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Volume 7 brings us 13 episodes of Family Guy, the last 4 episodes of Season 6 and the first 9 episodes of Season 7. I’ve noticed that Family Guy has been more erratic in terms of its schedule than Family Guy and Season 7 of Family Guy was actually shorter than the fourth season of American Dad that ran at the same time.
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) Back to the Woods (24:30)
Original Airdate: 02/17/08
James Woods returns to wreak havoc on Peter's life. This time he finds Peter's wallet on the floor after a Barry Manilow concert (there is a funny scene setting up the four guys going to the show) and he wants revenge on Peter, so he steals his identity. He literally becomes Peter, lives in his house and does all the other things. Peter is defeated until Brian gives him a good idea; he should steal James' identity to get back at him! Peter does just that, going on the Letterman show and committing career suicide. James Woods has had enough and there is a final confrontation. James is dispatched the same way he was in the first episode he appeared in. This was lacking the comedic punch and strong story of the original Woods episodes. There really weren't any good flashbacks or any relevant B-stories either. Overall, I found it a bit dull. C.
2) Play It Again, Brian (24:38)
Original Airdate: 03/02/08
Brian wins an award for an essay he wrote and gets a trip to Martha's Vineyard! He invites Peter and Lois along since they've been fighting and Peter has been neglecting her. Things are more of the same with Peter being an ass and Brian and Lois start getting closer. It gets to the point where Brian professes his love for her. You may ask where the kids were while the three of them were away and the answer is that they were being babysat by Hubert. That's a good babysitter. That provided some great gags. The main storyline eventually resolved itself after a fight between the two but they are best friends and Brian vows never to try that again. Brian smoothes things over with Lois as well and overall the episode was more enjoyable that it has been in recent weeks. There was an Osmond gag that didn't go anywhere but most of the jokes hit. This was a definite improvement, probably the best of 2008 so far. B+.
3) The Former Life of Brian (23:56)
Original Airdate: 05/06/07
This episode deals with Brian looking for true love and finding his old flame, who has turned into a grotesque, obese, mess. She has a child that Brian fathered and Brian goes through being a father to a bratty kid who won't listen. Eventually he gets through to him (after smoking some pot) and when Peter has had enough of Brian acting like a little bitch since he's a father, he brings the woman back to take the son. Brian realizes it is time to let him go. It was a sweet story. There were two parts that stole the show here, Stewie talking to Matthew McConaughay about how much he sucks and Brian listening to Stewie on a baby monitor trying to seduce Brian's son. This was a good episode, probably the best of 2008. A.
4) Long John Peter (22:06)
Original Airdate: 05/04/08
The title of the episode deals with only the first act, where Peter gets a parrot, becomes a pirate, and then stops when his parrot dies. The real meat of the episode was Chris dating Anna, an intern at the vet where Brian stayed. He goes through all the awkwardness, gets some terrible advice from Peter that leads to their break-up, then realizes that Anna is the one he wants. This one was very light on flashbacks which means they actually had a decent plot and Chris' inability to keep his cool around Anna stole the show. There was a hilarious gag with Peter singing Men Down Under that was good as well. The first three episodes spread over the first four months of the year were bad, but there have been two very funny episodes in a row. A.
5) Love Blacktually (21:50)
Original Airdate: 09/28/08
This is the season 7 debut. Brian finds a new girl but Stewie tells him to take it slowly. He does, and the girl ends up getting with Cleveland. The gag of them making love wherever Brian goes is fairly funny. Anyway, Brian tries to bring back Loretta to break up the relationship, but that fails. The relationship does end with the girl sleeps with Quagmire. That’s two times Cleveland’s gotten burned by Quags. This was all set up to build the Cleveland show, which made it like a 30-minute commercial. Season 7 started with a rehash of an old joke (Stewie over pronouncing words) and kind of set the tone. Not an incredible episode, but it did have its funny moments. The one thing I ask, though, is the show’s best days behind them? B.
