family guy-related stories
Posted Oct 30th 2009 9:33AM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Programming, OpEd, Pickups and Renewals, Reality-Free
The Fox network cannot risk pissing off Seth MacFarlane. If they do, they run a good chance of suddenly finding most of their entire Sunday night line-up sucking eggs. At least, that's one possible reason for the renewal of
American Dad for a sixth season. That pickup gives MacFarlane the renewal trifecta for Sunday nights.
Actually, of MacFarlane's three series,
American Dad is the best one (although I'm finding
The Cleveland Show inching closer to first place). As opposed to
Family Guy, the storytelling is more linear than the other two and the jokes actually have some relevance to the plot or characters (I'm on Team
South Park regarding that "feud").
The Cleveland Show is also better at linear storytelling and jokes than its predecessor, but it's still not up to the standards of
American Dad. Sadly,
American Dad will likely live in the shadow of
Family Guy and
The Cleveland Show for years to come. At least MacFarlane has three chances with Fox to keep on working.
Posted Oct 26th 2009 9:09PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Industry, OpEd, Animation, Music and Variety, Reality-Free
Well, it seemed like an unusual pairing when it was announced. Kind of like oil and water. Well, the oil slick has hit the proverbial fan.
Microsoft has withdrawn its sole sponsorship of Fox's Seth MacFarlane comedy special. That's the special that Fox was promoting like crazy yesterday all during the NFL games, the special called
Family Guy Presents: Seth & Alex's Almost Live Comedy Show.
In the grand tradition of show business, though, the special will go on November 8, just without Microsoft commercials. Fox is looking for alternate sponsors. Here's my first call if I'm at Fox -- Apple. Don't you think those Mac/PC ads would send a message to viewers who might still think Microsoft is behind this?
It would also be a brilliant PR move by Steve Jobs and Apple. After all, they could say, "Hey, we're not afraid of the content in Seth MacFarlane's show. We have a sense of humor."
Continue reading Microsoft backs out of MacFarlane's Fox comedy special
Posted Oct 18th 2009 12:13PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Programming, What To Watch Tonight, Reality-Free
At 7, ABC has a new America's Funniest Home Videos, followed by new episodes of Extreme Makeover, Desperate Housewives, and Brothers & Sisters.- CBS has a new 60 Minutes at 7, then new episodes of The Amazing Race, Three Rivers, and Cold Case.
- NBC has a new Football Night in America at 7, followed by the Bears vs. the Falcons.
- FOX has a new Brothers at 7.
- At 8, FOX has a new episode of The Simpsons, then a new Cleveland Show.
- TBS has Baseball Playoffs at 8, the Dodgers vs. the Phillies.
- Nickelodeon has a new Nick News Special Edition at 8.
- At 9, PBS has a new Masterpiece Mystery!
- Food Network has a new Next Iron Chef at 9, then a new Iron Chef America.
- IFC has Monty Python: Almost The Truth (The Lawyer's Cut) at 9.
- HBO has a new Curb Your Enthusiasm at 9, followed by a new Bored To Death.
- Also at 9: Showtime has a new Dexter, then a new Californication.
- At 9:30, FOX has a new American Dad.
- At 10, AMC has a new Mad Men.
- At 11:30, Cartoon Network has a new Titan Maximum.
- At midnight , Cartoon Network has a new Venture Brothers.
Check your
local TV listings for more.
Posted Oct 15th 2009 5:47PM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Animation, Pickups and Renewals, Ratings, Reality-Free
Not that the future of this series
was ever in doubt, but Fox has extended its original season-and-a-half order of
The Cleveland Show to a full two seasons. Given the strong premiere ratings for the show, seasons beyond number two will likely be in the bag. If Fox didn't extend, they'd have to deal with an irate Seth MacFarlane who currently controls most of their Sunday night line-up.
Is
The Cleveland Show going to end up being more popular than its progenitor
Family Guy? Do these ratings simply represent a high initial interest in the new show that will wane over time? I have used the analogy of
The Jeffersons spinning off from
All In The Family, but did
The Jeffersons ever beat
All In The Family in the ratings?
Whatever the case, Seth MacFarlane doesn't have to worry about it for at least two seasons, and probably longer.
[Watch
clips and free episodes of The Cleveland Show at
SlashControl]
Posted Oct 14th 2009 1:08PM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Programming, Celebrities, Pickups and Renewals, Reality-Free
The man who virtually owns Fox Sunday nights, Seth MacFarlane, will be
joining Carrie Underwood in what is seemingly Fox's attempt to
revive the variety show genre. Didn't anybody learn the lesson of
Rosie O'Donnell?
