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Family Guy returning to the air in May of 2005 was a huge surprise. The show had been cancelled long ago (the last episode aired on Valentine’s day of 2002) but had attained such a cult following on Adult Swim. It was so popular that the DVD’s were released and they sold tremendously well. Fox had no option but to bring the show back. It would mark the first time that a show was cancelled and then brought back by the same network. Of course, fan expectation was at its highest and no one knew if the shows could live up to those expectations.
The episodes themselves are marked by a basic plot, out of place flashbacks and pop-culture references for those who are not familiar with the show. I thought that I would start assigning grades to the episodes like I do with the Seinfeld DVD review.
The Main Characters
The Griffin family is the main stars of this show. Peter is the father and could be considered by many to be borderline retarded. There are no barriers between his brain and his mouth and often what he is thinking is what comes out of his mouth. Lois is his wife and is a little more normal than Peter. She is his anchor. That is not saying much since she has an explosive temper and could go off at any time. Peter and Lois have three children; Chris, Meg and Stewie. Meg is the oldest and is shunned by the family and the world in general. Chris is overweight and perhaps even more absent minded than his father. Stewie is the most intelligent of them all, even though he’s only a baby. He has quite the dirty mouth and he’s always scheming. He usually has the choicest lines in the series, too. Brian rounds out the Griffin family. He is the most learned, most well versed, most well spoken, and is a dog. They are quite the dynamic, and dysfunctional family. Seth MacFarlane does the voices of Stewie, Peter and Brian (among others), Mila Kunis voices Meg, Seth Green handles Chris and Alex Borstein is Lois.
The Setting
Quahog, Rhode Island.
The Plots
---Disc One---
1) North By North Quahog (21:58)
Original Airdate: 05/01/05
This episode’s cold opening is a hilarious one. Peter tells the family the show’s been cancelled and Lois asks why. Peter then rattles off every single show that started, and was cancelled, in the brief time they were off the air. Right about then I knew the show would be as irreverent as ever. In this episode, Lois and Peter are making love and Lois calls out another man’s name. She is actually thinking of George Clooney, which pisses Peter off. They don’t have their spark anymore! Peter decides they should take a second honeymoon but that is botched when he crashes the car while reading a comic. They learn of an exclusive hotel where Mel Gibson has a permanent room. Peter and Lois decide to stop by and they get in when Peter impersonates Mel Gibson. They make love in his room but Lois is still calling out another man’s name. Peter is again mad and Lois says she’s just in a phase where she is only attracted to handsome men. While still in the hotel, Peter finds Passion of the Christ 2: Crucify This (which is a take-off of the Rush Hour movies) and steals it. Mel Gibson finds out and kidnaps Lois. Peter goes and saves her and the spark is rekindled. There is also a back-story where Brian and Stewie look over Meg and Chris and Chris is accused of having liquor when it really belonged to Tom Tucker’s kid, upside-down face. They plant crack on him and he gets arrested. Where’d they get the crack? They got it from the greased up naked deaf guy. A priceless cameo. Overall, a fantastic episode to kick off the fourth season as the gags were as funny as ever especially the Passion of the Christ 2 trailer and putting the emphasis on the Griffins and including an actual storyline.
Episode Grade: A
Best Pop-Culture References:
---A) Peter as Jesus in the Passion of the Christ.
---B) Two and a Half Men: Two guys screaming over half a dude.
---C) Gepetto bending down in front of Pinocchio and trying to get him to lie so his nose will grow into his ass.
---D) Flint of GI Joe educating the children on drinking a la their PSA’s at the end of every show. Of course, knowing is half the battle.
2) Fast Times at Buddy Cianci Jr. High (21:11)
Original Airdate: 05/08/05
This episode opens with the Family Guy Law In Order intro. At Buddy Cianci Jr. High, Chris’ teacher wins the lottery and leaves. Brian actually comes in to take over but he is reassigned to a remedial class. Chris’ new teacher, Mrs. Lockhart, shows up and she is a buxom blonde knockout. Chris starts falling in love with her and she finds out. She then tries to coax Chris into killing her husband. Lois finds out and goes to the home in horror to see he’s already been killed! They dump his body and come home to find out Chris didn’t kill him. The perpetrators were actually Mrs. Lockhart and her bear. They have escaped and are on the run. Meanwhile, Brian is struggling to be a successful teacher with society’s waste in his remedial English class. He tries to tell the kids that they can be more than just hookers and janitors but that is what they want to aspire to!
