The twentieth season of ''

Family Guy ''Family Guy'' is an American animated sitcom originally conceived and created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The show centers around the Griffin family, Griffins, a dysfunctional family consisting of parents Peter Griff ...

'' aired on

Fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...

from September 26, 2021, to May 22, 2022. the twentieth season aired as apart of the show's 20th anniversary. The series follows the dysfunctional

Griffin family The Griffin family is a fictional family which appears in the List of animated television series, animated television series ''Family Guy''. The Griffins are a dysfunctional family consisting of the married couple Peter Griffin, Peter and Lois G ...

, consisting of father

Peter Peter may refer to: People * List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Peter (given name) ** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church * Peter (surname), a sur ...

, mother

Lois Lois is a common English name from the New Testament. Paul the Apostle mentions Lois, the pious grandmother of Saint Timothy in the Second Epistle to Timothy (commending her for her faith in 2 Timothy 1:5). The name was first used by English C ...

, daughter

Meg Meg is a feminine given name, often a short form of Megatron, Megan, Megumi (Japanese), etc. It may refer to: People *Meg (singer), a Japanese singer *Meg Cabot (born 1967), American author of romantic and paranormal fiction *Meg Burton Cahill ( ...

, son

Chris Chris is a short form of various names including Christopher, Christian, Christina, Christine, and Christos. Chris is also used as a name in its own right, however it is not as common. People with the given name * Chris Abani (born 1966), N ...

, baby Stewie, and the family dog

Brian Brian (sometimes spelled Bryan in English) is a male given name of Irish and Breton origin, as well as a surname of Occitan origin. It is common in the English-speaking world. It is possible that the name is derived from an Old Celtic word meani ...

, who reside in their hometown of Quahog. During this season, the Griffin men spend a day with Stewie's rival Doug (LASIK Instinct), Peter has a secret meal affair with Bonnie (Cootie & The Blowhard), the Griffins must cover the death of a pizza delivery man and deliver pizzas to the rest of Quahog (The Lois Quagmire), Lois and Carter attend the funeral of Lois' old babysitter (Peterschmidt Manor), Meg becomes a getaway driver and dates a robber (Hard Boiled Meg), Stewie helps Chris put on a school play for

Romeo + Juliet Romeo Montague () is the male protagonist of William Shakespeare's tragedy '' Romeo and Juliet''. The son of Lord Montague and his wife, Lady Montague, he secretly loves and marries Juliet, a member of the rival House of Capulet, through a pr ...

(The Jersey Bore), and Peter and Chris go on a road trip to

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

to prove the existence of Chris' girlfriend (Girlfriend, Eh?). This season also featured a cameo from

Mike Judge Michael Craig Judge (born October 17, 1962) is an American actor, animator, writer, producer, director and musician. He is the creator of the animated television series ''Beavis and Butt-Head'' (1993–1997, 2011, 2022–present), and the co-cre ...

, who reprised his role as

Hank Hill Hank Rutherford HillSeason Five, Episode Ten: Yankee Hankie (at time 04:42 of 22:30) Birth Certificate has his name listed as Hank Rutherford Hill (born April 15, 1953) is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the Fox animated tele ...

from the American television series ''

King of the Hill ''King of the Hill'' is an American animated sitcom created by Mike Judge and Greg Daniels for the Fox Broadcasting Company. It aired its original non-syndicated run from January 12, 1997, to September 13, 2009, and centers on the Hills, an Am ...

'', who previously cameoed in Season 18 as

Beavis and Butt-Head ''Beavis and Butt-Head'' is an American adult animated series created by Mike Judge. The series follows Beavis and Butt-Head, both voiced by Judge, a pair of teenage slackers characterized by their apathy, lack of intelligence, lowbrow humor, ...

