Well, there goes one reason I would ever watch the show.
I always said if the show were just Brian and Stewie I would watch it way more. Guess that's out.
Well, there goes one reason I would ever watch the show.
I always said if the show were just Brian and Stewie I would watch it way more. Guess that's out.
They;ll bring Brian back if there's enough outrage.
I actually like that they're taking a risk and mixing things up.
Shame the rest of the show is awful.
Brian was one of the only likeable characters.
Six or seven years ago maybe. He hadn't been for a while though.
You mean you watch TELEVISION, too!?
Obviously. You put on the tv in the background and then you write your paper and what not.
Yes… Feed my hatred...
Oh that shouldn't be too hard. Here i'll soft ball you one straight from the wiki summary.
"When Peter, now gay, arrives home, Lois becomes upset. Lois warms up to the change when he starts exhibiting stereotypical gay behavior like shopping for clothes and baking muffins."
Hmm, well I've been able to stave off watching this show for about 2 or 3 years now, but…...well, I guess I'll check this out.
I mean, it's neat that they're (apparently) taking a big risk like this and all, but my god the show is so awful.
Oh that shouldn't be too hard. Here i'll soft ball you one straight from the wiki summary.
"When Peter, now gay, arrives home, Lois becomes upset. Lois warms up to the change when he starts exhibiting stereotypical gay behavior like shopping for clothes and baking muffins."
I'm surprised you didn't just pitch a Quagmire's Dad.
Or that delightful romp where Peter becomes a muslim suicide bomber and causes the Boston bombing
More like accidentally blows up a bridge. I know some might've squirmed at the 9/11 references of which they're are a few.
Ah the one where the likeable Brian throws up for a solid minute or so after hearing that his bedmate was a post-op transsexual.
Stay classy FG stay classy
Doesn't Seth MacFarlane voice Brian himself? Didn't he also say he thought this show should've ended a long time ago?
I wouldn't be surprised if he wanted this to happen just to get off the show and start to kill it for sure.
I could have sworn that the only likable character was Stewie ever since Brian became an obsessive whiny liberal "for the sake of being liberal and smushing it in your face" bitch. It's much funnier with Stan being conservative for the sake of being conservative but Brian…ugh Brian is a dreadful character.
(PS: There is NO way Mcfarlane can get off the show at this point. He can KILL Brian sure, but there's no way he can eliminate Stewie, Peter, and Quagmire without effectively killing off the show...whether that is his intention or not. That's like Simpsons writers trying to get rid of Dan Castallanetta from the cast...it's freaking impossible).
They spent a good deal of the last few seasons grinding down Brian, having him become more and more of a hypocritical drunk whose smugness is palpable. And then have characters call him out on being the awful character they worked so hard to make him. And then they tried to give him some ehm depth i guess? In the just bad vault episode.
If one wanted to be charitable one might guess that they had an inkling that this was where they wanted to go. But i doubt it.
Ah the one where the likeable Brian throws up for a solid minute or so after hearing that his bedmate was a post-op transsexual.
Stay classy FG stay classy
Check out this interview that I found a while back, scroll down to where he talks about it:
F](http://www.details.com/celebrities-entertainment/movies-and-tv/201009/seth-macfarlane-family-guy-american-dad-controversy?currentPage=2)oolio, I think that you should read this, too.
Though I could have sworn, ever since the start (like maybe season 3 or something), there has been a lot of references towards killing of Brian (the other being Peter for one or two episodes). A shame they didn't go with him finding chocolate in the garbage can and killing him off like in that one FG movie where they go into the future BUT HAY…consistency isn't a thing in cartoons. (Speaking of which didn't they SAY they were going to do a "legit" Family Guy movie? Seems kinda weird now without Brian).
This show has really. REALLY gone down hill for the past several years since revival, especially since it went HD. There's a vain hope of watching one good episode that usually kept me from watching it entirely (usually the Brian and Stewie episodes). This season, the vestigial twin episode was the only half-way decent one. There was some abortive attempt to make this series more emotionally driven a couple years ago along with increasingly toothless political satire (the recent Tea Party episode was pathetic). This series is pretty much one I'm hoping is cancelled very soon alongside The Simpsons. The creators are pretty clearly phoning it in at this point for a paycheck. But like The Simpsons, I'm guessing the franchise is too much of a cash cow for them to willingly kill off anytime soon.
