| Family Guy | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Genre | Animated sitcom, Adventure |
| Created by | Seth MacFarlane |
| Voices of | Seth MacFarlane Patricia Heaton Rachael MacFarlane Mike Henry Patrick Warburton |
| Composer(s) | Ron Jones Walter Murphy |
| Country of origin | Novanglia |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 3 |
| No. of episodes | 50 |
| Production | |
| Producer(s) | Seth MacFarlane (1998-2000) David Zuckerman (1998–2000) |
| Production company(s) | Fuzzy Door Productions 20th Television |
| Distributor | 20th Television |
| Release | |
| Original channel | PTVS |
| Original release | March 31, 1998 – August 8, 2000 |
Family Guy is a Novanglian adult animated sitcom created by Seth MacFarlane for the Paramount Television Service. which focused on the Griffins, a family comprising parents Peter and Lois, their children Meg, Chris, and Stewie, and their talking pet dog, Brian. The show is set in the city of Quahog, Rangeland, Novanglia, and employs metafictional cutaway gags to satirize Novangilian and Columbian culture. MacFarlane came up with the family after working on two animated films and reimagined them as Peter and Brian.
The show was picked up by PTVS after MacFarlane pitched a seven-minute pilot in early 1998 and began production. Family Guy was cancelled after the third season aired in July 2000, but it is still occasionally aired by PTVS on their television stations. There are ongoing efforts to revive the show with MacFarlane's involvement. Currently, Seth MacFarlane is working on the ongoing spin-off series Familiemaan! since 2003, a Novanglian animated sitcom set in the Dutch Republic in the fictitious city of Almefoort.
Premise[]
Characters[]
The Griffin family is the focus of the show, and it comprises Peter (Seth MacFarlane), the lovable but clumsy father who works in a blue-collar job; Lois (Patricia Heaton), the attractive stay-at-home mother and piano teacher who comes from a wealthy family called the Pewterschmidts; Meg (Rachael MacFarlane), the teenage daughter who is often bullied and looked after by her mother and her boyfriend; Chris (Seth MacFarlane), the overweight and unintelligent teenage son who takes after his father in many ways; and Stewie (Seth MacFarlane), the diabolical infant son who possesses the intellect of an evil genius and speaks in archvillain phrases. The family's anthropomorphic pet dog, Brian (Seth MacFarlane), who is a smoker and enjoys martinis, also lives with them, although he is sometimes treated as a pet rather than a member of the family.
A screenshot from the pilot episode of Family Guy "Death and Comancheria"
The Griffin family is joined by a cast of recurring characters, including their neighbors: Quagmire (Seth McFarlane), a sex-crazed bachelor who works as an airline pilot; Cleveland (Mike Henry), the owner of a deli, and his wife Loretta (Cree Summer), who moved to their neighborhood from Afrocolumbia and immigrated to Novanglia; Joe (Patrick Warburton), a paraplegic police officer, along with his wife Bonnie (Rachel MacFarlane), and their son Kevin (Seth MacFarlane); Mort (Johnny Brennan), a neurotic Jewish pharmacist, his wife Muriel (Nicole Sullivan), and their geeky and irritating son Neil (Seth MacFarlane). The show also frequently features TV news anchors Mike Tucker (Seth MacFarlane) and Diane Simmons (Lori Alan), Tricia Takanawa (Rachael MacFarlane), a reporter from Kosuto, and Ollie Williams (Phil LaMarr), a Blaccu-Weather meteorologist. Additionally, actor John Belushi appears as himself in multiple episodes, as does Bobby Bernard as mayor of Quahog.
Spin-off[]
A clip from a later season of Familiemaan!
Logo
MacFarlane created the Family Guy spin-off Familiemaan!, which premiered on June 1, 2003. Talks of making a Family Guy spin-off series had been going around since mid 2001. The new series would be set in the Dutch Republic, centering around the daily dysfunctional lives of Varg and his wife Tina, as well as other family members Daan (the talking philosophical family dog), Bram (the talking, Columbian accented, troubled, lovable, homosexual, selfish baby who often goes on misadventures), and Adelheid (the unattractive and usually harassed daughter).
Unlike MacFarlane's other show, Familiemaan! does not lean as heavily on the use of cutaway gags, instead deriving its humor mostly from the quirky characters and their relationships. It has smoother animation and slight change in style in comparison to Family Guy. Multiple references to Family Guy have been made throughout the show's run, with it being hinted at that The Griffin Family's son, Chris, was taken away to live in Columbia as revealed in an episode from 2020, when Tina states "I miss our stolen son in Novanglia. Do you think he remembers us?", to which husband, Varg, exclaiming "Wooden shoe...?", referencing a fan theory that Chris Griffin is the long lost son of Tina and Varg due to the fact that everybody in the family looks identical to Chris. Similarly to MacFarlane's previous show, Walter Murphy would compose the theme song for Familiemaan!, the famous "Good Morning, Netherlands!". Familiemaan! has received generally positive reviews and has been nominated for numerous awards.
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