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!!General examples:

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* ActingForTwo: Seth [=MacFarlane=] voices more than ''nine'' characters: Peter, Brian, Stewie, Quagmire, Carter, Tom Tucker, Ida, Seamus, Dr. Hartman, and others. Lampshaded in one episode where Dr. Hartman and Carter are put in a conversation together, and notice that they have almost the exact same voice.
-->'''Dr. Hartman''': Seems lazy, doesn't it?\\
'''Carter''': Well, there's only so many voices in the world. Some of them are bound to be similar.
* ActorInspiredElement: Creator/SethGreen modeled Chris' voice after Buffalo Bill, the serial killer Ted Levine plays in ''Literature/TheSilenceOfTheLambs'', having watched the movie the night before his audition and joking with his friends about what it would be like if that character worked at a fast food restaurant. He wound up being the only auditionee for Chris who didn't use a "SurferDude voice", and Creator/SethMacFarlane thought it was perfect.
* AdoredByTheNetwork: After being [[ScrewedByTheNetwork screwed over and canceled]] twice before, it's more like "Apologized to by the Network That Screwed the Show Twice".
** Creator/AdultSwim loved ''Family Guy'' like no other network would to an acquired show, giving it constant promotion even calling the episodes that were new to the block (but already aired on Fox) as new episodes (and really they kinda were, as they often had ''more'' content not in the FOX version). It's not hard to see why as it constantly brought in high ratings for the block often competing with and sometimes surpassing Creator/CartoonNetwork's own shows. Even after ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'' came along and started regularly beating out ''Family Guy'' in ratings (at least with premieres), ''Family Guy'' was still one of the block's highest rated shows. Adult Swim still continued to promote it too even after it was announced they'd lose the rights to it, to the point that they even [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEhQdRN6_j0 gave it a sendoff]] when the rights finally did expire in September 2021, something they only ever did once before with ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}''. It is quite a place of note that Adult Swim is often noted as the main reason the show came back and became a cultural phenomenon in the first place.
** Once Disney acquired the cable syndication rights for the series starting with Season 16, they've shown their love for it:
*** [[Creator/FXNetworks FXX]] initially aired the show nine hours a week. At that time, FXX only had the rights to anywhere between '''''20-60 episodes'''''.
*** In 2020, Freeform created a block called "Family Guy Fridays" which airs a ''Family Guy'' marathon every Friday. It's gotten to the point where as of September 2021, Freeform's Friday schedule is almost nothing but reruns of Family Guy.
*** When Adult Swim and Creator/{{TBS}} finally lost the rights to the first 15 seasons of ''Family Guy'' in September 2021, Disney made damn sure to take advantage of it on their networks fast. FXX airs the show for four hours straight in primetime aside from Wednesdays and Thursdays, where new episodes of ''WesternAnimation/{{Archer}}'' and ''Series/{{Cake}}'' air. In addition, Freeform's marathon block of the show on Fridays has expanded to ''10 hours'', at the expense of FXX not airing the show that day. The show is loved by FXX so much that sister channel FX started airing it on Saturday mornings, making it one of three acquisitions airing on the network. Also, the marathons on Sunday now have a theme to it, much like their blocks of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' on that day.
*** From December 25, 2021-January 1, 2022, FXX aired a week-long marathon of the series, airing ''almost'' every episode.
* BabyNameTrendKiller: The name "Peter", a perennial favorite (coming from Pope Saint Peter the Apostle), dropped the most it ever had in history in 2000, the year after the premiere of ''Family Guy'' (whose main character Peter Griffin is an overweight and dimwitted lout). It's had a steady decline since.
* BannedEpisode:
** "When You Wish Upon a Weinstein" was originally a DVD-only release, and was shown on TV for the first time (three years after it was produced) on Creator/CartoonNetwork's Creator/AdultSwim. The episode was pulled by FOX due to fears that the episode would be offensive to Jews[[note]]despite that [=MacFarlane=] brought in an actual rabbi to make sure the episode was kosher. It was, despite what the FOX Broadcast Standards and Practices people say[[/note]] ''and'' Catholics for the scene with nuns going after Peter for going to a synagogue. In the end, only a single line had to be altered for the episode to air on Adult Swim (Peter's line near the end of "I Need A Jew" was changed from "Even though they [the Jews] killed my Lord," to "I don't think they killed my Lord"). After it was announced that ''Family Guy'' was going to be brought back with new episodes, FOX themselves showed the once-banned episode (with the same line edited as in the Cartoon Network version; the original line can be found on the season three DVD set). There was also another cut: Quagmire "looking for his keys" in front of Lois was drastically shortened so it wouldn't look like he was masturbating.