This episode is a pretty oddball one. My guess is that they're pulling the same publicity stunt that American Dad did with Jeff being jettisoned into outer space, supposedly gone forever until several episodes later when some bizarre resolution happened where Jeff escaped from the planet (going in serious Futurama territory).
The only reason I can see them actually killing off Brian is so Seth doesn't have to voice him. Which is odd because Brian's voice is pretty much Seth's voice exactly. I'm pretty sure he's coming back and this is some desperate gimmick to keep the series relevant.
I also found it funny that this episode, which has a generic Italian stereotype filling in for Brian, is right off the heels of the extremely bad previous episode with the Griffins going to Italy which was nothing more than a parade of Italian stereotypes and (unfunny) dirty jokes. Vinny is such a one-joke character that I'd be very surprised if he's actually the replacement.
@Mr.:
This episode is a pretty oddball one. My guess is that they're pulling the same publicity stunt that American Dad did with Jeff being jettisoned into outer space, supposedly gone forever until several episodes later when some bizarre resolution happened where Jeff escaped from the planet (going in serious Futurama territory).
Meh unlike the others, at least American Dad still retains some semblance of humor and thought to it. Thank god Clevelandshow got killed though.
American Dad is pretty consistently great. It has its stinkers but for the most part, it's got more hits than misses. I chalk that up to its fantastic crew over the years. (Chris McKenna, John Aoshima, Nahnatcha Khan, et. al.)
American Dad is better simply because half the cast is far more consistent and much more likeable in comparison to Family Guy. That and they're not nearly as heavy as the cutaway gags.
Meh unlike the others, at least American Dad still retains some semblance of humor and thought to it. Thank god Cleveland show got killed though
Didn't mean it as a dig toward American Dad, since I also think its the better show these days (though also showing some warning signs of decline). Just that the character "death"/disappearance was resolved multiple episodes latter and the same will likely happen with Brian.
Also, this episode might have been pushed ahead to tie in with Thanksgiving with that whole Native American dominated alternate universe.
American Dad is better simply because half the cast is far more consistent and much more likeable in comparison to Family Guy. That and they're not nearly as heavy as the cutaway gags.
It's a little bit more than that. AD essentially took the good elements of Family Guy and Simpsons and kinda ran with it WHILE knowing where the boundaries are (whereas Family Guy felt they can pull a South Park and push boundaries but are remarkably BAD at it without grasping how it works in SP but NOT in FG).
AD took elements like the cutaway gags but gave them flesh rather than being completely spontaneous (i.e. Roger's Golden Turd segments) and knew not to spam them ever three minutes or so. Like FG, it really danced along the border of discomforting the audience but hardly ever crossing the line too far and gradually bringing it back. Also like FG, it also adds a lot of allusions to other sources (mostly Horror and Sci-Fi) BUT it doesn't seem completely spontaneous and often interwoven into the main story so it feels natural (the only time I recall FG ever doing this was the Poltergeist episode).
Likewise, it maintains a general sense of the overall consistency that the Simpsons had (which isn't saying much but a whole lot more consistent than FG), and knew how and when to utilize secondary characters. Like the Simpsons, the characters are also fairly likable (at least back when the Simpsons were still decent rather than downright awful) and actually "developed" in certain ways (except Stan because that would be boring). Heck, I dare say AD is doing a better job at this department than the Simpsons at the moment. The character quirks are definitely funnier and the universe is much open to funnier narratives/set-ups strictly due to Stan's profession, Roger…being Roger, and the motif(s) the show has going for it.
Yep...this show is infinitely better than its counterpart. It does have a handful of flops, but the good certainly outweigh the bad.
@Holy:
Lol. That just makes it even more hilarious.
And yes, apparently there's at least two episodes coming up that have Brian's name in them. And those titles have been available since June. Whelp, so much for them trying something different!
Also, apparently Cleveland moves back with his family in tow now that his show is cancelled.
@RobbyBevard:
Also, apparently Cleveland moves back with his family in tow now that his show is cancelled.
Meh I wonder if this means they are carrying over all the VAs from the Cleveland show. Not like anyone cared about them…
Presumably. But they won't be in every episode most likely.
@Holy:
Is D4C your Twitter name or someone else's? Either way, it's a GREAT Twitter name.
Didn't know there was an unwritten rule about using the name of dead characters in episode title's. Or bitching about said episode title's without a sypnosis for said episodes.
Didn't know there was an unwritten rule about using the name of dead characters in episode title's.