The show is called
Family Guy Presents: Seth and Alex's Almost Live Comedy Show. It'll be broadcast on November 8th and be commercial-free thanks to Microsoft (who will be promoting Windows 7). The special will be a mix of animated and live performances. I've seen Seth MacFarlane and Alex Borstein (the voice of Lois Griffin) perform together in
Family Guy Live and they're certainly better together than anything Rosie could produce.
It's interesting how retro these planned variety shows are going. It used to be that shows like
The Colgate Comedy Hour would have live sketches about their sponsors sprinkled throughout the show. I wonder how MacFarlane and company will handle shilling Windows 7. Do they even like Windows 7? MacFarlane strikes me more as a Mac guy. "Mac" is even part of his last name.
Posted Oct 13th 2009 2:26PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Animation, Reality-Free
This isn't too far from me, so I should check it out. Someone has mowed
a maze into the shape of Family Guy characters Brian and Stewie. And yes, FOX says that they're OK with the Connors family using the characters at their farm.
Looking at the photo, it seems like if you make it to Brian's nose, you're completely lost.
Posted Oct 12th 2009 9:25AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: OpEd, Animation, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
This is the third week of the new FOX Sunday night, so it's time to check in and see how the lineup is shaping up. I wanted to give
The Cleveland Show a few weeks to settle down and start to figure out what kind of show it wants to be. The pilot wasn't the strongest, but there was so much set-up involved, you couldn't tell anything about what future episodes would be like.
With Seth MacFarlane now providing a full hour-and-a-half of FOX's Sunday programming, we decided to take a look at all of his shows in a single post each week. At first, I wasn't sure if I was even going to like
The Cleveland Show enough to do this, but it's already grown on me. And that's much faster than
American Dad, which took more than a year of sampling here and there before I tuned in regularly.
Continue reading Sundays with Seth: Meet the Crinklesacks and fly with the Smiths
Posted Oct 11th 2009 12:17PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Programming, What To Watch Tonight, Reality-Free
TBS has Baseball Playoffs all night.- At 7, CBS has a new 60 Minutes, followed by new episodes of The Amazing Race, Three Rivers, and Cold Case.
- NBC has a new Football Night in America at 7, then the Colts vs. the Titans.
- FOX has a new Brothers at 7.
- At 7:30, ABC has a new America's Funniest Home Videos (30 minutes), followed by new episodes of Extreme Makeover, Desperate Housewives, and Brothers & Sisters.
- At 8, FOX has a new episode of The Simpsons, then new episodes of The Cleveland Show, Family Guy, and American Dad.
- Food Network has a new Challenge at 8, followed by new episodes of Next Iron Chef and Iron Chef America.
- At 8:30, Disney has a new Jonas.
- At 9, PBS has a new Masterpiece Mystery!
- HBO has a new Curb Your Enthusiasm at 9, then a new Bored To Death.
- Showtime has a new Dexter at 9, then a new Californication.
- Lifetime has the season finale of Drop Dead Diva at 9, followed by the season finale of Army Wives.
- At 10, AMC has a new Mad Men.
- At 11:30, Cartoon Network has a new Titan Maximum.
Check your
local TV listings for more.
Posted Oct 7th 2009 4:01PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Web, Celebrities, Reality-Free
... not who you think.
AskMen.com has released the list of the
49 most influential men of 2009 (not sure why it's 49 and not 50) and there are several TV people on the list, including FOX News anchor Shepard Smith, chef Mario Batali, and Seth MacFarlane.
But the number one person? The person who AskMen thinks is the most influential? He's from TV too, and he's actually fictional.
Continue reading And the most influential man of 2009 is ...
Posted Oct 5th 2009 7:02PM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: The Simpsons, Awards, Reality-Free
The Simpsons have been around for so long that one must wonder if there is an award they haven't been given yet. I mean other than that stupid, meaningless paperweight the industry calls
the Emmy.
The Paley Center for Media will pay a special tribute to
The Simpsons at this year's annual fundraising gala. The Center's president Pat Mitchell said they chose to honor the show because of its "tremendous impact on the television sitcom over the last 20 years and continues to influence and redefine the medium."
So I guess now when the nominating committee for the Paley Center has their annual honor candidate hoedown and someone suggests
The Simpsons, the
South Park delegate can yell "
Simpsons did it!"
Posted Oct 4th 2009 12:19PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Programming, What To Watch Tonight, Reality-Free
At 7, ABC has a new America's Funniest Home Videos, followed by new episodes of Extreme Makeover, Desperate Housewives, and Brothers & Sisters.- CBS has a new 60 Minutes at 7, then a new Amazing Race, the series premiere of Three Rivers, and a new Cold Case.