. Season twenty premiered the run of the nineteenth production season, which is executive produced by

Seth MacFarlane Seth Woodbury MacFarlane (; born October 26, 1973) is an American actor, animator, filmmaker, comedian, and singer. He is the creator and star of the television series ''Family Guy'' (since 1999) and ''The Orville'' (since 2017), and co-creator ...

Alec Sulkin Alexander Matthew Sulkin (born February 14, 1973) is an American screenwriter, producer, and voice actor known for his work on ''Family Guy'' and ''The Cleveland Show''. Career Sulkin began as a writer for ''The Late Late Show (CBS TV series)#C ...

Richard Appel Richard James Appel (born May 21, 1963) is an American writer, producer and former Attorney at law, attorney. Since 2012, he has served as an executive producer and co-showrunner of ''Family Guy'' on Fox. He attended Harvard University and Harvar ...

Steve Callaghan Steve Callaghan is an American screenwriter, producer and voice actor, best known for his work on ''Family Guy''. He is a graduate of the Department of Public Policy at the UCLA School of Public Affairs. Callaghan started his career in 1999 as a ...

, Danny Smith,

Kara Vallow Kara Vallow is an American television animation producer who works with Seth MacFarlane on the four television series produced by Fuzzy Door Productions for Fox, '' Family Guy'', '' American Dad!'' (now moved to TBS), ''The Cleveland Show'', ...

Mark Hentemann Mark Henry Hentemann is an American screenwriter, creator and producer for television and film. He is a writer, executive producer and former showrunner of the animated series ''Family Guy'', where he started as a writer in its first season. In ...

Tom Devanney Thomas Devanney is an American writer and producer. He has written several episodes of the animated series '' Family Guy''. Devanney also wrote briefly for '' The Fresh Prince of Bel Air'', and was a producer on '' Perfect Strangers'' in the 19 ...

, and Patrick Meighan. Sulkin and Appel returned as the series' showrunners. The season premiered on

ITV2 ITV2 is a British free-to-air television channel owned by ITV Digital Channels, a division of ITV plc. It was launched on 7 December 1998. For a number of years, it had the largest audience share after the five analogue terrestrial stations, a ...

(UK) Monday 8th August 2022.

Production

On September 23, 2020, Fox announced that ''Family Guy'' had been renewed for a twentieth and twenty-first season, ensuring that the series would last another two years. This season also marks the first full season of the series in which

Cleveland Brown Cleveland Orenthal Brown Sr. is a fictional character from the animated television series ''Family Guy'', and its spin-off series ''The Cleveland Show''. He is a neighbor and friend of the Griffin family and is best known for his mild-mannered ...

is voiced by

Arif Zahir Arif Zahir Lopes-Thrower (born April 15, 1994) is an American actor, musician, and internet personality. His YouTube channel, Azerrz, has over 7 million subscribers and features voice impressions of a plethora of celebrities and cartoon characte ...

, following Mike Henry's departure from the role. Henry continues to voice Herbert and other characters. Before the premiere, Henry sent a video on

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

saying that he was "handing the torch" onto Zahir and said a farewell message in Cleveland's voice. Starting with "Rock Hard", long-time recurring actor

Patrick Warburton Patrick Warburton (born November 14, 1964) is an American actor. On television, he has played David Puddy on '' Seinfeld'', the title character on '' The Tick'', Jeb Denton on ''Less Than Perfect'', Jeff Bingham on ''Rules of Engagement'' and Lem ...

was promoted to the main cast.

