Finally, after almost a year long hiatus, my favorite new cartoon since "The Simpsons" is coming back on the air! Tonight, Wednesday July 11th at 9:30 pm, we will get to see the first new episode since July of 2000!

I keep a text file on my desktop of things I may want to write an Epinion about. I put the Family Guy up a while back with a little note in parentheses after it saying "(now that I know it is coming back)". I was going to write a homage to it, but now instead I get to herald its return!

The show came out with some very good reviews by television critics, but was constantly moved around, never really getting a chance to get a mainstream audience or good ratings. Also, a number of people thought that this is a children's cartoon, but as anyone knows who watches it, this falls somewhere in between "The Simpsons" and "South Park" as far as the mature subject matter goes. There are no swear words or detailed sexual terms, but the show definitely pushes on the boundaries of what prime time television normally shows.

When I first saw the promos for it, I thought the show looked like an animated "All in the Family". The house has a 'blue collar' look about it, and the show opens with the husband and wife singing a song at a piano. Very quickly, however, the song becomes a large song and dance number featuring the family, including the baby and dog. I believe it premiered on 1/31/1999, just after "The Simpsons" on a Sunday night. I didn't have huge hopes for it, but figured I would watch it through. By the end of the episode I was laughing so hard that when they showed the pilot again later that week in an encore performance, I taped it, and have been fortunate enough to tape all the other episodes as well.

The creator and writer is Seth McFarlane, who has done a number of children's shows before this. And none of which seems like the logical forbearer of this show. He also does the voices of the father, the son, the baby, and various other voices in the show.

If you aren't familiar with the show, just describing the fictional family is going to sound more than just a little strange. The father, Peter Griffin, is very reminiscent of a Homer Simpson. He isn't too bright, tends to want to do the best for his family, and often seems to get hurt. The mother, Lois, is voiced by Alex Borstein who plays various characters on Fox's "Mad TV". She is the most normal person in the family, which isn't saying too much. The daughter, Megan, is also rather normal, but seems to be the type of girl who doesn't quite fit in with the popular crowd, and is a little embarrassed by her family's antics. She was originally voiced by Lacey Chabert (of Fox's "Party of Five"), but was replaced 2nd season by Mila Kunis (of Fox's "That 70's Show"). The son, Chris, is played by Seth Green, from "Austin Powers" and the television show "Buffy the Vampire Slayer". Yet, his voice and character are almost unrecognizable. Brian is an overweight, slow, and dumb character who tends to get into trouble without quite knowing how he did it, or that he did it.

Then we come to Stewie Griffin, the baby of the family. Stewie's age is a little hard to place. He still wears diapers and is breast feeding, but then again, he also talks like a prissy British mad scientist who plans on first killing his mother, and then ruling the world. When he was born, the doctor told Lois, that there is something else still coming out, and when Lois asked if it was a twin, the doctor replied, "No, it looks like plans to conquer Europe." Stewie tends to bring out the biggest laughs from me. Imagine a cross between Niles Crane from "Frasier" and the Brain from "Pinky & the Brain" and you'll begin to get the idea.

And I almost forgot about the family dog, Brian. If Stewie's character doesn't seem strange to you, this one just might. He walks on two legs and speaks like a person. He may be as smart as Stewie, and plays a slightly tipsy upper class canine. As a matter of fact he usually has a martini in one hand (paw). I wish I could put into words how easy it is to accept these strange paradoxes as normal when watching the show. Neither "The Simpson" nor even "South Park" could get away with it. I remember the time at a party when Brian asked "Whose leg do I have to hump to get a decent martini around here?". Another time had him sitting in bleachers with the family watching Chris' soccer game. He was panting loudly, and the woman sitting in front of him got up and gave him a "hmmmph" before walking off, and Brian yelled out "Don't flatter yourself lady. I don't have any sweat glands."

