TVSquad

(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.

Following in the footsteps of the recent Colbert Report and 30 Rock shows at the Upright Citizen's Brigade theatre in NYC, Family Guy creator Seth McFarlane along with Alex Borstein (she voices Lois) are putting on a benefit show for the WGA East at Carnegie Hall on January 31st. Janeane Garofalo and Patti LuPone will be making special appearances.

I saw an ad for the show in the newspaper this morning and checked out the Carnegie Hall website the second I got into work. Looks like the show is supposed to feature a night of "music and comedy." Sounds great! The idea of hearing McFarlane spout jokes in the voices of Peter, Stewie, Brian, or Quagmire in a live show is pretty cool if you think about. Plus, it's even funnier if you consider all the cultured events that have been hosted at Carnegie Hall over the years. Orchestras. Theater. Opera. And now Peter Griffin saying "penis" and giggling.

TV Squad already did a review of this episode when it was originally broadcast. What follows is a review of the DVD extras.

Extras include:

• Episode commentary by Seth McFarlane and a bunch of other members of the production team (absent are any of the character voices other than McFarlane himself).
• A twelve minute interview of George Lucas by Seth McFarlene on Star Wars, Family Guy, and a variety of other topics including dating.
• A nineteen minute documentary about how much the creators of Family Guy love Star Wars.
• The original animatics for the episode (includes jokes and animations that didn't make the final cut).
• A Family Guy Star Wars Clip Show (clips from Family Guy episodes which reference Star Wars).
• A generic Family Guy promo for Fox.
  

(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.

(S06E05) Lois has realized that she has given birth to a monster and knows what she has to do to resolve it. The world needs more mothers who take responsibility like this.

I never liked episodes which end up saying "the whole episode you just watched never happened", but the nice thing about Family Guy is its tendency to call itself out on its own crap before the viewer can. I believe Brian described it best when he called it giving the audience a giant middle finger.

(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.

If you haven't seen the previews for next Sunday's Family Guy, here's the scoop: it looks like Stewie goes beyond all talk and no action and actually kills his mom Lois. Sounds like "a very special Family Guy."

To promote the episode, titled "Stewie Kills Lois," FOX is going to have black hearses drive around New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago, handing out flyers and candles promoting the episode. The promotion starts this Friday.

The answer is maybe. The Hollywood Reporter writes that creator Seth MacFarlane is looking at the possibility of doing a Family Guy movie sometime in the future, which makes sense because it's much harder to make movies in the past.

One plan McFarlane mentioned was to have former Family Guy scribe Ricky Blitt come back to work on the film script. It's worth noting that none of this is official, and that a basic plot for a Family Guy film hasn't even been thought up, though McFarlane does state he doesn't want to do a huge movie like the upcoming Simpsons Movie, but rather a smaller story focusing on the Griffin family.

When I was in college, FOX aired a show called Get a Life. In it, Chris Elliot played a 30-year-old paperboy who lived with his exasperated parents and just refused to grow up. It was a weird little show, but it had its moments.

If you were a fan of that show, you'll like The Winner. Think of it as a less-creepy version of Elliot's show, with just as many funny moments. And for those funny moments, you can thank Rob Corddry.

The former Daily Show correspondent stars as Glen Abbott, who is currently the richest man in Buffalo, but in this show, he looks back fondly at 1994, when he came of age... at 32. Yes, the voice over method is a bit of a takeoff of The Wonder Years, but the show isn't really a parody of that.

A little over one year ago I mentioned that Brian and Stewie of Family Guy would be starring in their own online talk show. Tonight, before you settle in with a bag of Skittles and jar of moonshine (or whatever snacks you happen to enjoy) to watch the Oscars, head over to FOX.com to see Up Late with Stewie and Brian, a ten-minute, online-only talk show featuring an interview with Rob Corddry about his new show, The Winner (also created by Family Guy's Seth McFarlane and Ricky Blitt). The show will be available starting at 5 p.m. PST.

If you haven't had a chance to check out The Winner, you can watch some of the episodes online before they air on TV in March. I caught one episode, and while it wasn't perfect, I think the series might have potential. I like the premise of a developmentally arrested thirty-two year old with a teenage best friend, and Corddry is a goofy and likable leading man. I'm willing to give it a chance to grow on me.

OK, I think I have just about exhausted all of my press tour material. But I got a few quotes here and there which I really wanted to include somewhere, even though they weren't enough to merit their own posts.

So, here are five random quotes from my week in Pasadena, presented for your amusement:

1. "Yes. It's called 25. It's like 24, except there's one more." - Chris Rock, when a reporter asked him if he was working on a new show. One of the other reporters actually responded to this by asking, "Are you serious?"

Say it isn't so!

OK, I'll say it: it isn't so.

Seth McFarlane is currently under negotiations with FOX about his new contract. The current contract runs out in early 2007, and McFarlane still hasn't finalized a deal with the network even though the new season is supposed to start filming (um...drawing?) very soon. Variety reports that the production offices are currently closed.

But I say the network and McFarlane make a deal. The show has been a hit and an important show for FOX since coming back, and I don't see them letting it slide away (again). Though wouldn't it be interesting if FOX for some reason didn't renew the contract and NBC picked it up? I don't see that happening, but that would be a cool twist and an instant hit for the Peacock network.

When it comes to animated series, I am always interested in looking behind the curtain to see how it all comes about. Particularly the voice talent, as many of these people (Seth McFarlane, Dan Castellaneta, Billy West) do a variety of voices for just one episode. Now, thanks to YouTube, we get to see a little bit of that behind the scenes material at the Family Guy studios.

The video features Seth McFarlane (Peter Griffin and Stewie, among others), Mila Kunis (Meg) and other company members as they do their lines for an episode of the series. What's interesting to see is how many times these voice actors go through their dialogue to get it right. What is also interesting is the fact that many of these actors perform their lines solo; I always pictured a lot of back and forth between the actors. Despite how many times the lines are read, and whether or not the readings are in a group or solo, the end result is fairly smooth when you watch the final episode on TV.

To see the video, check after the jump.

[Thanks to Michael at betapundit]

At a recent speech given to students at Stanford University, Family Guy creator Seth McFarlane alluded to the "Cartoon Wars" two-part episode of South Park which ruthlessly took aim at Family Guy for using easy humor and being written by manatees. Anyone who has read interviews with McFarlane has probably guessed that he didn't really have a problem with the episode, stating, "they sh*t on everybody like we do." Spoken like a true satirist, says I. Besides, I'm looking forward to a Family Guy where they take a few shots at South Park. I'm not here to root for one team, I just like watching the battle.

In the same speech, McFarlane also spoke about censorship, and that the interference of family advocacy groups would only get worse. Despite their different approaches, this seems like one thing both South Park and Family Guy have in common.

[via South Park Studios] 

I know how you feel. Really, I do. A TV show comes along that seems so obvious in its mediocrity you can't fathom why so many people enjoy it. You list myriad examples of how the show is sub-par, or a blatant rip-off of another show, or too reliant on "easy" jokes, but no one will listen to you. They just keep watching and touting the show as if it's some work of genius. It's enough to make you go insane and eat your own face.

Family Guy may be popular, but there's still a lot of people who don't like it. My feelings on this subject are paradoxical. I like Family Guy, but I still have to agree with people who say the writing isn't always up to snuff, and that the show relies too heavily on pop culture references as a substitute for humor. Brian has a line in one episode that always makes me cringe: describing New York City, he claims it's "like Prague, sans the whimsy." Maybe it's just me, but it sounds like some college freshman trying to sound smarter than he is.