Family Guy’s 100th episode might be too shocking for Fox?
What do you think - is Family Guy starting to push the envelope a little TOO much?
Family Guy” fans know the kind of scatological gags, politically incorrect abuse and celebrity cheap shots that hit the airwaves amid this Fox hit’s scattershot satire. Now imagine the jibes so raw or low-blow they get excised from the scripts, or at least the animated final product, before they air.
TV critics don’t have to. Those of us at the fall-season press tour last week were treated to a lunchtime table read of the unlikely blockbuster’s upcoming 100th episode, “Stewie Kills Lois.” The voice cast, including creator Seth MacFarlane, gathered at our Beverly Hills hotel to vocalize a script that Fox publicists emphasized has not been been approved by the network’s broadcast standards department, may not air in the current form and should be taken with several thousand grains of salt and any other disclaimers you can name.
Was the read hilarious? You bet. Offensive? Of course. Between reading lines for his infant Stewie and dad Peter characters, MacFarlane riffed on reactions to his ruthlessness. When Peter goes dating after Lois’ death - yes, the creator lives up to his episode title - he’s as blithely rude as usual, reacting to what he thinks is his date’s astrological sign, Cancer. Critics groaned in advance, to which the merry MacFarlane ad-libbed, “Whatever you’re thinking, it’s so much worse.” Scripted riffs tackled “Ringo’s songwriting,” Barbra Streisand’s nose (doubling as an ATM for husband James Brolin) and graphic telegraph sex.
“Some of this stuff you will actually see only on the DVD,” MacFarlane warned. (Or promised.) “I think the abortion one” - Peter’s flashback to taking Lois years ago to a one-handed abortionist - “was about eight times as long” as the still-dicey version read for critics.
Yet MacFarlane told critics he tries to strike a “balance between the classic and the edgy. We do a lot of poop jokes, but we use a 45-piece orchestra every week . And we don’t try to shock for shock’s sake. If something is just shocking and not funny, we’ll cut it out.” That restraint is soooo reassuring.
I think that the cow has already left the barn, bb’s. If they were worried about Family Guy being too offensive to the point that it wouldn’t make them any money, they wouldn’t have brought it back.
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4 opinions for Family Guy’s 100th episode might be too shocking for Fox?
Daniel
Aug 19, 2007 at 11:30 am
Ive been a huge family guy fan ever since the first episode i saw, but most of us do relize that when mcfarlane said “the show is the same show” it wasnt entirely correct
In my opinion and many others, the show is only about half as funny as it was b4 with the exception of a couple episodes like
North By North Quahog and
Fast Times at Buddy Cianci jr high
after these family guy started going down hill and doesnt have the geniouse jokes it did b4.
I Dont mind edgy humor but family guy does it too much and doesnt focus on what it was in seasons 1-3
Peter and stewie are almost entirely different characters, and Peters voice change even annoys me…hes gone from a lovable oaf to a annoying child thats angry almost all the time
I wish family guy could make more classic episodes it would be a dream come true.
robert
Dec 20, 2007 at 1:37 am
u should make a family guy movie ina a month
oka no promblem hope notz
bye
dixie normous
Apr 9, 2008 at 2:05 pm
family guy is like the best show and fox should
keep on showing it i <3 stewie
jeanette
Apr 10, 2008 at 7:56 am
lov ya your ssooo funny
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