20th anniversary

Fox celebrated the twentieth season with a special digital panel, with a promotional trailer unveiled during the San Diego Comic-Con 2021 Virtual Convention, teasing clips from the season. In commemoration,

FXX FXX is an American basic cable channel owned by the Walt Disney Television unit of The Walt Disney Company through FX Networks, LLC. It is the partner channel of FX, with its programming focusing on original and acquired comedy series and fea ...

set a near full series marathon of all 19 seasons of the show, running from December 25, 2021 to January 2, 2022. A promotional

PSA PSA, PsA, Psa, or psa may refer to: Biology and medicine * Posterior spinal artery * Primary systemic amyloidosis, a disease caused by the accumulation of abnormal proteins * Prostate-specific antigen, an enzyme used as a blood tracer for pros ...

short Short may refer to: Places * Short (crater), a lunar impact crater on the near side of the Moon * Short, Mississippi, an unincorporated community * Short, Oklahoma, a census-designated place People * Short (surname) * List of people known as ...

made to promote

COVID-19 vaccines A COVID19 vaccine is a vaccine intended to provide acquired immunity against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‑CoV‑2), the virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID19). Prior to the COVID19 pandemic, an est ...

was released on September 21, 2021. MacFarlane himself remarked on the show's milestone.

Release

The season premiered on September 26, 2021, airing on Sundays as part of Fox's

Animation Domination Animation Domination (also called AniDom, Fox AD, and AD) is an American animated programming block which has aired in two iterations on the Fox broadcast network, featuring a lineup solely made up of prime-time animation and adult animation carr ...

programming block, along with ''

The Simpsons ''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical depiction of American life, epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, ...

'', ''

Bob's Burgers ''Bob's Burgers'' is an American adult animated sitcom created by Loren Bouchard that premiered on Fox on January 9, 2011. The show centers on the Belcher family—parents Bob and Linda and their three children, Tina, Gene, and Louise—who r ...

'', '' Duncanville'' and ''

The Great North , creator = Lizzie Molyneux-Logelin & Wendy Molyneux & Minty Lewis , voices = {{Plainlist, * Nick Offerman * Jenny Slate * Will Forte * Dulcé Sloan * Paul Rust * Aparna Nancherla , composer = {{Plainli ...

''. In the UK, the season started airing new episodes every Wednesday on

Disney+ The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment Entertainment is a form of activity that holds the attention and interest of an audience or gives pleasure and deligh ...

through its

Star A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma (physics), plasma held together by its gravity. The List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs, nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked ...

hub starting on November 3. In Australia new episodes air weekly on Disney+ simultaneously with 7 Mate.

Critical reception

John Schwarz with ''Bubbleblabber.com'' gave the season a positive review. Stating "I think Family Guy season 20 is a bit of a “rebuilding year” for the show. For starters, the series introduced not just the aforementioned Zahir doing an awesome job as the new voice of Cleveland, but also the likes of

Chris Parnell Thomas Christopher Parnell (; born February 5, 1967) is an American actor and comedian. He was a cast member on ''Saturday Night Live'' from 1998 to 2006 and played the role of Dr. Leo Spaceman on ''30 Rock''. In animation, he voices Cyril Figgis ...

, Peter Macon,

Jay Pharoah Jared Antonio Farrow (born October 14, 1987), better known by his stage name Jay Pharoah, is an American stand-up comedian, actor, and impressionist. Pharoah was a cast member on NBC's sketch comedy series ''Saturday Night Live'' from 2010 to 201 ...

, and

Patton Oswalt Patton Peter Oswalt (born January 27, 1969) is an American stand-up comedian, actor and writer. He is known as Spence Olchin in the sitcom ''The King of Queens'' (1998–2007) and for narrating the sitcom '' The Goldbergs'' (2013–present) as ...

have all portrayed new characters that appear to be on the road to that of “recurring” status, and all of whom play really funny and fresh new characters." Though he criticized the focus on

anthology In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs or excerpts by different authors. In genre fiction, the term ''anthology'' typically categ ...

episodes, mainly 'Rock Hard' and 'HBO-No'. But praised the risks taken in the episode 'First Blood' and concluded "Parnell and Zahir are the types of ingredients that can really help put new logs on this fire to keep it warm, and we await if this franchise has the goods to go another 20 seasons."

Episodes

References

{{Family Guy Family Guy seasons 2021 American television seasons 2022 American television seasons