Episode Grade: B
Best Pop-Culture References:
---A) You Can’t Do That On Television.
---B) On being impulsive: Donnie and Marie Osmond in bed.
3) Blind Ambition (21:53)
Original Airdate: 05/15/05
The episode starts with Mort bowling a perfect game. Everyone celebrates and Lois goes to relieve herself in the ladies room where Quagmire is peeping from the ceiling. He gets arrested but Joe gets him out. They return home and the ladies of Quahog (Lois, Bonnie and Loretta) want Quag out of there. Bonnie mentions she doesn’t want to bring up a kid with him there and Peter mentions she’s been pregnant for six years. They discuss this when all of a sudden; the chicken returns (last seen in “Da Boom”) and attacks Peter. They have another epic battle. Peter returns and they say Quagmire can stay if he doesn’t get in any more trouble. It takes a lot for Quagmire to become “cured” of his sexual lust and even saves a woman by performing the Heimlich maneuver (though he was really just rubbing her!) Quagmire is declared a hero and Peter wishes for his heroic moment, or something that will make him famous. He tries a number of things that fail (including being a gun-wielding cougar that enforces a clean environment). Cleveland suggests he set a Guinness Record and Peter tries to, by eating the most nickels! He eventually goes blind and manages to save the owner of the bar after God sets it on fire. He gets the hero ceremony like the one at the end of Star Wars.
Episode Grade: B-
Best Pop-Culture References:
---A) The Keebler elves planning to attack the Rice Krispies elves.
---B) The Wonder Twins with Peter turning into Jana’s tampon.
---C) Peter living with Superman at the Fortress of Solitude and crashing a JLA meeting.
4) Don’t Make Me Over (21:52)
Original Airdate: 06/05/05
Meg wins a makeover at the new super mall and becomes super-hot. Peter meanwhile tries to save the bar (which is going out of business due to the super mall across the street) by singing Karaoke and specifically, “Don’t Stop Believin’,” by Journey. Peter, Quagmire, Cleveland and Joe are asked to play at a prison but of course they don’t know any songs. The Griffin family is there and Meg’s new beauty and singing performance saves them and gets them a record deal. Their producer, Dr. Diddy, tours with them and crafts their hit record and their image. The band will succeed with Meg as the front woman. They even get on SNL but Meg’s world comes crashing down when Jimmy Fallon sleeps with Meg as part of the opening skit. Meg is crushed and returns to being normal. Of course, Peter does get a chance to beat up Jimmy Fallon before going home. There is also a funny back-story of Brian barking at Dr. Ditty (who is African-American) and then turning off Apollo at the end of the show. You know, they had an 80’s working montage with the four guys working but the music was mixed so low. I don’t remember that from the original network airing.
Episode Grade: B+
Best Pop-Culture References:
---A) The Tin Man from Wizard of Oz finds out he’s gay.
---B) Ms. Swan from Mad TV (who is played by Alex) showing up.
--Disc Two---
5) The Cleveland-Loretta Quagmire (21:53)
Original Airdate: 06/12/05
So the gang is on Peter’s boat (harkening back to Season 3 where he becomes a boater) and Joe nearly drowns. Only Peter’s Portuguese attendants can help and save him by giving him CPR. This prompts Lois to bring the family to CPR class but Peter messes up and loses the card. Another thing that happened on the boat was that Loretta started coming on to Quagmire. After Peter laments losing his license she hears Loretta moaning and finds out she’s having an affair! He doesn’t know that it is Quagmire yet but he still reveals it to the whole gang. He even tells Cleveland who apologizes for his lack of relations with his wife so Loretta kicks him out and he joins the Griffins. Peter is worried that Cleveland is bottling up emotions and go to Quagmire for a revenge lay and find out it was Quagmire who was the one Loretta was cheating with. Cleveland seems okay with it to the shock of Peter. Peter tries to release Cleveland’s emotions and he does, but now Cleveland is a raging beast intent on killing Quagmire. So Peter goes to warn Quagmire, as Cleveland gets increasingly irate. Cleveland eventually shows up to Quagmire’s house and it appears Quagmire will bring the bat down on Quagmire but he just can’t do it. Cleveland and Loretta end their marriage. This was easily one of the funniest episodes of the season as the music number (the AIDS song) and the pointless segments (Peter’s helicopter, the Hinden-Peter, Brian spanking Lois and Peter on the TV show called, “You’ve been kicked in the nuts) were hilarious.
