Family Guy
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It has been suggested that this article (which conflates the TV series and the franchise it created) be split into articles titled Family Guy (franchise) and Family Guy. (Discuss) (December 2017)
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| Family Guy | |
|---|---|
 
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| Genre | Animated sitcom[1] Off-color humor |
| Created by | Seth MacFarlane |
| Developed by |
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| Voices of |
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| Theme music composer | Walter Murphy |
| Composer(s) |
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| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 16 |
| No. of episodes | 300 (list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) |
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| Producer(s) |
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| Editor(s) | Mike Elias |
| Camera setup | Animated rendition of single-camera |
| Running time |
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| Production company(s) |
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| Distributor | 20th Television |
| Release | |
| Original network | Fox[N 1] |
| Picture format | |
| Audio format |
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| Original release | January 31, 1999 – present |
| Chronology | |
| Preceded by | Larry & Steve |
| Related shows | The Cleveland Show |
| External links | |
| Official website | |
The family was conceived by MacFarlane after developing 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 1998, and the show was greenlit and began production. Shortly after the third season of Family Guy had aired in 2002, Fox canceled the series with one episode left unaired. Adult Swim aired that episode in 2003, finishing the series' original run. However, favorable DVD sales and high ratings for syndicated reruns on Adult Swim convinced the network to renew the show in 2004 for a fourth season, which began airing on May 1, 2005.
Since its debut on January 31, 1999, 300 episodes of Family Guy have been broadcast. Its sixteenth season began on October 1, 2017. Family Guy has been nominated for 12 Primetime Emmy Awards and 11 Annie Awards, and has won three of each. In 2009, it was nominated for an Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series, the first time an animated series was nominated for the award since The Flintstones in 1961. Family Guy has also received criticism, including unfavorable comparisons to The Simpsons.
Many tie-in media 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 original 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 based on the Family Guy universe; and Laugh It Up, Fuzzball: The Family Guy Trilogy (2010), a series of parodies of the original Star Wars trilogy. In 2008, MacFarlane confirmed that the cast was interested in producing a feature film and that he was working on a story for a film adaptation.
A spin-off series, The Cleveland Show, featuring Cleveland Brown, aired from September 27, 2009, to May 19, 2013. "The Simpsons Guy", a crossover episode with The Simpsons, aired on September 28, 2014.[2] Family Guy is a joint production by Fuzzy Door Productions and 20th Century Fox Television and syndicated by 20th Television.[3] In 2013, TV Guide ranked Family Guy the ninth Greatest TV Cartoon of All Time.[4]
In May 2017, Fox renewed the series for a sixteenth season, which premiered on October 1, 2017.[5]
Contents
[hide]Premise
Characters
The show revolves around the adventures of the Griffin family, consisting of father Peter Griffin, a bumbling yet well-intentioned blue-collar worker; Lois, a pretty stay-at-home mother and piano teacher who is a member of the wealthy Pewterschmidt family; Meg, their often-bullied teenage daughter who is also constantly ridiculed or ignored by the family; Chris, their awkward teenage son, who is overweight, unintelligent and, in many respects, is simply a younger version of his father; and Stewie, their diabolical infant son of ambiguous sexual orientation who has adult mannerisms and uses stereotypical archvillain phrases. Living with the family is their witty, smoking, martini-swilling, sarcastic, English-speaking anthropomorphic dog Brian, though he is still considered a pet in many ways.[6]Recurring characters appear alongside the Griffin family. These include the family's neighbors: sex-crazed airline pilot bachelor Quagmire; African-American deli owner Cleveland and his wife Loretta (later Donna); paraplegic police officer Joe, his wife Bonnie, their son Kevin and their baby daughter Susie; neurotic Jewish pharmacist Mort, his wife Muriel, and their geeky and annoying son Neil; and elderly child molester Herbert. TV news anchors Tom Tucker and Diane Simmons, Asian reporter Tricia Takanawa, and Blaccu-Weather meteorologist Ollie Williams also make frequent appearances. Actors Adam West and James Woods guest star as themselves in various episodes.
Setting
The skyline of Providence, as viewed from the northwest looking southeast, from left to right: One Financial Center, 50 Kennedy Plaza, and the Superman Building
The skyline's animated Family Guy counterpart
Development
MacFarlane initially conceived Family Guy in 1995 while studying animation at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD).[10] During college, he created his thesis film entitled The Life of Larry,[10] which was submitted by his professor at RISD to Hanna-Barbera. MacFarlane was hired by the company.[11] 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.[10]
Larry (left) and Steve (right) as they appeared in Larry & Steve (1997), an animated short directed by Seth MacFarlane. Larry and Steve would form the basis for the Family Guy characters of Peter and Brian, respectively.
The Griffin family first appeared on the demo that MacFarlane pitched to Fox on May 15, 1998.[18] Family Guy was originally planned to start out as short movies for the sketch show MADtv, 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 that was the place to create a prime-time animation show.[16] 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.[16] Fox ordered 13 episodes of Family Guy to air in midseason after MacFarlane impressed executives with a seven-minute demo.[19]
Episodes
| Season | Episodes | Originally aired | Nielsen ratings | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| First aired | Last aired | Rank | Viewers (in millions) | ||||
| 1 | 7 | January 31, 1999 | May 16, 1999 | 33 | 12.80[20] | ||
| 2 | 21 | September 23, 1999 | August 1, 2000 | 114 | 6.32[21] | ||
| 3 | 22 | July 11, 2001 | November 9, 2003 | 125 | 4.50[22] | ||
| 4 | 30 | May 1, 2005 | May 21, 2006 | 68 | 7.90[23] | ||
| 5 | 18 | September 10, 2006 | May 20, 2007 | 71 | 7.20[24] | ||
| 6 | 12 | September 23, 2007 | May 4, 2008 | 84 | 7.94[25] | ||
| 7 | 16 | September 28, 2008 | May 17, 2009 | 69 | 7.56[26] | ||
| 8 | 21 | September 27, 2009 | June 20, 2010 | 53 | 7.73[27] | ||
| 9 | 18 | September 26, 2010 | May 22, 2011 | 56 | 7.66[28] | ||
| 10 | 23 | September 25, 2011 | May 20, 2012 | 63 | 7.30[29] | ||
| 11 | 22 | September 30, 2012 | May 19, 2013 | 62 | 6.94[30] | ||
| 12 | 21 | September 29, 2013 | May 18, 2014 | 78 | 6.11[31] | ||
| 13 | 18 | September 28, 2014 | May 17, 2015 | 94 | 5.86[32] | ||
| 14 | 20 | September 27, 2015 | May 22, 2016 | 111 | 4.28[33] | ||
| 15 | 20 | September 25, 2016 | May 21, 2017 | 116 | 3.93[34] | ||
| 16 | TBA | October 1, 2017 | TBA | TBA | TBA | ||
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