Family Guy

[Nepenthe]

I was just going to mention Diana; they killed her off after making her a Scooby-Doo villain, which is also a shame because her chemistry with Tom was awesome. Vaudeville guys are still dead too, even though they had an after-life appearance anyway.

[Mogtaki]

The thing is, those characters are side characters while Brian was a main character and the only one that had character development, fairly extreme character development in some episodes; I distinctly remember the one where Brian contemplated suicide and that was supposed to be fairly emotional.

 

This new guy just seems to be there because the voice actor happened to had been a favourite for Seth.

[Kuzu]

Seth isn't even involved in the show that much anymore from what I heard, what was the last episode he wrote?

[SoniClub]

This show needs to end, pronto. This season in particular has so far been that awful that I really begin to wonder why it is still being aired. There is really nothing that makes it even remotely interesting any more.

It has gotten to the point where I find it somewhat embarrassing to watch. It's honestly as if they don't care any more, it really is now just a platform for these often poorly conceived cut-away gags which are just that, gags. They don't even attempt to build up any sort of sustained humour, and as a result the best the show achieves these days is the occasional chuckle.

It's this really poor writing that grates me the most. Anything that is not a joke sounds like cardboard being cut-up with rusty scissors. It absolutely infuriates me that those who get paid to write cannot even maintain the most basic of dialogue which doesn't end up being ridiculously cheesy, or entirely flat and void of character. It is as such that even the main characters no longer have personalities. When was the last time that Louis, Meg, Chris or any of them said anything that developed or even simply portrayed their characters beyond a one-dimensional gag-based archetype. They are these days just springboards to launch into the next set of ridiculous, stereotypical sitcom scenarios.

Sure, they can occasionally pull of the odd funny line, especially with characters like Stewie, but I feel they've gone so long without actually developing the action, tone, mood or even just the general dialogue of the characters that they've almost forgotten who they are. They've sunk too far into the gag-centric quicksand. Does anyone else not get the feeling that they all seem to morph into one gormless, shocked figure whenever something 'serious' happens? Refer to any recent 'emotional' scene, or whenever Peter makes one of his hasty, incredibly repetitive absolutions for his behaviour, while the camera slowly pans in and the obligatory 'sad' music plays, all within the last 30 seconds of the episode. (when the writers inevitably realise they have to wrap things up at this point)

Spoiler

The way this really hit me was watching last nights 'Life of Brian' episode. I honestly, just did not care, and still don't for that matter, that Brian is dead. The family's reaction was laughably clumsy and failed to even make me blink, let alone cry. Furthermore, like most episodes recently, nothing much happened after the initial idea was put across. I thought they might include an exciting time adventure, where Stewie manages to hastily re-build a time machine, but something goes wrong and he ends up ruining everything again. In fact, along these lines, I think it'd have been much more effective to have one final time-warped episode between Brian and Stewie, with the bitter-sweet ending of Stewie having to let Brian get lost into the ebs of time for some reason. Perhaps they could have had his timeline erased completely, with young Stewart being the only one who remembers Brian's memory after a tearful goodbye where their hands are ripped apart within the White Space as time resets itself.

Or something like that. Killing him off with a car seemed just lazy. I'm honestly sympathetic to the theory that Macfarlane is perhaps sabotaging the show just so that he can end it without much fuss. It's that stale.

I don't really have much to say about the other plots. They're just terrible. It's gotten so bad that the last time I actually had to check to see that the video player hadn't cut out early and that it had actually been twenty one minutes. It was the 'Let's all go to Italy Episode', and I couldn't tell you what it was about if I tried. It starts out as a 'lying to Peter episode', then a 'Louis and Peter's Marriage needs rejuvenating' one, then finally a 'mad-cap family adventure'. It was as if they had three ideas for three different episodes, but couldn't be bothered to flesh them out, so just shoved them together to create this really incoherent and almost unwatchable joke of an episode.

I think the only reason I get so het-up about this show is because it used to be one of my favourites. The stories were tight and layered in the vain of The Simpsons in its heyday, and the jokes had me genuinely beside myself with laughter. (stoned or not...) It's sad to see it take such a dramatic dive in quality. Maybe if Seth can't humanely put his classic comedy to sleep, that it's time it followed in Brian's suite.

[Big Panda]

There's an upcoming episode next season where he dates some girl.

Brian will be back.

Has it not occurred to anyone that they may have just used Brian in that upcoming episode description to avoid spoiling the death?

The actual episode may be about Vinny dating a girl for all we know.