Episode Grade: A+
Best Pop-Culture References:
---A) Superman II and his cellophane S.
---B) Bam-Bam and Emeril Lagasse saying “bam.”
---C) Peter going to Crossing Over and seeing the sham that is John Edwards.
---D) Quagmire and Cleveland as SNL’s two wild and crazy guys.
6) Petarded (22:28)
Original Airdate: 06/19/05
It’s game night at the Griffins and they play a whole variety of games. They end with Trivial Pursuit and Peter wins with stunningly simple questions that Lois took from the Pre-School edition. He starts getting a big head which pisses Brian off. He tells him that if he’s so smart he should take an IQ test at the MacArthur testing facility. Peter takes it and the results are in, he’s mentally retarded. Peter even calls one of his exes to tell her that he’s retarded and she should get herself tested. He learns that he can get away with anything as a retard and hilarity ensues watching him do the craziest things. There was even a musical number in here I don’t remember from the original network showing (which I watched a couple of days ago, actually). He even gets a state appointed aide. Things go awry, though, when Lois is injured by Peter’s actions in a fast food chain (Lois gets hot frying grease all over her). She’s taken to a hospital and the kids are taken away from Peter. He is; after all, mentally unfit to care for children. The children stay with Cleveland for the time being. Peter wants the kids back and plans to do that by showing what a horrible father he is. He brings 7 hookers over to try to frame him and Cleveland is incensed. He demands that 5 of the prostitutes leave! They go to court and Peter damns himself and he can’t have the kids back. Luckily the show is running out of time and Lois is healed and brings the kids back! The quick ending aside, this was a pretty funny episode seeing Peter getting away with murder and continues the great stretch the season got off to.
Episode Grade: A-
Best Pop-Culture References:
---A) Peter Weller playing paintball with the group and getting blown away like in Robocop.
---B) “Amadeus” as performed by a tumor in Lois’ brain, except instead of saying Amadeus, it’s saying, “I’m a tumor.”
---C) Stewie’s I-Pod commercial.
7) Brian The Bachelor (21:53)
Original Airdate: 06/26/05
Cleveland is still single so the gang tries to bring him out to meet some girls, but he fails. Then next morning, Chris wakes up and has a huge zit on his face. That night, news breaks that, “The Bachelorette,” is coming to down and Peter is convinced that Cleveland should go on the show to meet Mrs. Right. Cleveland is too nervous to interview for the show and winds up tied down naked to the chair with Peter naked over him. They don’t interview him of course but Brian (who had tagged along with him) goes in and tells them what happened. Brian is then chosen for the show! We see the trials and tribulations Brian goes through on the show. Brian went through thinking it was a sham but gets chosen to stay on and actually starts falling for the contestant. He is even a finalist and brings Brooke home to disastrous results as. Meanwhile, Chris is prompted into mischief because of what his zit told him and Lois wants to get zit cream for it. Chris vandalizes the store and Joe comes and tells the family, while Brooke is there! Brian is then chosen as the winner but when the episode ends, Brooke leaves. Brian is crushed of course. This show was a step down from the previous 6 episodes but it was still high quality. The story was a bit too much for me and Brian wasn’t too funny tonight. It also featured one of the jokes-that-went-on-too-long segments with Stewie talking to Brian about his book. It didn’t have any real laugh-out-loud moments either.
Episode Grade: C+
Best Pop-Culture References:
---A) Frankenberry and Count Chocula on the Bachelorette.
---B) He-Man showing up at the horse range!
