Episode Titles

For the first half of the first season, the writers tried to work the words “murder” or “death” into the title of every episode to make the titles resemble those of old-fashioned radio mystery shows. On the DVD commentary for “Death Has a Shadow”, creator Seth MacFarlane says that the writers stopped doing this when they realized they were beginning to get the titles confused. Beginning with “A Hero Sits Next Door”, the episodes feature titles descriptive of their plots.

Censorship

Some episodes are not aired in full in their initial broadcast because of profanity or cultural references. Scenes are either re-edited or removed entirely from the episode. Some cut material is restored for later broadcast on other venues, such as Adult Swim. DVD releases also contain the uncensored material.

Meta Humour

Family Guy poses as a typical sitcom in many respects; however at other times, characters will make it very clear that they are aware they’re on a television show. Many times, characters are seen breaking the fourth wall to address the audience directly. For example, when Vern and Johnny, the Vaudeville duo, appear for the fifth time on the show in the episode “Saving Private Brian”, they are killed and Stewie steps into frame, saying “OK. They’re dead. All right? We’re not going to be seeing them again.”

Another example of the show’s self-awareness happens in that same episode. Stewie has a line that is clearly intended to set up a cutaway gag, but after a pause during which nothing happens he says, “Oh…No clip? Huh. Thought we had a clip.” and the action continues.

Episode Cancellations

MacFarlane planned for the series’ third season to end with Stewie coming out of the closet after a near-death experience. However, the show’s abrupt cancellation caused MacFarlane to abort these plans, and the episode “Queer is Stewie?” was never produced. Since that point, MacFarlane has opted to have Stewie portrayed as sexually ambiguous, as, in his eyes, the flexibility of Stewie’s sexuality allows for much more freedom in terms of writing for the character.

Crossovers With “American Dad!”

The show has periodically featured the inclusion of certain elements from American Dad!, another animated comedy series created and produced by Seth MacFarlane. These cameos seem to imply that the two shows share the same fictitious universe. Appearances include:

• “Meet the Quagmires”: Roger, the alien who lives with the Smiths, makes a last-minute cameo in this episode, asking the Griffins, “Who ate all the Pecan Sandies?” His line is a reference to a line he said early in the American Dad! pilot episode, asking Francine if she bought Pecan Sandies while she was out shopping. He was voiced by Seth MacFarlane, who also voices him in “American Dad!”.
• “Blue Harvest”: Roger can be spotted conversing with one of the alien bar patrons while holding a glass of wine during the cantina scene.
• “Lois Kills Stewie”: CIA agent Stan Smith, the main character of American Dad!, as well as his supervisor Avery Bullock and the CIA Headquarters, are featured in this episode. Though the story is non-canon, these elements play a more prominent role in this episode, thus making it more of an actual crossover. Stan and Bullock were voiced by their usual American Dad! voice actors, Seth MacFarlane and Patrick Stewart, respectively.

The Movie

Originally released as a direct-to-DVD movie, Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story comprises three episode length segments with a wraparound story. Different edits, both adding and deleting material, were eventually televised as the three-part season four finale (“Stewie B. Goode”, “Bango Was His Name Oh!” and “Stu and Stewie’s Excellent Adventure”)

Music On The Show

The show often incorporates music numbers in Broadway style as part of its episode technique, either as tangential flashbacks or to advance the plotline. On April 26, 2005 Family Guy: Live in Vegas was released and was a collaboration between composer Walter Murphy and Seth MacFarlane. It features a show tune theme. Only one song is related to the show, the theme song. Also included was the music video “Sexy Party”.

The Hollywood Writer’s Strike 2007/08

During the 2007/2008 Writers Guild of America strike, official production of the show was halted for most of December of 2007 and various periods afterwards. Fox continued producing episodes without creator Seth MacFarlane’s final approval which he termed as “a colossal dick move,” in an interview with Variety. Though MacFarlane refused to work on the show, his contract under Fox required him to contribute to any episodes it would subsequently produce. Production officially resumed after the end of the strike, with episodes airing regularly from February 17, 2008, onward.

Title Sequences

The normal title sequence in Family Guy parodies TV programs like All in the Family with its nostalgic longing for values of days past. The sequence has had only small changes since the first episode in 1999:

• Stewie, Meg, and Chris’ pictures in the background originally contained simple outlines, but beginning with “A Picture Is Worth a 1,000 Bucks”, the pictures have shown the actual characters.
• Because so many people thought Stewie sang “effin’ cry!” instead of “Laugh and cry” in the opening sequence (to the extent UK broadcaster Channel 4 would edit the line so Stewie would only be heard saying “Cry”, and some versions of subtitles stating “F-in’ cry!”), Seth MacFarlane resang that line to make it clearly “laugh and cry”. The re-recording first appeared at the beginning of “The Kiss Seen Around the World” and remained through the end of season three, but the original recording returned when the show resumed airing on Fox in 2005, and has remained since.

