The ninth season of '' Family Guy'' first aired on the

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 ...

network in eighteen episodes from September 26, 2010, to May 22, 2011, before being released as two DVD box sets and in syndication. ''Family Guy'' follows the dysfunctional Griffin family—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, daughter Meg, 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), Nige ...

, baby Stewie and 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 me ...

, all of whom reside in their hometown of

Quahog The hard clam (''Mercenaria mercenaria''), also known as the round clam, hard-shell (or hard-shelled) clam, or the quahog, is an edible marine bivalve mollusk that is native to the eastern shores of North America and Central America from Prince E ...

. Season nine was the debut of the series' eighth production season, which was executive produced by Chris Sheridan, David Goodman, Danny Smith,

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. ...

, Steve Callaghan and series creator Seth MacFarlane. The season's showrunners were Hentemann and Callaghan. The season received a mixed reception from critics, who called it "a mixture of laugh out loud gags, groan inducing puns, and astonishing 'I can’t believe they got away with that' statements." Season nine contains some of the series' most acclaimed episodes, including "And Then There Were Fewer", "

Road to the North Pole "Road to the North Pole" is the seventh episode of the ninth season of the animated comedy series ''Family Guy''. Directed by Greg Colton and co-written by Chris Sheridan and Danny Smith, the episode originally aired on Fox in the United State ...

" and "

New Kidney in Town "New Kidney in Town" is the eighth episode of the ninth season of the animated comedy series '' Family Guy''. It originally aired on Fox in the United States on January 9, 2011. The episode follows Peter, after he drinks kerosene, causing him t ...

", as well as some of the most controversial episodes, including "

And I'm Joyce Kinney "And I'm Joyce Kinney" is the ninth episode of the ninth season of the animated comedy series '' Family Guy''. It originally aired on Fox in the United States on January 16, 2011. The episode follows housewife Lois as she becomes close friend ...

", "

Friends of Peter G. "Friends of Peter G." is the tenth episode of the ninth season of the animated comedy series ''Family Guy''. It aired on Fox in the United States on February 13, 2011. The episode follows Peter and Brian as they are forced to join Alcoholics An ...

", and "

The Hand That Rocks the Wheelchair "The Hand That Rocks the Wheelchair" is the 12th episode of the ninth season of the animated comedy series ''Family Guy''. It originally aired on Fox in the United States on March 6, 2011. The episode follows Meg as she attempts to look after he ...

". This season marks the first time ''Family Guy'' aired in

720p 720p (1280×720 px; also called HD ready, standard HD or just HD) is a progressive HDTV signal format with 720 horizontal lines/1280 columns and an aspect ratio (AR) of 16:9, normally known as widescreen HDTV (1.78:1). All major HDTV broadcast ...

high-definition and

widescreen Widescreen images are displayed within a set of aspect ratios (relationship of image width to height) used in film, television and computer screens. In film, a widescreen film is any film image with a width-to-height aspect ratio greater than t ...

with a remastered title sequence. It was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Composition for a Series, Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics and Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Comedy or Drama Series and Animation. The Volume Nine DVD box set was released in Region 1 on December 13, 2011, and was released in Region 2 on May 9, 2011 (titled Season 10) and Region 4 on June 15, 2011. Three of the eighteen episodes are included in the volume. The remaining fourteen episodes were included in the Volume Ten DVD box set, released in Region 2 on November 3, 2011, titled Season 11,Family Guy – Season 11 Limited Edition with T-Shirt and Script DVD: Amazon.co.uk: Seth MacFarlane, Alex Borstein, Seth Green, Mila Kunis: Film & TV
. Amazon.co.uk. Retrieved on 2011-11-13. Region 4 on February 29, 2012, and finally on Region 1 on September 24, 2012. One other episode, "

It's a Trap! "It's a Trap!" is a direct-to-video special of the animated series '' Family Guy'' which later served as the double-episode season finale of the ninth season and is the final part of the series' '' Star Wars'' parody trilogy '' Laugh It Up, Fuzz ...

", was released independently on DVD. In the UK, the debut episodes were shown on Sunday nights from May to July 2011 on

BBC Three BBC Three is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was first launched on 9 February 2003 with programmes targeting 16 to 34-year-olds, covering all genres including animation, comedy, cur ...

. These repeated the Saturday after, although re-runs of the series continue to be shown on the channel nightly.

Production

Production for the ninth season began in 2009, during the airing of the eighth season. The season was executive produced by series regulars Chris Sheridan, David Goodman, Danny Smith,

and Steve Callaghan, along with series creator Seth MacFarlane. The

showrunners A showrunner (or colloquially a helmer) is the top-level executive producer of a television series production who has creative and management authority through combining the responsibilities of employer and, in comedy or dramas, typically also the ...

for the ninth season were Hentemann and Callaghan, who oversaw the series's transition into

high definition in the premiere of the ninth-season episode "And Then There Were Fewer". As production began, Callaghan, Andrew Goldberg,

, Patrick Meighan, Brian Scully, Chris Sheridan, Danny Smith, Alec Sulkin, John Viener and

Wellesley Wild Henry Wellesley Wild (born April 27, 1972) is an American screenwriter, producer, and voice actor. He is best known for writing and producing several episodes of the animated series '' Family Guy''. He was a former executive producer and an occas ...

all stayed on from the previous season.

Matt Harrigan Matthew "Matt" Harrigan is an American television writer, producer, and voice actor who is best known for his work on shows like the '' Late Show with David Letterman'' and ''Celebrity Deathmatch''. He was also the television host of ''FishCent ...