8) 8 Simple Rules For Buying My Teenage Daughter (21:52)
Original Airdate: 07/10/05
Lois and Peter go out and Meg has to baby-sit Stewie. She hates it and refuses to do it again. Peter stops by Mort’s and gets some Tylenol and condoms. Peter doesn’t have a wallet so Mort opens a tab for him. Peter goes crazy and gets all sorts of pharmaceutical things. He even buys things that make you vomit so Brian, Stewie, Peter and Chris have a contest. They drink it and the last one to throw up will win the last piece of pie. They throw up uncontrollably which is hilariously disgusting. Peter keeps getting piling things on his tab (including a whole rack of cards) and Mort calls him out. He owes him $34,00. Peter does the only thing he can. He sells Meg to Mort! The only problem is, Neil already has a girlfriend! So now Meg is jealous that Neil has a woman and tries to make him jealous by going out with Upside-Down Face Boy. Meg eventually starts going out with Mort but soon finds she made a horrible mistake. Meg basically becomes his slave. Meanwhile, Stewie loves the new female babysitter and anticipates her coming over. Unfortunately, the new babysitter has a boyfriend and Stewie rages over this. He kidnaps the boyfriend and the babysitter is uncontrollably upset. He manages to get her fired. As she leaves, she gives Stewie a mix-tape and he knows he made a mistake. Going back to Meg, they have to get Neil to break the contract and the only way they can do that is to have Neil commit an infidelity so Lois dresses up as Mystique and Meg gets Neil to break the contract. Neil goes back with his ex and Meg and Stewie are back on the sofa together. It was another decent episode, as the whole Neil/Meg saga dragged pretty badly and the Stewie/Babysitter story arc was brutally boring. Another weak showing for MacFarlane and company.
Episode Grade: C
Best Pop-Culture References:
---A) The Everybody Loves Raymond reference was pretty funny.
---B) Stewie on Blind Date is priceless.
---Disc Three---
9) Breaking Out Is Hard To Do (21:43)
Original Airdate: 07/17/05
Lois, Stewie, Meg, Brian and Chris go to the grocery story where Chris has an odd 80’s moment (see below). Lois doesn’t have enough money to pay for everything and decides to put the ham away. She goes away, and sticks it in her purse. She comes home with the ham in tow. Yes, she stole the ham. It doesn’t stop there, she goes to the boutique and starts stealing everything and it gives her a rush. Brian eventually finds out and calls Lois out on it. She steals a painting and it is mentioned on the local news program. Joe Swanson is watching the news program and he busts her while Lois tries to return everything. Lois tries to get away but can’t escape Joe. She goes before the judge and he sentences her to three years in prison. The family falls apart with their own filth and so Peter and the family break her out of prison! They hide out in Asiantown and all get jobs there. Peter becomes a sumo wrestler one of his aired appearances is seen by Joe! Joe shows up in Asiantown and the Griffins try to escape again. Lois decides to turn herself in and manages to save Joe’s life, thus getting her out of a prison sentence. This was a decent episode with enough of a story to make it fun and the cutaway scenes were so bizarre (He’s Quagmire!) it made up for the last few episodes.
Episode Grade: B+
Best Pop-Culture References:
---A) Chris Griffin in A-Ha’s, “Take on Me,” video was fantastic.
---B) Peter in the Neverending Tale.
---C) The Goonies helping the Griffins in the sewer!
10) Model Misbehavior (21:43)
Original Airdate: 07/24/05
The family is heading to the Pewterschmidt’s house and Brian learns he has worms. He is worried since he can’t afford the medication. Peter wants to work on Carter P’s boat (and tells him he thinks he needs more seaman on his poopdeck). He refuses to have him on his boat so Peter decides to race his own boat, a bathtub, against Carter, and wins! Lois says she doesn’t want to listen to her father anymore. She wants to be a model! Her father had stopped her from doing it when she was younger. Back at home, Brian’s worms are getting worse and he borrows money from Stewie for the medicine. Brian borrows the money and now has to work for Stewie while Lois’ modeling career starts taking off. When she starts getting ogled by other men, Peter starts discouraging her from continuing. She starts taking diet pills as well and Peter visits Carter for help. He will only help if Peter eats a pinecone, which he does. So Carter and Peter take Lois away from the Vogue party. Peter has a change of heart and tells her she can continue and Lois decides not to continue. Meanwhile, Stewie fires Brian. This episode was actually almost all story line with very little cutaway scenes and it was very entertaining. Some of the jokes went on too long (Peter on E) but overall it was another solid episode that was funny and told a story.