Some title sequences are completely unique to select episodes. They are as follows:

• The five “Road Trip” episodes (“Road to Rhode Island”, “Road to Europe”, “Road to Rupert”, “Road to Germany” and “Road to the Multiverse”) each has instead a sequence of still drawings representing that episode’s road trip over an introductory musical fanfare taken from Road to Morocco.
• “Fast Times at Buddy Cianci Jr. High”: title sequence replaced with a parody of the series Law & Order.
• “PTV”: title sequence replaced with Osama Bin Laden going through various bloopers while trying to record a terrorist video before being beaten up by Stewie, followed by a Naked Gun parody going through familiar movie scenes, and finishing with a parody of The Simpsons title ending.
• “Stu and Stewie’s Excellent Adventure”: title sequence replaced with a parody of the series 24 recapping events from the previous two episodes along with an unrelated clip from The Chevy Chase Show. This opening is only featured in the edited-for-television version of the episode.
• “Whistle While Your Wife Works”: same as the normal title sequence until the “musical stage” sequence, where Peter trips and falls down the stairs, rolling over Lois and Meg and crushing one of the dancers. Peter, oblivious to the suffocating dancer, complains he’ll have a swollen foot. Stewie then pops up in front of the camera, awkwardly suggesting to the operator that he should turn it off.
• “Blue Harvest”: title sequence replaced with a parody of the opening crawl of Star Wars IV: A New Hope, utilizing the same fonts and music as that of the original film.
• “Family Goy”: Features a “Superfriends” opening, featuring each member of the Griffin family as a different superhero, with the exception of Meg, who remains her usual self.

Lawsuits

Carol Burnett
In March of 2007, famed comedian Carol Burnett filed a lawsuit against 20th Century Fox, claiming that it was a copyright infringement for her Charwoman cleaning character to be portrayed on the show without her permission. Besides that, Burnett stated that Fox violated her publicity rights. She was asking for $6 million in damages. On June 4, 2007, U.S. District Judge Dean Pregerson tossed out the lawsuit, stating that the parody was protected under the First Amendment, using Hustler v. Falwell as a precedent.

“I Need a Jew”
On October 3, 2007, Bourne Co. Music Publishers filed a lawsuit accusing the show of copyright infringement upon the song “When You Wish Upon a Star” by a parody song entitled “I Need a Jew”, from the episode “When You Wish Upon a Weinstein”. Bourne Co., the sole U.S. copyright owner of the song, alleges the parody pairs a “thinly veiled” copy of their music with antisemitic lyrics. Named in the suit are Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp., Fox Broadcasting Co., Cartoon Network, Seth MacFarlane, and composer Walter Murphy; the suit seeks to stop the program’s distribution, and unspecified damages. Family Guy won the case in March of 2009.

Art Metrano
In December of 2007, actor/comedian Art Metrano filed a lawsuit accusing the show of copyright infringement over a scene in Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story in which Jesus performs Metrano’s signature “magic” act which involved absurd faux magical hand gestures (such as making a finger “jump” from one hand to the other) while humming the distinctive tune “Fine and Dandy”. Metrano’s suit claims this performance is protected under terms of the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976. Named in the suit are 20th Century Fox, show creator Seth MacFarlane, and collaborators Steve Callaghan and Alex Borstein. Metrano performed this well-known routine on programs such as The Tonight Show, where he made several appearances. In July 2009, the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California granted Twentieth Century Fox’s motion to dismiss the case.

Awards

Family Guy and its cast have been nominated for 8 Emmy awards, with three wins:

• 2000: Outstanding Voice-Over Performance: Seth MacFarlane for “Stewie Griffin”
• 2002: Outstanding Music and Lyrics: Walter Murphy (composer), Seth MacFarlane (lyricist)
• 2007: Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation: Steve Fonti (storyboard artist)

The show has also been nominated for nine Annies, and won twice, both in 2006. The show has also been nominated for a Golden Reel Award three times, winning once. In 2008, “Family Guy” won “Best International Animated Production” at the 2nd annual Elan awards. In 2009, the show received 2 Emmy Nominations: Outstanding Comedy Series and Outstanding Voiceover Performance (Seth MacFarlane, “I Dream of Jesus”).