Dave Willis Dave Willis (born May 1, 1970) is an American voice actor, writer, animator, producer and musician. He is best known as the co-creator of the Adult Swim animated series ''Aqua Teen Hunger Force'' and '' Squidbillies'', the former of which he ...

, Anthony Blasucci and Mike Desilets received their first writing credit for the series. Series executive producer David A. Goodman returned as a writer for the series, with Goodman leaving immediately afterward to work on the Fox animated series ''

Allen Gregory ''Allen Gregory'' is an American adult animated sitcom created by Jonah Hill, Jarrad Paul, and Andrew Mogul for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series follows pretentious seven-year-old Allen Gregory De Longpre, who is raised by his two rich h ...

''.

Kirker Butler Kirker Butler is an American writer, who has written and produced shows such as '' Family Guy'', ''The Cleveland Show'', '' The Neighbors (2012 TV series)'', ''Galavant'', and '' Life in Pieces''. Career Butler joined ''Family Guy'' in 2004, an ...

, who wrote five episodes for the show, left the series before the beginning of the ninth season, in order to write for the Fox animated series ''

The Cleveland Show ''The Cleveland Show'' is an American animated sitcom created by Seth MacFarlane, Richard Appel, and Mike Henry for the Fox Broadcasting Company. A spin-off of ''Family Guy'', the series centers on Cleveland Brown, his new wife Donna Tubbs, and ...

'', a spin-off of ''Family Guy''. Writer John Viener left the series at the end of the season to also write for ''The Cleveland Show''. Recurring directors

Dominic Bianchi Dominic E. Bianchi (born February 22, 1979) is an American animation director and storyboard artist. Bianchi is known for directing multiple episodes of the animated series '' Family Guy'', most notably the show's celebrated 150th episode, " Bria ...

, Greg Colton,

John Holmquist John Holmquist is an American animator, director, designer, and storyboard artist. He has worked on several episodes of ''Rugrats'' as a director and storyboard artist from the late 1990s to early 2000s. Holmquist has also acted as a director for ...

Brian Iles Brian Iles is an American animation director. Iles is known for directing several episodes of the animated TV series ''Family Guy''. Iles has also served as a storyboard revisionist and as a character layout artist on ''Drawn Together'' and ''T ...

, Jerry Langford,

Pete Michels Pete Michels is an American animation director who is the supervising director of ''Future-Worm!'' on Disney XD. Prior, he was a supervising director on seasons 1 and 2 of ''Rick and Morty'', an animation and supervising director on ''Family Guy'' ...

, James Purdum,

Cyndi Tang Cyndi Tang-Loveland is an American animation director. She has directed several episodes of the animated series '' Family Guy'' and ''King of the Hill. Tang has also served as an assistant director and as an animator on ''The Simpsons'' and '' ...

and

Julius Wu Julius Wu is an American animation director. He has directed several episodes of the animated series ''Family Guy''. Wu has also served as a director, assistant director and storyboard artist on ''King of the Hill'' and ''The Oblongs'', before ...

all stayed with the show from the previous season.

Peter Shin Peter Shin is an American animator, director, and producer who served as supervising director of '' Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story'', the director of '' Big Bug Man'', the director of '' Family Guy'' episodes "Death Has a Shadow" (the series prem ...

briefly returned to the series as a director to direct the sequel to the episode "

Something, Something, Something, Dark Side "Something, Something, Something, Dark Side" is a direct-to-video special of the animated series ''Family Guy'' which later served as the 20th episode of the show's eighth season and is the second part of the series' ''Star Wars'' parody trilogy ...

", entitled "

". Shin also served as supervising director for the season, along with James Purdum. The main cast consisted of Seth MacFarlane (Peter Griffin, Stewie Griffin, Brian Griffin, Quagmire and Tom Tucker, among others), Alex Borstein (Lois Griffin, Loretta Brown, Tricia Takanawa and

Barbara Pewterschmidt ''Family Guy'' is an American animated comedy series created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. Characters are only listed once, normally under the first applicable subsection in the list; very minor characters are listed with ...

, among others),

Mila Kunis Milena Markovna "Mila" Kunis (born August 14, 1983) is an American actress. Born in Chernivtsi and raised in Los Angeles, she began playing Jackie Burkhart on the Fox television series ''That '70s Show'' (1998–2006) at the age of 14. Since ...

(Meg Griffin), Seth Green (Chris Griffin and Neil Goldman, among others) and Mike Henry ( Cleveland Brown and

Herbert Herbert may refer to: People Individuals * Herbert (musician), a pseudonym of Matthew Herbert Name * Herbert (given name) * Herbert (surname) Places Antarctica * Herbert Mountains, Coats Land * Herbert Sound, Graham Land Australia * Herbert ...

, among others).

Episodes

Home media

The remaining episodes of the eighth season and the first three episodes of the ninth season were released on DVD by

20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...

in the United States and Canada on December 13, 2011. The DVD release features bonus material including four featurettes, "Who Done It? The Making of 'And Then There Were Fewer'", "Brian & Stewie: The Lost Phone Call", "The History of the World According to ''Family Guy''" and the ''Family Guy'' panel at the 2010

San Diego Comic-Con International San Diego Comic-Con International is a comic book convention and nonprofit multi-genre entertainment event held annually in San Diego, California since 1970. The name, as given on its website, is Comic-Con International: San Diego; but it is c ...

, along with audio commentaries, animatics and deleted scenes.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Family Guy (Season 9) Family Guy (season 9) episodes Family Guy seasons 2010 American television seasons 2011 American television seasons