Episode Grade: B+
Best Pop-Culture References:
---A) The Cookie Monster in rehab.
11) Peter’s Got Woods (21:21)
Original Airdate: 09/11/05
Lois can’t go to the PTA meeting so she tells Peter to go. Peter doesn’t want to go so he makes Brian go. Brian goes and meets a lovely black woman named Shauna Parks. They go on their date and they decide to rename James Woods High to Martin Luther King High. Meanwhile, Stewie grabs a copy of The Da Vinci Code and loses sleep since he’s too engrossed in the novel! Peter starts missing Brian though since he’s hanging out with Shauna too much and starts treating Meg like a dog. So Brian and Shauna go to the school and they want to rename the school to Martin Luther King Jr. School. They will even vote for this at tomorrow’s school board meeting. The school is about to be renamed when Peter brings James Woods to the meeting! James Woods even tells the board he’d like to see the school renamed, too. So, of course, the board keeps it at James Woods High since he’s so humble. Brian is so incensed with Peter’s actions and leaves to see Shauna. Shauna gets pissed that Brian is still talking to Peter and so Shauna leaves him! Brian wants to apologize to Peter but is shocked to learn that James Woods has taken his place! Things sour between Peter and James so Brian and Peter team up to rid themselves of James Woods. This episode was very dull. The story was poorly written, had poor execution and was there since they got James Woods to do the voice. A snoozer of an episode with no real funny moments.
Episode Grade: C-
Best Pop-Culture References:
---A) Stewie playing Marco Polo with Helen Keller.
---B) Peter hanging out with Barney Rubble.
---C) A Star Trek reference with Patrick Stewart as the voice of Picard. He would later go on to have a role in American Dad.
12) Perfect Castaway (21:23)
Original Airdate: 09/18/05
So Peter is out to sea but can’t catch any fish. He hears of a place called Pelican’s Reef, but no one has ever come back from there! So Peter goes with Cleveland, Quagmire, and Joe head over there and collect tons of fish. Everything seems to go well until Hurricane RuPaul attacks. The boat is destroyed and only Quagmire’s blow-up dolls can save them. They eventually land on a deserted isle (after Peter eats Joe’s legs of course) but everyone at Quahog thinks they’re dead! Luckily, a cruise ship arrives and saved them. Peter returns home and is shocked that Lois has remarried! Even worse, Lois has remarried Brian! Peter tries to win her back even though Lois wants to stay married to Brian. Peter tries seducing Lois and they start fooling around while Brian is at work. Brian finds out after Stewie taped it and played it for Brian and Brian finds Lois sneaking out and overhears Lois telling Peter she can’t do that to Brian. Brian takes the high road and even breaks up with Lois so she can go back to Peter. Another very slow episode that wasn’t all too funny. You’d think that the four guys on the deserted isle would be funnier but they had nothing with that. The lame story with Brian marrying Lois was absurd, too. Another poor episode.
Episode Grade: C
Best Pop-Culture References:
---A) Peter Outfarting Michael Moore.
---B) Kobe Bryant’s interrogation.
13) Jungle Love (21:49)
Original Airdate: 09/25/05
Lois is pissed that Peter hasn’t gotten a job yet while Chris is off to his first day of high school. Chris is nervous because of the freshman hunt, where all the upperclassmen chase freshman and whack them with paddles and Chris gets beat while Alice Cooper’s, “No More Mister Nice Guy,” plays. Chris comes home and wants to escape. Brian tells him that running away won’t work since when he joined the Peace Corps, he was just shipped many continents away. He still couldn’t escape his problems. Chris doesn’t understand and runs off, joins the Peace Corps, and goes to South America. He calls back and says that he will be back in a month. Meanwhile, Peter goes for a job at Pawtucket Brewery and promptly gets drunk, and stays drunken 24/7. He eventually gets demoted. Back at the island, Chris starts getting involved with the South American culture. He even breaks out into song and dance (Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go) and because of that, he gets married to the chief’s daughter. He writes home and tells them he is not coming back. The family goes to visit them and Peter finds out he’s the richest man in the country with his $37. He is given the biggest hut and the star treatment. Chris gets pissed at Peter’s misuse of the people but when the tribe find out he’s a freshman, they start chasing him and the Griffins get away, a la Indiana Jones, though Meg is left behind. Oops. That ends the episode and season 4. Another clunker to end the season. Maybe they were out of ideas, I don’t know, but this episode had another instance of jokes going on too long. This one was the Stewie flying to Will Ferrell’s house to slap him because of Bewitched joke that took way too long and wasn’t funny. Still, it was slightly better than the previous two episodes.