[Detective Shadzter]

Shouldn't this Family Guy event be spoiler tagged, since an air date for the UK (and likely other countries) hasn't been announced yet? Me and Mrs. Shadzter have just spoiled it for ourselves elsewhere because we can't wait that long for the UK showing, but if we had decided to wait, I'd have been pissed about having it spoiled for me here when all of the news sites are giving spoiler warnings. 

[Dejimon11]

Sign honestly i dont know how i feel. I mean this is the same character where they had given him plenty of near death scenes and being replaced moments it really reached it peak when Brain was willing to donate his organ to Peter which would kill him in the process which would later proven to be a lie by the doctor but the fact that he had emotional moments with everybody was touching this just feels ok we finally did it.

Ever since everybody has been flanderized Brain has been bothering me the most, originally this guy was meant to be the voice of reason and given Peter some advise on what to do(and mess with Stewie at times) but later they just decided have all these strong political viewpoints, make him an atheist(which pretty much contradicts one early episode). It wasnt until the episode Quagmire told him off that made me realize that the show pretty much strayed away from his character making him nothing but a Quagmire clone or as my friend put it Seth in animated for since he basically is like him(with his religious and political view points says my friend). I believe what was ruining family guy was that the creators were spreading their talents on 3 different shows which made them all boring and uninteresting especially if they are airing back to back.There was a time where i thought that this show was much better than the Simpsons now it seems that the Simpsons has gotten better while Family guy has gotten worse. 

 

All i can say is that i might not miss Brain but i hope that the writers know what they are doing and better not pull a fat Tony stunt. For those that dont know what im talking about there was an episode of the Simpsons where fat Tony died(thanks to homer) and then his cousin fit Tony(who looks exactly like him except thin and fit) took over and then when time went on he kept he kept eating due to the stress and became fat and called himself "Fat Tony" which makes the episode pointless and seems as if nothing of value was lost

[MegaMonster54]

Just got done watching the Brian Death episode. I guess here are my thoughts.

 

While I don't watch Family Guy religiously anymore, I have cached a few episodes from time to time. I don't really like it anymore. I don't find Race humor all that funny unless it's in a buddy buddy situation, or it's done so subtly that the audience has to think about it for a while, but even then it's rarely funny. But I guess we should talk about this episode. and don't worry I'm not going to spoil anything that's not obvious.

 

The episode starts out and the Native Americans have superiority over the white man because Stewie gave them guns... Keeping it classy Seth... During this sequence, while I didn't laugh out loud, I did get some good laughs.

 

There's this one joke where they say "The top song for the 10,000 week in a row is Heyya Heyya Heyya Hey". I saw that joke from a mile away. But there was one about a white people settlement that mocked the "Don't give them money, they'll spend it on fire water" thing some people tell other people about giving money to the Natives on settlements, and I got a chuckle out of that. I also liked how they all wore jean jackets and drove Jeeps. But they pointed out the jean jacket joke and that pissed me off but they didn't point out the jeep joke which I both liked and disliked. It was subtle and a bit raciest which is what I think make a "Good" Race joke

 

I won't spoil the rest of the episode, but I do have to say that for the kind of show Family Guy is, it handled this subject matter well (Relatively speaking).

 

I don't know how they will do the show now, but this might make me watch the next episode because they made a step this big, but I dunno. 

 

So if you like Family Guy then I think you should give it a watch, but if you don't then this wont change your mind, and if you're indifferent (like me) then I guess you can watch it and then draw a conclusion from there.

[Stacy]

I am trying like Vinnie's character but I can't its hard to warm to a character that replace one that has been in the series since the first episode.

 

What were they thinking!? 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BP-r6rzIWtI

 

Brian was such a major part of the show for 12 seasons, 13 in the UK. He was in the show for 12 years, not 2, not 3, but 12 years.

 

I wonder if was as a act of deliberate sabotage its no secret Seth McFarlane is tried of doing it now and he voices all the main popular characters. Nearly everywhere I go most of the audience is displeased with this direction.

 

I am trying to be positive and not look like a stereotypical fanboy but, agh! I can't!

 

The irony:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgIrXKpv2gw

[RK64]

I haven't watched Family Guy for about...I think three years? The show...lost its charm; it had some real gems here and there, but it wasn't nearly as good as the first four seasons (I even though the fifth and sixth seasons were good), and its such a shame that the creator just doesn't care about his creations anymore. If he is so sick of the series, how about make an "unofficial" ending to it, like the Simpsons Movie; a animated film that captures the best elements of the series glory days and while it isn't the "end" of the series, it could be labelled the end for the fans and be satisfied.

