What Happend to Family Guy?

[Holiday]

I thought this was kinda interesting. Here's Seth MacFarlane talking about the show's cut-away gags in a 2003 interview.

I always enjoyed the cut-aways. It's like you guys would just cut to something completely irrelevant, or a flashback, and the viewer is just sitting there going "what?! What are these guys doing?" and of course it's funny.

The tricky thing with that is, and I think we got better at it as the show went along, those things get laughs and are funny but we always have to walk that line between not doing so many of them that you can't follow the story. I think we found a good balance towards the end. Those are fun and that's one of the reasons we had such long hours, that the show needed such a large staff, somebody had to write those things and there are 17 or 18 guys working on this day in and day out. We would send a group of writers off to do a cut-away or a gag and they would come back with 4 or 5 options and then we would go with the one that made the rest of us laugh. Hopefully somebody saved the script pages, because there are a lot of cut-aways and gags, possibly hundreds, maybe even thousands, that we threw out.

Seth and the writers obviously lost that "good balance" once the show returned to television.

 

[Drizzle]

I'm going to hell for laughing at the question Peter asked Shatner. "Yes, Captain Kirk, in the episode where you drowned your wife, why are you so fat?"

But they had a perfectly good opportunity for a good Calvin and Hobbes joke and they just didn't go anywhere with it.

 

[CELTICPRED]

The Jackass 2 far mask had me rolling.

I should be watching the new Jim Gaffigan special...........................but I'm watching this.

 

[Drizzle]

This is a good episode. Peter asking God for Mike Tyson's Punch-Out cheat codes had me dying. And Patrick Stewart is awesome.

 

[Prison Mike]

I'm watching the Gaffigan special right now. I'll catch Family Guy online.

 

[CELTICPRED]

Wow

A Flash Gordon, and fuc*ing New Kids on The Block reference.

So glad I tuned in tonight.

 

[Go Web Go!]

Yeah, tonight hasn't been bad ata ll considering the last 3 or 4 episdes. I've had my fill of the "Wh" though.

 

[CELTICPRED]

And Schwarzenegger.

Okay, episode has been declared awesome.

 

[Drizzle]

All the stuff with Stewie and the Star Trek cast was gold, especially when they went to McDonalds.

 

[TheComicbookKid]

Could have used less Meg and more TNG.

The NKOTB reference was funny and the Flash Gordon God thing was hilarious.

 

[Chris Wallace]

The show is definitely on the decline.

 

[Spidey-Bat]

It's been declining since it came back.

 

[scifiwolf]

Man, tonight was one of those episodes where I choked from laughing so hard and so much. Excellent.

 

[Chris Wallace]

It's been declining since it came back.

Yup.

 

[Matt Murdock]

Family Guy got popular. Same thing happened with House. Thank god Psych and Burn Notice are still relatively unknown.

 

[Dr. Evil]

Had a double dose of Patrick Stewart tonight as he also appeared on American Dad.

I hear that Anne Hathaway may be voicing herself on the show soon.

 

[Spidey-Bat]

Anyone hear about the Family Guy-Bones crossover?

 

[Matt Murdock]

T...the what?

 

[Dr. Evil]

Anyone hear about the Family Guy-Bones crossover?

Nope. Is it going to be anything similar to the Simpsons-X-Files Crossover? In that Boranez and Deshannell appear as animated versions of their characters solving a case in Quahog?

 

[CELTICPRED]

I always thought it was an actor portraying Stewart, I never thought in a million years he'd do the shows.

 

[Spidey-Bat]

http://ausiellofiles.ew.com/2009/03/exclusive-bones.html

Suddenly, the cancer-induced ghost sex Izzie was partaking in on Grey's Anatomy isn't looking so preposterous.

As I previously reported, David Boreanaz' Bones alter ego will suffer a life-threatening health crisis this May that will cause him to hallucinate. Well, I can finally reveal the destination of his head trip: Quahog, Rhode Island. Put another way, Booth is getting a visit from Family Guy's acid-tongued baby villain, Stewie!

No joke!

"This is going to sound odd, but it is a completely believable event given [Booth's condition]," maintains executive producer Stephen Nathan, who declined to reveal the mystery ailment causing his visions. "It's not just a fantasy of ours. There's medical research to back up what's going on with Booth. There are conditions where you can see cartoon characters."

But don't expect to see Emily Deschanel's Brennan sparring with the evil tot: The cartoon cameo will be limited to Boreanaz. "We were never going to have Stewie just walk into the lab and start talking to everybody -- that would be a bald and shameless crossover," Nathan adds with a laugh. "It was always conceived to be a realistic hallucination... one that would lead us to what we wanted to do with Booth and Brennan."

In case you've been living under a rock without Wi-Fi, what they want to do is get the two detectives in bed having sex in the May 14 season finale -- an event Nathan assures me will "not be a hallucination." But first, Brennan will ask Booth to father her child on May 7, a request that leads to Stewie's first of two appearances. "Stewie will be in the sperm donation room with Booth," explains Nathan, who says Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane will sign off on all of Stewie's dialogue. "Whatever Seth wants to do is fine. As far as I'm concerned Stewie can sing!"

What do you think? Is this crossover too silly even for Bones? Or do you have faith that the ends (Booth's diagnosis on May 7) will justify the means (Stewie!) Sound off below!

 

[Dr. Evil]

I always thought it was an actor portraying Stewart, I never thought in a million years he'd do the shows.

Thought so too until the end credits of both shows, which say "Patrick Stewart"

Also, Real Life Adam West!

 

[Blader5489]

I thought this was kinda interesting. Here's Seth MacFarlane talking about the show's cut-away gags in a 2003 interview.



Seth and the writers obviously lost that "good balance" once the show returned to television.

That's an understatement. Not have the cut-away jokes gotten progressively less funny, they've also completely dominated the show.

I loved the first 3 seasons of Family Guy and still watch them whenever they're on, but this show (with the exception of a couple episodes) has really plummeted since it returned. It's exactly what happened to The Simpsons, but in fast forward.

 

[Max J Power]

The tricky thing with that is, and I think we got better at it as the show went along, those things get laughs and are funny but we always have to walk that line between not doing so many of them that you can't follow the story. I think we found a good balance towards the end.

Way wrong answer. No wonder the show sucks now.

 

[Sawyer]

I have to say, tonights episode was pretty funny, but thats mostly due to the cast of The Next Generation.