---Disc Two---
6) I Dream of Jesus (24:46)
Original Airdate: 10/05/08
questioned if Family Guy had lost its luster last week and I am happy to say that it has not. This had everything the previous episode didn’t, an actual story with a beginning, middle and end, a lot of funny moments and cutaways, and best of all, almost no Cleveland! The episode can be summarized simply enough, Peter meets Jesus at a record store after his record of Surfin’ Bird is smashed (a la Office Space) by Stewie and Brian, who were sick of Peter constantly playing it. Peter tells Jesus he needs to tell the world he’s back and he does, on the Jay Leno show. Jesus becomes bigger than Jesus (a nod to the famous John Lennon quote about the Beatles) and soon Jesus gets too big and starts ignoring Peter. The show itself actually had a satisfying conclusion and is one of the better episodes in recent memory in terms of an actual plot with three acts. One thing about this episode is that it really wasn’t controversial. It didn’t feature something that I, as a Catholic, found offensive in any way. Great episode. A.
7) Road to Germany (25:09)
Original Airdate: 10/19/08
This is the third “Road” episode, following Road to Rhode Island and Road To Europe. So the family and friends are watching the Oscars when Mort Goldman has to poop. The bathroom’s taken by Meg, who we see on the can (ewww!) and he runs to Stewie’s room and to the time machine. He sends himself back in time to September 1st, 1939, and Stewie and Brian soon follow. We basically see Stewie, Brian, and Mort jaunt through the German’s invading Poland the British fighting back. This episode was very flat for me, with few laughs and just one idea that could’ve been used for a flashback or one act of the episode and dragged out to a whole episode. It did have the best animated scenes of any episode of Family Guy, though. C.
8) Baby Not On Board (23:26)
Original Airdate: 11/04/07
A Back to the Future Reference starts things off, while Peter gets ready for a massage that goes terribly wrong, including a Ghost reference. How many other 80’s movies can they throw in during the first 2 minutes? Anyway, Chris tells his dad he has a problem with his testicles which leads to Peter threatening to sue where he works and he gets a card for unlimited free gas. He gets a spaceship and goes to space but then the family decides to go on a trip. Of course, as soon as they leave (and we go to a commercial) we return with Stewie in the house, alone. The family tries to head home but Peter is too stupid to be of any use and Lois calls him out on it, leading to another movie reference. The family returns home (to the Home Alone music) and we are one big happy family again. This was an episode loaded with 80’s movies references and it actually couldn’t stand on its own two legs because of that. It had its laughs, its requisite 9/11 and Iraq War jokes, but it had too much inside humor to be really enjoyable. B-.
9) Man With Two Brians (24:00)
Original Airdate: 11/09/08
Brian is getting old and it is never more evident than when Peter and the gang imitate Jackass, Peter drowns, and Brian can’t save him. So Peter replaces Brian with a new Brian. The new Brian is great at first, even forcing Brian out of the house. Of course, when Stewie can’t stand new Brian anymore, he craves the old Brian back. The conclusion to how Brian comes back (with Stewie killing New Brian after NB told him he humped Rupert for two hours) is great. There were some silly call-backs (Cool WH-ip), it was light on cutaways thanks to the strength of the story. The Jackass rip-off missed the mark, but the last two acts were incredibly funny (Quagmire’s girlfriend) and saved the show. B+.
10) Tales of Third Grade Nothing (24:01)
Original Airdate: 11/18/07
Peter is looking for a promotion at work but can’t when they realize he hasn’t passed the third grade! So he has to go back to third grade and win the spelling bee to pass third grade. That storyline didn’t really lead anywhere, but the fun stuff happened before (having the piano dropped on him, and blowing up a children’s hospital). Brian and Frank Sinatra Jr. open a club that gets no customers so Stewie revamps it to a hoppin’ club that makes tons of money, until Andy Dick shows up. When the cutaway scenes provide the funniest laughs (Michael Jackson assaulting his groin, and a callback to Cleveland having his house destroyed while he’s in the tub) shows that the main stories had no legs. It was okay, but not much better than that. B.
11) Ocean’s Three and a Half (22:39)
Original Airdate: 02/15/09
Bonnie finally has her baby, a girl named Susie who Stewie instantly falls in love with. Joe can’t pay the bills and soon has to turn to a bookie, and soon he can’t pay the bookie. So Peter hatches a scheme to steal the money from Carter Pewterschmidt. Lois eventually convinced Joe not to do it. The running b-plot sees Stewie writing a song for Susie. There’s some great stuff here, from the Christian Bale/Peter Griffin tape, and Brian doing the rising voice when talking about Stewie’s music video made this one of the funniest episodes I’ve seen in a while. A.