Episode Grade: B-
Best Pop-Culture References:
---A) Deadwood taken quite literally.
---B) Kevin Federline’s Magic Mirror.
Season 4 Review
Season 4 actually started off really well and showed people why Family Guy should be back on the air. It had everything that made the earlier episodes so great! A stupid plot, great cut-away scenes, stupid pop-culture references, and nods to fans of the first three seasons. Then something happened, about halfway through the episodes just fell apart. The last 3 episodes were terribly boring and weren’t funny or interesting. They had the usual cut-aways but they seemed even more pointless. It seemed that the writers just had no ideas left and put out anything hoping the fans would like it. The season was short as it was (13 episodes is not many) and when you have a few bad shows, it is a problem. The first half was a winner, while the second half was just mediocre at best. Honestly, probably the worst season of Family Guy. I think this review is so negative just because the last couple of episodes are so fresh in my mind but I have to be fair. The season average is a B, which is pretty respectable. The first 6 episodes were quite good, then there’s a two-week downturn. The next two weeks were also very good but the season ended with a thud. If you ignore those 5 bad episodes, you have a good season on your hands. Season Average: B.
DVD Features
A) Extras
---Disc One---
1) Audio Commentary on North By North Quahog
Seth MacFarlance, David Goodman, Chris Sheridan, Seth Green and Peter Shin do this commentary. They mention the opening, which wasn’t a full list of cancelled shows according to them. One of the commentator’s mentions that this episode was written a while back but with Aaron Spelling instead of Mel Gibson. They changed it when Passion of the Christ came out to Mel Gibson. They talk about interesting topics (including a scene where Boba Fett says he’s a virgin and that incites an interesting conversation). Seth Green even comments about the long silence while watching the show. They talk about a bad John Ritter joke that was cut (8 Simple Rules was funnier before they killed off Ritter’s character). The Pinocchio joke was influenced by Seth M’s mother who would tell anal sex jokes and the other commentator’s mention that explains a lot. The original ending was Kermit selling Brian and Stewie the drugs. It was a very good commentary with almost no silence that was prevalent on the first two volumes.
2) Audio Commentary on Blind Ambition
Seth MacFarlance, David Goodman, Chris Sheridan, Steve Callaghan and Chuck Klein do this commentary. This is another very good commentary where they discuss the episodes, and other topics in general. They talk about the return of the chicken as a wink to the fans and talking about the celebrities in the episode that they made fun of (Renee Zellwegger and Joan Cusack). There is a period of silence though when Peter is at the doctor. Chuck Klein joins the others about 10 minutes towards the end of the show. Seth complains about not being able to say, Jesus Christ (unless referencing him), God dammit or shit and fuck on the air. Lucasfilm was completely supportive of them using the ending. Another pretty strong commentary.
---Disc Two---
1) Audio Commentary on The Cleveland-Loretta Quagmire
Seth MacFarlance, David Goodman, Chris Sheridan, James Purdum, and Mike Henry are the people doing this commentary. Mike Henry is the voice of Cleveland and directed this episode. He does the Cleveland voice as Seth does Stewie. They mention that the reason for this episode was to get rid of Loretta as a character since basically Alex didn’t want to do the voice anymore. Seth says he used to live on a Spooner Hill Road, which is why it’s called Spooner Street. Seth also talks about the AIDS song and that it got 4000 complaints from Fox. They talk about a deleted scene with Meg using the plunger after Cleveland used the bathroom and Mike Henry’s dialogue was hilarious on the commentary. This was a great commentary to along with a great episode.