** Fox banned the eighth season episode "[[Recap/FamilyGuyS8E21PartialTermsOfEndearment Partial Terms of Endearment]]" because it dealt with Lois becoming a surrogate mother to her best friend and her husband who can't have children and, following said best friend's sudden death, choosing whether to abort the baby. The episode was later released as a DVD-exclusive episode and has aired on most international channels like the UK's Creator/{{BBC}} Three (though, outside BBC Three, the international versions are the edited versions that have scenes cut for content and/or time reasons, even though most international channels aren't commercial-happy like America is when it comes to television). Unlike "When You Wish Upon a Weinstein," this episode has not aired on Fox or Adult Swim[=/=]TBS (and, due to the subject matter, which is actually shown in a rather serious light amid all the -- pardon the pun -- [[BlackComedy Dead Baby Comedy]], will never see the light of day on American TV or even on streaming services like Creator/{{Hulu}}). On ''Family Guy'''s 200th episode special, the episode was a discussion point and some clips were aired. Even after Disney acquired the series, they continued to leave the ban in place and isn't included in reruns on FX, FXX and Freeform.
** "Turban Cowboy": While it wasn't well-liked due to the Muslim stereotypes (though it did make a good point about not all Muslims being terrorists), that's not why it was banned after it first aired. Less than three weeks after its premiere, the Boston Marathon was hit by a terrorist attack. Not making things any better is the fact that the episode had a scene that predicted that a lot of people would die or be severely injured during the Boston Marathon (only it was because of Peter driving his car through the marathon path), ''and'' that a video showed up on the Internet that edited the scenes to make it look like Peter bombed the marathon. While FOX and Hulu stopped airing it in light of the attack, the episode did appear a few months later on Adult Swim, TBS, and Netflix streaming (U.S. feed).
** Because of Creator/RobinWilliams' suicide, the episode "Family Guy Viewer Mail #2" was banned from airing on Adult Swim for a few years and replaced with the first "Viewer Mail" episode, because of the "Fatman and Robin" story, in which Peter is cursed with the power to turn anything he touches into Robin Williams, which leads Peter to cut off his hands to break the spell. (This episode actually had the misfortune of being scheduled to air a day after Robin's suicide.)
** While technically not an episode, the series' standalone special "200 Years Later" isn't included in regular reruns of the series after airing on Fox. As of 2021, the only network to regularly air the episode is Freeform.
** The Season 16 episode "Nanny Goats" was briefly skipped over for a while on Creator/{{Freeform}} due to an infamous moment where Mickey Mouse kills [[WesternAnimation/AnAmericanTail Fievel Mousekewitz]] in an anti-semitic hate crime. Freeform's sister channel [[Creator/FXNetworks FXX]] aired the episode in its entirety not long after. When the show got a midnight slot beginning in June 2019, Freeform aired the episode proper, likely because it is a graveyard slot for cable networks and thus wouldn't generate much notice. As of 2020, the episode now airs in a primetime slot.
** In June 2020, in the wake of George Floyd's murder that triggered worldwide protests, TBS and Adult Swim pulled a number of episodes from the first 15 seasons from their rerun rotation, whose plots, scenes, or cutaway gags deal with police, protests, and racism, such as "E. Peterbus Unum", "Barely Legal", "Baby, You Knock Me Out", "Baby Got Black", and "A Shot in the Dark". However, these episodes are still available on local broadcast stations, DVD, [=OnDemand=] (on TBS), and streaming services. Once [=WarnerMedia=]'s rights to anything before Season 16 expired in September of 2021, those aforementioned episodes returned to circulation through FX, FXX, and Freeform.
* BannedInChina:
** The show's mature content matter got it banned from being screened in Indonesia, Egypt, Vietnam, Iran, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Cuba, and Malaysia.
** Taiwan later aired it on Fox Taiwan, albeit with a GagDub beginning in 2014.
* BeamMeUpScotty: Despite it being a common internet joke, Peter only said "Holy crap, Lois" once in season 12's "Finders Keepers". Before that, Stewie said it (when mimicking Peter) in "From Method to Madness" back in season 3. Peter has said "holy crap" many times throughout the show, but not with Lois' name.
