OT: Family Guy officially a "GO!" for next year!!!

[kingnebwsu]

http://dvd.ign.com/articles/495/495464p1.html


The Family Guy To Return
Production begins for a 2005 return to TV.
February 27, 2004 - Rejoice, Griffin fans, production is about to restart on The Family Guy. Seth MacFarlane, the brains behind the show, tells IGN he's been given the go-ahead and the only question mark left is whether the new material will air initially on Fox or on Cartoon Network.

"Cartoon Network will be involved regardless," he says. "Whether it goes there permanently or winds up on Fox first and then Cartoon Network remains to be seen. So at the very least it will be on Cartoon Network, which is great because at the end of the day that's where we built our biggest fan base. So I'm happy either way."

He's doing what he can to restore as much of the old writing team as possible. However, there are a lot of good writers looking for work in Hollywood thanks to the reality show craze.

In fact, the series lost a few people before season three began, but MacFarlane expects to get back more of the original writers now than he did when season three was in production. The voice over actors won't be too much of a problem since it's animated and the voice recordings can be done around the actor's schedule.

If production begins in April, as he hopes, MacFarlane will present the new material to Fox around December, and it will decide if it picks up the show for 2005 or if it goes directly to Cartoon Network. That may seem like a long time, but MacFarlane says it would take even longer to get something done if he didn't have five leftover scripts from the show. Three are in good shape but two will need some rewrites, he says.

His other pitch, American Dad, is still in production. He created the show with Mike Barker and Matt Weitzman, who were supervising producers on The Family Guy. He describes the show as "Family Guy meets All in the Family, designed to poke fun at the particularly intense political state we're in right now."

The dad, Stan, is an extreme right-wing Republican while one of his daughters is an extreme left-wing Democrat. Stan works for CIA and has an alien (as in from outer space, not an illegal) living with the family. Fox is expected to decide on whether to pick up the series this spring.

The resurrection of The Family Guy comes after a groundswell of fan support, the strong ratings on Cartoon Network and stellar sales of the DVD sets. The Family Guy Volume 1 and Volume 2 have combined sales of close to two million units, according to MacFarlane.

"I think that's what made them sit up and take notice and say maybe there's more money to be made off this property and this thing is not dead yet," he says. "Because of DVD and cable, the show has been able to build an audience that, in the past, a show could only build on a network. So it's an indication that the landscape is changing a lot."

Needless to say, he's happy to do double duty with The Family Guy and American Dad "It's gonna be a challenge but this is what I do and what I love doing, so it's a monumental challenge that I'm happy to undertake. I'm thrilled. I think it's great," says MacFarlane.
-- Andy Patrizio

This is great news. I didn't fully "get" Family Guy the first time it was on, but now it's one of my favorite shows. It doesn't hit as much as "Simpsons" did in its' prime, but it's still mostly hilarious. I hope it goes straight to the Cartoon Network, as I still don't believe it will get the ratings FOX wants.

I know this was news a few months ago, but I think it was still in talks then. Now it's official. FAMILY GUY WILL BE BACK NEXT YEAR! HUZZAH!!!

[AgPete]

Awesome news!!! Love that show!!!

[korme]

GIGGIDY GIGGIDY!

heh, alright

[mckerney]

Hot. Damn.

[SunDancer]

AWLRIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[cthomer5000]

"I call it the "magic time". It's not quite day, it's not quite night. And somewhere, Scott Baio is plowing a woman he doesn't love."

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by Shorty3281

GIGGIDY GIGGIDY!

heh, alright

LOL!

Actually, that's "alllllright!"

[sachmo71]

I'm happy for all of the fans! It's pretty cool getting a show put back on the air!

[Blade]

AWESOME!!!

[RPI-Fan]

Yea', I can't believe that fan support has TWICE resussitated (sp?) this show. Good to see that efforts like this do pay off sometimes.