2) Audio Commentary on Petarded
Seth MacFarlance, David Goodman, Chris Sheridan, Alec Sulkin, and Wellesly Wild do this commentary. They say this is the third time they’re doing the commentary for this show because the other two had different cuts apparently. The commentary starts off very slowly and there are some periods of silence right off the bat. They mention the song from Bye Bye Birdie that I didn’t remember from the original airing and there is a reason why, it wasn’t on it. They had it cut since it said retarded too many times. The 5 guys who did this commentary seem to get along together very well and share many a laugh with each other. Seth says the ending was abrupt but his response to that is that Family Guy is not CSI.
3) Audio Commentary on Brian the Bachelor
Seth MacFarlance, David Goodman, Chris Sheridan, Seth Green and Mark Henteman do this commentary. They mention that when the show was written, The Bachelor was a much bigger show. Chris’ zit was a reference to Little Shop of Horrors. The original scene with Peter and Cleveland had Peter sitting on Cleveland jumping up and down to try to keep him sitting. Seth M talks about the joke Stewie had about the book writing and says it is so easy to write since it’s the same thing over and over. The voice of Brooke was actually Jessica Biel and the announcing voice was the actual guy from the show, but ABC wouldn’t allow it. They also mention that John Mayer loved this show and called the creator’s about the joke. Seth and Seth start improvising in the Chris and Stewie voices which was hilarious. The original He-Man did the voice for this show, too. Brian leaving the messages is sort of their homage to Swingers. This leads to a story with the Seth’s at the Playboy mansion with Jon Favreau. The doctor on the show is Dr. Drew. Best commentary so far on the disc as the two Seth’s (especially Green) are hilarious.
4) Audio Commentary on 8 Simple Rules for Buying My Teenage Daughter
Seth MacFarlance, Mila Kunis, Greg Colton, Patrick Meighan, David Goodman, and Chris Sheridan perform on this commentary. This is the first episode that Patrick wrote. The breakfast machine was a reference to both Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure. The graphics done on the Blind Date bit were actually done by the makers of Blind Date, who work in the same building as Family Guy. They talk about the vomit scene coming actual footage they have seen. Mila talks about her FHM spread and the Oreo cookie reference. Kind of average commentary. Mila doesn’t say much at all, actually.
---Disc Three---
1) Audio Commentary on Breaking Out Is Hard To Do
This commentary is done by Seth MacFarlance, David Goodman, Chris Sheridan, Tom Devanney, Kurt Dumas, and Wellesley Wild. Some of the topics in this commentary include the way Family Guy breaks the fourth wall, the definition of laying pipe, and the Asiantown CBS logo which was cut by Fox. They talk about the Asian arrangement of Family Guy at the end, too. This was an entertaining commentary where they chatted the whole show. Not too much in the way of interesting factoids, but it was entertaining.
2) Audio Commentary on Peter’s Got Woods
This commentary is done by Seth MacFarlance, David Goodman, Chris Sheridan, James Woods, Danny Smith, and Chuck Klein. We have a special guest on the commentary, James Woods. James talks about the first time he saw the show and saw his name was used to name the high school! He jokes that he should’ve sued them. James and the gang talk about different terms for masturbation. The commentary is absolutely fantastic. It’s funny and entertaining and adding James to the mix freshens things up as they talk to a bunch of things related to James and the show. James even talks about his sex scene with Debbie Harry and that his career is over after this episode. The episode wasn’t great but the commentary is wildly entertaining and makes the episode infinitely better!
3) Audio Commentary on Perfect Castaway
This commentary is done by Seth MacFarlance, Danny Smith, Mike Henry, Mark Hentemann, James Purdum, and Mila Kunis. Mila as usual doesn’t say much and they basically just joke around. Seth talks about this episode debuting on September 11th and how the New York Times complained about this and American Dad airing on that date. Really, that’s about it. One of the dudes keeps talking about the 1970’s Mickey Mouse Club, which was annoying. Worst commentary of the set so far.
4) Audio Commentary on Jungle Love
This commentary is done by Seth MacFarlance, David Goodman, Chris Sheridan, Seth Green, Alex Sulkin, Wellesley Wild and Mark Hentemann. With Seth Green on this commentary, this was unexpectedly boring. Seth Green, who was hilarious the last commentary, is very quiet on this one. They make it seem like they are watching a very rough cut of the episode and some of the scenes were just the animatics. That may describe some of the silences but why couldn’t they watch it later on then? Another stinker of a commentary. The last two have really sucked, actually.
