A common misconception among more casual “Family Guy” fans is that creator Seth MacFarlane is personally responsible for every creative decision. Although he voices many characters, his presence in the writers' room is much lighter than he thought. In interviews, he noted that he hadn't written for “Family Guy” since about 2009, and that even before that he had only officially scripted three episodes. That's right: in all of the show's 400+ episodes, only three episodes were penned by MacFarlane.
Of course, any writer for a long-running sitcom will tell you that the writing for these shows is very collaborative. There will often be a writer who gets credit for the episode, but the script will usually go through a few revisions from the rest of the cast. I know from interviews with the writers of Rick and Morty and Futurama that it's often difficult to keep track of who on the staff wrote what joke and who came up with each individual idea. (Regarding the show worst episodes(This uncertainty is probably a relief.)
To say that Seth MacFarlane only wrote three episodes is likely to understate his creative contribution to the series; However, the fact remains that he only received primary writing credit for three episodes: “The Shadow of Death,” “Family Guy Viewer Mail #1,” and “North by North Quahog.” So how were they?
It was the pilot of “There is a shadow of death”.
Seth MacFarlane wrote the first episode of Family Guy, and it pretty effectively set the tone for its pre-cancellation run. Sure, there's a lot of early-episode stuff that'll be eliminated later — Meg is a completely different character here, even accounting for the voice actor change, and most of Peter's friend group would be written out — but for the most part, this just feels like an early-season episode.
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of “The Shadow of Death” is its accidental difference from “The Simpsons”. even as clearly inspired by it. The pilot introduces a bad-talking baby, a wise-cracking dog, and a slightly jarring cut-scene format within the first few minutes, and just waits for the audience to get on board. There is a kind of confidence he shares that year's “Futurama” pilothere you can see the writers learning from that awkward first season of The Simpsons and doing their best to land it.
While the pilot is quite a few people's favorite episodes of Family Guy, it's probably one of the series' best-remembered episodes, as Family Guy would return to the episode in 2011's Back to the Pilot. fans, a fun insight into how much the series (and the world) has changed since the first episode aired. “The Shadow of Death” isn't the best episode written by MacFarlane, but it's not a bad start to the show.
'Family Guy Viewer Mail #1' is a lot of fun
Although “Family Guy” would never have the same annual anthology tradition as “The Simpsons.” Treehouse of Horror episodesthis season's episode 3 was one of their first attempts to try something similar, and it worked out pretty well. The first story is about Peter getting three wishes from a demon and fulfilling them with all the wisdom we know he can; the second is about a family getting superpowers and messing around with them; and the third is the adorable Little Rascals homage, where we see the grown-up Family Guy characters as chubby-cheeked kids.
Neither segment is overstaying its welcome, and the show will continue to do the occasional anthology episode for the rest of its run. I don't think anything here matches season 7's Three Kings. This movie uses the three-in-one format to give us parody segments of Stephen King's Misery, Stand By Me, and Shawshank Redemption. ” but I'm not sure this episode would have happened if “Viewer Letter #1” hadn't been so well received in the first place.
'North By North Quahog' was the first episode since the show's renewal
As well as including a fun parody Alfred Hitchcock's best film, The season 4 premiere featured perhaps the best dig at the show on the Fox network. After the show has been off the air for nearly four years, “North by North Quahog” begins with Peter walking into the house and announcing that they are cancelled. When Lois asks if there's any hope Fox will change his mind and put them back on TV, Peter replies:
“We just have to accept that Fox needs to make room for great shows like Dark Angel, Titus, Undeclared, Action, That '80s Show, Marvel, Fast.” Lane said. , 'Andy Richter Rules the Universe,' 'Skin,' 'Girls Club,' 'Cracking Up,' 'The Pits,' 'Firefly,' 'Get Real,' 'Freaky Links', 'Wanda at Large', 'Costello', 'The Lone Gunmen', 'A Minute with Stan Hooper', 'Normal Ohio', 'Pasadena',' 'Harsh Realm', 'Keen Eddie', 'The Street ,' American Embassy, 'Cedric the Entertainer', 'The Tick', 'Louie' and 'Greg the Rabbit'”.
The joke is that all these shows were canceled quickly; The early 2000s was a time when Fox executives made a series of terrible decisions, and it seems that Seth MacFarlane really wanted to make sure everyone knew how incompetent they were. Like “Futurama” years later“Family Guy” got the last laugh.
Beyond that opening, the episode takes a cue from “The Shadow of Death” and is business as usual; Brian and Stewie try their hand at babysitting Chris and Meg in the B-plot, while Peter gets into some nasty shenanigans in the A-plot. It's interesting how much the definition of a “normal episode” has changed since 1999; In season 4, “Family Guy” realized how well Brian and Stewie work together as a comedy duo. (In Season 1, they were more likely to pair Brian with Peter, and Stewie would try to kill Lois again.) MacFarlane basically had to write two different pilots for “Family Guy,” and both did a lot for it. determine the new norms of the series.
