Family Guy

I'm not going to get defensive or anything, but I believe the whole comparison between this show and The Simpsons have gone down since the show started relying way too heavily on Cutaway Gag's. I'm sure there's a lot of flak for modern Family Guy than there is for older Family Guy. I do agree that American Dad is the better of the two MacFarlane shows.

Then again it depends on the viewers. Some might favor The Simpsons over Family Guy, some might favor Family Guy over The Simpsons. That's the whole purpose for YMMV.

edited 3rd May '11 7:30:04 PM by WolfMan16

Oh, good. I was starting to think I was the only one that doesn't like Family Guy.

You don't go to many forums do you?

Nope.I used to be in several but now I only visit this one.

Dunno if it's fine to do it, but I just wanna give me two cents on Family Guy & others:

First of all, I just ignore and laugh at the people who try endlessly to claim Family Guy is a rip-offof The Simpsons and vice versa. In the end they are just two shows using the same base of "idiot dad and his family have wacky misadventures in their daily lives" which is already a very used mechanic even before The Simpsons existed. Not coutning Seth has created expy after expy of himself so in the end, it doesen't matter that much.

What I hate now about Family Guy is how harsh it became, which ended up making us viewers look like idiots and just think "cruel is funny so every show must be like this to be funy" (I was happy when South Park and the old Family Guy were the few "adult" cartoons that could put this kind of cruelty on television, but eventually everyone started to copy THEM and it ended up making Family Guy's writers INCREASE the level of jerkass to unbearable levels to me).

I mean, i dunno which season is the newest or not (I live in south america and we are getting new episodes that have probably aired long ago obver the states) but the first 2 or 3 episodes in a row were only Brian-bashing (the episodes where Brian becomes a republican and the past-mentioned-in-this-thread episode about Brian's novel). We get it Seth, you turned Brian into an awful character in previous seasons but wasn't the quagmire rant enough of a karmic take back?

I can see the writers have the awful idea that if a running gag or characteristic seems funny it must be repeated over and over and fladerizated to levels even modern simpson's levels of flanderization seem tame in comparison(It took them like 5 seasons to tone down the Meg-hate, and they still haven't give Stewie a rest..). Also, while American Dad has became better, it still bothers me how much of "Depending on the writer" the characters end up being. the only reason I watch AD anymore is for Roger, only because no matter how cruel and jerkass he is at least started and CONTINUES being like that, while others like Stan, Seteve and Francine just randomly switch when it coems to personalities.

I don't know, maybe I'm just being overly-critic or maybe growing up made me wish for more shows who go beyond just being a bunch of jerkasses (which on TV animation, both for adults and kids, is pretty rare these days)and rather to be clever and funny, but it just pisses me off that when Family Guy started to ebcome the cruel acid shell of it former self (whichw as already acid and a bit cruel to begin with, but in a good and edgy way) it started to become the norm for cartoon animators and writers to imitate them. In fact, it seems quite a coincidence that a lot of flanderization on The Simpsons happened right when Family Guy started to become popular.

edited 14th May '11 3:46:35 PM by Viku

I actually think Stan is more level headed than when he started out, and Francine seems to be more of the Peter expy. Which is a welcome development imo, I do tire so quickly of the wife always being the level headed one.

What landy said.

I'm actually surprised, and a bit worried, that a lot of people agree with the OP. Sure Family Guy isn't a great show to begin with, but the whole "this show sucks because it isn't as good as the The Simpsons" comparison is very tiresome. How many times have we been through with this before? For all we know, the OP could be an inexperienced troll.

edited 17th May '11 4:09:52 PM by WolfMan16

The problem isn't that Family Guy is worse than the Simpsons. It's that Family Guy is a cookie-cutter comedy with Author Avatars ranting about whatever they choose, manatee gags, music videos haphazardly put in in the hopes that people will find them funny, and Seth Mc Farlane made two other shows with the same goddamn plot.

