TVSquad

Fathers' Day should be a time of deep reflection and appreciation for the man who brought you into this world, whether you asked him to or not.

Oh sure, the old man may seem like the worst father of all time sometimes. He yells and screams. He gets on you for growing your hair too long because he knows he couldn't grow hair if he had a Chia Scalp. He constantly walks around the house in his underwear and then scolds you for not eating the sausage Mom made for breakfast.

But a few minor flaws doesn't mean that he's a bad guy. So go out and get him that witty card with the pipe smoking Dad on the cover, pick out a paisley tie that you'll never see him wear and give him a big hug to remind him he's the best. Because he's your old man and he's not one of the seven bastard sons of hell below.

If you missed Family Guy last night, you missed Peter having sex with his daughter Meg. OK, OK, it was all part of one of those "let's use the characters of this show to tell a story about long ago," so they weren't really father and daughter, but once you see that, you can't unsee it. They also killed the cast of How I Met Your Mother with arrows (the first of two How I Met Your Mother jokes on FOX last night - American Dad had one too).

I think we all could have done without those very unfunny "Stewie interviews Eminem" spots scattered throughout the evening.

If you missed last night's episode of Family Guy, Brian got arrested for having a bag of pot on him (he does drugs and he's an atheist!), and Peter stabbed a cat to death. Enjoy!

I made it my business to catch the episode of Family Guy which guest-voiced the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and I have to say I was somewhat disappointed.

Don't get me wrong. I enjoyed some parts of the episode. The "shut up Wil" line by Patrick Stewart had me in stitches, as well as the sudden death of Denise Crosby (obviously, the writers are ST:TNG fans). Hell, Patrick Stewart is a recurring guest on Seth McFarlane's other series American Dad.

It just seemed to me that after the brilliant Star Wars parody from last year, they would do something more with such a line-up of talent than simply "Stewie gets to hang out and go bowling with the cast." It was even relegated to the "B" plot, with the "A" plot being Meg's sudden faith in God as a result of watching Kirk Cameron on TV.

I was hoping for something more akin to an episode of The Next Generation done Family Guy-style. Or would that have been redundant of the Star Wars episode? What do you think? Was the episode decent or could it have used improvement?

The Parents Television Council has added FOX's Family Guy to the list of shows it's going after.

They are filing another complaint with the FCC, this time over last Sunday's episode of the cartoon that featured (from the PTC complaint) "bestiality, orgies, and babies eating sperm." By sheer coincidence, this was the same plot as the latest episode of The Hills.

Actually, I was kinda shocked by the episode myself, but I'm always shocked by episodes of Family Guy. That's what makes it funny.

This news sounds like it could be an episode of Family Guy, but actually it's going to be two episodes of Family Guy.

The show has booked two evenings at Carnegie Hall. The cast and crew from the show will perform two uncensored episodes of the show, along with various musical numbers. It's called Family Guy Sings! and will run on November 24 and 25.

The show has done these shows before, at the Just For Laughs festival in Montreal and cities around the U.S., but hey, this Carnegie Hall! I think it would be funny if the place insisted that everyone dress in black tie and formal dress.

This seems to be a trend. During the writers strike, the cast of 30 Rock did a staged reading of one of their episodes. Maybe this is something that TV shows can do during the off-season, when the shows are in repeats. I wonder what 24 would be like on Broadway?

Finally, a new teaser for the much anticipated Family Guy spin-off, The Cleveland Show. Actually, "anticipated" is probably a strong word since American Dad has already destroyed my faith in Seth MacFarlane's ability to produce another hit. Frankly, I don't see how The Cleveland Show could possibly be worse than American Dad.

"New" probably isn't the right word either since the following video looks like something that most likely aired during last month's upfronts. But hey - I hadn't seen it yet, so it's new to me. Complaining aside, I'm pumped for this show and the preview doesn't disappoint. The idea of Cleveland packing his bags and heading south to marry a woman he hasn't seen since high school is hilarious to me. Bears and British folks as neighbors? This could work. Video and full description from FOX after the jump.

(S06E12) As a result of adopting (and by adopting, I mean bird-napping) a parrot from the veterinarian's office, Peter becomes a pirate. The sad part was that it wasn't even International Talk-Like-A-Pirate Day.

