Family Guy (seasons 1-7)

Family Guy is an American animated sitcom created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. It has aired from January 31, 1999 to February 14, 2002 (with one unaired episode airing on November 9, 2003), and has aired again since May 1, 2005. This era of the show is widely regarded as one of the greatest animated shows in television history, despite a major dip in quality afterwards.

Plot
The series centers on the Griffins, a family consisting of parents Peter and Lois; their children, Meg, Chris, and Stewie; and their anthropomorphic pet dog, Brian. The show is set in the fictional city of Quahog, Rhode Island.

Why These Seasons Are Our Family Guy

 * 1) Being a show that was created in 1999 like SpongeBob, it's currently one of the longest-running cartoons that's still putting out new episodes.
 * 2) Decent digitally colored traditional and Flash animation.
 * 3) Likable and memorable characters, mainly in these seasons, such as:
 * 4) * Peter Griffin
 * 5) * Lois Griffin
 * 6) * Meg Griffin
 * 7) * Chris Griffin
 * 8) * Brian Griffin
 * 9) * mh:greatcharacters:Stewie Griffin (easily the best character in the series)
 * 10) * Cleveland Brown
 * 11) * Cleveland Brown Jr.
 * 12) * Glenn Quagmire
 * 13) * Joe Swanson
 * 14) * Bonnie Swanson
 * 15) * Kevin Swanson
 * 16) * Susie Swanson
 * 17) Covers topics that are usually shunned by the public.
 * 18) Amazing voice acting, especially Seth MacFarlane himself.
 * 19) There are a handful of really good and unforgettable episodes, such as:
 * 20) "Road to Rhode Island" (often considered the best episode of the entire series)
 * 21) "PTV"
 * 22) "Blue Harvest"
 * 23) "I Dream of Jesus"
 * 24) "Family Gay"
 * 25) "Petarded"
 * 26) "Stewie Loves Lois"
 * 27) "Death Lives"
 * 28) "Mother Tucker"
 * 29) "The Griffin Family History"
 * 30) "Stewie Kills Lois & Lois Kills Stewie"
 * 31) "420"
 * 32) "Peter's Progress" (which ended all good seasons on a high note)
 * 33) "Barely Legal"
 * 34) "Airport 07"
 * 35) "I Never Met the Dead Man"
 * 36) "Brian: Portrait of a Dog"
 * 37) "Family Guy Viewer Mail"
 * 38) "Da Boom"
 * 39) "Baby Not on Board"
 * 40) "Holy Crap"
 * 41) "Brian in Love"
 * 42) "Sibling Rivalry"
 * 43) "Movin' Out (Brian's Song)"
 * 44) "Meet The Quagmires" (which ended season 5 on a high note)
 * 45) Tries to see how much it can get away with its dark humor and delightfully controversial jokes.
 * 46) Brilliant and creative episodes, such as the "Road to..." series.
 * 47) Hilarious parodies such as The Passion of the Christ 2: Crucify This!.
 * 48) Great and catchy songs such as:
 * 49) * "The Freakin' FCC"
 * 50) * "The Bird is the Word"
 * 51) * "A Bag of Weed"
 * 52) * "Shipoopi"
 * 53) * "I've got a Little List"
 * 54) * "Drunken Irish Dad"
 * 55) * "You've Got a Lot to See"
 * 56) * "Road to Rhode Island (not to be confused with the actual episode)"
 * 57) * "You and I are So Awfully Different"
 * 58) * "You Can Find It on TV"
 * 59) * "Low Level Man"
 * 60) * "All I Really Want For Christmas (original)"
 * 61) * "You Have Aids"
 * 62) * "Vasectomy"
 * 63) * "I Have James Woods"
 * 64) * "Spirit of Massachusetts"
 * 65) * "I Need a Jew"
 * 66) * "Gotta Give Up The Toad"
 * 67) * "Good Morning"
 * 68) Helped to prove that people can have different opinions about shows despite crude nature.
 * 69) Considerably realistic character designs.
 * 70) Memorable gags, especially the Quagmire gags and Peter's violent rivalry with Ernie the Giant Chicken.
 * 71) Even Scrat (from Ice Age) appeared in "Sibling Rivalry" as a cutaway gag with Peter saying these funny quotes such as "NO, NO, BAD SQUIRREL, THOSE ARE MY NUTS, MY NUTS" and Scrat attacking Peter while saying "Oh no, my nuts, my nuts", which was very hilarious.
 * 72) Many famous celebrities are fans of the show, such as Rihanna, Brittney Spears, and Dwayne Johnson. Some Have even guest starred in an episode.
 * 73) Brilliant jokes, without having to rely on shock value (even though they were all good until seasons 8-present).
 * 74) The final episode of season 7, "Peter's Progress", was good and could have been a perfect way to wrap up the series if it had not continued past that.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) Although there are many hilarious jokes, this sometimes comes at the expense of plot and characterization.
 * 2) * Likewise, while the jokes most of the time wasn't explained before and after it happened, in "Love, Blactually", a joke was explained before the Horton the Elephant cutaway happened.
 * 3) The series has sadly gone horribly downhill since the eighth season.
 * 4) Similar to SpongeBob, the series started to decline in quality in there sixth and seventh seasons. However unlike the series mentioned above, there decline wasn't too noticeable.
 * 5) * While Season 6 is good, is considered to be the start of the series decline as there were more bad episodes and the characters' flanderizations started to slowly kick in.
 * 6) *Season 7, while not terrible, is arguably considered to be the weakest of all the good seasons, as the episodes here are a mixed bag and animation has worsened as well (despite it being animated by Digital eMation). It should also be noted that Season 7 was infamous for having a huge overabundance of cutaways such as in "The Juice is Loose" with the infamous Conway Twitty scene that lasted three minutes.
 * 7) There are still a handful of bad or mediocre episodes before Season 8. Some examples include:
 * 8) * "Mind Over Murder" (the first bad episode of the series)
 * 9) * "If I'm Dyin' I'm Lyin'"
 * 10) * "Fore, Father" (a bad way to end Season 2)
 * 11) * "Lethal Weapons" (it's not terrible but very boring and forgettable)
 * 12) * "The Kiss Seen Round the World"
 * 13) * "Bill & Peter's Bogus Journey" (the worst episode of Season 5)
 * 14) * "Believe It or Not, Joe's Walking on Air (arguably the worst episode of Season 6 and the episode that started the issues that became the norm in Season 8 onward)
 * 15) * "Back to the Woods" (depending on your view; a mean-spirited way to started Digital eMation's animation career)
 * 16) * "Play It Again, Brian"
 * 17) * "The Former Life of Brian" (depending on your view)
 * 18) * "Long John Peter" (which ended Season 6 on a mediocre note)
 * 19) * "Love, Blactually" (which started Season 7 on a sour note)
 * 20) * "The Juice Is Loose!"
 * 21) * "Not All Dogs Go to Heaven" (arguably the worst episode of the good seasons and the most infamous one that makes the show's writing decline in quality).
 * 22) At some points it can rip off elements from The Simpsons, though that show also occasionally takes elements back from this one.
 * 23) Meg can be treated as a butt-monkey at times, though not a whole lot unlike what the seasons 8-14 brought up.
 * 24) While the animation in these seasons are good, Rough Draft Studios' animation in Season 2, (while nowhere as bad as their work in Steven Universe and Star vs. the Forces of Evil), are below their usual standards, but that's excusable as the episodes are produced for season 2, way before the animation is refined.
 * 25) In earlier seasons, mostly in Seasons 1-3, animation errors can be presented, most notably with Meg's glasses disappearing in numerous scenes, Peter's pants color changing from green to blue and Rough Draft Studio's aforementioned animation made it worse.
 * 26) There are still a handful of unlikable characters before Season 8 like:
 * 27) * Connie D'Amico (easily the worst character in the series despite being intentionally unlikable since she is nothing but a stereotypical popular bully)
 * 28) * Stewie Griffin (depending on your view, mainly due to wanting to kill his own mother, but changed his ways after "Lois Kills Stewie")
 * 29) * Cleveland Brown (only in "Love, Blactually")
 * 30) * Peter Griffin (in some episodes like "Long John Peter" and "Fore, Father")
 * 31) * Lois Griffin (in some episodes like "Believe It or Not, Joe's Walking on Air")
 * 32) * Joe Swanson (only in "Believe It or Not, Joe's Walking on Air")
 * 33) * James Woods (in "Back to the Woods")
 * 34) * Brian Griffin (in some episodes like "Play It Again, Brian" and "The Former Life of Brian" (depending on your view)).

