Family Guy
Family Guy is an American animated sitcom created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series premiered on January 31, 1999, following Super Bowl XXXIII, with the rest of the first season airing from April 11, 1999. The show centers around the Griffins, a dysfunctional family consisting of parents Peter and Lois, their children, Meg, Chris, and Stewie, and their anthropomorphic pet dog, Brian. Set in the fictional city of Quahog, Rhode Island, the show exhibits much of its humor in the form of metafictional cutaway gags that often lampoon American culture.
For the franchise, see Family Guy (franchise). For the recent season, see Family Guy season 22.Family Guy
- Seth MacFarlane
- David Zuckerman
- Seth MacFarlane
- Alex Borstein
- Seth Green
- Mila Kunis
- Mike Henry
- Patrick Warburton
- Arif Zahir
- Ron Jones
- Walter Murphy
United States
English
22
424 (list of episodes)
- Seth MacFarlane
- David Zuckerman (1999–2003)
- Daniel Palladino (2001–02)
- David A. Goodman (2005–12)
- Chris Sheridan (2005–12)
- Danny Smith (2008–present)
- Mark Hentemann (2009–present)
- Steve Callaghan (2009–present)
- Alec Sulkin (2011–present)
- Wellesley Wild (2011–15)
- Cherry Chevapravatdumrong (2012–19)
- Kara Vallow (2012–present)
- Richard Appel (2012–present)
- Patrick Meighan (2018–present)
- Tom Devanney (2018–present)
- Alex Carter (2023–present)
- Shannon Smith
- Kim Fertman
- Julius Sharpe
- Steve Marmel (2011)
- Sherry Gunther (1999–2003)
- 20–27 minutes
- 33–88 minutes (select episodes)
- Fuzzy Door Productions
- 20th Television[a] (1999–2021)
- 20th Television Animation[b] (2021–present)
May 1, 2005[2] –
present
The family was conceived by MacFarlane after he developed two animated films, The Life of Larry and Larry & Steve. MacFarlane redesigned the films' protagonist, Larry, and his dog, Steve, and renamed them Peter and Brian, respectively. MacFarlane pitched a seven-minute pilot to Fox in December 1998, and the show was greenlit and began production. Family Guy's cancellation was announced shortly after the third season had aired in 2002, with one unaired episode eventually premiering on Adult Swim in 2003, finishing the series' original run. Favorable DVD sales and high ratings from syndicated reruns since then convinced Fox to revive the show in 2004; a fourth season began airing the following year, on May 1, 2005.
Since its premiere, Family Guy has received generally positive reviews. In 2009, it was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series, the first time an animated series had been nominated for the award since The Flintstones in 1961. In 2013, TV Guide ranked Family Guy as the ninth-greatest TV cartoon.[3] Although highly satirical in nature, the series has also garnered considerable amounts of criticism and controversy, ranging from storylines and character stereotypes, to allegations of racism, homophobia, and sexism.
Many tie-in media based on the show have been released, including 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 music created by MacFarlane and Walter Murphy; a video game and pinball machine, released in 2006 and 2007, respectively; since 2005, six books published by Harper Adult; and Laugh It Up, Fuzzball: The Family Guy Trilogy (2010), a collection of three episodes parodying the original Star Wars trilogy. A spin-off series, The Cleveland Show, featuring Cleveland Brown, aired from September 27, 2009, to May 19, 2013.