* BreakthroughHit:
** For Fox, after reruns on Adult Swim and DVD sales proved that the show had the potential to be a cash cow.
** For Creator/AdultSwim as well, even though it was an acquisition and not an original. The show's massive success was instrumental in Adult Swim expanding after midnight and beyond weekends, and turning from a mere block on Creator/CartoonNetwork into its own subchannel.
** Creator/{{BBC}}3 in the UK initially undermined the show to the point where new seasons could be first shown/seen in the UK on DVD. Then they showed Season 5 in 2007 and the show gradually gained a cult following/status to the point where, since 2008, Family Guy is [=BBC3=]'s biggest breakthrough hit, even though it's not an original.
** For show creator Creator/SethMacfarlane as a whole.
* TheCastShowoff: Happens often. Mostly when a character voiced by [=MacFarlane=] sings -- he has extensive vocal training and ability.
* TheCharacterDiedWithHim:
** Over a year after the death of her voice actress Phyllis Diller, Peter's mother Thelma died of a stroke offscreen during the Season 12 episode "Mom's the Word".
** Nearly two years after Carrie Fisher's death, Angelia died offscreen after swimming too soon after eating at the beginning of Season 17's "Pawtucket Pete".
** Adam West in season 17 as well. Brian petitions to rename Creator/JamesWoods High to Adam West High [[InMemoriam to memorialize the deceased mayor]].
* ColbertBump: "Surfin' Bird" by The Trashmen has had an ''enormous'' surge in popularity after the song was featured in Season 7's "I Dream of Jesus".
* CowboyBebopAtHisComputer:
** In "North by North Quahog", Stewie reads about Nermal in ''Garfield at Large: His First Book''. Nermal actually doesn't appear until the third book: ''Garfield Bigger Than Life''.
** In "Baby Not on Board", a radio station identifies Roxette's "The Look" as "You've Got the Look".
** The Dish Network summary for the episode "Lois Kills Stewie" assumes that a CutawayGag about Stewie auditioning for ''Series/AmericanIdol'' is the focus of the episode. Also, their summary for "Road to Rhode Island" seems to think that Brian is picking Stewie up from Carter and Babs' house because they kicked him out, and not because it was simply time for him to go. In fact, the worst thing Stewie did while at Babs and Carter's house was stealing Babs' necklace and planting it on the maid to get her arrested as "after-dinner entertainment", but that wasn't relevant to the plot.
** The Comcast summary for the episode "Jerome is the New Black" claims that Quagmire hates Jerome, when really it's Peter who hates Jerome because he was one of the many men Lois slept with back when she was a rich party girl and Quagmire hates Brian, not just for his clumsy attempts at trying to be his friend (which reveal that Quagmire has a sister who's being abused and that his break-up with Cheryl Tiegs is the reason why Quagmire is a sex addict), but because of his personality, which has gotten on the nerves of several fans.
** The Verizon Fios summary of "New Kidney In Town" indicates that Peter's years of alcoholism would be the cause of his kidney failure and subsequent need for a new kidney, when in fact it was Peter recently becoming addicted to Red Bull, binge drinking it to no end, and then trying to come up with a replacement mix with assorted items and kerosene, not his years of alcoholism. Verizon also incorrectly state in the summary of "Road to Europe" that Brian and Stewie journey across Europe to return home in Connecticut, when in reality, the duo live in Rhode Island.
* CreatorBacklash:
** The third ''Star Wars'' parody, "It's A Trap!", opens with the entire family groaning and an annoyed Peter says "Let's get this over with". This is followed by the opening scroll that turns into a ''massive'' rant about how Creator/SethMacFarlane and the rest of the crew never wanted to do this nor "Something Something Something Dark Side" and only did so due to Creator/TwentiethCenturyFox's demands. In the DVD commentaries, the crew restates they meant every word of it.
** Episodes use tons of SelfDeprecation gags about the show or other works the creators are responsible for. Most notably, the ''Star Wars'' specials also include several jibes to Creator/SethGreen's ''WesternAnimation/RobotChicken''.
** In 2021, Creator/SethMacFarlane went on [[https://uproxx.com/tv/seth-macfarlane-family-guy-fox-future/ a tirade]] against FOX for their frequent ExecutiveMeddling and determination to hold onto ''Family Guy'' for many more years, in spite of [=MacFarlane=]'s obvious displeasure of working on the show.
* CreatorsPest:
** Joe Swanson's son Kevin simply disappeared from the series. This was due to the show's staff finding him boring. In "Stew-Roids", Joe offhandedly mentions that he died in Iraq, though a later episode {{retcon}}ned this, saying that he instead [[FakingTheDead faked his death]].