Episodes With Their Own Pages

 * 1) "Road to Rhode Island"
 * 2) "PTV"
 * 3) "Blue Harvest"
 * 4) "I Dream of Jesus"
 * 5) "Stewie Kills Lois & Lois Kills Stewie"
 * 6) "Brian: Portrait of a Dog"
 * 7) "Da Boom"
 * 8) "Brian in Love"

Reception
The older seasons of Family Guy were met with very positive reception. In 2013, TV Guide ranked it the 9th greatest television cartoon of all time, and in 2009, IGN ranked it #7 on their top 100 animated series list. It was ranked no. 3 on WatchMojo's top 10 Adult Cartoons.

Trivia

 * George Lucas officially gave the producers clearance to do Star Wars gags because he's a fan of the show. Alternately, Seth MacFarlane is a huge fan of Star Wars.
 * Seth MacFarlane based the voice of Peter Griffin on a security guard he knew while going to college.
 * By May 2, 2003, there was an online petition with over 111,000 signatures on it to revive the show after its second cancellation.
 * Angela, Peter's boss, is based on Joanna, Rachel's boss on Friends.
 * Brian's voice is simply Seth MacFarlane speaking normally. In addition, many of Brian's personal beliefs, including his generally liberal political views and his atheism, are shared by MacFarlane himself.
 * Lois was originally drawn as a blonde. After much debate, the creators decided to make her hair red.
 * Brian Griffin was named "Stoner of the Year" by High Times magazine in 2009.
 * The average Family Guy episode takes a full year to produce.
 * 2009 marks Family Guy's 10th anniversary.
 * 2019 marks Family Guy's 20th anniversary, leading up to a compilation DVD called "20 Greatest Hits".
 * In "Sibling Rivalry", Peter's cutaway gag has Scrat from Ice Age in which it was to promote the release of Ice Age: The Meltdown.
 * The Griffins' living room carpet and circle rug changed colors before and after the show was revived and renewed for a fourth season. The carpet changed from tan to turquoise, and the circle rug changed from orange and green to duller orange and blue as shown in a few episodes from the third season.
 * The series is banned in Indonesia, Iran, Vietnam, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, and Pakistan.
 * The French dub of this show has a page on the Horrible Dubs Wiki.
 * Similar to SpongeBob SquarePants the show was originally intended to end after three seasons before being renewed for a fourth season however they both aired in May 2005.