There are upcoming episodes called "Brian and Vinny play ball" and "Brian is a bad father". Also news about a 2014 episode where Brian gets involved with Maya Rudolph. There you have a synopsis. Seems like a busy schedule for a zombie dog.
@RobbyBevard:
Also, apparently Cleveland moves back with his family in tow now that his show is cancelled.
I thought that was announced way back when The Cleveland Show was cancelled.
@Holy:
@RobbyBevard:
And yes, apparently there's at least two episodes coming up that have Brian's name in them. And those titles have been available since June. Whelp, so much for them trying something different!
Damn it. Here I was thinking they were trying something different for once. :/
Ironically, last night's American Dad was unusually awful.
It's an easy fix Stewie uses his time machine to go back and stop Brian from dying (I'm sure he could make one again). But in all seriousness Brian is one of the better characters in this show so killing him off wouldn't be a wise desicion
@RobbyBevard:
Also, apparently Cleveland moves back with his family in tow now that his show is cancelled.
So the show's back to having two Peter Griffin's then ?
Check out this interview that I found a while back, scroll down to where he talks about it:
F](http://www.details.com/celebrities-entertainment/movies-and-tv/201009/seth-macfarlane-family-guy-american-dad-controversy?currentPage=2)oolio, I think that you should read this, too.
Just processing it. It's all a bit confusing.
So a gay guy wouldn't want to sleep with someone who looks like a girl would they?
And since straight guys apparently don't want to up to the point of vomiting their guts out isn't the implication in that line of reasoning that transsexuals can't or atleast shouldn't ever get laid because they just gross people out? And he considers that to be a positive portrayal?
I mean atleast acknowledge it's a dick move Seth.
Just processing it. It's all a bit confusing.
So a gay guy wouldn't want to sleep with someone who looks like a girl would they?
And since straight guys apparently don't want to up to the point of vomiting their guts out isn't the implication in that line of reasoning that transsexuals can't or atleast shouldn't ever get laid because they just gross people out? And he considers that to be a positive portrayal?
I mean atleast acknowledge it's a dick move Seth.
I would go on a tangent but for the first time ever I feel like I should rein it in.
Do you have a Skype or do you go on Gtalk or anything like that? I feel like we should talk more.
I would go on a tangent but for the first time ever I feel like I should rein it in.
Do you have a Skype or do you go on Gtalk or anything like that? I feel like we should talk more.
To my great shame grampa Wolfy does not know how to use either. Heck i'm not even sure what Gtalk is.
But you could always just hit me up in a PM. My fancy new mod mailbox just got like three times larger.
Check out this interview that I found a while back, scroll down to where he talks about it:
F](http://www.details.com/celebrities-entertainment/movies-and-tv/201009/seth-macfarlane-family-guy-american-dad-controversy?currentPage=2)oolio, I think that you should read this, too.
LOL. Did McFarlane just imply that any homosexual who was offended by the transgender episode was stupid? Jesus God McFarlane.
@Holy:
Super. Guess I won't watch the episode after all.
To my great shame grampa Wolfy does not know how to use either. Heck i'm not even sure what Gtalk is.
But you could always just hit me up in a PM. My fancy new mod mailbox just got like three times larger.
Okay,
I'll just have to save all of my old PM conversations to Google Drive and then delete the PMs from here.
@No:
So the show's back to having two Peter Griffin's then ?
Never liked the way they change Cleveland personality just like that.
To my great shame grampa Wolfy does not know how to use either. Heck i'm not even sure what Gtalk is.
But you could always just hit me up in a PM. My fancy new mod mailbox just got like three times larger.
Insert "In My day" jokes with the punchline being telegrams
(Also curse you for having an inbox you don't have to clear all the time >:( )
And yeah, that reasoning is….odd to say the least.
Never liked the way they change Cleveland personality just like that.
Please elaborate, I'm not sure I got that.
@No:
Insert "In My day" jokes with the punchline being telegrams
(Also curse you for having an inbox you don't have to clear all the time >:( )
And yeah, that reasoning is….odd to say the least.
Please elaborate, I'm not sure I got that.
Turning him into a peter clone.
I sort of stopped watching animated sitcoms and sitcoms in general at some point, even though I do have a soft spot for Simpsons(depends who writes the episode).
I also use to praise American dad, but along the lines after Cleavland show, the "Seth look" sort of shows really worn out on me. His shit really took up the whole block.
Thankfully there's Bob's Burgers to cleanse the pallet in the middle of the block.
Had a weak first season, but its really come into its own.
