An Exercise in Desperation: American Dad and The Cleveland Show

While Family Guy was in its 4th season (i.e. when it was still good) Seth MacFarlane debuted a new show called American Dad. Made at a time when the bullshit Blue States vs. Red States atmosphere was being upplayed, the show's sole Colbert Report-esque gimmick was simply not enough to carry it. What should have been a single episode of Family Guy was instead transformed into an entire series thanks to MacFarlane's ego. I remember thinking at the time "why don't they just make more episodes of Family Guy?"

My personal opinion is that American Dad was an experiment by FOX to see if they could simply make the same show over and over and maintain viewership. Apparently they were successful. American Dad is identical to Family Guy in both animation and comedy style, and the characters are blatant copies of Family Guy's cast. As Family Guy is already a rip-off of The Simpsons, American Dad is therefore a rip-off of a rip-off. Being unoriginal does not necessarily indicate lack of quality; being grossly unfunny does. I quickly removed American Dad from my schedule. I never would have guessed after that that MacFarlane would try his humorless hands at another rip-off, nor how much worse it would be in his second attempt. Looking back on the detestable event, I should have recognized what American Dad, ill portent that it was, foreshadowed.

MacFarlane's spin-off, The Cleveland Show, proved to be even more disastrous than previous works. With all of the problems of its predecessors present, The Cleveland Show had the added bonus of making fun of black stereotypes. This was ground zero. The offspring of comedic clones, The Cleveland Show was born with gnarled limbs and contorted body, its hideous visage the result of genetic degradation from the repeated cloning process used to bring about its abominable existence. Now effectively a rip-off of a rip-off of a I just threw up in my mouth, this was the sign that MacFarlane had finally lost his mind.

Behold the face of horror and weep.

Update: Family Guy, now in its 8th season, has made somewhat of a comeback. The newest episodes, whilst not great, are occasionally marginally good and may merit a chuckle or two from the casual viewer. However, I still maintain that the show is irreparably damaged.

Update: And then there was the episode wherein Stewie consumes canine feces.

The Downfall of Family Guy

Family Guy is like a great buddy who, over the years, slowly succumbed to alcoholism. You want to remember the fun old friend you used to know, but all you can see now is the boozed up loser vomiting behind a dumpster in front of you. The show (so thoroughly unfunny now it hurts) has lived far past its prime. I can fondly recall the days of Chitty Chitty Death Bang and The King Is Dead putting a big grin on my face. Then the Earth went around the Sun a few times and now Family Guy can regularly be seen staggering around alleyways in a drunken stupor.

On January 31st, 1999 the world got its first taste of a brilliant new comedy. The show was top notch quality, far ahead of its time, with raunchy cleverness and a unique style of humor that many would come to mock (Matt Stone and Trey Parker) but which the fans loved. Though the critics labelled it a Simpsons knock-off, the fans knew this was something else, something new and exciting. Then Fox cancelled it after two seasons. I suppose viewers had to stop living in the dark ages and figure out that it was past the year 2000 and, yes, you could in fact say "penis" on TV. Fortunately they did figure this out and strong DVD sales prompted Fox to renew Family Guy for a third season.

The show came back with the The Thin White Line, and though it seemed a bit different from past episodes, it was still very good. It wasn't until season 5 that I really started to worry. By then I could see the seams of the show unraveling. It wasn't as funny, clever, and especially not as subtle as it used to be. It was getting worse, and as much as I wanted to deny that fact, I couldn't. Airport '07 stands out in my mind as particularly offensively awful with its making fun of disabled people. I knew the death knell had rung when the season finale Meet the Quagmires stole its entire plot right from season 3's Death Lives. Still, there was a tiny, glimmering bead of hope within me that the show would get better, a bead which was thoroughly crushed upon seeing Blue Harvest. Family Guy's shot at parodying Star Wars, the episode is so unfunny it makes me wonder if the Family Guy writers are not in fact manatees (all credit to Matt and Trey). Blue Harvest breaks no expectations with its completely banal, overextended jokes about trying to move furniture and its jokes about pedophilia (Ha ha, pedophilia! What a riot).

Looking back on the show, I can see there were many indications that it was worsening, the most prominent example being Stewie's character arc. Anyone wondering about when the show's quality was declining need look no further than at how flamboyantly gay Stewie is acting in any given episode. Beginning as a hilarious diabolical genius baby bent on world domination, I can think only that Stewie's slow but steady transformation into a Pinot Noir-sipping fashion fetishist art snob is the result of the occasional release of methane from Seth MacFarlane's ever expanding head.

It's sad how Family Guy went off the rails. In trying to watch the newer episodes I feel a painful knot in my stomach, my body's reflexive response to beholding total imaginative emptiness. At this point there is no way the show can relapse into goodness, forever being tainted by its last three seasons. Personally, I recommend taking Family Guy out behind the shed, then sending it to live on a nice farm somewhere. But hey, if you like lots of jabs at Disney's alleged antisemitism, fart jokes, and deafsploitation, then Family Guy is definitely the show for you.