---Disc Three---
12) Family Gay (22:51)
Original Airdate: 01/13/08
Peter buys a brain-damaged horse, then races it to try and become a horse breeder. There is a funny joke where the horses is named after cancelled Fox shows. So, the horse goes crazy and causes thousands of dollars of damage. So he has to undergo medical experiments to get money, including an experiment that made him gay. Lois likes it at first but quickly changes her mind when they realize they can’t have sex. So Brian and Stewie bring Peter to the straight camp in hopes of making him hetero. Of course, while Peter is in the midst of an 11-way with his new boyfriend the drug wears off and everything is back to normal. Peter prancing was hilarious and this was a funny episode. B+.
13) The Juice is Loose (23:01)
Original Airdate: 03/15/09
Peter has to babysit Stewie who ends up on the roof. To avoid getting in trouble with Lois, Peter gives us another showing of a Conway Twitty video. That’s his third time on the show now? Anyway, as usual, the first act has nothing to do with the second two as Peter finds a winning ticket from 1989 that lets him play golf with a famous celebrity, OJ Simpson. So Peter plays golf with him and becomes friends with him, despite what everyone else says. Apparently, people can change. The OJ heel turn at the end was just awesome. Interesting episode, I wonder why they decided OJ would be current enough to base an episode around him. You know, watching it a second time I noticed that little tag at the beginning saying this is from Peter’s archives. B.
Volume 7 Review
This collection showcases a lot of what’s been wrong with Family Guy the last few years and that is consistency. American Dad (the other Seth show) can churn out good episodes week after week, a trait that early Family Guy episodes shared. Nowadays, Family Guy is just wildly erratic. We’ll have a good episode (I Dream of Jesus) followed by something like Road to Germany. It is like that week after week. Actually with the schedule of the show it may be months or weeks between episodes and the inconsistencies become even more apparent. There’s a still a few good episodes thrown in here, but there were a few bad ones, too. I Dream of Jesus is a highlight, as is Long John Peter and Ocean’s Three and a Half, but there were some really forgettable episodes, too. It is a really average collection of episodes.
DVD Features
A) Extras
---Disc One---
1) Audio Commentaries
---A) Back to the Woods
This commentary was recorded by David A. Goodman, Danny Smith, Kara Vallow, Tom Devanney, Brian Iles and Seth Green. Seth says that MacFarlane is not available, and he makes fun of Seth a bit. Seth jokes that he has lots of sex with Tom. The Manilow thing came from Forrest Whitaker’s daughter admitting that her dad was a huge fan. So, the Manilow thing was brought in to this episode because the first act was not that great and this was brought in to allow Peter to lose his wallet and Manilow actually came in to record. So there’s some bashing of Tom, the show’s writer. Danny mentions a spot in this script where there is a parody of Somewhere Out There (from the American Tails movie) but Spielburg wouldn’t let him use the song, even though Tom met Spielburg earlier that year and said he was a fan of the show. There is talk of the Michael Richards incident, too. I enjoyed this commentary.
---B) Play It Again, Brian
This was recorded by David A. Goodman, Danny Smith, Tom Devanney, Charles Song, John Holmquist and Seth Green, or pretty much the same as the commentary before. Well, that one was fun so I hope this one is, too. The Herbert song is one that was on the Mickey Mouse Club from 1976. The whole thing here was that Brian was supposed to sleep with Lois, seducing her with the poem that he stole. This commentary is dying a bit, which the commentator’s admit to.
---C) The Former Life of Brian
This was recorded by Seth MacFarlane, David A. Goodman, Danny Smith, Pete Michels & Mike Henry. They mention that Mike Henry is Cleveland and they immediately shill the show. They say this is Play it Again Brian but soon realize they are incorrect. The McConaughey/Stewie stuff was ad-libbed by the two Seths. Seth mentions that the lights in the recording booth were going up and down, a Broadway thing to let people know that intermission is ending and to get back to your seats. Seth mentions that Love Blacktually was written one way but gutted entirely to make way for the Cleveland Show. Seth talks about talk on some message boards that Seasons 1 and 2 are the best seasons. Seth says there were pretty glaring animation and story errors. Seth thinks that the people who claim the first seasons were the best are clinging onto the fact that they were the original fans and now that the show has gone more mainstream they may resent that a bit. They then move into the great commentaries of Family Guy and then Seth jokes that the buyers are getting their money back by seeing a full conversation with Lois with the 6 episodes on here. See, they realize their DVD’s are not full-seasons but just short 13-episode collections.
