Family Guy

[Filterlab]

Anyone else into Family Guy? I got into it around 2005 and I absolutely love it, UK season 7 is released in a couple of weeks and I'm itching to get hold of it. There's been quite a bit of criticism levelled at Family Guy but all the best stuff is usually criticised as few critics like anything to be successful. However, it makes me roar with laughter especially the 'on the knuckle' aspects of humour and the infinite and unconnected cutaway gags .

Family Guy factoids:

1. Its gross value to the Fox network is $2,000,000,000.

2. The creator, Seth MacFarlane, has just been contractually paid a $100,000,000 salary for four more years of Family Guy and American Dad, this makes him the world's highest paid TV writer.

3. In 2008 Family Guy surpassed The Simpsons as the most popular animated TV series in the world.

4. Amongst males 18 to 34, Family Guy is the highest-rated scripted program in all of television history.

5. Family Guy is the second-highest-rated show amongst males 18 to 49.

6. Family Guy is the most-downloaded TV show on iTunes.

7. Family Guy is the most watched TV program on Hulu (http://www.hulu.com/).

8. Each 24 minute episode takes 9 months to produce (non-linear).

9. Aside from the title themes, no incidental scoring or song is ever repeated. In the early seasons a 56 piece orchestra was used, now it's just Walter Murphy and Seth MacFarlane using keyboards.

10. At 24 Seth MacFarlane became the world's youngest television executive producer following a $50,000 commission from Fox for a 'short'.

Definitely worth checking out if you're uninitiated. :)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/1/1c/FamilyGuyFamilyPromo.png/300px-FamilyGuyFamilyPromo.png (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_Guy)

[Marco]

LOL. If it's anything like The Simpsons then I'll hate it with a passion! Sorry, but that sort of inane drivel does nothing for me :)

Marco.

[shane]

I think you just listed 10 good reasons for me to loathe it! (Apart from 9, which I suppose is laudable to a degree.)

[Filterlab]

LOL. If it's anything like The Simpsons then I'll hate it with a passion! Sorry, but that sort of inane drivel does nothing for me :)

Marco.

It's not like The Simpsons at all, in fact quite different. :) It's aimed completely at adults whereas The Simpsons (which frankly is inane drivel) caters for children as well.

[Mike]

It's hilarious and often a bit 'close to the bone'. Well worth watching.

I frequently refer to myself as 'the witless provider'! :lolsign:

[Marco]

Sounds interesting - I might give it a go. The funniest thing on TV for me at the moment is 'Fonejacker' on E4 10pm Wednesday evenings. It's about a guy making spoof phone calls to all sorts of people under a different persona in real life situations - f*cking hilarious! :lol:

Has anyone seen it?

Marco.

[Filterlab]

Sounds interesting - I might give it a go.

Best place to start is Season 2 - Episode 'E. Peterbus Unum', that's the point where the staff writers team grew and the animation got cleaner.


The funniest thing on TV for me at the moment is 'Fonejacker' on E4 10pm Wednesday evenings. It's about a guy making spoof phone calls to all sorts of people under a different persona in real life situations - f*cking hilarious! :lol:

Has anyone seen it?

Yeah, I liked the 'Hoomphs' one from last series. :) He did it in a superb Middle Eastern accent too, very humourous.


It's hilarious and often a bit 'close to the bone'.

I loved the JFK Pez dispenser where the sweet comes out from the bullet hole in his head. Now that's close to the bone. :lol:

[Marco]

Yeah, the guy's amazing. I'm thinking of giving it a go sometime myself for a laugh. I can do some of the accents fairly well. I've done that type of thing before in the past with some success ;)

You wanna buy a DVD? :eyebrows:

Marco.

[Filterlab]

What DVD?

[Marco]

I'm of course referring to fonjacker's Chinese character in the series... ;)

"You wanna buy a DVD?"

Marco.

[Filterlab]

Ahhh I see. :) Yep, we get Chinese blokes coming round the trading estate with bags of counterfeit DVDs. Pain in the arse they are.

[Filterlab]

Also worth having a look at is Futurama (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Futurama), it's written by Matt Groening and David X Cohen but it's aimed solely at adults. One of the main characters, Bender (a bending robot), is absolutely superbly written and is the core participant in many of the jokes. Excellent animation and sharp snappy scripts. :)

Bender:
http://files.myopera.com/Reed_J/blog/8x6_futurama_bender02.jpg

[Mike]

Seen em all! :)

About time they made another series, or ten!

[Filterlab]

They've made three feature lengths and season 5 this year. :) The features are out on DVD, season 5 to be broadcast and released next years.

They were restricted until 2007 under the initial contract, once that ended they were free to make more.

[Primalsea]

I think that Futurama and Family Guy are the 2 funniest things on TV at the moment.

Wasn't there a spin off that as based around Stuie.

[Filterlab]

Wasn't there a spin off that as based around Stuie.

Not as such, there was a Stewie special but it was a culmination of three episodes with additional material. The only spin off so far is due for release next year which follows the earlier life of Cleveland and his family, "The Cleveland Show".