 

And Brian....got KILLED? I mean, sure the show has some twists and turns, but killing off a fan favorite character that has been part of the series since day one.... Man that just feels wrong . It's even sadder when you consider Brain and Stewe being the only characters on the show with any real character development over the course of the series; both learn from each others flaws and traits, they go on crazy adventures, really bounce off each other better than any other character on the show, and are the most "real" characters there (I could really see them as friends, where's Peter's friendships with Quagmire, Clevland and Joe really lost its character in the latter seasons).

 

I just hope that the show gets better for those who still watch it; such a shame to see the series "die" much faster than the Simpsons did .

[Kevin]

Brian being killed off came as a complete surprise for me. I thought if they were going to kill a major character it was going ot be Meg consider how much she gets picked on. When it came to being a character in general, Brian was fine at the beginning, but it bugged me when he became a spokesperson for Seth's political views.

 

I'm not sure what to think of Vinnie though. Personally I'd like to see how he is in a few more episodes before I can pass judgement. 

[Stacy]

In later episodes Brian's (Seth's) Political views do get challenged and he does get mocked for it, especially from Lois.

 

Personally it doesn't bother me, I like how he upsets the apple cart with that one or he would address an awkward elephant in the room. I like how they made him look a dick at times it made him more flawed and relatable to the audience.

[Patticus]

"The Simpsons Guy" will be a crossover episode with The Simpsons in which the Griffins go on a road trip and end up in Springfield where they meet the Simpson family. Stewie becomes fascinated with Bart's old-school pranks, Lois bonds with Marge, Lisa tries to find Meg's special talent and Peter argues with Homer over which brand of beer is better—Pawtucket or Duff. The episode will guest star five of the six main Simpsons voice actors—Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright, Yeardley Smith and Hank Azaria.[20] It is slated to air in fall 2014 as the season 13 premiere and might be an hour-long episode.[21]

It had to happen eventually. It is, after all, one of the potential last gasps of a dying show, one of the last desperate bids for ratings before killing off the sickly thing; to cross it over with a rival or more successful show. In this case, it's two dying shows clinging to one another for dear life before the inevitable axe comes down on both their necks.

[Milo]

I think the crossover would be a nice way to kill two birds with one stone if they are planning to finally bury the hatchet on both shows. Whether both shows end on a surprising high note or sink to rock bottom, I doubt I would really care much.

 

I also hope Fox doesn't change their mind on ending both shows and/or are planning to drag them through the mud for a few/several more seasons-I'm pretty sure FG and Simpsons would both consistently get high ratings just based on reruns alone; hell, that's how FG got back on the air anyway.

[Mogtaki]

People are already petitioning to bring Brian back with reportedly over 30'000 signatures already (and it's only Tuesday!): http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/25101111

 

The petition can be found here: http://www.change.org/petitions/seth-macfarlane-and-fox-broadcasting-company-bring-brian-griffin-back-to-family-guy

 

I'm kind of surprised that it's reached that many, but it really does show there are people who still care for the show and that's a hell of a lot to care about one character. I don't blame them, though, considering he was one of the only developed characters.

[Ming Ming Hatsune]

To be honest it's about TIME The Simpsons and Family Guy have a crossover. They are both FOX shows, they are both family sitcoms, Peter and Homer are familiar and the same can be said for Marge and Lois...

If they are doing this for the ratings, it's gonna work.

[Blue Blood]

As someone who still does enjoy Family Guy, killing off Brian does really piss me off. He's been my favourite character on the show for along time, and I love his dynamic with Stewie. Without him, I'm not sure I'll have much interest to keep watching. Really disappointed by this development.

[Kuzu]

I'm honestly surprised by how many people are upset about this, I was always under the impression Brian was among the more divisive characters.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Dejimon11]

uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuh http://hollywoodlife.com/2013/11/26/family-guy-brian-alive-returning-season-12/  

[Mogtaki]

uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuh http://hollywoodlife.com/2013/11/26/family-guy-brian-alive-returning-season-12/

 

That' is a big 'uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuh', indeed.

 

6am UK time is when the announcement is? Ehhhh, I'll catch it in the morning...

[Stacy]

http://metro.co.uk/2013/11/27/brian-griffin-back-from-the-dead-cryptic-brians-announcement-family-guy-website-pops-up-4204159/

 

Nothing to see here apparently its a hoax site.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NNOrp_83RU

[Mogtaki]

Oh well, shame that. Seems the show is dead for a lot of people unless they manage to twist it around at Christmas.

[The Tenth Doctor]

So The Simpsons are having a crossover with Family Guy in one episode and its crossing over with Futurama in another? It really is dying if it needs all these crossovers.

[Blue Blood]

Futurama and The Simpsons are having a crossover, not Futurama and Family Guy.

[Jix Hedgehog]

X

Edited August 14, 2015 by Jix Hedgehog