---D) Long John Peter
This was recorded by David A. Goodman, Danny Smith, Tom Devanney, Kim Fertman, Dominic Polcino, and Seth Green. They talk about the First Act Misleads, where the first act story ends and usually has nothing to do with the second and third acts. Chris’ girlfriend in this episode is played by Amanda Bynes. They talk about the great frog animation bit.
---E) Love Blacktually
This was recorded by Danny Smith, Kara Vallow, Shannon Smith, Mike Henry and Cyndi Tang. Mike starts the commentary as the voice of Cleveland. Mike talks about how he got the voice of Cleveland. They mention that this was originally going to end with Cleveland and Loretta getting back together but was rewritten due to the Cleveland show taking off.
2) Original Aired Episodes
You get the original broadcast versions of these episodes, too. For the most part the episodes are the same, save for the original aired episodes have no cussing and maybe a scene or two cut out.
---Disc Two---
1) Audio Commentaries
---A) I Dream of Jesus
Danny Smith, Alec Sulkin, Kim Fertman, Brian Scully, and Spencer Porter recorded this commentary. I guess Seth wasn’t available for this commentary so they got his assistant, Spencer. The song was supposed to be The Streak, but the artist wouldn’t let them use it, so Surfin’ Bird was used instead. MacFarlane actually knew the song already. The guys wonder why people don’t want Family Guy to use their songs since Surfin’ Bird jumped up to #50 on I-Tunes’ most downloaded list shortly after this. They take credit for bringing Don’t Stop Believin’ back. The commentator’s really enjoy the Bird parts. This was enjoyable and this ends with Spencer getting made fun of for not speaking at all.
---B) Road to Germany
This was recorded by Seth MacFarlane, Chris Sheridan, Patrick Meighan, Greg Colton and Walter Murphy. Walter is the composer of the show. Walter says that about 65 players were used in the band for this episode and they recorded it all in three hours. They talk up the Little Shop of Horrors film, based on the reference used in the episode. Seth apologizes for not being in on a ton of commentaries since he has been so busy. There’s a scene of trees talking and they mention they wanted to put hair pics in there, which immediately cracked up the crew. Seth teases a new Road To show.
---C) Baby Not On Board
This commentary was recorded by Chris Sheridan, Danny Smith, Mark Hentemann, Julius Wu and Alex Borstein. They joke about the shit jokes and Mike Henry bringing the jokes with him to the Cleveland Show. A mention of the eyes being changed for celebrities for the first time in seven years is told and we hear more about the music and wonder why people wouldn’t let them use the songs. They talked about Providence having a changed skyline and allude to the skyline of New York being changed since the show started. There was a joke of Brian digging up a bone at the World Trade Center site which they thankfully abandoned. It’s a decent commentary.
---D) The Man With Two Brians
David A. Goodman, Danny Smith, Alec Sulkin, John Viener and Dominic Bianchi recorded this commentary together. The Peter Griffin neck image was drawn by Seth and they say that usually whatever he draws makes it onto the show. There’s a Billy Zabka reference that didn’t make it onto the original show. There’s not too much else going on for the rest of the commentary.
---E) Tales of A Third Grade Nothing
This was recorded by the one and only Seth MacFarlane, Alex Carter, Jerry Langford, Frank Sinatra Jr. and composer Walter Murphy. This seems like a bunch that will give us a good commentary. This is Frank’s second time on the show and his second commentary. Frank notices how Peter never ages and Seth says this notion of aging cartoon characters was juggled around in King of the Hill before being abandoned. Frank loves how people are wearing black tuxes and how it doesn’t show up in many cartoons. Seth agrees, except for the Boondocks. Seth complains about doing too many commentaries and says that is the reason they are quiet, because they ran out of things to say. Of course, Seth’s only been on like two of these commentaries. There’s a Michael Jackson joke which is weird now, because as I’m watching this he died yesterday. Frank is entertaining here.
