Seth MacFarlane 2012 cropped and retouched

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 Griffins, a dysfunctional family consisting of parents Peter and Lois; their ch ...

'' is an American

animated Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most ani ...

television

sitcom A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ...

created 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-creat ...

for the

Fox Broadcasting Company The Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly known simply as Fox and stylized in all caps as FOX, is an American commercial broadcast television network owned by Fox Corporation and headquartered in New York City, with master control operations ...

. The series centers on the dysfunctional

Griffin family The Griffin family is a fictional family which appears in the animated television series ''Family Guy''. The Griffins are a dysfunctional family consisting of the married couple Peter and Lois, their three children Meg, Chris, and Stewie an ...

, which consists 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 ...

(MacFarlane), 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 Chri ...

(

Alex Borstein Alexandrea Borstein (born February 15, 1971) is an American actress, comedian, writer and producer. Borstein voices Lois Griffin on the animated comedy television series '' Family Guy'' (1999–present), and won a Primetime Emmy Award for the role ...

), 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 ...

(

Lacey Chabert Lacey Nicole Chabert ( ; born September 30, 1982) is an American actress. One of her first roles was playing Erica Kane's daughter on ''All My Children''. She was the third actress to play Bianca Montgomery, playing the part from 1992 until 1993. ...

in episodes 1–9, then

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 ...

from

episode 10 Episode 10 may refer to: * ''Episode Ten'' (Primeval) 2009 TV episode of ''Primeval'' * ''Episode 10'' (The Young Pope) 2016 episode * ''Episode 10'' (Tá no Ar) 2015 episode See also * Episode (disambiguation) * 10 (disambiguation) * X (dis ...

onwards), 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 ...

(

Seth Green Seth Benjamin Green ( ''né'' Gesshel-Green; born February 8, 1974) is an American actor, producer, and writer. Green's film debut came with a role in the comedy-drama film '' The Hotel New Hampshire'' (1984), and he went on to have supportin ...

), baby Stewie (MacFarlane), and

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 ...

(MacFarlane), the family dog. The show is set in the fictional town 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 ...

Rhode Island Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the List of U.S. states by area, smallest U.S. state by area and the List of states and territories of the United States ...

, and lampoons

American culture The culture of the United States of America is primarily of Western, and European origin, yet its influences includes the cultures of Asian American, African American, Latin American, and Native American peoples and their cultures. The U ...

in the form of cutaway gags,

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...

and tangential vignettes. The concept of ''Family Guy'' was conceived by MacFarlane in 1995 while studying animation at the

Rhode Island School of Design The Rhode Island School of Design (RISD , pronounced "Riz-D") is a private art and design school in Providence, Rhode Island. The school was founded as a coeducational institution in 1877 by Helen Adelia Rowe Metcalf, who sought to increase the ...

. He created two shorts entitled ''The Life of Larry'' and ''Larry & Steve'', both of which played a key role in Fox executives' decision to pick up the series in 1998. After two seasons, Fox decided to cancel the show. Despite the cancellation, a third season was produced, after which the series was officially cancelled at the end of the 2001–2002 season. Reruns on

Cartoon Network Cartoon Network (often abbreviated as CN) is an American cable television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. It is a part of The Cartoon Network, Inc., a division that also has the broadcasting and production activities of Boomerang, ...

's block

Adult Swim Adult Swim (AS; stylized as dult swim'' and often abbreviated as s'') is an American adult-oriented night-time cable television channel that shares channel space with the basic cable network Cartoon Network and is programmed by its in-house ...

drove up interest, and a letter-writing campaign, along with impressive DVD sales, encouraged Fox to bring the show back for the 2005–2006 television season. ''Family Guy'' and its cast have been nominated for twenty-seven

Primetime Emmy Award The Primetime Emmy Awards, or Primetime Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Bestowed by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS), the Primetime ...

s, winning eight. MacFarlane won the Outstanding Voice-Over Performance award for his performance as Stewie, MacFarlane and

Walter Murphy Walter Anthony Murphy Jr. (born December 19, 1952) is an American composer, keyboardist, songwriter, and record producer. He is best known for the instrumental "A Fifth of Beethoven", a disco adaptation of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony which toppe ...

won the Outstanding Music and Lyrics award for the song "You Got a Lot to See" from the episode "

Brian Wallows and Peter's Swallows "Brian Wallows and Peter's Swallows" is the seventeenth episode of '' Family Guy''s third season. It originally aired on Fox on January 17, 2002. In the episode, Brian is sentenced to community service and must look after a cranky, elderly woman. ...

Steven Fonti Steven Fonti, also known as Steve Fonti (born June 16, 1970), is a Primetime Emmy Award winner who has worked in the Art Department on movies such as ''Over the Hedge'' and Adam Sandler's ''Eight Crazy Nights'', '' Cinderella III: A Twist in Time ...

won the Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation award for his storyboard work in the episode "

No Chris Left Behind "No Chris Left Behind" is the 16th episode of the fifth season of the animated comedy series ''Family Guy''. It originally aired on Fox in the United States on May 6, 2007. The episode features Chris after he is expelled from James Woods High Scho ...

", Greg Colton won the Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation award for his storyboard work in the episode "

Road to the Multiverse "Road to the Multiverse" is the first episode of the eighth season of the animated comedy series ''Family Guy''. Directed by Greg Colton and written by Wellesley Wild, the episode originally aired on Fox in the United States on September 27, 2009, ...

", Patrick S. Clark and Jim Fitzpatrick won the Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Comedy or Drama Series (Half-Hour) and Animation award for their sound mixing work on the episode "

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 MacFarlane won the Outstanding Character Voice-Over Performance award for his performances in the episode "

Pilling Them Softly "Pilling Them Softly" is the first episode of the Family Guy (season 14), fourteenth season of the animated sitcom ''Family Guy'', and the 250th episode overall. It aired on Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox in the United States on September 27, 2015, ...

". The show was nominated for twelve Annies, and won three times, twice in 2006 and once in 2008. In 2009, it was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series, becoming the first animated program to be nominated in this category since ''

The Flintstones ''The Flintstones'' is an American animated sitcom produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions. The series takes place in a romanticized Stone Age setting and follows the activities of the titular family, the Flintstones, and their next-door neighb ...

'' in 1961. The series remains Fox's second-longest-running program, behind ''

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, ...

''. It also remains the fourth-longest-running scripted primetime series in North America. On May 11, 2020, Fox renewed the series for a nineteenth season, which premiered on September 27, 2020 and ended on May 16, 2021. On September 23, 2020, Fox announced that the show would continue through a twentieth and twenty-first season.

Series overview

Episodes

Season 1 (1999)

Season 2 (1999–2000)

Season 3 (2001–03)

Season 4 (2005–06)

Season 5 (2006–07)

Season 6 (2007–08)

Season 7 (2008–09)

Season 8 (2009–10)

Season 9 (2010–11)

Season 10 (2011–12)

Season 11 (2012–13)

Season 12 (2013–14)

Season 13 (2014–15)

Season 14 (2015–16)

Season 15 (2016–17)

Season 16 (2017–18)

Season 17 (2018–19)

Season 18 (2019–20)

Season 19 (2020–21)

Season 20 (2021–22)

Season 21 (2022)

Unscheduled episodes

Specials

See also

Notes

References

External links