Archer and South Park are both bright spots on the current animated tableau
Yup…can't stand Family Guy. Pretty much for the reasons already mentioned. American Dad is fine though, which confused me many many years ago when I thought they were the same show for a while.
South Park is currently on a high.
I thought American Dad was fine for a while. But then a year or two ago, the season opened with Roger skinning Jeff alive and I figured I'd just drop all three shows.
To play devil's advocate here, the idea behind last night's episode was handled rather well. They actually did kill off one of the main cast in this episode. And the cast member they did choose was the most tasteful in retrospect–I mean losing the family dog is less traumatic and easier for a family to move on from than, say, losing a child. Also, Brian's death scene is handled completely straight and there was at least an attempt to make Vinny a more complex character. It was actually more tasteful than the the the Simpsons episode where Maude died, a series nadir as far as I'm concerned.
And this season The Simpsons attempted a similar publicity stunt in which Al Jean teases that a regular character is going to die
Al Jean revealed during a conference to promote the 25th season of the cartoon that it will be the end for a regular character.But he wouldn't say who. Doh!
'I'll give you a clue that the actor playing the character won an Emmy for playing that character, but I won't say who it is,' Jean said.
And predictably it was much ado about nothing when it turned out to be a character no one has ever heard of and never appeared in a previous episode, just a plot device to frame four random vignettes (Mr. Burns cared enough to attend this funeral because….?). There have been rumors that Grampa is slated to be a major character death in the series, but I'll believe it when I see it.
The closest thing to this is South Park killing off Kenny "permanently" and randomly bringing him back multiple seasons later with Butters filling the void as the new "fourth kid" in the group. Kenny's "real" death was played fairly straight as well with the obligatory death bed sequence, though that one was a bit more meta since Kenny had already quickly "died" so many times times in past episode that it was starting to become a tired running joke.
I wouldn't put it Family Guy to pull a self-conscious Dallas "twist" in which the entire past season turns out to be a dream Stewie had while in a coma. Though I'd prefer it if the entire 6+ seasons turned out to be one bad dream.
–- Update From New Post Merge ---
I thought American Dad was fine for a while. But then a year or two ago, the season opened with Roger skinning Jeff alive and I figured I'd just drop all three shows.
It's one of those things that also puts me off American Dad along with other shows, there's an obsession the creator has with dirty jokes and (more off putting) gross-out humor. It's one of those telltale signs that "edgy" comedies fall back on in trying to outdo itself each season in being more raunchy or "dark" or gross in keeping up with presumed increasing audience expectations. American Dad somehow manages to throw some wit in the mix to make it a little less blatant at times, but it's still an issue I have with the series.
In regards to Family Guy, it's most apparent in the Meg episode some weeks back, where she is little more than a walking gross-out joke. A real waste of an episode where even a clever twist of a comically grotesque hairless Brian in the B-plot can't hope to save it.
I recall walking in on a Family Guy episode. There was a scene that focused on the dark reality of sex trafficking, and it bothered me since they were trying to weed a joke into it. At that point I turned around and walked right out. I mean, it's bad that I thought even the actors had trouble stomaching their own script.
Just processing it. It's all a bit confusing.
So a gay guy wouldn't want to sleep with someone who looks like a girl would they?
And since straight guys apparently don't want to up to the point of vomiting their guts out isn't the implication in that line of reasoning that transsexuals can't or atleast shouldn't ever get laid because they just gross people out? And he considers that to be a positive portrayal?
I mean atleast acknowledge it's a dick move Seth.
Well to be FAIR…(and that's a very unpleasant thing to do with Seth considering how he's pretty much a remarkably shallow, superficial human being), I don't think he was implying this. I think he was just be hyperbolic and crassly expressing his sexual preferences as well as reaction to doing something he is not accustomed to or have a good grasp of (since it is clear he is NOT familiar with this overall territory and probably shouldn't have done a transgender based episode due to his lack of insight). It is clear he has a VERY rudimentary perspective to make an overall generalization about sex preferences (BUT HAY...look at his general audience).
Even so, I rewatched the episode again and to be fair, I can KINDA see what he means by trying to be sympathetic with Quagmire's dad even though he REMARKABLY butchered it with unnecessarily Family Guy moments. I mean there's that whole Brian thing, dinner scene, and a few other stupid shitty moments, but in the end it is a good ending for the Quagmires. Quagmire struggles with his father's sex change, Quagmire's father goes through a lot of crap in result of it, but ultimately he gets accepted by his son in the end in spite of the Griffins being terrible (just like how they generally are). Afterall the story isn't about the Griffins but how Glenn struggles to accept his father's transition to which it ultimately turned out well (and in the end, isn't this what really matters rather than what the Griffin's think?).
