Family Guy

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For the franchise, see Family Guy (franchise). For the current season, see Family Guy (season 21).

Family Guy

Genre Animated sitcom[1]

Created by Seth MacFarlane

Developed by Seth MacFarlane

David Zuckerman

Voices of Seth MacFarlane

Alex Borstein

Seth Green

Lacey Chabert (1999)

Mila Kunis (1999–present)

Mike Henry

Patrick Warburton

Arif Zahir (2021-present)

Theme music composer Walter Murphy

Composers Ron Jones

Walter Murphy

Country of origin United States

Original language English

No. of seasons 21

No. of episodes 400 (list of episodes)

Production

Executive producers Seth MacFarlane

David Zuckerman (1999–2003)

Daniel Palladino (2001–02)

David A. Goodman (2005–12)

Chris Sheridan (2005–12)

Danny Smith (2008–present)

Mark Hentemann (2009–present)

Steve Callaghan (2009–present)

Alec Sulkin (2011–present)

Wellesley Wild (2011–15)

Cherry Chevapravatdumrong (2012–19)

Kara Vallow (2012–present)

Richard Appel (2012–present)

Producers Shannon Smith

Kim Fertman

Julius Sharpe

Steve Marmel (2011)

Sherry Gunther (1999–2003)

Running time 20–27 minutes

33-88 minutes (select episodes)

Production companies Fuzzy Door Productions

20th Television[a] (1999–2021)

20th Television Animation[b] (2021–present)

Distributor 20th Television

Release

Original network Fox[N 1]

Picture format NTSC (1999–2010)

HDTV 720p (2010–present)

Audio format Dolby Surround 2.0 (1999–2010)

Dolby Digital 5.1 (2010–present)

Original release January 31, 1999 –

present

Chronology

Preceded by The Life of Larry and Larry & Steve

 Related The Cleveland Show

American Dad!

Family Guy is an American animated sitcom originally conceived and created by Seth

MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The show centers around the Griffins, a
dysfunctional family consisting of parents Peter and Lois; their children, Meg, Chris, and Stewie; and
their anthropomorphic pet dog, Brian. Set in the fictional city of Quahog, Rhode Island, the show
exhibits much of its humor in the form of metafictional cutaway gags that often lampoon American
culture.

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 December
1998, and the show was greenlit and began production. Family Guy's cancellation was announced
shortly after the third season had aired in 2002, with one unaired episode eventually premiering
on Adult Swim in 2003, finishing the series' original run. Favorable DVD sales and high ratings from
syndicated reruns since then convinced Fox to revive the show in 2004; a fourth season would begin
airing the following year, on May 1, 2005.

Since its premiere, Family Guy has received generally positive reviews. In 2009, it was nominated for
a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series, the first time an animated series was
nominated for the award since The Flintstones in 1961. In 2013, TV Guide ranked Family Guy the
ninth Greatest TV Cartoon of All Time.[2] The series has also attracted criticism and controversy.

Many tie-in media based on the show 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 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; and Laugh It Up, Fuzzball: The Family Guy Trilogy (2010), a
collection of three episodes parodying the original Star Wars trilogy. A spin-off series, The Cleveland
Show, featuring Cleveland Brown, aired from September 27, 2009, to May 19, 2013.

On May 11, 2020, Fox renewed the series for a nineteenth season. [3][4] On September 23, 2020, Fox
announced that the show would continue through a twenty-first season. [5] The twenty-first season
premiered on September 25, 2022 and includes the show's 400th episode. [6] Currently, 400
episodes of Family Guy have been broadcast.

On January 26, 2023, Fox announced that the series had been renewed for seasons 22 and 23,
taking the show through the 2024-25 television season. [7]

Premise
Characters
Main article: List of Family Guy characters
 The Griffin family. From left: Chris, Peter, Stewie (in baby carrier), Lois, Meg, and Brian (dog in front).

The show centers around the adventures and activities of the dysfunctional Griffin family, consisting
of father Peter Griffin, a bumbling and clumsy yet well-intentioned blue-collar worker; Lois, a stay-at-
home mother and piano teacher (in early episodes) who is a member of the affluent 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, unathletic and, in many
respects, is simply a younger version of his father; and Stewie, their diabolical infant son of
ambiguous sexual orientation who is an adult-mannered evil genius 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.[8]

Recurring characters appear alongside the Griffin family. These include the family's neighbors: sex-
crazed airline pilot bachelor Quagmire; deli owner/mail carrier 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. Actor James Woods guest stars as himself in multiple episodes, as
did Adam West, prior to his death.

Setting
Main article: Quahog, Rhode Island
 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

The primary setting of Family Guy is Quahog (/ˈkoʊhɒɡ/ [pron. ko-hog or kwo-hog]), a fictional
city in Rhode Island that was founded by Peter's ancestor, Griffin Peterson. MacFarlane resided in
Providence during his time as a student at Rhode Island School of Design, and the show contains
distinct Rhode Island landmarks similar to real-world locations. [9][10] MacFarlane often borrows the
names of Rhode Island locations and icons such as Pawtucket and Buddy Cianci for use in the show.
MacFarlane, in an interview with Providence's Fox affiliate WNAC-TV, stated that the town is modeled
after Cranston, Rhode Island.[11]

Development
MacFarlane conceived Family Guy in 1995 while studying animation at the Rhode Island School of
Design (RISD).[12] During college, he created his thesis film entitled The Life of Larry,[12] which was
submitted by his professor at RISD to Hanna-Barbera. MacFarlane was hired by the company.[13] 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.[12]

Executives at Fox saw the Larry shorts and contracted MacFarlane to create a series, entitled Family

Guy, based on the characters.[10] Fox proposed MacFarlane complete a 15-minute short, and gave
him a budget of $50,000.[14] Several aspects of Family Guy were inspired by the Larry shorts.[15] While
he worked on the series, the characters of Larry and his dog Steve slowly evolved into Peter and
Brian.[10][16] MacFarlane stated that the difference between The Life of Larry and Family Guy was that
"Life of Larry was shown primarily in my dorm room and Family Guy was shown after the Super
Bowl."[15] After the pilot aired, the series was given the green light. MacFarlane drew inspiration from
several sitcoms such as The Simpsons and All in the Family.[17] Premises were drawn from several
1980s Saturday-morning cartoons he watched as a child, such as The Fonz and the Happy Days
Gang and Rubik, the Amazing Cube.[18]

The Griffin family first appeared on the demo that MacFarlane pitched to Fox on May 15, 1998.
[19] Family Guy was originally planned to start out as short movies for the sketch show Mad TV, 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 it was the place to create
a prime-time animation show.[17] 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.[17] Fox
ordered 13 episodes of Family Guy to air in midseason after MacFarlane impressed executives with a
14-minute pilot.[20][21]