** In "Saving Private Brian", Stewie guns down the vaudeville guys and tells the audience that they're dead and that we won't be seeing them again. The staff confirmed in the DVDCommentary that "People just got sick of them." They've showed up exactly twice since then - once in "Back to the Woods", as ghosts, and once in "A Lot Going On Upstairs" during a nightmare of Stewie's, where he screws up his part in the show intro, and is "benched" alongside several other one-note characters that have long since been forgotten and abandoned.
** It should come as a surprise to no-one that the reason for Meg's ButtMonkey status is that the writers admitted that they don't know how to write for a teenage girl.
** Loretta was disliked by the show staff, finding her to be bland and nasty, [[SatelliteLoveInterest only existing for the sake of giving Cleveland a wife]]. With the addition of Alex Borstein hating the strain of voicing her ''and'' her unpopularity with the fanbase, she was eventually divorced from Cleveland and later killed in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheClevelandShow'', with it ending with a eulogy montage for her that only really showed off more of her unlikable traits (namely her constant nagging and her cheating on Cleveland).
* CrossdressingVoices: Consuela is voiced by Mike Henry.
* TheDanza: Mayor Adam West is voiced by [[Creator/AdamWest himself]].
* DiedDuringProduction:
** Creator/CarrieFisher, who has played the recurring role of Angela (Peter's boss), died in December 2016. Her last two appearances aired posthumously before the character died with her.
** Creator/AdamWest, who has played the recurring role of Mayor {{Adam West|ing}}, died in June 2017. Since then, his character now appears as a ghost in silent cameos.
** Creator/CharlesDurning who played Peter's father, Francis, until his character was killed off.
** Creator/PhyllisDiller who played Peter's mother, Thelma. Her character was also killed off.
* DVDCommentary:
** In the initial DVD sets, [=MacFarlane=] busts out the Peter or Stewie voice unprovoked, sometimes having a back-and-forth with Creator/AlexBorstein (who started speaking in her Lois voice) or Creator/SethGreen (who started talking like Chris). In later sets, he flat out refuses to do the voices of any of the characters he voices (Peter, Stewie, Quagmire etc) during said commentary, usually with tongue-in-cheek threats of violence against whoever suggested it.
** Creator/SethGreen sounds nothing like Chris Griffin or Neil Goldman (his two main voices) so he has to be asked to drop into character. Mike Henry (Cleveland Brown, Herbert) does his voices without being asked.
** The commentaries for "Indecent Proposal" has the cast repeatedly accusing Danny Smith of being extremely drunk while he claims to be 'high on life.'
* EditedForSyndication:
** In "I Never Met the Dead Man", the scene of Tom and Diane reveling in saying politically incorrect things (until the cameraman tells them they're still on the air in Boston), Tom's line, "I'm the Lord Jesus Christ. Think I'll get drunk and beat up some midgets" was cut down to "Think I'll get drunk and beat up some midgets" when the show airs in free TV syndication (not Adult Swim syndication). Diane's confession that she doesn't like Black people was also cut in free TV syndication.
** In the version of "April In Quahog" on Netflix, the ending of the episode with Peter playing ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare 2'' is cut for some reason.
** The Creator/{{Netflix}} release erased the infamous gag in "Movin' Out (Brian's Song)" where Quagmire rapes Marge Simpson and kills her family. That scene was also cut when FOX aired it and when it airs on free-TV syndication. Creator/CartoonNetwork and the DVD set featuring season six episodes have this uncut.
** {{Creator/TBS}} slightly sped up the show on reruns.
** [=FX=] and Freeform both use the free-to-air syndication prints (the ones seen on local broadcast stations) of the show's first 15 seasons, which are even more censored than the versions used for their initial broadcasts on Fox. Freeform even speeds up those butchered prints. However, just how much of the series gets edited on sister channel and main new cable home for the series, [=FXX=], depends on what time of the day the show airs in: they also use the syndication prints if the series airs in the morning or afternoon, but use the original Fox broadcast prints (and on a few rare occasions, even the completely uncensored version of the show used for Adult Swim and the DVD releases) when the network airs the show in prime time.
* ExecutiveMeddling:
** Creator/SethMacFarlane has stated that he wants ''Family Guy'' to end, but Fox wants to keep the show running for as long as possible.
