Family Guy

Family Guy is an irreverent cartoon television show on the Fox Network. The show's subject is the Griffin family, who live in the fictional town of Quahog, Rhode Island. Created by Seth MacFarlane (who also voices many of the characters), the animated show originally ran from 1999 to 2002 before being cancelled. After strong DVD sales helped spark a renewed interest in the series, it was brought back to TV in 2005.http://allmovie.com/work/family-guy-animated-tv-series-288489

Season 9 airs on Sundays at 9.00pm in 2010, on FOX.http://www.tv.com/family-guy/show/348/summary.html?tag=page_nav;main A variety of websites stream episodes of Family Guy, where they can be viewed for free online.

Family Guy is loved and hated for its willingness to parody, satirize, and feature just about anything and everything. It has often drawn criticism for seemingly having no subject or statement that is "off-limits". However, many feel that this is exactly what makes it funny, unique, and relevant.http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/film/dvd/article1150889.ece

Family Guy's much-loved and much-hated characters include:

• Peter Griffin: a plainly idiotic middle-aged father whose comedic role usually involves being laughed at for his displays of stupidity, mental absurdity, and personal underdevelopment.
• Lois Griffin: an intelligent, attractive middle-aged mother who has seemingly married "below her potential", but is quite happy in her domestic role.
• Meg Griffin: a teenage daughter who has not been blessed with the same degree of personal appeal as her mother. While Meg appears to be a normal teenage girl who, in ideal circumstances, could be proud of herself and do very well in life, she is used in the show as a symbol of the stereotypical, sexist expectations that curse the lives of young women or teenage girls who do not fit society's ideals of "popularity" or physical attractiveness. She is regularly shown to be on the receiving end of patronizing, backward treatment from Peter and occasionally other members of her family, as well as the outside world.
• Chris Griffin: the teenage Griffin son seems to have inherited many of the "problems" his father suffers from. In some cases they seem to be worse. Chris is incredibly socially awkward, and in many ways even more mentally deficient than his father. Depending on the era of the series, Chris is seen to be terrorized by an evil monkey that lives in his bedroom closet.

The final two main characters making up the Griffin family seem to exist outside the boundaries of ordinary reality.

• Brian Griffin is the family dog, who - without any explanation being viewed as needed by the show - can talk, walk upright, and do just about anything that a normal human can do. He is intelligent, well-educated, and dates human women; and for all intents and purposes, generally seems like an upper middle-class white male in his 30s. Brian is the only member of the Griffin family who can understand Stewie Griffin. In a manner of speaking, he and Stewie are "friends", although Brian receives regular ridicule and other forms of mistreatment from Stewie. Brian often plays the role of a more liberal-minded voice of reason. He also provides for a variety of "dog jokes" due to his dual display of human characteristics as well as canine ones.

• Stewie Griffin has been called by viewers one of the most popular and unique characters ever created in a TV sitcom. He is a baby or small toddler, who for some unexplained reason has the intelligence of an adult. He speaks with an upper-class British accent, has exceptional abilities in the field of science and engineering, and seems to have the world-view and speech patterns of someone who has been alive during the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries. To Stewie's eternal frustration, Brian is the only one who can understand his speech and is aware of this side of his character. To all the other Griffins he is simply viewed and treated as a baby. He displays megalomania and a desire to destroy anything he finds annoying or unpleasant. For reasons not exactly clear, Stewie Griffin hates his mother and regularly attempts to kill her. At other times, he has the innocence and naivety of a baby in terms of certain things he does not understand or is not aware of.

Family Guy has had one of the longest lists of guest star appearances of any sitcom. Even when the plot is going to ridicule their work or their real self, a great number of celebrities have agreed to allow their voice (or even live action of themselves) to appear in the show.http://allmovie.com/work/family-guy-animated-tv-series-288489

• Peter Griffin - Seth MacFarlane
• Lois Griffin - Alex Borstein
• Meg Griffin - Mila Kunis
• Chris Griffin - Seth Green
• Stewie Griffin - Seth MacFarlane
• Brian Griffin - Seth MacFarlane

Family Guy has enjoyed a great deal of critical acclaim, and also suffered a variety of criticism.

The show has been nominated for eleven Emmy awards, and won three. It has also been nominated for eleven Annie awards from ASIFA-Hollywood , winning three. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0182576/awards.

Family Guy has been given negative reviews by Entertainment Weekly, and criticized by parent groups.http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,252798_3,00.htmlhttp://www.parentstv.org/ptc/publications/reports/top10bestandworst/2006/main.asp In February 2010, Sarah Palin criticized the show for apparently making a reference to her son who suffers from Down's syndrome, and for making comedy out of people with disabilities.http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2010/02/16/palin-slams-fox%E2%80%99s-%E2%80%98family-guy%E2%80%99/?fbid=4cOlgLobXUt

Legal action has been brought against the show several times for alleged copyright infringement.http://www.tv.com/story/10569.html?om_act=convert&om_clk=news&tag=headlines;title;0

The premiere of the sixth season of Family Guy in 2007 was an hour-long tribute to the 1977 film Star Wars, starring Chris Griffin as Luke Skywalker and Peter Griffin as Han Solo. The episode was titled Blue Harvest, a reference to the original working title of the Star Wars film Return of the Jedi.

In 2009, series creator Seth MacFarlane announced that the show would follow-up with a parody of The Empire Strikes Back titled Something Something Something Dark Side.Crave Online: Seth MacFarlane on FG's Empire Episode (March 10, 2009)

Something Something Something Dark Side was the season eight finale for Family Guy, and was released on DVD and Blu-ray in December 2009.http://www.ifmagazine.com/review.asp?article=3740

Something Something Something Dark Side was the season eight finale for Family Guy, and was released on DVD and Blu-ray in December 2009.

The second installment in Family Guy's u characters sees some unusually overt sexual orientation ambivalence in Stewie's Darth Vader. Also included are the usual long list of cultural references, including appearances of Family guy versions of Cookie Monster; Elroy Jetson; Star Trek's George Takei (Sulu); the Beatles, and late comedians Don Knotts and Rodney Dangerfield.

The extras include audio commentary, a sneak peek at a script reading of the next Family Guy Star Wars instalment called We Have a Bad Feeling About this, and more.

The abovenamed third instalment of the Family Guy Star Wars parodies is in production, and a sneak peak of the script read-through is included as an extra in the Something Something Something Dark Side release.

Creator Seth MacFarlane has confirmed that he plans to eventually create a Family Guy movie.http://www.wired.com/underwire/2009/05/macfarlane-makes-official-plans-for-family-guy-movie/