The Success of Family Guy on FOX

Featuring a family with a husband, wife, adolescent son and daughter, with a baby rounding out the cast, it was not so different from a similar FOX show, The Simpsons - on the surface. And Family Guy took their fair share of flak before distinguishing themselves from the pop kitsch of The Simpsons machine. No, Family Guy was something different. And if the network couldn't tell the difference right away, the fans could.

Family Guy, which had to be shown after 9pm because of censorship issues (like nudity), showed right away that it was great family programming. If your family is fairly mature. With a taste for satiric, tongue-in-cheek humor. Okay, let's face it - Family Guy is ribald, sometimes bawdy, and always, always hilarious. It's not really a family program, despite its animated nature.

But that didn't stop the fans, and Family Guy was a hit with viewers who enjoyed its sarcastic, satiric humor. Despite the fan base, FOX was quick to yank the show in the face of public criticism (too much like The Simpsons and a lot of FOX's other animated programming) and Family Guy was canceled in 2000.

That should have been the end of it. But the show was resurrected again in 2002. Then, it was canceled again. Perhaps there wasn't enough room on the FOX schedule - too many Simpsons re-runs to air. After the 2002 cancellation, it seemed that the life of Family Guy was over, despite its cult following.

The show was released on DVD (isn't everything?), and promptly picked up by Cartoon Network for their nighttime programming block, Adult Swim. Family Guy was a huge hit with viewers, and DVD sales were great.

Never one to ignore the fact that others are making profits, FOX made the decision to bring the show back - again. Family Guy is one of the few shows to be canceled and then brought back by the very network who canceled them. In 2005, the decision was made. Family Guy would be added to the FOX Sunday lineup.

The animated series features the Griffins, a seemingly normal family actually plagued by a father who almost always tells stories flashback-style and who seems extremely stupid, a baby bent on ruling the world (just as soon as he successfully kills his mother), a daughter who is hopelessly socially inept (and suffers constant ridicule by her family), and a son whose intelligence seems to be greatly hampered. In short, it's fabulous. Everything has been spoofed on Family Guy. Even the opening of the show is a spoof of All in the Family (those were the days).

In many episodes of Family Guy and The Simpsons, the two cartoons have taken potshots at each other, much to the delight of fans. Despite surface appearances, the humor and the situations on the two shows are often vastly different - and it seems neither animated series likes to be compared to the other.

New episodes of Family Guy will air on FOX Sundays (at 9pm) in the upcoming weeks. Meanwhile, you can still catch episodes of Family Guy on Cartoon network and on TBS. Ten years from now, this show may even surpass The Simpsons.