** From 2007 to early 2008, [=MacFarlane=] decided to join the WGA in the Writers' Guild of America strike and not finish any episodes in production at the time (though he did record voicework for his characters). In what [=MacFarlane=] now refers to as a "colossal dick move," Fox aired three episodes that were only 90% done ("Padre de Familla"[[note]]The episode where Peter discovers that he's an illegal immigrant after his mom gave birth to him in Mexico[[/note]], "Peter's Daughter"[[note]]The one where Meg nearly dies when the house is flooded and thinks she's pregnant after dating a young doctor[[/note]], and "[=McStroke=]"[[note]]The episode where Peter has a stroke after eating 30 hamburgers out of depression over his lost mustache, while Stewie poses as a high school student to prove to Brian that being a high schooler is easy, like on TV[[/note]]) without [=MacFarlane=]'s expressed permission.
** For "The Courtship of Stewie's Father", the subplot of Chris doing chores for Herbert had to be completely watered down as Fox was scared of the pedophile jokes that would spring from the storyline. The DVD commentary goes into detail about what would have been in the subplot had Fox not interfered.
** Fox demanded that ''Family Guy'' finish the ''Franchise/StarWars'' spoofs, leading to the scathing TakeThat seen in the opening crawl to ''It's a Trap!''.
* FranchiseZombie:
** Based on [[https://web.archive.org/web/*/http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/44880176/ns/today-entertainment/#.TpdkHt4r27t this interview]] from October of 2011, creator Seth [=MacFarlane=] ''himself'' believes the series has become this.
--->'''Seth:''' Part of me thinks that 'Family Guy' should have already ended. I think seven seasons is about the right lifespan for a TV series. I talk to the fans and in a way I'm kind of secretly hoping for them to say, "We're done with it". And there are plenty of people who say the show is kind of over the hill.
** As of 2021, the show has definitely reached this point for [=MacFarlane=], as he compared him and FOX in a [[https://twitter.com/SethMacFarlane/status/1421930581168836608?s=20 tweet]] to a failing marriage, and expressed interest in having ''Family Guy'' being shown on a different network, in spite of FOX Entertainment president Michael Thorn's plans to keep the show on the network [[https://variety.com/2021/tv/news/fox-michael-thorn-seth-macfarlane-family-guy-1235059044/ for many more years.]]
* KeepCirculatingTheTapes:
** The uncut version of "Chitty Chitty Death Bang" where Stewie hears Hitler's voice in his head amid sounds of war and destruction when he imagines what he wants for his birthday (before deciding on a roller disco party) hasn't been seen since the first time it aired. Even the DVD version has it edited. Ironically, the German dub doesn't edit this.
** The uncut version of "A Hero Sits Next Door" had a scene where a kid's JFK Pez dispenser gets shot by a stray police sniper bullet, which hasn't been seen since Fox first aired the episode, not even on DVD. Adult Swim and foreign networks have aired the uncut version, the scene is available on the German DVD version, and Netflix has it uncut when they had the series.
* InMemoriam: "And Then There Were Fewer" was dedicated to Seth Macfarlane's mother.
* IronyAsSheIsCast: Meg's [[InformedFlaw perceived ugliness]] is one of her defining attributes; her voice actress Creator/MilaKunis is considered one of the sexiest women alive.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:M-Z]]
* MarathonRunning:
** On 2/6/12 TBS ran all three ''Franchise/StarWars'' parodies back-to-back to help promote the theatrical release of the 3D version of ''Film/ThePhantomMenace''.
** TBS did a marathon in April 2019 to celebrate the series' 20th anniversary, airing twenty creator favorite episodes in a row.
** As mentioned above, FXX led into the 2022 new year with a '''five day marathon''' starting on Christmas Day of 2021. Much like their first major ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' marathon, it was called ''Every Family Guy Ever'' in the commercials.
* MidDevelopmentGenreShift: It flip-flopped with this throughout its development. Its prototype short ''Life With Larry'' was something of a faux-sitcom and had already invented the cutaway setup and heavy pop culture humor (which is pretty much what ''Family Guy'' is now). The second prototype, a [[WesternAnimation/WhatACartoonShow What-A-Cartoon]] short ''WesternAnimation/LarryAndSteve'' played out more like a wacky, Saturday morning cartoon with the satirical humor being more subtle. In its initial run, ''Family Guy'' played something of a mix of both, utilizing the original cutaway and pop culture humor, but maintaining heavy use of light-hearted slapstick and keeping most of the BlackComedy to a minimum. During its third season and definitely following its [[UnCanceled revival after three years of being canceled]], the show slowly evolved into a [[BlackComedy shock value]] SadistShow.