On January 26, 2023, Fox announced that the series had been renewed for seasons 22 and 23, taking the show through the 2024–25 television season.[4] Season 22 premiered on October 1, 2023.[5] Family Guy would move to Wednesday nights beginning March 6, 2024, marking the first time the show airs on a weeknight since 2002.[6]
Production
Development
MacFarlane conceived Family Guy in 1995 while studying animation at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD).[31] During college, he created his thesis film entitled The Life of Larry,[31] which was submitted by his professor at RISD to Hanna-Barbera. MacFarlane was hired by the company.[32] In 1996, MacFarlane created a sequel to The Life of Larry entitled Larry and Steve, which featured a middle-aged character named Larry and an intellectual dog, Steve; the short was broadcast in 1997 as one of Cartoon Network's World Premiere Toons.[31]
Executives at Fox saw the Larry shorts and contracted MacFarlane to create a series, entitled Family Guy, based on the characters.[9] Fox proposed that MacFarlane complete a 15-minute short and gave him a budget of $50,000.[33] Several aspects of Family Guy were inspired by the Larry shorts.[34] While MacFarlane worked on the series, the characters of Larry and his dog Steve slowly evolved into Peter and Brian.[9][35] MacFarlane stated that the difference between The Life of Larry and Family Guy was that "Life of Larry was shown primarily in my dorm room and Family Guy was shown after the Super Bowl."[34] After the pilot aired, the series was given the green light. MacFarlane drew inspiration from several sitcoms such as The Simpsons and All in the Family.[36] Premises were drawn from several 1980s Saturday-morning cartoons he watched as a child, such as The Fonz and the Happy Days Gang and Rubik, the Amazing Cube.[37]
The Griffin family first appeared on the demo that MacFarlane pitched to Fox on May 15, 1998.[38] Family Guy was originally planned to start out as short movies for the sketch show Mad TV, but the plan changed, because MADtv's budget was not large enough to support animation production. MacFarlane noted that he then wanted to pitch it to Fox, as he thought that it was the place to create a prime-time animation show.[36] Family Guy was originally pitched to Fox in the same year as King of the Hill, but the show was not bought until years later, when King of the Hill became successful.[36] Fox ordered 13 episodes of Family Guy to air in midseason after MacFarlane impressed executives with a 14-minute pilot.[39][40]
Executive producers
MacFarlane has served as an executive producer throughout the show's entire history. The first executive producers were David Zuckerman,[41] Lolee Aries, David Pritchard, and Mike Wolf.[42] Family Guy has had many executive producers in its history, including Daniel Palladino, Kara Vallow, and Danny Smith. David A. Goodman joined the show as a co-executive producer in season three and eventually became an executive producer.[43]
Broadcast and streaming
In the United States, the show currently airs on FX, FXX, Freeform, and The CW in some regions. The show was syndicated to Adult Swim and TBS from 2003 to 2021, sharing the rights to the first fifteen seasons. In April 2019, FX Networks began airing reruns of season 16 on FXX, with season 17 debuting that October, and shared off-network rights to both seasons with sister channel Freeform. After Adult Swim and TBS' rights expired on September 18, 2021, FXX and Freeform began airing the first fifteen seasons. The show also joined FX's lineup that month. These deals did not affect the syndication rights held by local broadcast stations.[248] The series is available for streaming exclusively on Hulu, which will launch two holiday specials in 2024.[249]
The show's departure from Adult Swim on September 18, 2021, was commemorated with a remembrance bumper created by the network, which played after the final airing (the episode "Stewie is Enceinte"). The bumper showed animations of several Adult Swim characters bidding farewell to Family Guy, including shots of Peter crying at the beginning and the Griffin family waving goodbye towards the end.[250]
Internationally Family Guy is available to stream on Star on Disney+,[251] except in Latin America, where the series is exclusively available on the standalone service Star+.[252]
Family Guy premiered in Australia on April 9, 1999, on the Seven Network, in 2000 on Fox8, and on 7mate on September 27, 2010.[253] Initially, only 2 seasons were available to stream on Disney+ Star due to pre existing contracts. The other 17 seasons were added on December 1, 2021, after the contract expired.
In Canada, the series premiered January 31, 1999, on Global[254] and September 1, 2003, on Teletoon at Night. Beginning in the 2015–2016 season, the show moved to Citytv; the show would once again return to the channel in 2023.[255][256] Starting in November 2021, the series moved to Disney+.[257] In addition to Teletoon at Night, the show has been syndicated to TVtropolis (now DTour), Adult Swim Canada, and FX Canada.
The show airs in India on Star World Premiere,[258] in Ireland on 3e,[259] and in New Zealand on TVNZ Duke; previously it screened on defunct channel Four.[260]
In the United Kingdom, Family Guy premiered in September 1999, originally on Channel 4 and Sky One. In January 2005, Fox UK (then known as FX) began broadcasting the show.[261] From October 2005, BBC Two[262] started screening Family Guy before the show moved to BBC Three in September 2006.[263] Beginning with season 14, the show moved to ITV2, premiering on February 29, 2016,[264][265] while the BBC would continue to hold the rights for past seasons until 2017.[266][267]
In South Korea, the show premiered January 11, 2008, on Tooniverse.
Informational notes
Citations
Bibliography