---F) Ocean’s Three and a Half
Chris Sheridan, Danny Smith, Mark Hentemann, Shannon Smith and Cherry Chevapravatdumrong recorded this commentary together. They joke that Seth isn’t on here so we can fast-forward through it. They joke about Joe being a super-man on the show when he first debuted and is now reduced to helpless and the worst stereotype of a handicapped person, like Quagmire and other characters. The people watching this say that it was written over a year ago (and talking about changing a joke about the Celtics being the worst team in basketball but by the time it came out they were champions) and are actually watching and commentating on it before it even aired. The dance at the Pewterschmidt castle was supposed to be the Electric Slide but they couldn’t get the rights to it.
2) Original Aired Episodes
You get the original broadcast versions of all 6 of the episodes on disc two. They are always shorter and some jokes are even different due to some material being too course for the air. I didn’t re-watch them since I’ve seen this all before.
---Disc Three---
1) Audio Commentaries
---A) Family Gay
Seth MacFarlane, Danny Smith, Mark Hentemann, Richard Appel and Brian Iles recorded this commentary. They talk about gays at the end and saying it isn’t a choice but you are born like that. It was a good commentary to listen to, but not too much I could write about it.
---B) The Juice is Loose
This commentary was recorded by David A. Goodman, Chris Sheridan, Cyndi Tang, Andrew Goldberg and Mike Henry. I’m sure Mike will be pimping the Cleveland Show, a show that I have seen aired in commercials recently on Fox. They talk about the Conway Twitty sequences and how they think it is hilarious that Family Guy viewers actually watch this. They mention the airplane landing on the Hudson and they were talking about it in the writer’s room and Seth had no idea what was going on. Cyndi talks about how his aunt was a lesbian. Cyndi used to work on the Simpsons for a few years.
2) Original Aired Episodes
Well, there’s only one episode on this disc, so you can guess which aired episode is here.
3) Deleted Scenes (11:14)
There are 29 deleted scenes. All the deleted scenes are completely animated. I won’t go through all of them but I will mention the funnier ones. Peter runs into a naked Adam West (who lost a fight with his clothes) and as he tries to ruin Wood’s career he gets herpes from Paris Hilton. That last line was funny and should’ve been in the show. A Jewish Waltons joke really hits all the bases, as does a nice ending to the episode with Brian’s kid and the evil monkey getting his revenge. Lois shows Chris about the birds and bees by using a turkey baster and a turkey and Stewie says something gay. Peter makes Brian a Myspace page that is a hysterical commentary on those that use Myspace. Chris ends up frozen in ice and luckily Lando is there to tell us he’s alright. There were some really good ones in here that should’ve aired.
4) Animatic Episodes
You can watch either the animatic, or the animatic with the commentary by the animation department. I only watched these once, with the commentary, since the animatic dialogue is pretty much the same as the regular episode.
---A) Love Blacktually (21:33)
Karin Perrotta, Cyndi Tang, Angel Shehigian, Patrick Clark and Greg Lovell are on this commentary. The folks talk about the Cleveland show and there’s a lot of talk of Cyndi watching Dexter. Cyndi actually watches Dexter over Family Guy and catches up on the show through the DVD’s. They talk about the Vol. 6 DVD’s being a great package and design. They also talk about Karin giving the idea of the cards for the Star Wars special edition. This is the original version of the episode where Loretta and Cleveland got back together so it’s interesting to see the real ending and how it was changed to fit the new Cleveland show.
---B) Long John Peter (24:06)
Shannon Smith, Dominic Polcino, Joseph Lee, Robert Schulbaum and Spencer Porter are on this commentary. Spencer call the parrot in scene 1 an asshole. There’s a 9/11 joke about the failed plane that landed in Pennsylvania and how the pilot didn’t get any virgins. They do a lot of watching and not a lot of talking before bringing up the topic of John & Kate plus 8. Since then, their divorce was announced. Shannon mentions that Halloween is tomorrow, so now we know when they recorded this! The commentary just sort of ends with nothing else too interesting being mentioned.
---C) The Man With Two Brians (22:32)
Dominic Bianchi, Joe Vaux, Raul Guerra and Brad Winters are on this commentary. The guys talk the whole time, but damned if there’s anything I can put here. It was entertaining but not too informative.
