Defending Family Guy

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“It seems today that all we see is violence in movies and sex on TV, but where are those good old fashion values, on which we used to rely (Family Guy)?” This phrase is heard often by individuals who choose to watch one of the most famous animated sitcoms in the past decade, Family Guy. The first sentence happens to be the key slogan in the series theme song. Seth MacFarlane used this saying when the show was brought back to the air in 2005. This was around the time that I had originally started to watch the sitcom, after I watched a few of the episodes that aired before the cancellation in 2002. Family Guy’s popularity had increased astoundingly since it’s cancellation in 2002. In 2005, it became the first television show to have ever been resurrected due to the high volume of DVD sales (Gablan). Since then, its popularity has increased to become a consistent sitcom to appear in the Nielsen Ratings top 20 each week, while becoming the forty-third most popular overall show, and second most popular animated series on Tv.com, the most popular online television viewing site in North America (Richards).

Family Guy first hit national television on December 20, 1998, although, Seth MacFarlane had been working on a thesis film quite similar to Family Guy while majoring in animation at the Rhode Island School of Design. The film he created was titled The Life of Larry. His professor, Dr. Suissna submitted the film to Hanna-Barbera, a North American animated publishing company (Richards). After submission, Seth was hired by the company. Shortly after, he was asked to create a sequel to his thesis film; he scripted Larry and Steve, a film that featured a middle aged character Larry and his brainy dog Steve (Richards). The show was broa...

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...f his study show that even for people who criticize Family Guy are able to find what it presents to be comical, allowing them to laugh and live a healthier life.

It may not be politically correct and improperly depict pop culture events; nevertheless Family Guy is a valuable source for comedy and entertainment. Though it holds a top two ranking for all animated shows, it is often criticized and could be shut down once again. Until then, we should enjoy the freedom of speech which grants them the right to broadcast the comical satire and continue to express many of Americans societal problems to the world. As viewers we can enjoy the comedy by accepting one simple fact, all Family Guy is putting a mirror in front of our society and having us look into it, it shows discrimination and stereotypes, but in no way does it condone either. Family Guy is America’s comedy.

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