Family Guy: Encyclopedia II - Family Guy - History

Family Guy - History

Family Guy - Creation

While studying at the Rhode Island School of Design, Seth MacFarlane created a short film entitled The Life of Larry about a middle-aged slob named Larry Cummings, his cynical talking dog, Steve, his wife Lois and oversized son Milt. This film includes many of the same gags that would end up on Family Guy.

After being hired at Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Inc., MacFarlane was given a chance at the age of 22 in 1996 to direct a sequel to the short entitled Larry and Steve, a nine minute short which was broadcast as one of Cartoon Network's World Premiere Toons. The short featured two main characters: Larry, a fat, old, balding man who did idiotic things, and Steve, a talking dog who was smarter than most people. The short features Steve in front of a camcorder recording an SOS tape for someone to come and save him from his bumbling owner, Larry. Steve recounts for the tape the misadventures that have ensued ever since Larry bought Steve from the dog pound, focusing on a series of misadventures and hijinks that ensued when the pair went to the mall to buy items for Larry's apartment. While at the mall, the two destroy nearly everything. For example, Larry is looking for a lightbulb for his bedside lamp. He puts in a high-wattage bulb and criticizes Steve for saying that it wasn't a good idea to put the bulb in by commenting that he didn't go to kindergarten for twelve years because he was stupid (but because he got his foot caught in the radiator). When Larry plugs the lamp in, it turns into a wide lightsaber and he cuts the store in half. Of course, while he's doing it, Larry references the "Luke, I am your father..." line from The Empire Strikes Back by saying "Luke, this is your landlord. You still haven't returned my weedwacker." The episode can be seen here.

Executives at Fox Broadcasting Company saw both shorts, and MacFarlane was given the opportunity to develop a show based on the shorts. He agreed, leaving Hanna-Barbera and working on the characters of Larry and Steve, who eventually evolved into Peter and Brian Griffin.

Regardless, both The Life of Larry and Larry and Steve portray vast similarities to Family Guy, including similar voices and character status for Peter and Brian's character.

See Family Guy history for a complete timeline.

Family Guy - Initial run

The first episode was aired in the United States on the Fox Network on January 31, 1999, after Super Bowl XXXIII. The show premiered as a regular series in April and ran for six more episodes until the season finale in the middle of May. The first season contained seven episodes and introduced the viewer to the show's main characters. The second season began on September 23, 1999, and contained 21 episodes. The third season contained 22 episodes and began its run on July 11, 2001. During its second- and third-season runs, Fox frequently moved the show around different days and time slots with little or no notice. Ratings suffered, and after only two episodes of the second season, Family Guy was taken off the network's permanent schedule and was shown irregularly thereafter.

When Family Guy was shown in the UK, and when the DVDs were subsequently released there (November 12, 2001), the first seven episodes of the second season were included with the first season, balancing them out with 14 episodes each.

There was a great deal of debate and rumor during the second and third seasons about whether Family Guy would be cancelled or renewed. Fox publicly announced that the show had been cancelled at the end of the second season. In an attempt to convince Fox to renew the show, dismayed fans created websites, signed petitions, and wrote letters; some even sent diapers and baby food to the network for Stewie.

A shift in power at Fox resulted in thirteen new episodes being ordered, which formed the basis of the third season. The show's writers, aware of the uncertainty of the show's future, referenced it in several episodes. During the third season, Fox announced that the show was cancelled for good.

Now, in 2005, the show is back on Fox, with 35 Season 4 production episodes ordered and 22 Season 5 Production episodes ordered. The show is currently in the second part of its 4th season.

Family Guy - Revival efforts

The news of Fox's cancellation in the third season was met with dismay by fans, and renewed efforts were made to convince Fox to resurrect the show. An online petition was launched, which garnered over 10,000 signatures within a few weeks. The petition contained the following message, addressed to Gail Berman and Sandy Grushow, the President of Entertainment and Chairman of Fox at the time:

To: FOX Broadcasting

Dear Ms. Gail Berman and Mr. Sandy Grushow,

We are avid watchers of FOX programming, especially the show "Family Guy". We have recently heard that FOX Broadcasting has cancelled this show. We are informing you of a boycott of FOX Broadcasting, FX, FOX Sports Channel, and all products shown on FOX Broadcasting, FX, and FOX Sports Channel. We are all willing to comply with the boycott and do whatever it takes to get our favorite FOX show ("Family Guy") back on the air.