By the way, Simpsons isn't doing well either, since it's trying to copy off the show that copied off them.

The Simpsons (Lisa) and South Park (Stan, Kyle and Cartman) could be considered the same with the author avatars.

You know what I almost never see brought up when it comes to complaints about Family Guy? The art style itself. It's not exactly ugly per se, but it has this bland, inexpressive quality to it. It's something we've all gotten used to I suppose, but for me it really becomes apparent whenever they portray a celebrity. 95% of of the time I would not have the foggiest idea who they were if they didn't say who it was.

I brought it up years ago, but never talked about it since. I suppose it's bland enough to be so uninteresting that it doesn't draw attention anymore. I never watch it for the animation anyway, and I can easily multitask while listening to the show on TV on the other side of the room and literally not miss anything!

I agree, but I find that the designs in The Cleveland Show and American dad tend to look more distinctive, which is odd. I guess they have different character designers.

The defining difference between South Park and Family Guy, is that South Park is offensive for the reason of satire, whereas Family Guy is just offensive for the sake of being offensive.

I actually like Seth Mac Farlane, as I strongly agree with a lot of his opinions, and all of the things which he has worked on (excluding modern Family Guy and the Cleveland Show) are great.

edited 19th May '11 10:55:08 AM by SorrowsNeptune

I'm glad most of you guys got what i was saying but sad to see that some did not. It's not like I'm saying there's something wrong if you like family guy or anything like that. Some fans are getting upset and saying that the Simpsons were unoriginal in the first place and I know that there have been shows based on a family with an idiot dad but you cant deny the similarities between family guy and the Simpsons. That is all I'm trying to say.

One of the points I was trying to make in my rant is that they straight copied scenes and jokes from the Simpsons and it's right in your face. Example: 1. Homer wants baby Maggie to play in a box and tries to show her how fun it is so she'll want to play but enjoys it himself and wont let her in. Same EXACT scene in family guy, peter enjoys the box and says "No! My box!" to his baby. 2. Where someone comments on Homer's weight saying he has his own gravitational pull and demonstrates with an apple. You see the same exact thing in an episode of family guy with peter and brian. 3. Homer sings "It's the end of the world" by REM and peter does the same later. 4. Santas little helper humps that race dog, brian humps puterschmitt's race dog. 5. Marge is told she is an unfit mother and her baby is taken away, same exact thing with lous. 6. Both Homer and Peter are alcoholics and are always at the bar drinking with their gang. I don't think I need to describe each one with detail just watch the episodes I could add a lot more if you'd like. I'm not saying it's THAT bad I was just stating my opinion why I am not a big fan. I've enjoyed some fg once in a while, I like the cookie monster gag, but I cant watch the new episodes their kinda boring and I feel that the show makes some of it's viewers dumber with it's cheap humor ect... That's just my opinion though, don't take it personally I said 'some'(I've met people) and I'm not a 'troll' I just wanted to know I wasn't the only one who wasn't a fan and felt this way. I have nothing against people who like it. And like someone above said it's not a 'family guy sucks because it's worse than the simpsons' thing, people calm down.

edited 19th May '11 7:30:52 PM by RainbowChocolate

It doesn't need to be a "good show." It's a minimal, simple vehicle for a chain of jokes, like a stand-up act. What's it to you if enough people find it funny to keep generating ratings? There are enough jokes crammed into the show that almost anyone with any sense of humor is going to find at least one thing per episode amusing, so there's nothing surprising at all about its success. It is essential the Joke Show Starring Jokes. It doesn't matter if those jokes are told by a drawing or a puppet or anything else.

Yes, anyone who can't draw all that well but still gets paid for coming up with an animated series is clearly "dirt." Not a human being who, you know, pitched something that appealed to enough people to work. How infuriating that large numbers of people are amused by something that fails to amuse you. Life is so unfair, isn't it?

You mean like every creator in the world who isn't lying?

Yes, the fact that networks continue to pay him for more comedy is because he wants to ruin animation. Not because his comedy generates ratings or anything.