* TheOtherDarrin:
** Kevin was originally voiced by Creator/JonCryer in his debut episode. After Cryer left to work on ''Series/TwoAndAHalfMen'', he was voiced by [=Seth MacFarlane=] before being voiced by Creator/ScottGrimes starting with "Thanksgiving".
** Mr. Weed was first voiced by Butch Hartman, only to be replaced by Creator/CarlosAlazraqui.
** Bob Costas appeared as himself in "Patriot Games", "Petergeist" and "Turban Cowboy". However, an impersonator voices him in "Griffin Winter Games".
** In the Latin American Spanish dub, [[WesternAnimation/TheClevelandShow Donna Tubbs-Brown]] was voiced by Toni Rodriguez. After Rodriguez passed away from cancer in April 2021, Donna's role will be recast for the rest of "Family Guy".
* TheOtherMarty:
** The "Time for Timer" cutaway gag in the episode "Petarded" was originally supposed to have Timer's original voice actor Lennie Weinrib reprise his role. However, Weinrib was very ill at the time and didn't remember doing the recording when the dialogue was played back to him, so Seth [=McFarlane=] did Timer's dialogue in the end.
** "It's a Trap" was to have Paul Reubens himself voice [[Series/PeeWeesPlayhouse Pee-wee Herman]] in a cameo. According to Creator/SethMacFarlane, the results weren't what the staff wanted so [=MacFarlane=] dubbed over the lines with his voice.
** Creator/CreeSummer was originally cast as Meg in the pilot, but was let go during production and replaced by Creator/LaceyChabert.
** "[[Recap/FamilyGuyS2E16TheresSomethingAboutPaulie There's Something About Paulie]]" was the last episode of the first production season to air, very late into the second season aired. Because of the late airing and Meg having very few spoken lines, Creator/MilaKunis dubbed her lines rather than keeping Creator/LaceyChabert's recording.
* OutOfHolidayEpisode: Because Creator/AdultSwim and Creator/{{TBS}} air the episodes they own in complete order, this means that the holiday episodes are usually aired after the holiday ended or before the holiday started.
* OutOfOrder: ''Family Guy'', like many comedies of its type, doesn't have a particularly tight continuity, so this isn't usually noticeable. However, it did cause a couple minor issues during the first three seasons. During the second season aired, first and second-season production episodes were aired interchangeably (rather than finishing the season one production before airing the season two-produced episodes). As a result, Meg's voice flip-flops between Creator/LaceyChabert and Creator/MilaKunis. The other issue is a small PlotHole in "[[Recap/FamilyGuyS3E16AVerySpecialFamilyGuyFreakinChristmas A Very Special Famiy Guy Freakin' Christmas]]." The episode was made early in season 2, but aired in the middle of season 3. As a result, Peter celebrating having a week's vacation made no real sense. By that point in the episodes aired Peter was a fisherman in business for himself. He could take a vacation whenever and however long he wanted. But being made in season 2, Peter was still working at the toy factory, so celebrating a vacation would make sense.
* ThePeteBest: Not too many fans are familiar with Creator/LaceyChabert, who was the original voice of Meg until replaced by Creator/MilaKunis stating with the second production cycle. Doesn't help that Chabert was uncredited.
* PlayingAgainstType: Chris Parnell, who voices famous [[ButtMonkey Butt Monkeys]] [[WesternAnimation/{{Archer}} Cyril]] and [[WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty Jerry]] voices Doug here. In stark contrast to his usual characters, Doug frequently gets one over on people.
* PopCultureUrbanLegends: It was rumored that the original airing of the episode "Brian in Love" had Peter asking Brian "Where do you think you are? Kmart?", which was changed to Payless in later airings and on the Volume One DVD release. This has been debunked as a recording of the original airing has been uploaded, and it doesn't feature the "Kmart" line that's been rumored for so long [[https://1drv.ms/f/s!ArLllC183wYybCBOVf9FdwYkphk (There's even a picture in the folder that shows the captions saying "Payless")]].
* ProductionLeadTime: "Cabin Pressure" was the first episode in 2024 to air in the new time slot of Wednesday nights, after ''Series/TheMaskedSinger'' and ''Series/AnimalControl''. As such, it still contains references to its previous Sunday night lead-in, ''WesternAnimation/BobsBurgers'', which was an indication that the writers assumed they would keep their Sunday night time slot.
