Fox Teases Simpsons/Family Guy Episode

Via Mediaite:

At Comic-Con International in San Diego, Calif., Fox debuted a five-minute sneak peek of the combo episode of Family Guy and The Simpsons, set to air September 28. The preview shows leading males Homer Simpson and Peter Griffin bonding over donuts and fighting over their favorite beers, while Stewie Griffin and Bart Simpson engage in hijinks. Subtle jabs at each other’s shows abound, along with references to other Fox programs like Bob’s Burgers and the recently canceled Cleveland Show.

A Simpsons/Futurama crossover episode will air in November. The Simpsons is in its 25th season, making it the "longest running animated American series, longest running American sitcom, and longest running scripted primetime series."

Brian Griffin Returns To Family Guy

Yup. Time machine.

Petition Of The Day

Details. There's a Wikipedia entry on Sunday's episode.

SPOILER: Family Guy

Stay out of the comments if you've not yet seen last night's shocking episode of Family Guy in which a major character died. Fans are hoping the death will be resolved via one of the show's occasional forays into time travel, but the producers (so far) are saying that's not the case. Otherwise dive in and dish.

One Million Moms Vs Family Guy

Via email:

Dear Joe, It is a violation of federal law for broadcasters to air indecent material on publicly-owned airwaves when children are likely to be in the viewing audience. Yet that is EXACTLY what the Fox Broadcast Network (not to be confused with Fox News) did this past Sunday, November 10th, with its most recent episode of Family Guy. The network brags to its advertisers that Family Guy is "#1 with Teens" and because it is a cartoon, the show is watched by tens of thousands of young children every week. What were children exposed to on Sunday's episode of Family Guy? Unbelievably vile sexual content - including "jokes" about child molestation, exploitation, rape and the sexualized use of food and perverse 'internal defrosting' of frozen hot dogs. Beyond the repugnant sexual content, the overall theme of the episode was that it is humorous for a boy to bully and beat up a girl.

The email concludes with a link to the FCC's complaint page.

Seth McFarlane On SNL

Seth McFarlane opened the 38th season of SNL last night by performing some of his Family Guy characters before delivering a dead-on George Takei impression. The following song was totes cheesy, but fan boys loved it.

Quote Of The Day - Seth MacFarlane

"Hey, we're still Family Guy. We're not suddenly going to become 7th Heaven. Actually, I guess on 7th Heaven they would probably burn the transsexual at the stake. Let me think of another example. We're not Mr. Belvedere. Look, Brian happens to be a heterosexual character, as I am. If I found out that I had slept with a transsexual, I might throw up in the same way that a gay guy looks at a vagina and goes, 'Oh, my God, that's disgusting.' It's just the way we're biologically wired. They should give that another look." - Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane, who says he hasn't "met a lot of stupid homosexuals" and therefore is puzzled by the negative response to the show's episode in which Brian vomits profusely after learning his date was a transwoman.

Did Family Guy Cross The Line?

Last night's episode of Family Guy featured a storyline in which Brian Griffin (the dog) learns that the woman he'd been dating was transgender. Brent Hartinger at After Elton fills us in on the plot.

In the episode, Quagmire's friends think his dad is gay. Cue Family Guy's regular flood of penis and anal sex jokes whenever anything "gay" is mentioned. It turns out that Quagmire's dad isn't gay; he's a transgender woman. To the episode's credit, it does point out that "gay" is different than "transgender." And Ida, the transgender woman, does talk about her choice to get gender-reassignment surgery, saying, "Do I want to be happy the rest of my life, or do I want to be miserable?"

But the second half of the episode is about Brian hooking up with the woman, thinking he's found his soul-mate, but not realizing she's transgender. When he's informed of this, he precedes to vomit for thirty seconds straight; in a sight gag, the whole floor of the room fills up with vomit. "I had sex with her!" Brian says, before screaming like what has transpired is the most disgusting thing imaginable. "When they move to a new place, they're supposed to notify the neighborhood!" a character says of transgender people. On top of that Peter and Lois say a whole host of shockingly insenstive things including asking what they call "it" now.

Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane had previously told After Elton that "the transsexual community will be very, very happy" with last night's show. Judging by the flood of emails I've already gotten today, MacFarlane was very, very wrong.

Seth McFarlane On Gay Marriage

Family Guy creator Seth McFarlane jokes that he "enjoys an ass-fuck as much as the next guy" in a funny defense of same-sex marriage.

FCC Complaint Filed Over Family Guy

Predictably, fundies are filing an FCC complaint over Sunday's "Peter Goes Gay" episode of Family Guy and are calling on the show's sponsors to suspend advertising. (Feel free to stretch and yawn.) From the fundie-run Parents Television Council:

Our organization is taking its concerns directly to every parent, every Fox affiliate and every advertiser -- as well as to those whom the Congress has instructed to uphold the law: the FCC. We encourage our members and concerned citizens to contact their local broadcasters and their public servants with their complaints. Each and every advertiser who paid for this show to air will also be personally contacted by the PTC and asked if bringing orgies and bestiality into American living rooms resonates with their corporate image.

I don't disagree that this episode of Family Guy was one of the most crude things ever seen on television. But so what? The show was preceded by a stern warning to parents and I believe there are somewhere in the neighborhood of 11 million other channels.

The PTC files complaints on almost every show on TV, including fluff like Friends (likely because of the lesbian wedding episode). Meanwhile the rest of us get served dumbed and watered down nonsense because fundie parents don't know how to use the blocking services provided on every cable box in America. Hell, I had to enter a PIN just to watch CNN at my (relatively) liberal sister's house. There's a reason why almost every memorable series in the last ten years has been on pay cable. It's spelled P-T-C.

Family Guy's "Peter Goes Gay" Episode

Here's the full episode of last night's Family Guy in which Peter got injected with the gay gene. Some of you were worried that the episode would reinforce swishy gay stereotypes, and yeah, it does. But at the core of episode is the lesson that gays are fine just as we are and any attempt to change us is doomed to failure. The bit where Peter is sent to "Straight Camp" is hilarious. "You're all here because you've chosen to leave your evil sinful ways and redeem yourself in the eyes of your lord and savior Jesus Christ, who hates many people but none more than you."

Peter Griffin Gets The Gay Gene

From Sunday's upcoming episode in which Peter gets injected with "the gay gene" and leaves Lois for a man.

(Tipped by JMG reader Alex)