There is also a small cast of regular characters playing the Griffin's neighbors and friends. Peter's neighbor is an ex-cop in a wheelchair who can seemingly do know wrong, and out performs Peter in every physical competition. He lost the use of his legs in a ferocious battle with the Grinch on top of a roof during Christmas Eve. His wife is voiced by Jennifer Tilly, and has been pregnant since the characters first appeared. Peter has a swinging bachelor friend named Quagmire, and a slow talking other friend named Cleveland.

Many of the episodes have very strange themes. In one episode, Peter tricks the hospital into thinking he is dead so as not to pay the bill. However, because of this, Death comes to pay him a visit. I'm talking about the personification of death, complete with robes and scythe, as voiced by Norm MacDonald. Stewie is honored to meet his idol, but while running after Peter, Death sprains his ankle, and so Peter has to take over Death's duties. Yes, this episode is as strange as it sounds.

Another episode has Brian (the dog) in psychotherapy because he as found himself fallen in love with Lois. He finds himself urinating inside the house as a physical manifestation of his guilt. He doesn't want to break up the marriage, or their happy relationship, and has to come to grips with the situation.

The show occurs at breakneck speeds. Once, while watching with a friend she commented on the fact that the jokes come so fast that she was certain she kept missing jokes in between.


Some memorable quotes:

Brian: "Ah, if my memory serves me, this is the physics department."
Chris: "That would explain all the gravity."

Peter: "Brian, there's a message in my Alpha Bits. It says "OOOOOO"!"
Brian: "Peter, those are Cheerios."

Peter: "Look Lois, the two symbols of the Republican Party: an elephant, and a fat white guy who is threatened by change."

Stewie: "Tell me the secret, and when I take over the world, your death will be quick and painless."


The show definitely makes some strange visual references that only a cartoon could get away with. In the beginning of one episode, Peter walked into the Flintstones house, knew something was wrong and slowly creeps away. Another time Peter lost a sock in the Laundromat and chased a faun holding it into Narnia. In another episode, Meg was handed a bomb, and when it exploded, and she had a duckbill on the back of her head. Another episode told the story of how the founding member of a town was saved from drowning by a clam. What we see is a small clam pull the man from the water, and then jump up and down on his chest, until he spits out all the water.

I should also mention how 'adult' many of the jokes are. No dirty swear words like in "South Park", but there is a lot of jokes of a sexual nature. When Brian has been put on death row in the pound, Peter & Lois go to talk to him during visiting hours. Speaking on little phones through glass, like in a prison, Lois turns to Peter who is looking down the aisle. She tells him not to stare. When the camera pans over, we see that there is a female dog with all six nipples pressed against the glass. Another episode had a spoof of Sesame Street where we see a drunken naked Ernie and Bert waking up in bed. (I'm not making this up!) In the episode with Death I mentioned above, Death describes his first sexual encounter in a parked car by a lake, and when he touched his girlfriend, she died, but he continues his love making anyway. In another episode Lois is introduced to Kate Moss and says "You've done very well for a girl with no breasts." When Megan's high school becomes addicted to licking toads to getting high, the kids refer to it as "Doing Kermit".

One of the funniest, and harshest, jokes that I remember was Lois trying to explain to the kids that Peter's father was very catholic and had a hard time accepting their mixed marriage. I remember thinking "Oh, they've never said that Lois was Jewish before." As they leave the wedding chapel we see on the back of their car a sign reading "Just Married". Then the camera pans down and we see where someone spray painted "To a Protestant Wh-re" underneath it.

I also want to mention that the show has an amazing way of making fun of itself. In one episode we see in the far future a classroom 'studying' the show, and one of the students says, "I don't get it. Does the family hear the baby talking?". I still haven't figured that one out myself.

This show truly breaks all the rules of network television. I hope everyone who reads this checks it out and helps spread the word so it will get a regular run on Fox for years to come, just like "The Simpsons".


If you check out Fox's web site for the Family Guy, you can see some sample clips, and read a chat transcript by Stewie, as well as keep up on the newest episodes.

http://www.fox.com/familyguy/




Recommended: Yes

Type of Program: Cartoon or Animated
Program Quality: Entertaining, but not intellectually or emotionally engaging
Best Suited For: Other