Somehow, against all odds, Family Guy has managed to dodge the bullet. Seth MacFarlane’s brainchild has been bringing laughter to audiences for an impressive 25 years. He recently discussed the legacy and appeal of Fox’s animated sitcom, which celebrated its 25th anniversary yesterday. Since its 1999 premiere, Family Guy has aired 22 seasons with over 400 episodes.
With a recent update from the legendary creator himself, it appears that our favorite sitcom is still going strong, despite the countless daring jokes that, surprisingly, didn’t get canceled by the ‘woke’ audience. Speaking with The Wrap, MacFarlane reflected on Family Guy as the show celebrated its 25th anniversary. He was proud to announce that the show is “still surviving and thriving”.
Seth MacFarlane Discusses Family Guy’s Future on 25th Anniversary
There is no denying that Family Guy’s satire and biting humor have won over many hearts since 1999. How fortunate to still have the show. Indeed, it is true that the hilarious and immensely popular animated television series created by Seth MacFarlane, which centers on the antics of the Griffin family, is now 25 years old. The first-ever episode of Family Guy, entitled Death Has a Shadow, debuted on television on January 31, 1999.
In an exclusive interview with TheWrap, MacFarlane, 50, expressed his amazement that 25 years have passed since the creation of the show.
“As far as Family Guy is concerned, yeah, it’s still surviving and thriving. It’s strange that we’re coming up on 25 years because I’ve just been going kind of at a dead run ever since the show premiered…I think the goal of the show is just to make people laugh… It delves into social allegory and politics now and then without question, as a good primetime animated show should, but that’s always secondary…”
The Wrap was also informed by the Ted director that the Fox series will not “end anytime soon”. As of this writing, Family Guy’s 23rd season has been renewed. Apart from providing the voice for the show, MacFarlane is also the creator of Family Guy, having executive produced the show for its entire run.
Family Guy Stands the Test of Time: The Factors That Led to its Cancellation
We learned from Screen Rant that in 2000, Fox renewed the series after it had been briefly canceled. It was canceled once again in 2002. Well, as per the outlet, Family Guy’s cancellation was due to its unsatisfactory ratings, which can be explained simply.
Season 1 of the show did well in its Sunday night timeslot, but in season 2, it was forced to compete against Frasier on Thursday nights and later on Tuesday nights against ABC’s Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? In both situations, Family Guy’s ratings were consistently declining, which caused Fox to temporarily axe the show following season two before renewing it for a third.
Unfortunately, the third season had no improvement whatsoever in terms of viewership. Family Guy lost viewers because of fierce competition when it returned to its Thursday night timeslot in Season 3, this time from FRIENDS as well as Survivor.
Fox kept switching around the timeslots for season 3 in an attempt to find something that would work, but the process never produced any improvement and, ironically, made the decline in ratings even more severe. After that, it was canceled in 2002, with the final episode of season 3 going unaired for more than a year.
Family Guy was canceled primarily due to low viewership; ironically, the same audience was in charge of bringing the show back. Cartoon Network purchased the rerun rights after the show was canceled. According to Entertainment Weekly, the show became the network’s highest-rated program after airing on Adult Swim, increasing viewership by 239%. Finally, Family Guy was brought back for a fourth season by Fox in 2004 after it became a huge cult hit on Adult Swim.
Family Guy indeed had terrible ratings when it was canceled, but when it came back, it quickly rose to prominence as one of the most-watched TV shows.
Stream Family Guy on Hulu or Fox.
