In May 2022, This Is Us came to a heartwarming end after a six-season, 106-episode run. If you're still reeling from it, don't worry: As of earlier this summer, the cast was, too. "I don't think I fully processed it yet, like I get emotional thinking about it," Mandy Moore (Rebecca) told Today in May about the show ending. "It was probably more emotional being on set for a lot of my other friends' last day. I was there for Susan [Kelechi Watson] and for Chris Sullivan. Sterling [K. Brown] and Chrissy [Metz] and Justin [Hartley] shot the next day, but Milo [Ventimiglia] and I wrapped together and Chrissy, Susan, and Sterling all stayed around a couple hours after they were done with work to watch Milo and I wrap. That's how we feel about one another."
The days of watching This Is Us Tuesday nights on NBC may be over, but fret not: You can still watch episodes of the beloved series. All six seasons of the Emmy Award-winning series are available to watch on NBC.com right now. Watch This is Us on NBC.
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The show centers around the adventures and activities of the dysfunctional Griffin family, consisting of father Peter Griffin, a bumbling and clumsy yet well-intentioned blue-collar worker; Lois, a stay-at-home mother and piano teacher (in early episodes) who is a member of the affluent Pewterschmidt family; Meg, their often bullied teenage daughter who is also constantly ridiculed or ignored by the family; Chris, their awkward teenage son, who is overweight, unintelligent, unathletic and, in many respects, is simply a younger version of his father; and Stewie, their diabolical infant son of ambiguous sexual orientation who is an adult-mannered evil genius and uses stereotypical archvillain phrases. Living with the family is their witty, smoking, martini-swilling, sarcastic, English-speaking anthropomorphic dog Brian, though he is still considered a pet in many ways.[8]
Recurring characters appear alongside the Griffin family. These include the family's neighbors: sex-crazed airline pilot bachelor Quagmire; deli owner/mail carrier Cleveland and his wife Loretta (later Donna); paraplegic police officer Joe, his wife Bonnie, their son Kevin and their baby daughter Susie; neurotic Jewish pharmacist Mort, his wife Muriel, and their geeky and annoying son Neil; and elderly child molester Herbert. TV news anchors Tom Tucker and Diane Simmons, Asian reporter Tricia Takanawa, and Blaccu-Weather meteorologist Ollie Williams also make frequent appearances. Actor James Woods guest stars as himself in multiple episodes, as did Adam West, prior to his death.
The Griffin family first appeared on the demo that MacFarlane pitched to Fox on May 15, 1998.[19] Family Guy was originally planned to start out as short movies for the sketch show Mad TV, but the plan changed because MADtv's budget was not large enough to support animation production. MacFarlane noted that he then wanted to pitch it to Fox, as he thought that it was the place to create a prime-time animation show.[17] Family Guy was originally pitched to Fox in the same year as King of the Hill, but the show was not bought until years later, when King of the Hill became successful.[17] Fox ordered 13 episodes of Family Guy to air in midseason after MacFarlane impressed executives with a 14-minute pilot.[20][21]
Credited with 19 episodes, Steve Callaghan is the most prolific writer on the Family Guy staff. Many of the writers that have left the show have gone on to create or produce other successful series. Neil Goldman and Garrett Donovan co-wrote 13 episodes for the NBC sitcom Scrubs during their eight-year run on the show, while also serving as co-producers and working their way up to executive producers.[48] Mike Barker and Matt Weitzman left the show and went on to create the long-running and still ongoing adult animated series American Dad! MacFarlane is also a co-creator of American Dad![49][50] On November 4, 2013, it was announced that Barker had departed American Dad! during its run as well, after 10 seasons of serving as producer and co-showrunner over the series.[51]
Fox attempted to sell the rights for reruns of the show, but finding networks that were interested was difficult; Cartoon Network eventually bought the rights, "[...] basically for free", according to the president of 20th Century Fox Television.[63] Family Guy premiered in reruns on Adult Swim on April 20, 2003, and immediately became the block's top-rated program, dominating late-night viewing in its time period versus cable and broadcast competition and boosting viewership by 239%.[57][64] The complete first and second seasons were released on DVD the same week the show premiered on Adult Swim, and the show became a cult phenomenon, selling 400,000 copies within one month.[57] Sales of the DVD set reached 2.2 million copies,[65] becoming the best-selling television DVD of 2003[66] and the second-highest-selling television DVD ever, behind the first season of Comedy Central's Chappelle's Show.[67] The third-season DVD release also sold more than a million copies.[64] The show's popularity in DVD sales and reruns rekindled Fox's interest,[68] and, on May 20, 2004, Fox ordered 35 new episodes of Family Guy, marking the first revival of a television show based on DVD sales.[67][56]
