Sunday, May 23, 2010

Family Guy - What's Not To Love?

Okay, I'll admit it. I made many, many futile attempts to watch the show Family Guy. I couldn't, I just couldn't. There were just so many things I found so offensive. The pedophile, the permanently horny guy, the political incorrectness around the handicapped ex-police officer and against the African-American just to name a few. Not to mention how irritating I thought the main character Peter Griffin was. So I'd try and then give up 5 minutes into the episode.


Then I subscribed to Hulu. While I am not the kind of person to be swayed by opinion, the fact that Family Guy was the most popular show on Hulu piqued my curiosity. I decided to give the show one more try. I still remember the first episode that I watched all the way through, titled "Padre de Familia". It was the one where Peter is made aware that he isn't an American citizen. I remember thinking to myself, "This isn't so bad!" and I watched two more episodes. That's when I began to look past everything I found offensive and noticed how enjoyable the show was.


I realized that Peter is portrayed as annoying buffoon for a reason, mainly so you can appreciate how much work it is for everyone in his life to just endure him. His wife Lois puts up with all of his shenanigans and really stupid ideas, like when he decides to take on the MTV show "Jackass" by sliding off the roof in a shopping cart. Their children Chris and Meg have the same relationship you see in so many homes, where the brother makes his sister's life a living hell by picking his nose and touching her with booger fingers. There's also Stewie the evil baby, whose ultimate life goal is world domination, but first he wants to kill his mother. Last but not least, there's Brian the dog, who somehow manages to father an illegitimate human child.


In addition to the main characters are a brilliant cast of supporting characters. While I don't condone pedophilia in any way, you have to laugh at Herbert, who is so old he needs a walker to go anywhere. Then there's the evil monkey that lives in Chris' closet, the giant chicken that shows up every once in a while and fights Peter, Lois' highfalutin parents and the town Mayor Adam West, voiced-over by none other than (who else) Adam West. And that's exactly what is so great about the concept of this show. For all their political incorrectness and equal opportunity offensiveness, the writers of the show come up with one-liners so witty and humorous that it may take more than one viewing of an episode to get everything that it has to offer. The other thing I love are the literal depiction of the analogies written into the script, like in this one about the lonely old widow.


Then there's the music. There are little tidbits thrown in, like the melodic conversation exchange between Brian and Lois in the episode titled "Brian Wallows and Peter Swallows". Apparently this is a nod to a scene from the 1962 movie "The Music Man". Who can forget the family's driving song, "The Rose" done in four-part harmony, with just a hint of pathos? The other cover that I love is the music video that Stewie makes for Bryan Adams' "Everything I Do, I Do For You". If you watch really closely, you'll notice that this is a compilation of scenes from popular music videos. But not only does the show do an excellent job of covering popular songs, the music written specifically for the show is amazingly good. Not just the lyrics, but the score as well. Original scores for the show like "420" about the legalization of marijuana, "Road to Europe" where Brian and Stewie perform in order to create a distraction and steal a camel, and of course the numerous scores done by Peter are sheer musical genius.


So when I think about the work that goes into the making of one episode, including script writing, animation, voice-overs (creator Seth McFarlane does Peter, Quagmire, Brian AND Stewie) and music, I can't help but marvel at the end result. If you happen to read this and you are a fan of the show, I would really be interested to know your favorite moments.


PS: Most of the links above are from hulu or youtube. I would recommend opening each link in a separate window. Also the one for "The Rose" is from an unfamiliar source, so please don't open it if you're unsure about potential harmful content

2 comments:

peggybetty said...

Terri Schiavo the Musical and the AIDS song had me so ashamed of myself for laughing. :0

Rachel said...

I love "Family Guy". I love it because it makes me realize that we take ourselves too seriously. And that there's a little bit of at least one of those characters in me (Stewie). :-)