“Family Guy” made television history on Sunday by
being the first show to be cancelled and picked up years later by
the same network (in this case, Fox). To say this was unexpected
would be somewhat of an understatement.
“I was told that there was no way in hell the show would
be back,” said Seth MacFarlane, creator of “Family
Guy” and supplier of numerous character voices for the show.
“It had never happened before.”
Yet, much to the delight of fans of the Griffins, “Family
Guy” has returned.
As a result of unprecedented DVD sales, with 3.5 million units
moved ““ it ranks behind only “Friends,”
“Sex and the City,” and “The Simpsons” in
TV shows ““ and high viewership for the show’s reruns on
Cartoon Network, where it is currently number one in the late-night
Adult Swim block, watched by more young males than David Letterman
and Jay Leno, one of the top two dysfunctional families in
animation history is back on network television.
Credit this reversal of fate in large part to dedicated
“Family Guy” fans””mdash; you know, the people who are
as excited as Peter was to have “Gumbel to Gumbel” back
on the air. And if you understand that reference, you are one of
these people.
“If not for the fans, we wouldn’t be back,”
said Mila Kunis, who voices Meg, the perpetually insecure Griffin
daughter. “It’s the truth.”
Especially college-age fans. “Family Guy”
undoubtedly has a huge, profound presence at UCLA. To hear the
amount of “Family Guy” quotes brought into conversation
regularly at UCLA, one would be hard-pressed to say that the show
ever even went off the air. In fact, some fans here first
encountered the show after it was cancelled.
“I had actually never really heard of (“Family
Guy”) until I saw the episodes (at UCLA),” said
third-year electrical engineering student Richard King.
King started watching the show during his first year and has
since purchased all of its seasons on DVD. He even went to an
appearance MacFarlane made at Maloney’s in the fall 2003 to
promote the DVDs.
Devoted fans of college age like King had the greatest influence
on “Family Guy’s” return, according to
MacFarlane. He called them “hugely supportive” and
“very important” in getting the show back to TV.
“These are the people who have bought the DVDs, which is
why we’re back. These are the people who watch the reruns on
Cartoon Network. That’s the reason we’re back on the
air,” he said.
Playing to such a devoted audience means higher pressure to
produce a funnier product, MacFarlane added.
“There’s a lot of pressure to do shows that top the
ones we’ve done before,” he said. “The fans
brought this thing back. There’s a need to top seasons one to
three, and hopefully we’ve done that.”
And of course, not everyone at UCLA lives and dies for
“Family Guy.” For second-year physiological science
student Sasha Petcavich, it is simply a matter of taste.
“I could see where people find humor in (the show),”
she remarked, but added that she does not “find it too
funny.”
Petcavich, though not a fan, has still observed the phenomenal
popularity “Family Guy” enjoys on campus.
“(The fans) own all the DVDs,” she said. “They
watch it in all their spare time.”
And now, after years of waiting, they have fresh “Family
Guy” humor to enjoy. MacFarlane said that 35 new episodes
have been completed, with such story lines as Stewie falling in
love with his baby sitter and Peter and Lois having what MacFarlane
calls “a Hitchcockian second honeymoon adventure.”
MacFarlane confessed to being a bit tired out by the draining
seven-day weeks he has had to put in for the last year to produce
the new shows.
“I’ll be happiest when everything has died down and
the show lives or dies based on how good it is and nothing
else,” he said.
With fans like King, though, the outcome may already be
decided.
“It’s exciting,” he said. “I had never
watched it while it was on the air, so it’s nice to have
something new every week to watch and look forward to. I
don’t really watch TV, but this is one show I’ll
watch.”
Simply enough, “Family Guy” needs college students
as much as college students need “Family Guy.”
It’s a symbiotic relationship that is likely to continue, no
matter how long the show stays on the network this time around.
“It’s great to have college kids behind you, because
they’re supportive,” Kunis said. “And they stick
with you.”