BUUUT...yeah, since Seth is remarkably dense, he probably thought adding typical Family Guy "moments" would make the story more amusing, but instead it exacerbated it and SEVERALLY detracted from the great Glenn and his father moment in the end. I mean if he left the dinner scene...that would have been okay (though Louis was remarkably malicious), but the Brian thing was...pointless. It was just another thing to get the audience to hate Brian (and the episode) even more so. Blah defending Seth makes me kinda sick but...yeah I kinda do see how he TRIED...but failed in result of making a "Family Guy" episode.
He is just terrible overall at balancing things out and being "serious" when he should be, emotionally driven when he should be and so on. Like that pointless Brian and Stewie in the bank thing. It's so awkward when he tries to be serious because...he sucks at it and overall trying to be emotionally driven. So yeah, it shouldn't come off as a surprise if Seth is convinced that he is trying to be sympathetic with Glenn's dad but ultimately screwed it up.
Well, it was Brian after all. At that point, he'd been pretty established as a chauvanist and wannabe playboy who puts on airs of wanting a platonic, long-term relationship but really just wants to get laid. His reaction was at least pretty in-character for someone who essentially prides himself at being a gigolo and alpha male. So him also being a closet homophobe makes sense. Not progressive, but at least in-character.
And that whole Brian having sex with Quagmire's dad thing was just another sophomoric dirty joke book setup of "what if Brian had sex with a transvestite and found out about it." And of course it had to be Quagmire's dad to stoke that odd rivalry between the two they cooked up. They even went so far as to have Quagmire have sex with his dad in a recent episode just so his kinky girlfriend. Oddly the comic payoff for that was Quagmire telling the hotel clerk that he was not satisfied with his night at their hotel. This sort of tastelessness is pretty much run-of-the-mill at this point.
@Mr.:
To play devil's advocate here, the idea behind last night's episode was handled rather well. They actually did kill off one of the main cast in this episode. And the cast member they did choose was the most tasteful in retrospect–I mean losing the family dog is less traumatic and easier for a family to move on from than, say, losing a child. Also, Brian's death scene is handled completely straight
Except they've done similar episodes before and in the end always undone it in the last 30 seconds by making it a dream or "a simulation" or not Brian after all or the Doctor gives his kidney instead or whatever. So no one was expecting the moment to actually stick, so any actual sincerity pulled out of that scene was just… there. Waiting for it to be undone.
Until they got to the end and it wasn't.
But apparently it'll be fixed within 6-10 episodes, so whatever.
They'll probably tastelessly kill the new dog to make room, rather than just having both around.
BUUUT…yeah, since Seth is remarkably dense, he probably thought adding typical Family Guy "moments" would make the story more amusing, but instead it exacerbated it and SEVERALLY detracted from the great Glenn and his father moment in the end.
Seth doesn't write every episode. In fact, I don't think he writes any episodes.
Sure, as show creator, voice of half the cast and whatever other titles he has, he presumably has some creative control, but he doesn't write all the jokes, and I don't think he demands rewrites for consistency or tone or anything.
I know as early as the first season he had a problem with the "killing Mr. Rogers" scene, but that obviously made it in. So, despite his obnoxious mug being all over it and him taking credit for everything… I'm not sure how much he actually DOES on the show at this point or how much he approves or vetoes or reworks.
@RobbyBevard:
Seth doesn't write every episode. In fact, I don't think he writes any episodes.
Sure, as show creator, voice of half the cast and whatever other titles he has, he presumably has some creative control, but he doesn't write all the jokes, and I don't think he demands rewrites for consistency or tone or anything.
I know as early as the first season he had a problem with the "killing Mr. Rogers" scene, but that obviously made it in. So, despite his obnoxious mug being all over it and him taking credit for everything… I'm not sure how much he actually DOES on the show at this point or how much he approves or vetoes or reworks.
I'm mostly basing this on Seth's response to the inquiries regarding the particular episode as well as him just being the general figure head of the franchise (rather than trying to figure out whether it was Manatee A or Manatee B that wrote whatever episode). Yeah he probably didn't write that episode but he did speak on their behalf. But yeah…Seth's role is kinda a mystery at this point (aside from the obvious Dan Castallanetta function)