* PromotedFanboy: Arif "Azerrz" Zahir gained some fame on the Internet for his pitch-perfect impression of Cleveland Brown, which he put to use in a series of "Cleveland Plays ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare''" videos. In 2020 he became the official voice of Cleveland after Mike Henry stepped down from the role—which, funnily enough, makes his videos retroactively canon!
* RecastAsARegular: Creator/DrewBarrymore voiced one-off character Mrs. Lockhart in the Season 4 episode "Fast Times at Buddy Cianci Jr. High", and returned in the following season as Jillian, who was initially meant to be another one-off character, but proved so popular with the writing staff that she became a recurring character instead.
* RecycledScript:
** ''The Life of Larry'' pilot (first one) had many gags that would later be used in ''Family Guy'' - some of which appeared on the first episode (the one where Peter gets fired from his job at the toy factory, puts the family on welfare, and ends up rich because his first welfare check is for $150,000 instead of $150 due to a clerical error).
** The season 11 episode "[[Recap/FamilyGuyS11E1IntoFatAir Into Fat Air]]" has the family being left stranded in a desolate location, when they find an acquaintance's corpse. One of the protagonists proposes they resort to cannibalism in order to stave off starvation, with the others being repulsed at first, but reluctantly complying in the end. This part of the script is copied from the ''American Dad'' episode "[[Recap/AmericanDadS4E1TheVacationGoo The Vacation Goo]]".
** In the season 20 episode "Mister Act", an injury to Peter's testicles causes his voice to become extremely high-pitched, which enables him to become a talented singer. This premise is recycled from "Crotchwalkers", a 2013 episode from ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'', another animated sitcom created by Creator/SethMacFarlane.
* RoleReprise: Whenever ''Family Guy'' would feature a character from another show, they would usually try (and often succeed) to get the original actor.
** The [[WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooWhereAreYou Scooby gang]] has shown up a few times, and each time Creator/FrankWelker reprized his role as Fred Jones.
** A random appearance of [[WesternAnimation/HeManAndTheMastersOfTheUniverse Adam transforming into He-Man]] had John Erwin reprise the role.
** Creator/JeffBergman reprised his role as [[WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes Sylvester the Cat]] for the Rapid Dave CutawayGag in "Padre De Familia".
* SameVoiceTheirEntireLife:
** Brian has the same mature voice when he was a puppy.
** In flashbacks to their childhoods, the adult characters have the same voices, though with a childlike inflection.
* ScheduleSlip:
** "Jesus, Mary and Joseph!" was originally supposed to air on December 16th, 2012, but was held off until a week later due to news of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting and a live memorial that broadcast from 7:00pm to 8:30pm eastern time. While there wasn't anything that would make people upset, a lot of people still would have complained about the warped take on the Nativity story (besides, having it air on December 23rd would put it at the right time before Christmas).
** The ''Family Guy/American Dad/Cleveland'' show episodes, all run under "Night of the Hurricane", were delayed from their original broadcast slots on Fox due to a severe weather outbreak that was going on at the time.
** "A Shot in the Dark" was originally set to air on November 15, 2015, but was replaced by "Peter's Sister" following the Paris attacks that occured two days prior. It was then scheduled for December 6, 2015, but it was again replaced, this time by "Brokeback Swanson" following the San Bernardino shooting. It wasn't until December 13, when the episode finally premiered.
* ScrewedByTheNetwork:
** ''Family Guy'' got decent ratings during its 7-episode first season, as its premiere was right after the Super Bowl, making it the most watched episode of the series, with an estimated 22 million viewers. However, future seasons were aired at the same timeslot as ''Series/{{Frasier}}'', ''Series/WhoWantsToBeAMillionaire'', ''Series/{{Friends}}'' and ''Series/{{Survivor}}'', leading to low ratings and repeated cancellations. It wasn't until Creator/CartoonNetwork bought the show for their Creator/AdultSwim that ''Family Guy'' became a ratings success, rivalling ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' and ''Series/AmericanIdol'' as Fox's most [[InvertedTrope adored show]].
** The {{Creator/Televisa}}-owned Canal 5 screwed the show many times when the series aired from 2002 to 2009, largely because of complaints from MoralGuardians, with the network not even airing anything past season 4. When the series returned in 2016, the series stopped airing during the beginning of season 4, and didn't return until the summer of 2017 at midnight before dropping it altogether in August, where the network still didn't bother finish airing season 4. The series is treated better on FX Latin America, but only late at night due to the network only airing series in the morning and late-night hours.
