Fox Considering a Return of "Family Guy"

wo1verin3 writes: "USA Today is reporting that all is not lost and due to exceptionally strong DVD sales Family Guy may return with as many as 35 new episodes! A DVD set of the show's first 28 episodes, released in April, has sold nearly 1 million copies, making it this year's top-selling TV show and the No. 4 television title ever, according to Video Store magazine."

Comments

Pick a day, any day...

[ericspinder]

I love that show, I saw every epoisode on Fox that I could catch, and I watch ever one that I can on adult swim. As I remember it fox keep moving the show from night to night. Sometimes showing it sometimes not, it really didn't make a log of sense. It was one of those shows that you couldn't depend it being on. I am glad that Fox is reconsidering.

Re:Pick a day, any day...

[Doomstalk]

Fox loves to do this. Especially with shows they air around the same time as The Simpsons, which is by far their most popular show. They like to use those slots to show off whatever new series they feel like hawking that week, causing the musical slots effect you're talking about. That and football games that go into overtime generally mean the kiss of death for whatever show is unlucky enough to be there. The sad part is that they kill great shows to promote ones with far less lasting power.

The question is

[BizDiz]

what kind of "restrictions" are they gonna place on it?

The show got cancelled more because of controversy than lack of ratings. It's good to see Fox selling out on this due to response (whoddathunkit? Fox?), but I hate for the Family Guy people to sell out too.

In some ways it was good that it went out on top; Look at the Simpsons now; yech.

Re:The question is

[CrowScape]

Except South Park is cable, Family Guy is network. There is a massive difference. Cable channels can take far greater risks as they generally cater to niche audiences. So if Comedy Central alienates the "moral majority" with an episode about a gay dog, it doesn't hurt them much because the audience that was offended probably wasn't watching Comedy Central anyway.

FOX = morons

[glassesmonkey]

How annoying, first they cancel the show despite the LARGEST viewer response of any cancelled program. Then they leave it cancelled just long enough so it will suck by the time they put it back on the air. And then they claim it was a "late-bloomer". Fact is they realized they fsck'd up when they looked at the DVD sales and some exec wanted an explaination.

Fox Television Entertainment Group chairman Sandy Grushow said a decision is expected soon and called the series a late-blooming phenomenon that may have aired before its time.

Not Curiosity/Firefly DVD

[ucsckevin]

relatively short network run may have helped DVD sales, Video Store's Judith McCourt says. "It really speaks to something that had a following, was cut off network TV, and people said, 'What did I miss?' "

I don't think people are saying "hmm, I think I'll check out the family guy." Consumers of the DVD were fans of the show. It sounds like no one wants to admit that fox made a mistake when they cancelled it. Also I wonder if they make the same turn around when they see the strong Firefly DVD sales

Re:Better Than The Simpsons?

[Lazlo Nibble]

I agree with the other responders to this message: TFG is much, much wittier than The Simpsons. They're also less afraid to go for the cheap shot, and the musical bits just knock me on my ass. (Don't get me started on those flaccid "Evita" takeoffs on The Simpsons the other day -- yecccch!)

Most significantly to me, Family Guy doesn't succumb to a sitcom-ish last-two-minutes-of-the-episode personal-redemption jones. The Simpsons seems to be constitutionally incapable of wrapping things up on a mean-spirited note. Nobody ever "learns a valuable lesson" on The Family Guy; it's kinda like Seinfeld or Curb Your Enthusiasm in that sense.

It's obviously a matter of personal taste, but if you haven't seen The Family Guy you should at least give it a shot. When it first aired I dumped it after a couple of episodes because the whole "Stewie killing Lois" thing was way too overwrought for me, but after jumping back in for the Adult Swim airings I realized just how good a show it is. Arguably it's the most tightly-written network comedy in recent memory.

(I would leave King of the Hill out of the discussion, because it's a completely different kind of show -- much more grounded and less reliant on pop-culture references and flights of whimsy and "wackiness" than TFG or Simpsons, or even your average network sitcom.)