[Blade6119]

Another show to watch when South Park isnt on

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by RPI-Fan

Yea', I can't believe that fan support has TWICE resussitated (sp?) this show. Good to see that efforts like this do pay off sometimes.

That is amazing, when you think about it. The first time, I think it was more about the fact that the show was nominated and/or had won (?) an award just about the time it was to get the final axe, and Fox would have looke stupid for canceling it at that point. This time, it's about - what else? - money. Either way, this is great news. I just watched the Cartoon Network showing last night, and it was one of my favorites - the witness protection program one. Stewie playing banjo with the jug band always has me in stitches.

[Sun Tzu]

w00t!

[Ksyrup]

FYI, this isn't really new news (well, for most of us I guess it is), it's just confirmation of what was already in the works. I just ran across this article from USA Today from November 18 of last year:


In a sign of the growing importance of DVD sales to Hollywood, 20th Century Fox is considering a plan to resume production of Family Guy, a sometimes crude animated comedy that the Fox network took off the air more than 18 months ago.

As many as 35 new episodes could return in January 2005, marking the first time that a canceled series has been revived based on strong DVD demand and ratings in syndication.

Fox Television Entertainment Group chairman Sandy Grushow said a decision is expected soon and called the series a late-blooming phenomenon that may have aired before its time.

A DVD set of the show's first 28 episodes released in April has sold nearly 1 million copies, making it this year's top-selling TV show and the No. 4 television title ever, according to Video Store magazine. A second collection, of 22 episodes, has sold 520,000 copies. And the series is Cartoon Network's most popular among adults.

Family Guy premiered with a big audience — 22 million viewers — and some controversy after Fox's 1999 Super Bowl telecast. In the pilot episode, Stewie, a talking toddler with a clipped British accent, was openly contemptuous of his loutish dad and bent on killing his sweet-natured mother in a quest for world domination.

Creator Seth MacFarlane, then 24, wrote scripts, drew characters, provided voices and infused the show with rapid-fire sight gags, a nod to The Simpsons. But ratings faded, and the show ended with a whimper early last year.

The relatively short network run may have helped DVD sales, Video Store's Judith McCourt says. "It really speaks to something that had a following, was cut off network TV, and people said, 'What did I miss?' "

DVD and cable viewers have "created kind of a groundswell that could lead to better ratings" on Fox, Grushow says, although new episodes could end up going directly to Cartoon Network.

A decision to restart the show suggests a reversal from the old TV business model, in which a network hit predicts a profit windfall in syndication. This time, the promise of DVD and syndication gold could justify a show's return even if low network ratings didn't.

But canceled favorites aren't likely to rise from the grave en masse. Family Guy has one major advantage: With no actors and no sets, it can simply be drawn back into existence.

[sabotai]

Is this the first TV series to ever get canceled and then be brought back by the same network? I know there have been several shows canceled, and then picked up by other networks (most notibly, MST3K being canceled by Comedy Central and then picked up by Sci-Fi Channel...most notibly to me anyway. ). But this is the first I've seen where the original network brought back a show it canceled.

[klayman]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

Stewie playing banjo with the jug band always has me in stitches.

Warm out today. Warm yesterday. Even warmer today.

Met her on my CB
Said her name was Mimi
Sounded like an angel come to earth.
When I went to meet her
Man, you should have seen her
Twice as tall as me, three times the girth.

Oh my fat baby loves to eat,
A big old budda belly and her breasts swing past her feet.
Oh my fat baby loves to eat
My big old fat ass baby loves to eat.

[Calis]

I got blisters on me fingers!


One of my favorite episodes. Great to hear it's coming back.

[mckerney]

Now if ABC would just bring back Miracles...

[Craptacular]

Hell yeah.

[korme]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

LOL!

Actually, that's "alllllright!"

Hah, my fault.

Giggigy giggidy is my new phrase at the poker table when I am doing well though, haha.

[Tasan]

Excellent. I didn't get this show either til I started watching it after reruns of Futurerama on Cartoon Network. Now it comes on before Futurerama, and I don't miss either.