Ahhhhhh-ha, I was wondering when you would reveal your John K. cult membership card. I love the guy, I love his art and what he has to say about the artistry behind animation is brilliant, but when he vilifies and slanders people for being successful - all because they don't draw the way he prefers - he loses all credibility and so do you. You're making someone out to be the devil because audiences are moderately entertained by his writing. If you find it so abhorrent, blame the world, not Seth. He probably works a hell of a lot harder than you think and has shown time and again that he genuinely cares about his characters.

If Family Guy were live action, would you ever bother with this whinefest, or does it simply anger you (as it angers Johnny Kay) that mediocre animation is making money? If the animation was as fantastic as an old Warner Brothers short, but the writing remained exactly the same, how different would your thoughts be?

edited 20th May '11 12:41:03 AM by scythemantis

If anyone's seen The Life of Larry, one would see that Seth can in fact draw. The show is done mostly with computers, which really doesn't leave much for creativity.

Now if you want to complain about drawing ability, let's talk about Trey Parker and Matt Stone. They don't even draw their show, they used cardboard cutouts before going to computers. And like Family Guy, they use basic blueprints and probably deserve the same criticism over art style. However, we never see that since Trey and Matt are treated like gods despite having egos comparable to John K. (Have these guys ever liked anything?)

The difference though is that the crude art style of South Park works with the show and makes for some hilarious visuals, whereas the art style in Family Guy just doesn't add much either way.

It does seem like the art of American Dad pops out a little more, though it's still got the problem of the Mac Farland style. Like I said, most celebrities portrayed are undistinguishable if they didn't identify them. Someone on another thread ages ago compared it to your average comic strip art style, which is quite apt imo.

When my brother wants to catch an episode, even he just sits in our computer room with me and just listens to the TV from across the hall. We don't even really need to WATCH it.

Really? I'd have to say a lot of the funniest bits are purely visual.

Here's my stance: Family Guy's first two seasons were good, but after that it went downhill. Even so, it still made my laugh all the way up until maybe the seventh season. And now, I don't even watch the new episodes anymore. Sure, it has its moments, but everything does. Family Guy is out of steam and going nowhere no unless they introduce a new dynamic, which they clearly won't.

American Dad!, by the way, is better than Family Guy because it's Mac Farlane's second attempt at a show. Also, not that I can speak for him, but I think he likes it more. And allll of these arguments will change when his version of Flintstones comes out on FOX.

Family guy is my favoroute cartoon... if we're talking about the first three series that is.

You mean seasons, right?

Also @Scythemantis: If Seth honestly gave a flying shit about his characters, he would've used his power as an executive producer to fire the subhumans who keep abusing Meg, turning Brian into a Black Hole Sue, turned Stewie from an evil Awesome Brit into a wimpy gay stereotype, and made everyone else complete Jerkasses.

It used to be I would get the DV Ds the moment they came out, because it was good then, and DVD sales very much saved the show. Now, the only reason I would ever buy their DV Ds now would be to listen to the audio commentary to figure out what in the flippin' flack they were flinkin'!!!

Family Guy does almost everything that makes a show bad. Being preachy, using irrelevant jokes, using things that aren't jokes as jokes, being needlessly offensive, etc. At first doing that makes it funny, but it gets worst as it continues. Its attempts to fix these problems are also pretty stupid. Making an episode that Brain became a Republican doesn't make up for the preachy and left-wing morals being shoved into us. Brain is still Seth's mouth piece. The show is ultra-liberal. The show still views Republicans as evil, ignorant, murderous, monsters. Making Quagmire hate Brain all of the sudden isn't going balance everything out. Brain is still a preachy, pretentious, prick and just being aware of what is wrong doesn't make it right. It doesn't make it less bias or more artistic.

The Simpsons and South Park are still obviously liberal-based but most of Holly Wood is also liberal. The difference is that it isn't treated like the Holy Bible or something.