Turns out he was a genius. But this giant kick-off to 22 million viewers would quickly end in disappointment — at least at first — before turning things around for good. Fifteen years later, he would be one of the titans of Hollywood. When Family Guy debuted, the 24 year old MacFarlane was riding high as the youngest executive producer of a major prime time show. By fall of , Season 2 would be airing on Thursday nights against the very popular prime time hit, Fraser.
As ratings struggled, Fox bounced the show around its schedule during its sophomore run. The show's small but extremely loyal audience rallied behind it, watching reruns on Cartoon Network and buying DVDs in record numbers.
Eventually the network realized the show may not have the largest audience, but it was the right audience. The demographic were in love with Peter Griffin and his family and they had no problem spending money to see more of them. Unlike other networks, Fox actually listened to its audience. Even today, that's still somewhat of a foreign concept. It began with a unique deal with Cartoon Network. Under the terms, the show's 50 produced episodes would essentially be free in exchange for promotion of the DVDs, and then the network would pay an extremely low cost after a set period of time.
The gamble worked and those airings, paired with rising home entertainment sales, proved to be a profitable combination. The first set of 28 episodes sold 2. However the show wasn't content as just a TV show. Creator Seth MacFarlane had grander plans to make the series even more of a pop culture force. In , with the blessing of George Lucas, Family Guy created what would be the first of three spoofs of the original Star Wars trilogy.
Known as the "Blue Harvest" trilogy, the hour-long episodes were initially released solely on DVD and, not surprisingly, they sold very well. In the years since, the series has continued to thrive with a strong consumer products program that's yielded apparel, action figures, video games, and, of course, more DVDs. It also has dominated in syndication with constant airings on Cartoon Network, TBS, and Tribune Media networks across the country, and all at a price now vastly inflated from when its reruns first hit the airways.
MacFarlane and his crew could have easily rested on their laurels, but they take great pride in the series and even greater pride in pushing the envelope. Last November, the series shockingly killed off Brian, the Griffin's lovable dog. The outcry was deafening. If you had any question if Family Guy fans were still watching, those questions quickly disappeared. The public laid into MacFarlane, who seemed genuinely surprised the fans had so much passion for an animated character.
Audiences were even more enraged when MacFarlane seemed apathetic to the matter, but ultimately he knew something viewers didn't Of course, on a show where one of the characters has his own time machine, it wasn't entirely a surprise the beloved pooch would rejoin the living. Brian aside, the series has always pushed the limits as MacFarlane, who is also a talented singer, occasionally adds satirical songs into many episodes that touch on a number of hot topics.
Knowing all of this, it came as a surprise when the Academy Awards asked him to host their ceremony in MacFarlane's fans were not. All four of these characters are voiced by Seth MacFarlane, so this scene is essentially MacFarlane talking to himself this is a rare occurrence. A joke about John Ritter's role in 8 Simple Rules was deleted from this episode because the writers found one of their own jokes too distasteful to broadcast, due to his death. It was replaced with a joke about George Lopez.
Mel Gibson turned down the chance to voice the parody version himself in this episode. He later admitted in an interview that he regretted the decision because he thought the episode was hilarious. Starting with season 4, the characters no longer look totally to the left or right. They now look at an angle when looking at something.
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