YMMV / Family Dog

• Once Original, Now Common: When the original Amazing Stories episode aired in February 1987, it was seen by many as a daring venture that was extremely subversive, offbeat, and original, with animation quality unseen at the time on television. Back then, television series about dysfunctional families, let alone animated ones, were still rare. But two months later in April of that year, another animated dysfunctional family aired on Fox, and had a spinoff in 1989 that set new standards for television and animation. Nowadays, anyone watching the original episode (and especially the spin-off, which was made specifically to capitalize off of the success of The Simpsons) might get something out of it, but most likely find it incredibly slow, unpleasant, and plodding.
• The Problem with Licensed Games: The SNES game based on the series, which has rather repetitive level designs and is way too easy and short.
• Retroactive Recognition: A young Scott Menville voices the son Billy in the original Amazing Stories episode.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: Critics panned the series for its scripts and production values being cheaper than the Amazing Stories episode that spawned it. Brad Bird didn't help in making the series because he didn't think the Amazing Stories episode would have any potential as a TV series.
• Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: Part of the reason the series failed. The family constantly mistreats their dog to the point that it borders on Black Comedy Animal Cruelty.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: The excellent character animation in the Amazing Stories episode, a key moment in The Renaissance Age of Animation.
• The Woobie: The dog, who is always mistreated by the Binsfords but nonetheless remains loyal.

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