Family Guy (aired: 1999-2001)
It seems like my appreciation of Family Guy is probably going to take the majority of space on my webpage. Though there are numerous episode guides available on the internet, I think I'm going to go through all the episodes (all of which, incidentally, I own on two very classy DVD sets) and list what I thought were the best moments/quotations, as well as other episode information. I have no idea how long it will take me to finish the endeavor, or if I will lose interest in it before I even finish. And that's okay. For all you big Griffin family fans out in the internet abyss, there are two important pieces of information that you may or may not have heard about. First of all, the sales of the Family Guy DVD sets was so great that it appears that some new episodes are going to be made and aired by January 2005. Also, and I just found out about this, it also appears that a Family Guy movie is going to be made, though I'm unsure on the status of its production. I'll update as more on this appears; if anyone knows of any information that I haven't posted on these various upcoming phenomena, please let me know.
As long as I'm on the topic of Family Guy, I might as well discuss the show's premise for those of you that haven't been enlightened. Family Guy is very similar to Fox's other famous cartoon sitcom series The Simpsons (and for those of you yammering, "But King of the Hill and Futurama are so cool!" just save it). Both the Simpsons and the Griffins contain 5 immediate family members: Homer and Peter, the moronic paternal figures, Marge and Lois, the intelligent and concerned house-wives, Bart and Chris, the simple-minded and occasionally mischevious sons, Lisa and Meg, the unappreciated and adolescantly outcast daughters, and Maggie and Stewie, the babies. Stewie is probably the favorite character of most people who appreciate Family Guy and is far different from Maggie Simpson. He actually speaks, and does so at great length; he is obviously very intelligent and his mind is dominated with thoughts of world domination and the elimination of his mother, Lois. What we perceive to be Stewie's demented harangues, however, are only understood by a minority of the show's characters, most notably Brian, the Griffin's hip and classy dog; the remainder of the family only understand Stewie's speech as normal baby talk, though mysteriously they can still understand Brian, the talking dog. What makes many appreciate Family Guy just as much, if not more, than the Simpsons is it's edgy and often crude humor. For instance, such seemlingly wholesome adult figures as Walt Disney and Ronald McDonald are portrayed as an artistic pedophile and a father overly-concerned with his daughter's "whore"-ish makeup, repectively.
(updated 1/12/2004)