5) World Domination: The Family Guy Phenomenon (24:11)
Seth talks about how the shows got picked up again and gives props to Cartoon Network. He also talks about how key Peter Shin was as the art director. They interview much of the cast, writers, directors and producers (including Alex Borstein, Mila Kunis, Seth Green, etc). They talk about how they think the show has gotten funnier and better, which in some respects I see. They also wanted to start the season off where they left off and they succeeded in those regards. This was actually a very good featurette with a lot of the main cast chiming in and giving their thoughts and I enjoyed it a lot.
6) Deleted Scene Animatics (2:22)
This is a deleted scene from, “Fast Times At Buddy Cianci High,” where Brian sings to his students. It is all fully animated with some animatics thrown in.
7) Score! The Music Of Family Guy (7:57)
Walter Murphy and Ron Jones are the main composers for the show. They talk about the music for Family Guy and how it is a whole sub-section of the show. The composers mention that the previous seasons were kinder and gentler while this season is more in your face. Of course, two of the musical highlights of the season was the A-Ha video reference and the, “You Have Aids,” song. Very good little featurette here.
8) Multi-Angle Table Read
In all of these features, you see the cast reading from the script around the table (hence the term, table read) with the corresponding scene shown above at some parts and just the actors themselves at other parts. There are some unused jokes/gags in the table read. The last is the most boring, as it is mostly one guy narrating the scenes that took place with very little cast dialogue. I think this would’ve been a lot better if you had the option to watch either the episode with their voices, or the read itself. I would’ve loved to have seen a full script read, too.
---A) North By North Quahog Table Read (4:32)
---B) Blind Ambition Table Read #1 (4:14)
---C) Blind Ambition Table Read #2 (5:57)
9) Storyboard / Animatic Comparisons
They have the storyboard on top and the actual episode below it. I love watching the animatics and the storyboards so these were a treat for me. They did seem to drag on a bit though.
---A) Don’t Make Me Over (7:01)
---B) The Cleveland-Loretta Quagmire (5:31)
---C) Brian The Bachelor (7:53)
10) American Dad Preview (:54)
It is basically a one-minute commercial for American Dad, and not a flattering one at that.
B) Audio/Video
The video is done in Dolby Digital Surround 5.1. It’s a cartoon television show so the surrounds aren’t really needed. It’s a standard DVD TV release. The video is nice as well. It is better than on TV since it’s in a digital format so that is all you can ask from a set like this.
C) Liner Notes
The three DVD’s are in slim line cases with the episode descriptions on the back, but other than that, there are no liner notes. There is an ad for the Family Guy Volume 4 and the American Dad Volume 1 DVD’s and the usual FOX DVD packet you get from Fox DVDs.
D) Easter Eggs
None
Overall Review
The DVD starts off with some trailers for Office Space Special Edition with Flair DVD, and the Family Guy Stewie Griffin Untold Story DVD. It’s three DVD’s, which is shorter than the previous two volumes, but it also featured much more content than the other two in terms of extras. There were many more commentaries and for the most part they were very good. There was a very good making of special and other featurettes were great as well! For some odd reason, there were no deleted scenes. The episodes themselves you already know my feelings about. I thought the season was the worst of the four, but the extras were by far better than anything released for Family Guy. I thought it was better than Volume 1, but not as good as Volume 2, so it has to go somewhere in the middle.
Overall Rating
8.5
10.0 Perfect
9.0-9.5 Near Perfect, Highly Recommended
8.0-8.5 Really good disc, Recommended
7.0-7.5 Good DVD, Mildly recommended
6.0-6.5 Above Average DVD. Mildest of mild recommendations
5.0-5.5 Decent all around disc, but catch it on TV
4.0-4.5 Great Movie but horrible DVD
3.0-3.5 Horrible movie but great DVD
2.0-2.5 There’s at least some merit to this DVD, but not much.
1.0-1.5 Horrible DVD, don’t even bother
0.0-0.5 Worst DVD ever
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