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| Version | User | Scope of changes |
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| May 27 2010, 5:31 PM EDT (current) | mariouniverse | 94 words added |
| May 19 2010, 5:12 PM EDT | mariouniverse | 2 words added |
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Family Guy is an American animated television series about a dysfunctional family that lives in the fictional town of Quahog, Rhode Island. It was created by Seth MacFarlane for Fox Broadcasting Company in 1999. The show uses frequent "cutaway gags," which are jokes in the form of tangential vignettes that do not advance the story. Family Guy was canceled once in 2000, and again in 2002, but strong DVD sales and the large viewership of reruns on Cartoon Network's programming blockAdult Swim convinced Fox to resume the show in 2005. It is the first canceled show to be resurrected based on DVD sales.
Family Guy's first and second seasons were made starting in 1999 after the Larry shorts (its predecessor) caught the attention of the Fox Broadcasting Company during the 1999 Super Bowl commercial. Its cancellation was announced, but then a shift in power at Fox and outcry from the fans led to a reversal of that decision and the making of a third season, after which it was canceled again. Reruns on Adult Swim drove interest in the show up, and the DVD releases did quite well, selling over 2.2 million copies in one year which renewed network interest. Family Guy returned to production in 2004, making two more seasons (for a total of five) and a straight to DVD movie, Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story. The sixth season began airing in fall 2007, a seventh season aired fall 2008, and an eighth season aired fall 2009. In addition, Family Guy went into syndication in fall 2007. It's somehow a tradition that Family Guy has its seasons running every fall of each year for about 5 years. Family Guy has started and is now continuing to run for 10 years since the idea.
The show revolves around the adventures of Peter Griffin, a bumbling but generally well-intentioned blue-collar worker. Peter is an Irish American Catholic with a thick Rhode Island / Eastern Massachusetts accent. His wife, Lois, who has a similar accent, is generally a stay-at-home mother and piano teacher, and is a member of the Pewterschmidt family of wealthy socialites. Peter and Lois have three children: teenage daughter Meg, who is frequently the butt of jokes for her homeliness and lack of popularity; teenage son Chris, who is overweight, unintelligent and, in many respects, a younger version of his father; and infant son Stewie, a diabolical child with adult mannerisms who speaks fluently with an upper-class English accent and stereotypical arch-villain phrases. Living with the family is Brian, the family dog, who is highly anthropomorphized, walks on two legs, drinks Martinis, and engages in human conversation, though he is still considered a pet in many respects.
There are many recurring characters on the show who appear alongside the Griffin family on a regular basis. These include the family's colorful neighbors: sex-crazed airline-pilot bachelor Glenn Quagmire; mild-mannered deli owner Cleveland Brown and his wife (ex-wife as of the fourth-season episode "The Cleveland–Loretta Quagmire") Loretta Brown with their hyperactive son, Cleveland Jr.; paraplegic police officer Joe Swanson and his perpetually pregnant wife Bonnie; and creepy old gay man Herbert. TV news anchors Tom Tucker and Diane Simmons also make regular appearances (along with Asian Reporter Tricia Takanawa and Blaccu-Weather meteorologist Ollie Williams), as well as mentally disturbed celebrity Mayor Adam West (voiced by and named after the real Adam West).
Family Guy has not used an especially large cast of recurring minor characters (though this has changed to an extent in Season 4, with many one-shot characters from prior episodes reappearing in new episodes), and most of the episode plot-lines center on the exploits of the Griffin family.(Pure Comedy)
The show revolves around the adventures of Peter Griffin, a bumbling but generally well-intentioned blue-collar worker. Peter is an Irish American Catholic with a thick Rhode Island / Eastern Massachusetts accent. His wife, Lois, who has a similar accent, is generally a stay-at-home mother and piano teacher, and is a member of the Pewterschmidt family of wealthy socialites. Peter and Lois have three children: teenage daughter Meg, who is frequently the butt of jokes for her homeliness and lack of popularity; teenage son Chris, who is overweight, unintelligent and, in many respects, a younger version of his father; and infant son Stewie, a diabolical child with adult mannerisms who speaks fluently with an upper-class English accent and stereotypical arch-villain phrases. Living with the family is Brian, the family dog, who is highly anthropomorphized, walks on two legs, drinks Martinis, and engages in human conversation, though he is still considered a pet in many respects.
There are many recurring characters on the show who appear alongside the Griffin family on a regular basis. These include the family's colorful neighbors: sex-crazed airline-pilot bachelor Glenn Quagmire; mild-mannered deli owner Cleveland Brown and his wife (ex-wife as of the fourth-season episode "The Cleveland–Loretta Quagmire") Loretta Brown with their hyperactive son, Cleveland Jr.; paraplegic police officer Joe Swanson and his perpetually pregnant wife Bonnie; and creepy old gay man Herbert. TV news anchors Tom Tucker and Diane Simmons also make regular appearances (along with Asian Reporter Tricia Takanawa and Blaccu-Weather meteorologist Ollie Williams), as well as mentally disturbed celebrity Mayor Adam West (voiced by and named after the real Adam West).Family Guy has not used an especially large cast of recurring minor characters (though this has changed to an extent in Season 4, with many one-shot characters from prior episodes reappearing in new episodes), and most of the episode plot-lines center on the exploits of the Griffin family.(Pure Comedy)
In September 2009, there was a spinoff created on Family Guy that revolved around Cleveland, after Peter destroyed his house again. The new show was called The Cleveland Show (obviously).