- NBC has a new Football Night in America at 7, followed by the Chargers vs. the Steelers.
- At 8, FOX has a new episode of The Simpsons, then new episodes of The Cleveland Show, Family Guy, and American Dad.
- Food Network has a new Challenge at 8, then the season premiere of The Next Iron Chef.
- At 9, PBS has a new Masterpiece Mystery!
- HBO has a new Curb Your Enthusiasm at 9, then a new Bored To Death.
- Lifetime has a new Drop Dead Diva at 8, followed by a new Army Wives.
- Showtime has a new Dexter at 9, then a new Californication.
- Discovery has two new episodes of Raging Planet at 9.
- At 10, AMC has a new Mad Men.
- At 10:30, HBO has the season finale of Entourage.
- At 11:30, Cartoon Network has a new Titan Maximum.
Check your
local TV listings for more.
Posted Sep 27th 2009 12:09PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Programming, What To Watch Tonight, Reality-Free
At 7, ABC has the two-hour season premiere of Extreme Makeover, followed by the season premieres of Desperate Housewives and Brothers & Sisters.- CBS has a new 60 Minutes at 7, then the two-hour season premiere of The Amazing Race and the season premiere of Cold Case.
- NBC has a new Football Night in America at 7, followed by the Colts vs. the Cardinals.
- At 8, FOX has the season premiere of The Simpsons, then the series premiere of The Cleveland Show and the season premieres of Family Guy and American Dad.
- TBS has The Wizard of Oz at 8.
- Nickelodeon has a new Nick News Special Edition at 8.
- Also at 8: Food Network has a new Challenge, followed by a new Iron Chef America.
- At 8:30, ESPN has the Red Sox/Yankees game.
- At 9, HBO has a new Curb Your Enthusiasm, then a new Bored To Death.
- Showtime has the season premiere of Dexter at 9, followed by the season premiere of Californication.
- Cartoon Network has a new Total Drama Action at 9.
- Hallmark has the movie Mrs. Washington Goes To Smith at 9.
- At 10, AMC has a new Mad Men.
- At 10:30, HBO has a new Entourage.
Check your
local TV listings for more.
Posted Sep 24th 2009 10:00AM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Animation, Pickups and Renewals, Reality-Free, Press Kits Unwrapped
You've heard it before. The character of Cleveland Brown is the last person in the cast you'd expect to get a spin-off from
Family Guy (well, except maybe Herbert, the pedophile down the street). Well, he did in the form of
The Cleveland Show. Fox is trying to promote the hell out of this program and as a result, members of the press got a cute press kit to go along with a DVD containing the first three episodes of the show.
This particular press kit contained a body brush (for scrubbing those hard to reach places while in the bath or shower) as well as a plastic bag that contained a towel and some bubble bath . The only thing I can conclude from this particular batch of items is that watching
The Cleveland Show will somehow make one feel unclean. This is a nice continuation from the same feeling one would get from watching any given episode of
Family Guy.
Actually, the kit is a bit contradictory. The bag is obviously to keep a wet towel from dripping on anything, but who brings such a thing to the bath? That sort of item is usually reserved for the beach. I guess they were afraid the towel would get wet in transit or something.
Continue reading Press Kits Unwrapped: The Cleveland Show
Posted Sep 14th 2009 2:10AM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Animation, Cancellations, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
The one-hour, two-episode
King of the Hill finale should stand not just as the end of a great show that never got the attention it deserved, but as a finale that tried not to seek that attention.
The show came to a rather quiet end last Sunday during Fox's "Animation Domination" block that has done just that, thanks in part to brilliant shows like
King of the Hill. It featured two episodes that treated their audience to some of the characters' humorous and heartfelt changes before sending it off into the depths of the TV land vaults.
Then it slapped them back into cold, harsh reality by following it up with an all new episode of nature's cruel mistake
Family Guy, but that's hardly Mike Judge's fault.
Continue reading King of the Hill's finale ends the way all good comedies should
Posted Sep 7th 2009 12:04PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Video, Web, Celebrities, Reality-Free
If you haven't watched
Kevin Pollak's Chat Show (every Sunday at 5 PM PT), you're missing some fun interviews. It's a very loose, one-on-one talk between Pollak and a celebrity guest (actor, comic, writer, web entrepreneuer, etc). It's sort of like
Charlie Rose, only with more swearing.
Here's a recent interview he did with
Famly Guy creator Seth MacFarlane.
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