Actually, that's not really what the episode is about. It's more about Chris' pursuit of a vet intern named Anna. While Chris' pursues Anna, he gets advice from Peter and the gang (which, as the history of the show has proven, is never a good idea).

The pirate segment of the episode wasn't very good and seemed out of place. Fortunately, it was very short. Despite its use in the promos, it was kind of forgettable. I did enjoy the car chase bit involving "sugar cane, tobacco and spices". The car chase itself seemed like something of a cross between a pirate movie and a video-game.

(S06E11) Brian learns that he had an illegitimate 13-year-old child from a previous relationship (voiced by Harvey Fierstein). The child is dropped off at the Griffin household and Brian now has to raise him.

It should be noted that this season has been shortened to 12 episodes, most likely due to the writer's strike. The season finale will be shown next week. The remaining unfinished episodes will be part of next season's broadcast.

(S06E10) Lois, Peter and Brian take a vacation to Martha's Vineyard. Peter drinks up a storm and Brian confesses his love for Lois. Hilarity ensues.

Seth McFarlane shows his Massachusetts background in this episode (his parents are from there). I saw references to Boston Harbor (the John Hancock building was in the background) and Six Flags New England (which is very close to Connecticut, the state where he was raised).

The show continues to explore Brian's artistic tendencies as he wins a writing award (we later learn the piece he wrote was mostly plagiarized). It's debatable if this is better or worse than the time he was a porn director.

Oh, Peter. They're breaking up that old gang of ours! There's a spin-off of Family Guy in the works at Fox. Peter's drinking buddy, Cleveland Brown, might be getting his own show. Oh no, does this mean he may be leaving Quahog? What, no more get-togethers at The Drunken Clam? (Note to self: He's an animated character; he could still be part of Family Guy.)

Cleveland is perhaps the most down to earth of Peter's pals on Family Guy, which could make him the perfect centerpiece of a new cartoon series. Zany new characters could be built around him. If history repeats itself, he could be the George Jefferson to Peter Griffin's Archie Bunker, i.e., The Jeffersons spinning off from All in the Family.

(S06E08) In a mild parody of the movie Super Size Me, Peter suffers a stroke after eating too many fast-food hamburgers. Meanwhile, Stewie becomes the most popular student at James Woods High School, despite being a baby.

Family Guy has such potential to be an original and funny series and so much of it is wasted. I saw hints of really good ideas in the episode but those were superseded by some hack writing and poorly executed material. Another reason to loathe the WGA Strike.

Spoilers after the jump.

(S06E07) This is the last new episode of Family Guy to be aired until the strike ends, whenever that is. After Meg nearly dies during the flash flood, in a change of character, Peter becomes overprotective of Meg when she starts dating a medical intern. In a B plot, Brian and Stewie buy a dilapidated house as an investment in hopes of fixing it up.

The show began with a rainstorm and some Hurricane Katrina commentary (which admittedly isn't exactly a hot topic anymore), particularly with Cleveland being shoved into the sports stadium. I also like the continued Superman references. This week had Dean Cain wearing a shirt with the emblem.

(S06E04) During last Festivus I mentioned the secret constitution that the networks have to regulate their industry. This is the document that says the Regis Philbin robot must have a full check-out every six months and that one network or another must produce a musical-based drama every twenty years or so that will fail right off the bat. I'm hoping that, after watching this week's 100th episode of Family Guy, the networks add a new amendment to their constitution: clip shows will no longer air before special episodes or series finales.

Call it the Seinfeld Amendment for simplification. Before the series finale of Seinfeld NBC aired a one-hour retrospective featuring classic scenes from previous seasons. This got the viewing audience all hyped up to see an exciting and entertaining finale. Then, as we all know, that last episode was a huge suckfest that disappointed millions. If they had not aired the retrospective before the last show perhaps the anger surrounding the episode may have been lessened.

(S06E01) A long time ago, but somehow in the future . . .

Who would've thunk it? When Family Guy premiered back in 1999(!) many people tossed it away as a pale imitation of The Simpsons and kind of ignored it. Who knew that eight years later, at the start of the show's 6th season, Seth MacFarlane and his crew would be able to get the approval of George Lucas himself to air a spoof of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. It shows how far Family Guy has come since it returned to the prime-time airwaves.