** In the UK, the show's original broadcasters, Creator/{{Channel 4}} and [[Creator/{{Sky}} Sky One]], made heavy edits as they aired it in daytime slots, despite it being an adult cartoon. Channel 4 only aired the first two seasons before axing it, although Sky One treated it slightly better, with season 3 being shown as well as receiving infrequent reruns for a few years. The show's next channel, [[Creator/TheBBC BBC Two]], initially gave it a good slot on Saturday nights at 10pm alongside ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'', however after a few months it was buried to the post-midnight hours. It later moved to sister station [[Creator/TheBBC BBC Three]], where it received far better treatment, although it did start in similar poor slots.
* ShortRunInPeru:
** The season 19 episode, "Cutawayland" first aired in Canada on October 18, 2020. While originally, this wouldn't be that major, since the episode was scheduled to air the same day on Fox, it was later delayed to November 1st, due to Fox's coverage of Game 7 of the 2020 NLCS.
** "Boy's Best Friend", along with the entirety of Animation Domination on February 14, 2021, was delayed to February 28 due to the Daytona 500 running way overtime following a five-hour rain delay, and the event being too high-profile to move to Fox Sports 1.
* SimilarlyNamedWorks: ''WesternAnimation/BoJackHorseman'', ''Anime/FutariWaPrettyCure'', ''WesternAnimation/LittlestPetShop2012'', and ''WesternAnimation/TheNewAdventuresOfWinnieThePooh'' all also have an episode titled "Fish Out of Water".
* TakeThatTitForTat: The infamous gag of Quagmire [[BlackComedyRape assaulting]] [[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons Marge Simpson]], then going home and murdering the entire Simpsons family was Seth [=MacFarlane=]'s "little jab back" at ''The Simpsons'' for... accusing them of plagiarism. Needless to say, Creator/MattGroening [[DisproportionateRetribution found it too far of a comeback]] that he threatened to kill off his friendship with [=MacFarlane=] until [=MacFarlane=] agreed with Groening that it was a not a fair comeback.
* TomHanksSyndrome: Parodied in "Death Has a Shadow". In a CutawayGag flashback, Peter watches the movie ''Film/{{Philadelphia}}''. Once he realizes that Creator/TomHanks is in the film, he immediately thinks ''Philadelphia'' is a comedy.
-->'''Peter:''' I got it, that's the guy from ''Film/{{Big}}''. Tom Hanks, that's it! Ah, funny guy, Tom Hanks. Everything he says is a stitch!\\
'''Tom Hanks:''' I have AIDS.\\
'''Peter:''' ''(busts out laughing)''
* TransCharacterCisActor: Cisgender male creator Creator/SethMacFarlane voices Quagmire's transgender mother Ida.
* UnCanceled: Twice; first from its brief cancellation in 2000, and then again from its more noticeable cancellation from 2002 to 2005, when news hit that the money made from DVD sales and the big ratings from Adult Swim reruns were enough to bring the show back.
* UncreditedRole: Creator/LaceyChabert went uncredited when she voiced Meg during the first production season, before she was replaced by Creator/MilaKunis. She finally received credit for reused voice samples in "Back to the Pilot".
* WhatCouldHaveBeen: [[WhatCouldHaveBeen/FamilyGuy Has its own page.]]
* WordOfGay: According to the DVD commentary track to ''WesternAnimation/StewieGriffinTheUntoldStory'', the movie was going to be called ''Queer as Stewie'' and was going to center on Stewie coming to terms with being homosexual. The writers decided against it, as they were getting more mileage out of Stewie being ambiguously bisexual in the regular episodes.
* WriteWhoYouKnow:
** Peter Griffin was based on a loud mouthed security guard Seth [=MacFarlane=] knew from Rhode Island School of Design. Said security guard later appeared in a live-action comedy skit he filmed while there.
** Tom Tucker was partially modeled on real life anchorman John Beard of Fox Los Angeles O&O KTTV. Ironically, however, in real life, Beard is actually a very competent, very professional anchorman, and in fact, it was this professionalism which actually cost him his job there, when KTTV management fired him in 2007 over disputes on what he would report on during the station's main newscasts, with Beard wanting to do more hard news and the management wanting him to do more celebrity fluff. Beard ended up going to work at NBC affiliate WGRZ in Buffalo, NY, as their morning and midday anchor, in effect, working in a media market with a job that amounted to a career downgrade. Far from being egotistical, however, Beard was more than willing to accept the position if it meant not having to compromise his journalistic integrity. Tom Tucker is also the name of the anchor at CBS Local 2 in Palm Springs.
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