason of the family to a dumb religious hypocrite, Lois went from a loveable and wisecracking woman and a good wife and mother to an horrible woman that cheats on his husband continuously and abuses her own children, Chris went from a normal and aspirant artist to a complete douchebag and creepy maniac, Meg went from being a normal teenage character to the douchebag and later a phsycopath and Quagmire went from a womanizer to a rapist and an hypocrite that unirrotionally hates Brian. Ironically Stewie, that was the main antagonist in the earlier episodes, had the only good character development since he went from a phsycopathic evil mastermind that wanted to kill his own mother and rule the world to a likable brilliant invented and adventurer that is Brian's best friend, unluckily the joke about his sexuality started to become increasingly bigger and turned him into a gay stereotype later.
- However, Seth MacFarlane thankfully was not very involved in these episodes (but not counting voicing Peter, Stewie, Brian or another character in the show) and is mostly likely aware of how bad they are, considering that he admitted that Meg's constant abuse by the family is a result of "male writers not knowing how to write for a teenage girl".
Trivia
- George Lucas officially gave the producers clearance to do Star Wars gags because he's a fan of the show.
- Seth MacFarlane based the voice of Peter Griffin on a security guard he knew while going to college.
- By May 2, 2003, there was an online petition with over 111,000 signatures on it to revive the show after its second cancellation.
- Angela, Peter's boss, is based on Joanna, Rachel's boss on Friends.
- Brian's voice is simply Seth MacFarlane speaking normally. In addition, many of Brian's personal beliefs, including his generally liberal political views and his atheism, are shared by MacFarlane.
- Lois was originally drawn as a blonde. After much debate, the creators decided to make her hair red.
- Brian Griffin was named "Stoner of the Year" by High Times magazine in 2009.
- The average Family Guy episode takes a full year to produce.
- 2009 marks Family Guy's 10th anniversary.
- 2019 marks Family Guy's 20th anniversary, leading up to a compilation DVD called "20 Greatest Hits".