"North by North Quahog", which premiered May 1, 2005, was the first episode to be broadcast after the show's hiatus. It was written by MacFarlane and directed by Peter Shin.[69] MacFarlane believed the show's three-year hiatus was beneficial because animated shows do not normally have hiatuses, and towards the end of their seasons, "... you see a lot more sex jokes and bodily function jokes and signs of a fatigued staff that their brains are just fried".[70] With "North by North Quahog", the writing staff tried to keep the show "[...] exactly as it was" before its cancellation, and "None of us had any desire to make it look any slicker".[70] The episode was watched by 11.85 million viewers,[71] the show's highest ratings since the airing of the first season episode "Brian: Portrait of a Dog".[72]
Early episodes based much of their comedy on Stewie's "super villain" antics, such as his constant plans for total world domination, his evil experiments, plans and inventions to get rid of things he dislikes, and his constant attempts at matricide. As the series progressed, the writers and MacFarlane agreed that his personality and the jokes were starting to feel dated, so they began writing him with a different personality.[124] Family Guy often includes self-referential humor. The most common form is jokes about Fox Broadcasting, and occasions where the characters break the fourth wall by addressing the audience. For example, in "North by North Quahog", the first episode that aired after the show's revival, included Peter telling the family that they had been canceled because Fox had to make room in their schedule for shows like Dark Angel, Titus, Undeclared, Action, That '80s Show, Wonderfalls, Fastlane, Andy Richter Controls the Universe, Skin, Girls Club, Cracking Up, The Pitts, Firefly, Get Real, FreakyLinks, Wanda at Large, Costello, The Lone Gunmen, A Minute with Stan Hooper, Normal, Ohio, Pasadena, Harsh Realm, Keen Eddie, The $treet, The American Embassy, Cedric the Entertainer Presents, The Tick, Luis and Greg the Bunny. Lois asks whether there is any hope, to which Peter replies that if all these shows are canceled they might have a chance; the shows were indeed canceled during Family Guy's hiatus.[125][126][127]
One of the initial critics to give the show negative reviews was Ken Tucker from Entertainment Weekly; he called it "The Simpsons as conceived by a singularly sophomoric mind that lacks any reference point beyond other TV shows".[215] The Parents Television Council (PTC), a conservative non-profit watchdog, has attacked the series since its premiere and has branded various episodes as "Worst TV Show of the Week".[216][217][218] In May 2000, the PTC launched a letter-writing campaign to the Fox network in an effort to persuade the network to cancel the show.[219] The PTC has placed the show on their annual lists of "Worst Prime-Time Shows for Family Viewing" in 2000, 2005, and 2006.[220][221][222] The Federal Communications Commission has received multiple petitions requesting that the show be blocked from broadcasting on indecency grounds.[223] Tucker and the PTC have both accused the show of portraying religion negatively, and of being racist.[224][225] Because of the PTC, some advertisers have canceled their contracts after reviewing the content of the episodes, claiming it to be unsuitable.[226][227] Critics have compared the show's humor and characters with those of The Simpsons.[215][184]
Family Guy has been commercially successful in the home market.[272] The show was the first to be resurrected because of high DVD sales.[64] The first volume, covering the show's first two seasons, sold 1.67 million units, topping TV DVD sales in 2003, while the second volume sold another million units.[64][273] Volumes six and seven debuted at fifth place in United States DVD sales;[274][275] volume seven was the highest-selling television DVD, selling 171,000 units by June 21, 2009.[275] Family Guy Presents Blue Harvest, the DVD featuring the Star Wars special "Blue Harvest", was released on January 15, 2008, and premiered at the top of United States DVD sales.[276] The DVD was the first Family Guy DVD to include a digital copy for download to the iPod.[276] In 2004, the first series of Family Guy toy figurines was released by Mezco Toyz; each member of the Griffin family had their own toy, with the exception of Stewie, of whom two different figures were made.[277] Over the course of two years, four more series of toy figures were released, with various forms of Peter.[278] In 2008, the character Peter appeared in advertisements for Subway Restaurants, promoting the restaurant's massive feast sandwich.[279][280] 2ff7e9595c
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