REVIEW: FAMILY GUY “200 Episodes Later”
Then a retrospective of memorable moments marking the show’s 200th episode. Included: interviews with creator Seth MacFarlane and voice talents Mila Kunis, Seth Green and Alex Borstein; footage of the cast and crew’s celebration. Family Guy is all new this Sunday Night on FOX starting @ 9pm EST, check out some preview videos after the jump!
Spoilers Below
The special opens up as almost like a DVD extra feature documentary-type where we get interviews with the cast and crew as to why the show is funny and why Family Guy has lasted 200 episodes. Of particular interest was when almost immediately we heard about the ‘Partial Terms of Endearment’ episode and the producers’ thoughts on why it didn’t air(so is this 200 episodes AIRED or not including ‘Partial’?).
The next chapter focused on the Star Wars parodies that Family Guy has done over the years. We get insight and interesting notes about the development of the parodies as well as what their favorite bits were that helped make it funny. Of course almost as popular as the Star Wars gags is the ‘Road To’ episodes that have been tradition for just about every season since its inception. Of interest was how Brian and Stewie teaming up was as a result of the writer staff and actually wasn’t Seth MacFarlane’s idea at all. Also, a more in depth talk about ‘Brian and Stewie’ episode and what inspired that effort. Later, we got a pretty cool introspective on the popular episode ‘And Then There Were Fewer’.
What’s Family Guy without all of its world famous musical numbers? Not only do we get insight on all the great songs that have come over the years for episodes like “Road to the Multiverse” and others but also why having a real life band for every episode is not only pleasing to the ears but it also serves a purpose almost in the joke telling and keeps a bit of sweetness in Family Guy no matter WHAT the content is. The piece then finishes on the future of the Family Guy franchise including Seth dropping some hints on an eventual feature film!
Not gonna lie, I was kind of thinking this thing was going to suck but I had quite a bit of fun learning about some of the more popular episodes of Family Guy including some notable shout outs to the milestones that have helped the franchise get to 200 episodes and moreover amass the huge following that makes a shit ton of money for FOX. As great as it was to see Seth MacFarlane and the always funny as hell Alex Borstein, I wish we would’ve seen just a LITTLE more of Seth Green and really any of Mila Kunis the latter of which was notably absent. I also have a more of a personal complaint in asking, where the hell is John Viener in this special?? I also would have liked to seen Dan Povenmire maybe talk up his experience a little bit on Family Guy but for whatever reason he wasn’t around. That said, we can all thank Family Guy for the at least two hundred times when talking with friends you always have the ONE guy in the group(sometimes me) being like “you guys watch Family Guy this past week??”. Yep, there’s a reason why Family Guy has lasted 200 episodes…because everyone STILL talks about it.
Do we know if Hulu will be the only entity to have the dub, or if it will be on other platforms, too? The show in general is definitely going to be on multiple platforms.