5) Take Me Out to pLace Tonight (12:02)
pLace is the nightclub that Brian and Frank Sinatra Jr. headlined. They show Frank and Seth recording the vocals of the song before we get an interview with Frank. He says that Family Guy is not comedy but satire. Seth is a huge fan of Frank and his type of music. He talks about his dad and at home he would be his father but at work he would be just Sinatra. Those involved talk about pLace and how it was influenced by those types of clubs in real-life. Sinatra Jr. brought in the original orchestration of one of Sinatra’s songs that was used in the show and Frank helped conduct the piece. The music was recorded and then Seth and Frank recorded it together. Sinatra praises Seth’s singing ability. Walter Murphy is the head of the Family Guy orchestra and he notes that Family Guy is one of the few shows that uses a full orchestra every week. Usually Murphy is given the lyrics and he creates a melody and tune for it. This was an awesome extra that was included on here.
6) Family Guy Cribz (16:33)
A camera crew goes through the Family Guy offices and lots of fun is to be had by all. It’s 12,000 square feet with 80 rooms and 1 bathroom. That doesn’t seem right! Danny Smith leads this tour. We see the front desk, the kitchen (with tons of candy that looks to be free. That’s awesome). They have an awesome kitchen area. We see the Family Guy pinball machine, as well as the set piece featuring Stewie in Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood. The recording booth is actually at the place where they work. Danny has a great office with all of the Family Guy action figures that are MIP and includes all variants. That’s a true collector. He also bad mouth’s Jackie Joker’s, a childhood star from his youth. He stops by a group of writer’s working together and they are working on the third Star Wars, which is great because only one has aired so far. We stop by Wellesley’s office, as well as Peter Shin’s office. Kara Vallow has a Phillies logo on her door which is totally not cool. Kara and Seth had been working together since Johnny Bravo. We visit more of the writing staff and a thing on the wall featuring the dead characters of Family Guy. We visit the animation department and these guys are a bit odd to say the least. This was thoroughly enjoyable.
7) Comic-Con 2008 (23:16)
We are introduced to some of the writers including John Veiner, Chris Sheridan, Kara Vallow, Mike Henry, Seth Green and Seth MacFarlane and David Goodman. Chris talks about the sequel to Star Wars called Something Something Something, Dark Side. Mila Kunis and Alex Borstein are not here, however. Seth Green brings up the Dark Knight movie but says he can’t do spontaneous conversation and Seth MacFarlane asks about Without A Paddle II: Back in the Habit. That leads to a funny conversation. MacFarlane talks about a Sliders episode of Family Guy that hasn’t aired yet. Seth Mac talks about the Cleveland show, too. They get to the open-ended question segment which is a lot of fun.
8) Family Guy Art Show (4:54)
This seems like it was a legit art show that sold off the art featuring the Family Guy and American Dad characters. Some of this stuff looks awesome, like a Star Trek Family Guy painting, Speed Racer with FG characters and a carved Muppet Show/FG piece of art that looks awesome. All of the proceeds go to charity, which is nice. It helps out sick children.
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. The audio/video is much better than anything else seen on previous volumes, actually.
C) Liner Notes / Packaging
This is a departure from the Family Guy collections, as it is all housed in a single slipcase, which I guess is more eco-friendly and saves paper. As a result, all the episode listings are on the inside cover and sometimes obscured by the DVD’s or the DVD holder. There are two inserts, one hyping the Cleveland Show and one with all the Family Guy DVD sets out there.
D) Easter Eggs
None
Overall Review
There are a bunch of commercials to start off disc one, 5:15 worth actually. You’ll see previews for Pink Panther, Seth MacFarlane’s Comic Cavalcade and Miss March. Disc Two starts off with a 1:15 preview of the Cleveland show and Cleveland leaving Quahog to get his own show. We hear a little song (maybe the opening song?) about it, too. The episodes may be hit or miss but one area where Family Guy has American Dad beat is the extra’s department on the DVD’s. I thought the most recent American Dad collection had better episodes but the commentaries were lacking and there were no good extras. Family Guy is the reverse, the episodes were a mixed bag but the extras were amazing. Sure, some of the commentaries were iffy, but some were really good. There are also three complete animatic episodes which I always like and then off-beat things like FG Cribz, the Art Show, and the Frank Sinatra Jr. piece. Throw in a Comic-Con reading and you’ve got a great collection here.
Overall Rating
9.5
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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