We will not only be boycotting your stations, we will be boycotting every product shown on those stations. These products include, but are not limited to: Nyquil, Schick, Valvoline, Gold Bond, Subway Sandwiches, Buick Motor Vehicles, Alka-Seltzer, Monistat 7, Diflucan, Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC), Heartguard, Frontline, any product on TimeLife.com, Ranger Bass Boats, The Xtractor, any product made by MGM, 1-800-COLLECT, Hunt's Manwich, any product made by Reeses', any product made by Walt Disney, and Gevalia coffee and coffee makers.

As you can see, we are taking this cancellation very seriously. We will contact our local newspapers, and television stations; and with that we will gain more people in our "quest" to get "Family Guy" back on television.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

The petition gained over 100,000 signatures, but this along with mass e-mailing and letter writing to Fox executives and organized street protests failed to save Family Guy. Later efforts to get other networks, particularly UPN, to buy Family Guy also failed.

Family Guy - Return to television

In 2003, reruns of the series found a permanent home at Cartoon Network and its late-night Adult Swim block, where, as of 2006, it continues to play. According to a Cartoon Network press release, "FAMILY GUY ranks #1 in its time period on cable among Adults and Men 18–24, and also beats both The Late Show with David Letterman and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in head-to-head competition among Men 18–34 and Men 18–24." (This was only an occasional ratings outcome^[1].)

The series found further success on DVD, when it was finally released for the US market (NTSC, Region 1) on April 15, 2003. Divided into two volumes, Family Guy sold 2.2 million DVD units in the first year^[2], reportedly surpassing every other TV-based DVD released in 2003, including Sex and the City and Friends compilations. The significant Cartoon Network ratings, combined with the unprecedented DVD sales, led to widespread rumors that Fox was in talks to revive the series.

On November 19, 2003, the E! Entertainment Television channel and its website (see below) reported that Fox was negotiating with Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane to revive the show with 35 new episodes. On February 27, 2004, in an interview with IGN, Seth MacFarlane confirmed that Family Guy would resume production. MacFarlane provided even more information in a BBC interview. (see IGN interview, BBC interview)

On March 26, 2004, 20th Century Fox Television officially announced that it had committed to producing at least 22 more episodes of Family Guy to be rebroadcast on Adult Swim in early 2005. The Fox Network has retained a window to run these episodes, starting on May 1, 2005. Seth MacFarlane was quoted as saying, "I'm just incredibly excited that we're back in business on Family Guy. Now all those crazy kids who've been hounding me to bring the show back can stop bothering me and move onto more serious matters—like saving Coupling."

The fourth-season premiere of Family Guy took place on Sunday, May 1, 2005, 9:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on Fox. Reruns of the fourth season began play during Adult Swim on June 9, 2005.

Furthermore, a Family Guy direct-to-DVD movie, titled Family Guy Presents Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story!, which was a collection of 3 Family Guy episodes strung together in one collected plot with additional added scenes, was released on September 27, 2005 (see [3]). The 87-minute film is unrated and includes commentary, deleted material, and other bonus features.

A Family Guy video game is currently in production under the Take-Two Interactive banner, slated for a 2006 release on an unnamed system (see [4]).

On September 27, 2005, Variety reported that 20th Century Fox greenlighted production of 22 additional all new episodes of Family Guy, (see [5]).

In the UK, BBC Two started showing Season 3 in September 2005 along with American Dad, but are yet to announce the showing of Season 4. In Australia, the show has made its long awaited return, airing Thursday nights on the Seven Network during the summer non-ratings period. It is interesting to note that altough the fourth season hasn't been shown yet, the fourth season of Family Guy will be released on DVD on 24th April 2006 in the UK.

A free podcast is available to download as an MP3 from the official site. 17 episodes have been released for it. On several of the podcasts, cast members discuss upcoming episodes.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "History", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki