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Trivia


Family Feud is an American television game show created by Mark Goodson where two families compete to name the most popular responses to survey questions in order to win cash and prizes. It first aired on July 12, 1976 on ABC, and has also aired on CBS and in syndication.

The show has had three separate runs; the original run from 1976–85 aired on ABC during the daytime, and had a separate nighttime edition that ran in syndication and was hosted by Richard Dawson. In 1988, the series was revived and aired on CBS and also had a nighttime syndication edition. This version was hosted by Ray Combs until 1994, and brought back Richard Dawson for the 1994–95 season. A third run began in 1999 in syndication only, and continues to run through 2019, being hosted by a series of different hosts, including Louie Anderson (1999–2002), Richard Karn (2002–06), John O'Hurley (2006–10), and Steve Harvey (2010–present). Aside from the host, there have been several studio announcers who would introduce the contestants and read credits. These have included Gene Wood (1976–85, 1988–95), Burton Richardson (1999–2010), Joey Fatone (2010–15), and Rubin Ervin (2015–present). Within a year of its debut, the original version became the number one game show in daytime television; however, as viewing habits changed, the ratings declined. Harvey's takeover in 2010 increased Nielsen ratings significantly and eventually placed the program among the top five most popular syndicated television shows in the country. In 2013, TV Guide ranked Family Feud third in its list of the 60 greatest game shows of all time.

The program has spawned multiple regional adaptations in over 50 international markets outside the United States. Reruns of Steve Harvey-hosted episodes air on Game Show Network, while reruns of earlier versions air on Buzzr. Aside from TV shows, there have been also many home editions produced in the board game, interactive film, and video game formats.

Gameplay
Two family teams of five contestants (reduced to four contestants for the 1994-95 season) each compete to win cash and prizes. The original version of the show began with the families being introduced, seated opposite each other as if posing for family portraits, after which the host interviewed them.

Unlike with most game other shows, there is no minimum age necessary to participate in Family Feud, although every family must have at least one person who is 18 years or older. Each round begins with a "face-off" question that serves as a toss-up between two opposing contestants. The host asks a survey question that was previously posed to a group of 100 people, e.g. 100 single women or men, etc. (e.g., "This was asked to 100 single men. Name the hour that you get up on Sunday mornings."). A certain number of answers are concealed on the board, ranked by popularity of the survey's responses. Only answers said by at least two people can appear on the board. The first contestant to buzz-in gives an answer; if it is the most popular, his/her family immediately wins the face-off. Otherwise, the opponent responds and the family member providing the higher-ranked answer wins. Ties are broken in favor of the contestant who buzzes-in first. If neither contestant's answer is on the board, the other eight contestants have a chance to respond, one at a time from alternating sides, until an answer is revealed. The family that wins the face-off may choose to play the question or pass control to their opponents (except on the Combs version, when the family who won the face-off automatically gained control of the question).

The family with control of the question then tries to win the round by guessing all of the remaining concealed answers, with each member giving one answer in sequence. Giving an answer not on the board, or failing to respond within the allotted time, earns one strike. If the family earns three strikes, their opponents are given one chance to "steal" the points for the round by guessing any remaining concealed answer; failing to do so awards the points back to the family that originally had control. If the opponents are given the opportunity to "steal" the points, then only their team's captain is required to answer the question (except on the Combs version, where all team members were required to answer.) However, the team's captain has the final say as to what answer is given. Any remaining concealed answers on the board that were not guessed are then revealed.

While a family has control of a question, the members are not allowed to discuss possible answers with one another; each person must respond individually. However, the opposing family may confer in preparation for an attempt to steal, and their captain must respond for them when such an attempt is made.

Answers are worth one point for every person in the 100-member survey who gave them. The winning family in each round scores the total points for all revealed answers to that question, including those given during the face-off but excluding the one used to steal (if applicable). The number of answers on the board decreases from round to round, and as the game progresses, certain rounds are played for double or triple point value. The first family to score 300 points wins the game and advances to the Fast Money bonus round for a chance to win a cash bonus. Until 1992, both teams received $1 per point scored.

Prior to 1999, the game continued as normal until one family reached the necessary total to win. Since then, if neither team reaches the goal after four rounds (or, from 1999 to 2002, if both teams were tied with the same score after the final round), one last question is played for triple value with only the #1 answer displayed.

The goal of 300 points has been in place in the rules of almost every version of the show. However, when the program premiered in 1976, the goal was 200 points. For the 1984–85 season of both the daytime and syndicated program, the goal was increased to 400 points. For several seasons after the 1999 return to syndication, there was no specific point goal. Instead, four rounds were played, with the last for triple points and only one strike. The family with the most points after the fourth round won the game.

Fast Money
Two members of the winning family play Fast Money for a chance to win a cash bonus. One contestant is onstage with the host, while the other is sequestered backstage with headphones so that he/she cannot see or hear the first portion of the round. The first contestant is asked five rapid-fire survey questions and has a set time limit in which to answer them (originally 15 seconds, extended to 20 in 1994). The clock begins to run only after the first question is asked, and the first contestant may pass on a question and return to it after all five have been asked, if time remains.

After the first contestant has either answered all five questions or run out of time, the board is cleared except for the total score, and the second contestant is then brought out to answer the same five questions. The same rules are followed, but the time limit is extended by five seconds (originally 20, then extended to 25); in addition, if the second contestant duplicates an answer given by the first, a buzzer sounds and he/she must give another answer. If the two contestants reach a combined total of 200 points or more, the family wins the bonus. If not, they are given $5 per point scored as a consolation prize.

The grand prize for winning Fast Money has varied. When the program aired in daytime, families played for $5,000. The grand prize for syndicated episodes was $10,000 for much of its existence. In 2001, the prize was doubled to $20,000 at the request of then-host Louie Anderson, where it has remained since.

Returning champions
When Family Feud premiered on ABC, network rules dictated how much a family could win. Once any family reached $25,000, they were retired as champions. The accompanying syndicated series that premiered in 1977 featured two new families each episode because of tape bicycling (a practice then common in syndicated television).

The CBS daytime and syndicated versions which began airing in 1988 also featured returning champions, who could appear for a maximum of five days. For a brief period in the 1994–95 season which aired in syndication, there were no returning champions. For these episodes, two new families competed in this first half of each episode. The second half featured former champion families who appeared on Family Feud between 1977 and 1985, with the winner of the first half of the show playing one of these families in the second half.

From 1999 to 2002, two new families appeared on each episode. The returning champions rule was reinstated with the same five-day limit starting with the 2002–03 season. Starting with the 2009–10 season, a family that wins five matches also wins a new car.

Bullseye game
In June 1992, the CBS daytime edition of Feud expanded from thirty to sixty minutes and became known as Family Feud Challenge. As part of the change, a new round was added at the start of each game called "Bullseye". This round determined the potential Fast Money stake for each team. Each team was given a starting value for their bank and attempted to come up with the top answer to a survey question to add to it. The Bullseye round was added to the syndicated edition in September 1992.

The first two members of each family appeared at the face-off podium and were asked a question to which only the number-one answer was available. Giving the top answer added the value for that question to the family's bank. The process then repeated with the four remaining members from each family. On the first half of the daytime version, families were staked with $2,500. The first question was worth $500, with each succeeding question worth $500 more than the previous, with the final question worth $2,500. This allowed for a potential maximum bank of $10,000. For the second half of the daytime version, and also on the syndicated version, all values were doubled, making the maximum potential bank $20,000. The team that eventually won the game played for their bank in Fast Money.

When Richard Dawson returned as host of the program in 1994, the round's name was changed to the "Bankroll" round. Although the goal remained of giving only the number-one answer, the format was modified to three questions from five, with only one member of each family participating for all three questions. The initial stake for each family remained the same ($2,500 in the first half of the hour and $5,000 in the second). However, the value for each question was $500, $1,500 and $2,500 in the first half, with values doubling for the second half. This meant a potential maximum bank of $7,000 in the first half and $14,000 in the second.

The Bullseye round temporarily returned during the 2009–10 season. It was played similarly as the format used from 1992 to 1994 on the syndicated version, with five questions worth from $1,000 to $5,000. However, each family was given a $15,000 starting stake, which meant a potential maximum of a $30,000 bank.

Hosts and announcers
When Family Feud was conceived in 1976, Richard Dawson (then a panelist regular on the Goodson–Todman game show Match Game) had a standing agreement with Mark Goodson that when the next Goodson–Todman game show was produced, Dawson would be given an audition to host it. Dawson had read in trade publications that a pilot for a new show named Family Feud was in the works, and it was to be hosted by William Shatner (although since they were involved in the run-throughs, Geoff Edwards, and Jack Narz, who reputedly was Goodson's initial choice to host, were under consideration). Incensed, Dawson sent his agent to Goodson, who threatened an un-funny, silent, and bland Dawson on future Match Game episodes if Dawson wasn't given an audition for Feud. Goodson gave in, and Dawson ultimately won the hosting job. Thus, the original ABC and first syndicated versions of Family Feud were hosted by Richard Dawson. As writer David Marc put it, Dawson's on-air personality "fell somewhere between the brainless sincerity of Wink Martindale and the raunchy cynicism of Chuck Barris". Dawson showed himself to have insistent affections for all of the female members of each family that competed on the show, regardless of age. Writers Tim Brooks, Jon Ellowitz, and Earle F. Marsh owed Family Feud's popularity to Dawson's "glib familiarity" (he had previously played Newkirk on Hogan's Heroes) and "ready wit" (from his tenure as a panelist on Match Game). The show's original announcer was Gene Wood, with Johnny Gilbert and Rod Roddy serving as occasional substitutes.

In 1988, Ray Combs took over Dawson's role as host on CBS and in syndication with Wood returning as announcer and Roddy, Art James, and Charlie O'Donnell serving in that role when Wood was not available. Combs hosted the program until the daytime version's cancellation in 1993 and the syndicated version until the end of the 1993–94 season. Dawson returned to the show at the request of Mark Goodson Productions for the 1994–95 season.

When Feud returned to syndication in 1999, it was initially hosted by Louie Anderson, with Burton Richardson as the new announcer. Richard Karn was selected to take over for Anderson when season four premiered in 2002, and when season eight premiered in 2006, Karn was replaced by John O'Hurley. In 2010, both O'Hurley and Richardson departed from the show; O'Hurley later stated that he left because he was resistant toward the show's decision to emphasize ribald humor and wanted to keep the show family-friendly. Comedian Steve Harvey was named the new host for season twelve, and announcements were made using a pre-recorded track of former 'N Sync member Joey Fatone's voice until 2015, when Rubin Ervin, who has been a member of the production staff as the warmup man for the audience since Harvey took over, became the announcer (Richardson still announces for Celebrity Family Feud).

Production
The first four versions of the show were directed by Paul Alter and produced by Howard Felsher and Cathy Dawson. For the 1988 versions, Gary Dawson worked with the show as a third producer, and Alter was joined by two other directors, Marc Breslow and Andy Felsher. The 1999 version's main staff include executive producer Gabrielle Johnston, co-executive producers Kristin Bjorklund, Brian Hawley and Sara Dansby, and director Ken Fuchs; Johnston and Bjorklund previously worked as associate producers of the 1980s version. The show's classic theme tune was written by an uncredited Walt Levinsky for Score Productions. The themes used from 1999 to 2008 were written by John Lewis Parker. The production rights to the show were originally owned by the production company Goodson shared with his partner Bill Todman, but were sold to their current holder, Fremantle, when it acquired all of Goodson and Todman's works in 2002.

1976–85
Mark Goodson created Family Feud during the increasing popularity of his earlier game show, Match Game, which set daytime ratings records in 1976, and on which Dawson was appearing on as one of its most popular panelists. Match Game aired on CBS, and by 1976, CBS vice president Fred Silverman, who had originally commissioned Match Game, had moved to a new position as president of ABC. The show premiered on ABC's daytime lineup at 1:30 PM (ET)/12:30 PM (CT/MT/PT) on July 12, 1976, and although it was not an immediate hit, before long it became a ratings winner and eventually surpassed Match Game to become the highest-rated game show on daytime TV.

Due to the expansion of All My Children to one hour in April 1977, the show was moved to 11:30/10:30 AM, as the second part of an hour that had daytime reruns of Happy Days (later Laverne & Shirley) as its lead-in. When $20,000 Pyramid was cancelled in June 1980, it moved a half-hour back to 12 noon/11:00 AM. It remained the most popular daytime game show until Merv Griffin's game show Wheel of Fortune surpassed it in 1984. From 1978 until 1984, ABC periodically broadcast hour-long primetime "All-Star Specials", in which celebrity casts from various primetime lineup TV series competed instead of ordinary families. The popularity of the program inspired Goodson to consider producing a nighttime edition, which launched in syndication on September 19, 1977. Like many other game shows at the time, the nighttime Feud aired once a week; it expanded to twice a week in January 1979, and finally to five nights a week (Monday through Friday) in the fall of 1980. However, the viewing habits of both daytime and syndicated audiences were changing. When Griffin launched Wheels syndicated version, starring Pat Sajak and Vanna White, in 1983, that show climbed the ratings to the point where it unseated Feud as the highest-rated syndicated show; the syndicated premiere of Wheels sister show Jeopardy! with Alex Trebek as host also siphoned ratings from Feud with its early success. With declining ratings, and as part of a scheduling reshuffle with two of ABC's half-hour soaps, the show moved back to the 11:30/10:30 timeslot in October 1984, as the second part of a one-hour game show block with Trivia Trap (later All-Star Blitz) as its lead in, hoping to make a dent in the ratings of The Price Is Right.

Despite the ratings decline, there was some interest in keeping the show in production. In a 2010 interview, Dawson recalled a meeting with executives from Viacom Enterprises about keeping the show for one more season. Dawson was growing tired of the grueling taping schedule and initially wanted to stop altogether. After discussing the situation with ABC and Viacom, Dawson said that he would return for a final syndicated season of thirty-nine weeks of episodes but would not continue doing the daytime series. After this, Dawson did not hear from Viacom for approximately a week and once they contacted him again, Dawson was told that Viacom was no longer interested in continuing the syndicated Feud beyond the 1984–85 season. Viacom made this official in January 1985 ahead of that year's NATPE convention, and within a few weeks, ABC decided that it too would not renew Feud for the 1985–86 season. The daytime version came to an end on June 14, 1985. The syndicated version aired its last new episode on May 17, 1985.

1988–95
Family Feud moved to CBS with Ray Combs hosting on July 4, 1988 at 10:00 AM (ET)/9:00 AM (CT/MT/PT), replacing The $25,000 Pyramid (which had aired continuously in that time slot since September 1982, except between January and April 1988, when Blackout took its place; CBS began development on Family Feud shortly after Blackout was canceled). Like its predecessor, this version also had an accompanying syndicated edition which launched in September of that year. It moved to 10:30/9:30 in January 1991 to make room for a short-lived talk show starring Barbara DeAngelis. At that timeslot, it replaced the daytime Wheel of Fortune, which moved back to NBC. In June 1992, the network version expanded from its original half-hour format to a full hour, and was retitled The Family Feud Challenge; this new format featured three families per episode, which included two new families competing in the first half-hour for the right to play the returning champions in the second half. The Family Feud Challenge aired its final new episode on March 26, 1993, with reruns airing until September 10. The syndicated Feud, meanwhile, remained in production and entered its sixth season in the fall of 1993.

At this point in its run, the syndicated Feud had been dealing with a consistent ratings downturn for several years. Although the series was initially able to secure timeslots in desirable hours such as the Prime Time Access hour, stations quickly found that other programming, such as tabloid news magazine programs such as A Current Affair, Inside Edition and Hard Copy tended to draw better ratings and thus sought those shows to replace Feud. Some stations dropped the syndicated Feud outright, while others relocated it to lower-rated timeslots such as overnights. The slide eventually resulted in the ratings bottoming out in 1992-93.

Distributor All American Television informed Mark Goodson Productions that unless there was an uptick in the ratings or changes made to the program, they would cease distributing Family Feud at the end of the 1993-94 season. The responsibility for this fell on Jonathan Goodson, who had taken over his father's company when Mark Goodson died in 1992. One of the options considered was a host change, with the prevailing thought being that the position would be offered to the original host of the program, Richard Dawson.

This ran counter to his father's original decision, as Mark Goodson was loyal to Combs from the moment he hired him and had refused to even consider Dawson due to the trouble he caused for the production staff of the original series. In fact, many members of the original production staff were also working on the revival series and held lingering bad feelings toward Dawson. However, Jonathan Goodson did not have the ties to Combs that his father did, and felt that the change had to at least be considered in order to save the production.

After a rigorous staff meeting, Goodson offered Dawson a contract to return as host of the syndicated Feud, and the semi-retired Dawson agreed to return. Combs finished out the remainder of the season, but, upset by the decision to replace him, he departed from the studio as soon as he signed off on the final episode of his tenure.

A revamped Family Feud returned for a seventh season in September 1994, with Dawson returning as the host. The show expanded from thirty to sixty minutes, reinstated the Family Feud Challenge format, and did various other things to try to improve the ratings of the show such as modernizing the set, feature families that had previously been champions on the original Feud, and have more themed weeks. Although Dawson did bring a brief ratings surge when he came back, the show could not sustain it long term, and Feud came to a conclusion at the end of the season. Its final new episode aired on May 26, 1995, with reruns airing until September 8. The show ceased production for nearly four years after failing to come to an agreement with various companies.

1999–present
Family Feud returned in syndication on September 20, 1999, with comedian Louie Anderson as the next host. Anderson hosted the show for nearly three years until his release in 2002. After Anderson's release, Richard Karn took over the show. The format was changed to reintroduce returning champions, allowing them to appear for up to five days. However, even after Karn's takeover, Anderson-hosted episodes continued in reruns that aired on PAX TV/Ion Television. Karn hosted the show for four years, and then, it was John O'Hurley at the helm. The show's Nielsen ratings were at 1.5, putting it in danger of cancellation once again (as countless affiliates that carried the show from 1999-2010 aired in daytime, graveyard or low-rated time slots). O'Hurley would host the show for four years, and was succeeded by Steve Harvey. With Harvey at the helm, ratings increased by as much as 40%, and within two short years, the show was rated at 4.0, and had become the fifth most popular syndicated program. Fox News' Paulette Cohn argued that Harvey's "relatability," or "understanding of what the people at home want to know," is what saved the show from cancellation; Harvey himself debated, "If someone said an answer that was so ridiculous, I knew that the people at home behind the camera had to be going, 'What did they just say?' … They gave this answer that doesn't have a shot in hell of being up there. The fact that I recognize that, that's comedic genius to me. I think that's [what made] the difference."

Since Harvey became host, Family Feud has regularly ranked among the top 10 highest-rated programs in all of daytime television programming and third among game shows (behind Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy!); in February 2014, the show achieved a 6.0 share in the Nielsen ratings, with approximately 8.8 million viewers. In June 2015, Family Feud eclipsed Wheel of Fortune as the most-watched syndicated game show on television. Under Harvey, the show has had better syndication clearances and better timeslots. It has been airing in early fringe and prime access slots nationwide.

Reruns of the Dawson, Combs, Anderson and Karn hosted episodes have been included among Buzzr's acquisitions since its launch on June 1, 2015. In 2019, reruns of the Karn hosted episodes started airing on Up TV during the morning hours. On June 13, 2016, American episodes hosted by Harvey began airing on the UK digital terrestrial and satellite channel Challenge.

Production of Family Feud was shifted from Universal Orlando to Harvey's hometown of Atlanta in 2011, first at the Atlanta Civic Center and later at the Georgia World Congress Center. Harvey was also originating a syndicated radio show from Atlanta, and the state of Georgia also issued tax credits for the production. In 2017, production moved to Los Angeles Center Studios (later moved again to Universal Studios Hollywood) in Los Angeles to accommodate Harvey's new syndicated talk show Steve, returning production of the regular series back to Los Angeles for the first time since 2010.

Reception
Family Feud won the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Game/Audience Participation Show in 1977 and 2019, Outstanding Directing for a Game Show and the show has three times won the Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Game Show Host, once with Dawson in 1978 and twice with Harvey in 2014 and 2017. Feud ranked number 3 on Game Show Network (GSN)'s 2006 list of the 50 Greatest Game Shows of All Time, and also on TV Guide's 2013 list of the 60 greatest game shows ever.

Tara Ariano and Sarah D. Bunting, founders of the website Television Without Pity, wrote that they hated the 1999 syndicated version, saying "Give us classic Feud every time", citing both Dawson and Combs as hosts. Additionally, they called Anderson an "alleged sexual harasser and full-time sphere".

In the Steve Harvey era, the show has become notorious for questions and responses that are sexual in nature, with content frequently referring to certain anatomy or acts of intercourse. This type of material has drawn criticism from viewers, including former NCIS actress Pauley Perrette, who in 2018 sent a series of tweets to Family Feud producers questioning why the show had to be "so filthy." Dan Gainor of the Media Research Center, a politically-conservative content analysis organization, suggested that the responses are in line with sexual content becoming more commonplace on television.

The popularity of Family Feud in the United States has led it to become a worldwide franchise, with over 50 adaptations outside the United States. Countries that have aired their own versions of the show include Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Philippines, Poland, Russia, Thailand, the United Kingdom, and Vietnam, among others.

Merchandise
Since the show's premiere in 1976, many home versions of Family Feud have been released in various formats. Milton Bradley, Pressman Games, and Endless Games have all released traditional board games based on the show, while Imagination Entertainment released the program in a DVD game format.

The game has been released in other formats by multiple companies; Coleco Adam released the first computer version of the show in 1983, and Sharedata followed in 1987 with versions for MS-DOS, Commodore 64, and Apple II computers. GameTek released versions for Nintendo Entertainment System, Super NES, Genesis, 3DO, and PC (on CD-ROM) between 1990 and 1995. Hasbro Interactive released a version in 2000 for the PC and PlayStation. In 2006, versions were released for PlayStation 2, Game Boy Advance, and PC. Seattle-based Mobliss Inc. also released a mobile version of Family Feud that was available on Sprint, Verizon, and Cingular. Glu Mobile later released a newer mobile version of Family Feud for other carriers.

Most recently, in conjunction with Ludia, Ubisoft has video games for multiple platforms. The first of these was entitled Family Feud: 2010 Edition and was released for the Wii, Nintendo DS, and PC in September 2009. Ubisoft then released Family Feud Decades the next year, which featured sets and survey questions from television versions of all four decades the show has been on air. A third game, entitled Family Feud: 2012 Edition was released for the Wii and Xbox 360 in 2011.

In addition to the home games, a DVD set titled All-Star Family Feud starring Richard Dawson was released on January 8, 2008 by BCI Eclipse LLC Home Entertainment (under license from Fremantle USA) and featured a total of 15 celebrity episodes from the original ABC/syndicated versions on its four discs, uncut and remastered from original 2” videotapes for optimal video presentation and sound quality. It was re-issued as The Best of All-Star Family Feud on February 2, 2010.

Plot
Family Guy is an American animated sitcom created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. 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, and exhibits much of its humor in the form of metafictional cutaway gags that often lampoon American culture.

The family was conceived by MacFarlane after developing two animated films, The Life of Larry and Larry & Steve. MacFarlane redesigned the films' protagonist, Larry, and his dog, Steve, and renamed them Peter and Brian, respectively. MacFarlane pitched a seven-minute pilot to Fox in 1998, and the show was greenlit and began production. Shortly after the third season of Family Guy had aired in 2002, Fox canceled the series with one episode left unaired. Adult Swim aired that episode in 2003, finishing the series' original run. However, favorable DVD sales and high ratings for syndicated reruns on Adult Swim convinced the network to renew the show in 2004 for a fourth season, which began airing on May 1, 2005.

Since its debut on January 31, 1999, episodes of Family Guy have been broadcast. Its seventeenth season began on September 30, 2018. The show has been universally acclaimed, prompting Family Guy to be nominated for 12 Primetime Emmy Awards and 11 Annie Awards, and has won three of each. In 2009, it was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series, the first time an animated series was nominated for the award since The Flintstones in 1961. Family Guy has also received criticism, including unfavorable comparisons to The Simpsons.

Many tie-in media have been released, including Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story, a straight-to-DVD special released in 2005; Family Guy: Live in Vegas, a soundtrack-DVD combo released in 2005, featuring music from the show as well as original music created by MacFarlane and Walter Murphy; a video game and pinball machine, released in 2006 and 2007, respectively; since 2005, six books published by Harper Adult based on the Family Guy universe; and Laugh It Up, Fuzzball: The Family Guy Trilogy (2010), a series of parodies of the original Star Wars trilogy. In 2008, MacFarlane confirmed that the cast was interested in producing a feature film and that he was working on a story for a film adaptation.

A spin-off series, The Cleveland Show, featuring Cleveland Brown, aired from September 27, 2009, to May 19, 2013. "The Simpsons Guy", a crossover episode with The Simpsons, aired on September 28, 2014. Family Guy is a joint production by Fuzzy Door Productions and 20th Century Fox Television and syndicated by 20th Television. In 2013, TV Guide ranked Family Guy the ninth Greatest TV Cartoon of All Time.

On February 12, 2019, Fox renewed the series for an eighteenth season, which will premiere on September 29, 2019 on Animation Domination.

Characters
The show revolves around the adventures of the Griffin family, consisting of father Peter Griffin, a bumbling and clumsy yet well-intentioned blue-collar worker; Lois, a pretty stay-at-home mother and piano teacher who is a member of the wealthy Pewterschmidt family; Meg, their often-bullied teenage daughter who is also constantly ridiculed or ignored by the family; Chris, their awkward teenage son, who is overweight, unintelligent and, in many respects, is simply a younger version of his father; and Stewie, their diabolical infant son of ambiguous sexual orientation who has adult mannerisms and uses stereotypical archvillain phrases. Living with the family is their witty, smoking, martini-swilling, sarcastic, English-speaking anthropomorphic dog Brian, though he is still considered a pet in many ways.

Recurring characters appear alongside the Griffin family. These include the family's neighbors: sex-crazed airline pilot bachelor Quagmire; African-American deli owner Cleveland and his wife Loretta (later Donna); paraplegic police officer Joe, his wife Bonnie, their son Kevin and their baby daughter Susie; neurotic Jewish pharmacist Mort, his wife Muriel, and their geeky and annoying son Neil; and elderly child molester Herbert. TV news anchors Tom Tucker and Diane Simmons, Asian reporter Tricia Takanawa, and Blaccu-Weather meteorologist Ollie Williams also make frequent appearances. Actor James Woods guest stars as himself in multiple episodes, as did Adam West prior to his death.

Setting
The primary setting of Family Guy is Quahog ( [pron. ko-hog or kwo-hog]), a fictional district of Providence, Rhode Island that was founded by Peter's ancestor, Griffin Peterson. MacFarlane resided in Providence during his time as a student at Rhode Island School of Design, and the show contains distinct Rhode Island landmarks similar to real-world locations. MacFarlane often borrows the names of Rhode Island locations and icons such as Pawtucket and Buddy Cianci for use in the show. MacFarlane, in an interview with a news program on WNAC-TV, Channel 64 in Providence, stated that the town is modeled after Cranston, Rhode Island.

Development
MacFarlane initially conceived Family Guy in 1995 while studying animation at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). During college, he created his thesis film entitled The Life of Larry, which was submitted by his professor at RISD to Hanna-Barbera. MacFarlane was hired by the company. In 1996 MacFarlane created a sequel to The Life of Larry entitled Larry and Steve, which featured a middle-aged character named Larry and an intellectual dog, Steve; the short was broadcast in 1997 as one of Cartoon Network's World Premiere Toons.

Executives at Fox saw the Larry shorts and contracted MacFarlane to create a series, entitled Family Guy, based on the characters. Fox proposed MacFarlane complete a 15-minute short, and gave him a budget of $50,000. Several aspects of Family Guy were inspired by the Larry shorts. While he worked on the series, the characters of Larry and his dog Steve slowly evolved into Peter and Brian. MacFarlane stated that the difference between The Life of Larry and Family Guy was that "Life of Larry was shown primarily in my dorm room and Family Guy was shown after the Super Bowl." After the pilot aired, the series was given the green light. MacFarlane drew inspiration from several sitcoms such as The Simpsons and All in the Family. Premises were drawn from several 1980s Saturday morning cartoons he watched as a child, such as The Fonz and the Happy Days Gang and Rubik, the Amazing Cube.

The Griffin family first appeared on the demo that MacFarlane pitched to Fox on May 15, 1998. Family Guy was originally planned to start out as short movies for the sketch show MADtv, but the plan changed because MADtv's budget was not large enough to support animation production. MacFarlane noted that he then wanted to pitch it to Fox, as he thought that that was the place to create a prime-time animation show. Family Guy was originally pitched to Fox in the same year as King of the Hill, but the show was not bought until years later, when King of the Hill became successful. Fox ordered 13 episodes of Family Guy to air in midseason after MacFarlane impressed executives with a seven-minute demo.

Executive producers
MacFarlane has served as an executive producer during the show's entire history. The first executive producers were David Zuckerman, Lolee Aries, David Pritchard, and Mike Wolf. Family Guy has had many executive producers in its history, including Daniel Palladino, Kara Vallow, and Danny Smith. David A. Goodman joined the show as a co-executive producer in season three, and eventually became an executive producer. Alex Borstein, who voices Lois, worked as an executive and supervising producer for the fourth and fifth seasons.

Writing
The first team of writers assembled for the show consisted of Chris Sheridan, Danny Smith, Gary Janetti, Ricky Blitt, Neil Goldman, Garrett Donovan, Matt Weitzman, and Mike Barker. The writing process of Family Guy generally starts with 14 writers that take turns writing the scripts; when a script is finished it is given to the rest of the writers to read. These scripts generally include cutaway gags. Various gags are pitched to MacFarlane and the rest of the staff, and those deemed funniest are included in the episode. MacFarlane has explained that normally it takes 10 months to produce an episode because the show uses hand-drawn animation. The show rarely comments on current events for this reason. The show's initial writers had never written for an animated show; and most came from live-action sitcoms.

MacFarlane explains that he is a fan of 1930s and 1940s radio programs, particularly the radio thriller anthology Suspense, which led him to give early episodes ominous titles like "Death Has a Shadow" and "Mind Over Murder". MacFarlane explained that the team dropped the naming convention after individual episodes became hard to identify, and the novelty wore off. For the first few months of production, the writers shared one office, lent to them by the King of the Hill production crew.

Credited with 19 episodes, Steve Callaghan is the most prolific writer on the Family Guy staff. Many of the writers that have left the show have gone on to create or produce other successful series. Neil Goldman and Garrett Donovan co-wrote 13 episodes for the NBC sitcom Scrubs during their eight-year run on the show, while also serving as co-producers and working their way up to executive producers. Mike Barker and Matt Weitzman left the show and went on to create the long-running and still ongoing adult animated series American Dad! MacFarlane is also a co-creator of American Dad! On November 4, 2013, it was announced that Barker had departed American Dad! during its run as well, after 10 seasons of serving as producer and co-showrunner over the series.

During the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike, official production of the show halted for most of December 2007 and for various periods afterward. Fox continued producing episodes without MacFarlane's final approval, which he termed "a colossal dick move" in an interview with Variety. Though MacFarlane refused to work on the show, his contract under Fox required him to contribute to any episodes it would subsequently produce. Production officially resumed after the end of the strike, with regularly airing episodes recommencing on February 17, 2008. According to MacFarlane, in 2009, it cost about $2 million to make an episode of Family Guy.

During his September 2017 AMA on Reddit, MacFarlane revealed that he hadn't written for the show since 2010, focusing instead on production and voice acting.

Early history and cancellation
Family Guy officially premiered after Fox's broadcast of Super Bowl XXXIII on January 31, 1999, with "Death Has a Shadow". The show debuted to 22 million viewers, and immediately generated controversy regarding its adult content. The show returned on April 11, 1999, with "I Never Met the Dead Man". Family Guy garnered decent ratings in Fox's 8:30 pm slot on Sunday, scheduled between The Simpsons and The X-Files. At the end of its first season, the show ranked at #33 in the Nielsen ratings, with 12.8 million households tuning in. The show launched its second season in a new time slot, Thursday at 9 pm, on September 23, 1999. Family Guy was pitted against NBC's Frasier, and the series' ratings declined sharply. Subsequently, Fox removed Family Guy from its schedule, and began airing episodes irregularly. The show returned on March 7, 2000, at 8:30 pm on Tuesdays, where it was constantly beaten in the ratings by ABC's then-new breakout hit Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, coming in at #114 in the Nielsen ratings with 6.32 million households tuning in. Fox announced that the show had been canceled in May 2000, at the end of the second season. However, following a last-minute reprieve, on July 24, 2000, Fox ordered 13 additional episodes of Family Guy to form a third season.

The show returned November 8, 2001, once again in a tough time slot: Thursday nights at 8:00 pm; this slot brought it into competition with Survivor and Friends (a situation that was later referenced in Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story). During its second and third seasons, Fox frequently moved the show around to different days and time slots with little or no notice and, consequently, the show's ratings suffered. Upon Fox's annual unveiling of its 2002 fall line-up on May 15, 2002, Family Guy was absent. Fox announced that the show had been officially canceled shortly thereafter.

Cult success and revival
Fox attempted to sell the rights for reruns of the show, but finding networks that were interested was difficult; Cartoon Network eventually bought the rights, " basically for free", according to the president of 20th Century Fox Television. Family Guy premiered in reruns on Adult Swim on April 20, 2003, and immediately became the block's top-rated program, dominating late-night viewing in its time period versus cable and broadcast competition, and boosting viewership by 239%. The complete first and second seasons were released on DVD the same week the show premiered on Adult Swim, and the show became a cult phenomenon, selling 400,000 copies within one month. Sales of the DVD set reached 2.2 million copies, becoming the best-selling television DVD of 2003 and the second-highest-selling television DVD ever, behind the first season of Comedy Central's Chappelle's Show. The third-season DVD release also sold more than a million copies. The show's popularity in DVD sales and reruns rekindled Fox's interest, and, on May 20, 2004, Fox ordered 35 new episodes of Family Guy, marking the first revival of a television show based on DVD sales.

"North by North Quahog", which premiered May 1, 2005, was the first episode to be broadcast after the show's hiatus. It was written by MacFarlane and directed by Peter Shin. MacFarlane believed the show's three-year hiatus was beneficial because animated shows do not normally have hiatuses, and towards the end of their seasons, "... you see a lot more sex jokes and bodily function jokes and signs of a fatigued staff that their brains are just fried". With "North by North Quahog", the writing staff tried to keep the show "[...] exactly as it was" before its cancellation, and "None of us had any desire to make it look any slicker". The episode was watched by 11.85 million viewers, the show's highest ratings since the airing of the first season episode "Brian: Portrait of a Dog".

Lawsuits
In March 2007 comedian Carol Burnett filed a $6 million lawsuit against 20th Century Fox, claiming that her charwoman cartoon character had been portrayed on the show without her permission. She stated it was a trademark infringement, and that Fox violated her publicity rights. On June 4, 2007, United States District Judge Dean D. Pregerson rejected the lawsuit, stating that the parody was protected under the First Amendment, citing Hustler Magazine v. Falwell as a precedent.

On October 3, 2007, Bourne Co. Music Publishers filed a lawsuit accusing the show of infringing its copyright on the song "When You Wish Upon a Star", through a parody song entitled "I Need a Jew" appearing in the episode "When You Wish Upon a Weinstein". Bourne Co., the sole United States copyright owner of the song, alleged the parody pairs a "thinly veiled" copy of its music with antisemitic lyrics. Named in the suit were 20th Century Fox Film Corp., Fox Broadcasting Co., Cartoon Network, MacFarlane and Murphy; the suit sought to stop the program's distribution and asked for unspecified damages. Bourne argued that "I Need a Jew" uses the copyrighted melody of "When You Wish Upon a Star" without commenting on that song, and that it was therefore not a First Amendment-protected parody per the ruling in Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc. On March 16, 2009, United States District Judge Deborah Batts held that Family Guy did not infringe on Bourne's copyright when it transformed the song for comical use in an episode.

In December 2007, Family Guy was again accused of copyright infringement when actor Art Metrano filed a lawsuit regarding a scene in Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story, in which Jesus performs Metrano's signature "magic" act involving absurd "faux" magical hand gestures while humming the distinctive tune "Fine and Dandy". 20th Century Fox, MacFarlane, Callaghan and Borstein were all named in the suit. In July 2009 a federal district court judge rejected Fox's motion to dismiss, saying that the first three fair use factors involved – "purpose and character of the use", "nature of the infringed work" and "amount and substantiality of the taking" – counted in Metrano's favor, while the fourth – "economic impact" – had to await more fact-finding. In denying the dismissal, the court held that the reference in the scene made light of Jesus and his followers – not Metrano or his act. The case was settled out of court in 2010 with undisclosed terms.

Voice cast
Seth MacFarlane voices three of the show's main characters: Peter Griffin, Brian Griffin, and Stewie Griffin. Since MacFarlane had a strong vision for these characters, he chose to voice them himself, believing it would be easier than for someone else to attempt it. MacFarlane drew inspiration for the voice of Peter from a security guard he overheard talking while attending the Rhode Island School of Design. Stewie's voice was based on the voice of English actor Rex Harrison, especially his performance in the 1964 musical drama film My Fair Lady. MacFarlane uses his regular speaking voice when playing Brian. MacFarlane also provides the voices for various other recurring and one-time-only characters, most prominently those of the Griffins' neighbor Glenn Quagmire, news anchor Tom Tucker, and Lois' father, Carter Pewterschmidt.

Alex Borstein voices Peter's wife Lois Griffin, Asian correspondent Tricia Takanawa, Loretta Brown, and Lois' mother, Barbara Pewterschmidt. Borstein was asked to provide a voice for the pilot while she was working on MADtv. She had not met MacFarlane or seen any of his artwork, and said it was "really sight unseen". At the time, Borstein was performing in a stage show in Los Angeles. She played a redheaded mother whose voice she had based on one of her cousins.

Seth Green primarily voices Chris Griffin and Neil Goldman. Green stated that he did an impression of the character Buffalo Bill from the thriller film The Silence of the Lambs during his audition.

Mila Kunis and Lacey Chabert have both voiced Meg Griffin. Chabert left the series because of time conflicts with schoolwork and her role on Party of Five. When Kunis auditioned for the role, she was called back by MacFarlane, who instructed her to speak slower. He then told her to come back another time and enunciate more. Once she claimed that she had it under control, MacFarlane hired her.

Mike Henry voices Cleveland Brown, Herbert, Bruce the Performance Artist, Consuela and the Greased-up Deaf Guy. Henry met MacFarlane at the Rhode Island School of Design, and kept in touch with him after they graduated. A few years later, MacFarlane contacted him about being part of the show; he agreed and came on as a writer and voice actor. During the show's first four seasons, he was credited as a guest star, but beginning with season five's "Prick Up Your Ears", he has been credited as a main cast member.

Other recurring cast members include Patrick Warburton as Joe Swanson; Jennifer Tilly as Bonnie Swanson; John G. Brennan as Mort Goldman and Horace the bartender; Carlos Alazraqui as Jonathan Weed; Adam Carolla and Norm Macdonald as  Death; Lori Alan as Diane Simmons; and Phil LaMarr as Ollie Williams and the judge. Fellow cartoonist Butch Hartman has made guest voice appearances in many episodes as various characters. Also, writer Danny Smith voices various recurring characters, such as Ernie the Giant Chicken. Alexandra Breckenridge also appears as many various characters. Adam West appeared as the eponymous Mayor Adam West, until his death in 2017.

Episodes often feature guest voices from a wide range of professions, including actors, athletes, authors, bands, musicians, and scientists. Many guest voices star as themselves. Leslie Uggams was the first to appear as herself, in the fourth episode of the first season, "Mind Over Murder". The episode "Not All Dogs Go to Heaven" guest starred the entire cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation, including Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, Brent Spiner, LeVar Burton, Gates McFadden, Michael Dorn, Wil Wheaton, Marina Sirtis, and even Denise Crosby (season 1 as Tasha Yar), playing themselves; this is the episode with the most guest stars of the seventh season.

"Road to" episodes
The "Road to" episodes are a series of hallmark travel episodes. They are a parody of the seven Road to... comedy films starring Bing Crosby and Bob Hope. These episodes have always involved Stewie and Brian in some foreign, supernatural or science-fiction location, unrelated to the show's normal location in Quahog. The first, entitled "Road to Rhode Island", aired on May 30, 2000, during the second season. The episodes are known for featuring elaborate musical numbers, similar to the Road films. The episodes contain several trademarks, including a special version of the opening sequence, custom musical cues and musical numbers, and parodies of science fiction and fantasy films.

The original idea for the "Road to" episodes came from MacFarlane, as he is a fan of the films of Crosby, Hope and Dorothy Lamour. The first episode was directed by Dan Povenmire, who would direct the rest of the "Road to" episodes until the episode "Road to Rupert", at which point he had left the show to create Phineas and Ferb. Series regular Greg Colton then took over Povenmire's role as director of the "Road to" episodes.

The "Road to" episodes are generally considered by critics and fans to be some of the greatest in the series, thanks to the developing relationship between Stewie and Brian, and the strong plotlines of the episodes themselves.

Humor
Family Guy uses the filmmaking technique of cutaways, which occur in the majority of Family Guy episodes. Emphasis is often placed on gags which make reference to current events and/or modern cultural icons.

Early episodes based much of their comedy on Stewie's "super villain" antics, such as his constant plans for total world domination, his evil experiments, plans and inventions to get rid of things he dislikes, and his constant attempts at matricide. As the series progressed, the writers and MacFarlane agreed that his personality and the jokes were starting to feel dated, so they began writing him with a different personality. Family Guy often includes self-referential humor. The most common form is jokes about Fox Broadcasting, and occasions where the characters break the fourth wall by addressing the audience. For example, in "North by North Quahog", the first episode that aired after the show's revival, included Peter telling the family that they had been canceled because Fox had to make room in their schedule for shows like Dark Angel, Titus, Undeclared, Action, That '80s Show, Wonderfalls, Fastlane, Andy Richter Controls the Universe, Skin, Girls Club, Cracking Up, The Pitts, Firefly, Get Real, Freakylinks, Wanda at Large, Costello, The Lone Gunmen, A Minute with Stan Hooper, Normal, Ohio, Pasadena, Harsh Realm, Keen Eddie, The $treet, The American Embassy, Cedric the Entertainer Presents, The Tick, Luis, and Greg the Bunny. Lois asks whether there is any hope, to which Peter replies that if all these shows are canceled they might have a chance; the shows were indeed canceled during Family Guy's hiatus.

The show uses catchphrases, and most of the primary and secondary characters have them. Notable expressions include Quagmire's "Giggity giggity goo", Peter's "Freakin' sweet", Cleveland's "Oh, that's nasty", and Joe's "Bring it on!" The use of many of these catchphrases declined in later seasons. The episode "Big Man on Hippocampus" mocks catchphrase-based humor: when Peter, who has forgotten everything about his life, is introduced to Meg, he exclaims "D'oh!", to which Lois replies, "No, Peter, that's not your catchphrase."

Reception and legacy
In 2016, a New York Times study of the 50 TV shows with the most Facebook Likes found that like other satirical comedies, Family Guy "is most popular in cities. The show's popularity was more correlated with support for Hillary Clinton than any other show". As of 2008, the franchise has generated US$1 billion in total revenue, including US$400 million from TV syndication, US$400 million from DVD sales, and US$200 million from merchandise sales.

Critical reception
Catherine Seipp of National Review Online described it as a "nasty but extremely funny" cartoon. Caryn James of The New York Times called it a show with an "outrageously satirical family" that "includes plenty of comic possibilities and parodies". The Sydney Morning Herald named Family Guy the "Show of the Week" on April 21, 2009, hailing it a "pop culture-heavy masterpiece". Frazier Moore from The Seattle Times called it an "endless craving for humor about bodily emissions". He thought it was "breathtakingly smart" and said a "blend of the ingenious with the raw helps account for its much broader appeal". He summarized it as "rude, crude and deliciously wrong". The New Yorker's Nancy Franklin said that Family Guy is becoming one of the best animated shows; she commented on its ribaldry and popularity. The show has become a hit on Hulu; it is the second-highest viewed show after Saturday Night Live. IGN called Family Guy a great show, and commented that it has gotten better since its revival. They stated that they cannot imagine another half-hour sitcom that provides as many laughs as Family Guy. Empire praised the show and its writers for creating really hilarious moments with unlikely material. They commented that one of the reasons they love the show is because nothing is sacred—it makes jokes and gags of almost everything. Robin Pierson of The TV Critic praised the series as "a different kind of animated comedy which clearly sets out to do jokes which other cartoons can't do." Family Guy has proven popular in the United Kingdom, regularly obtaining between 700,000 and 1 million viewers for re-runs on BBC Three.

The series has attracted many celebrities. Robert Downey Jr. telephoned the show production staff and asked if he could produce or assist in an episode's creation, as his son is a fan of the show; the producers subsequently created a character for Downey. Lauren Conrad met MacFarlane while recording a Laguna Beach clip for the episode "Prick Up Your Ears" (season 5, 2006). She has watched Family Guy for years and considers Stewie her favorite character. Commenting on his appearance in the episode "Big Man on Hippocampus" (season 8, 2010), actor Dwayne Johnson stated that he was a "big fan" of Family Guy. Johnson befriended MacFarlane after he had a minor role in Johnson's 2010 film Tooth Fairy. R&B singer Rihanna has admitted to being a fan of Family Guy, as has pop singer Britney Spears; she tries to imitate Stewie's English accent. Spears, who was mocked for her personal problems in the South Park episode "Britney's New Look" in 2008, offered to appear in a cameo to hit back at the similar animated show, but MacFarlane declined, stating that he did not want to start a feud with the series.

Awards
Family Guy and its cast have been nominated for 27 Emmy Awards, with 8 wins. MacFarlane won the Outstanding Voice-Over Performance award for his performance as Stewie; Murphy and MacFarlane 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"; Steven Fonti won the Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation award for his storyboard work in the episode "No Chris Left Behind"; and Greg Colton won the Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation award for his storyboard work in the episode "Road to the Multiverse". The show was nominated for eleven Annie Awards, 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 in 1961. The Simpsons was almost nominated in 1993, but voters were hesitant to pit cartoons against live action programs. The show was nominated for a Grammy in 2011. Family Guy has been nominated and has won various other awards, including the Teen Choice Awards and the People's Choice Awards. In the 1,000th issue of Entertainment Weekly, Brian Griffin was selected as the dog for "The Perfect TV Family".  Wizard Magazine rated Stewie the 95th-greatest villain of all time. British newspaper The Times rated Family Guy as the 45th-best American show in 2009. IGN ranked Family Guy at number seven in the "Top 100 Animated Series" and number six in the "Top 25 Primetime Animated Series of All Time". Empire named it the twelfth-greatest TV show of all time. In 2005 viewers of the UK television channel Channel 4 voted Family Guy at number 5 on their list of the 100 Greatest Cartoons. Brian was awarded the 2009 Stoner of the Year award by High Times for the episode "420", marking the first time an animated character received the honor. In 2004 and 2007, TV Guide ranked Family Guy number 12 and number 15 in their list of top cult shows ever. Family Guy has garnered six Golden Reel Awards nominations, winning three times. In 2013, TV Guide ranked Family Guy the ninth Greatest TV Cartoon of All Time.

Criticism and controversy
One of the initial critics to give the show negative reviews was Ken Tucker from Entertainment Weekly; he called it "The Simpsons as conceived by a singularly sophomoric mind that lacks any reference point beyond other TV shows". The Parents Television Council (PTC), a conservative non-profit watchdog, has attacked the series since its premiere and has branded various episodes as "Worst TV Show of the Week". In May 2000 the PTC launched a letter-writing campaign to the Fox network in an effort to persuade the network to cancel the show. The PTC has placed the show on their annual lists of "Worst Prime-Time Shows for Family Viewing" in 2000, 2005, and 2006. The Federal Communications Commission has received multiple petitions requesting that the show be blocked from broadcasting on indecency grounds. Tucker and the PTC have both accused the show of portraying religion negatively, and of being racist. Because of the PTC, some advertisers have canceled their contracts after reviewing the content of the episodes, claiming it to be unsuitable. Critics have compared the show's humor and characters with those of The Simpsons.

Various episodes of the show have generated controversy. In "420" (season seven, 2009) Brian decides to start a campaign to legalize cannabis in Quahog; the Venezuelan government reacted negatively to the episode and banned Family Guy from airing on their local networks, which generally syndicate American programming. Venezuelan justice minister Tareck El Aissami, citing the promotion of the use of cannabis, stated that any cable stations that did not stop airing the series would be fined; the government showed a clip which featured Brian and Stewie singing the praises of marijuana as a demonstration of how the United States supports cannabis use. In "Extra Large Medium" (season eight, 2010) a character named Ellen (who has Down syndrome) states that her mother is the former Governor of Alaska, which strongly implies that her mother is Sarah Palin, the only woman to have served in the office of governor in the state. Sarah Palin, the mother of a child with Down syndrome, criticized the episode in an appearance on The O'Reilly Factor, calling those who made the show "cruel, cold-hearted people."

Broadcast
In the United States, Family Guy has aired on Fox since its premiere on January 31, 1999. The show has been syndicated on Adult Swim and TBS since 2003, with both networks holding the rights to the first fifteen seasons of the series. In April 2019, FXX and Freeform began airing reruns of season 16 and beyond. It was also announced that month that FXX and Freeform would acquire the previous fifteen seasons and hold the exclusive cable rights to the series by late 2021.

Family Guy premiered in Australia on April 9, 1999, on the Seven Network, in 2000 on Fox8, and on 7mate on September 27, 2010. In Canada, the series premiered January 31, 1999 on Global and September 1, 2003 on Teletoon. Beginning in the 2015–16 season, the show moved to City. In addition to Teletoon, the show has been syndicated to TVtropolis (now DTour), Cartoon Network, and FXX. Since the discontinuation of Teletoon at Night and Cartoon Network's Adult Swim programming blocks, Family Guy has been airing on the Adult Swim channel since April 1, 2019. The show also airs in India on Star World Premiere, in Ireland on 3e, and in New Zealand on Four.

In the United Kingdom, Family Guy premiered in September 1999, originally on Channel 4 and Sky One. In January 2005, FX (now Fox) began broadcasting the show. From October 2005, BBC Two started screening Family Guy before switching to BBC Three in September 2006. In March 2015, it was announced that season 14 of Family Guy and all of MacFarlane's other cartoons would transfer to ITV2, premiering on February 29, 2016, while the BBC would continue to hold the rights until 2017 for older episodes.

Books
Family Guy: It Takes a Village Idiot, and I Married One was written by executive story editor Cherry Chevapravatdumrong and actress Alex Borstein. The book was first published on May 8, 2007. The book is a biographical monologue by Lois Griffin discussing her memories of growing up and to her attempted run for mayor in the town of Quahog. Though the book primarily consists of a loose narrative monologue by Lois, it is also interspersed with sections from other characters such as Peter Griffin. The book covers events featured in the Family Guy episode "It Takes a Village Idiot, and I Married One", with which it shares a title. It was published in the United Kingdom in 2007 by Orion Books.

A comic book based on the Family Guy universe was produced. Published by Titan Comics, edited by Steve White, and illustrated by Anthony Williams and S. L. Gallant, the writing and the illustrations was supervised by the show's producers. The first comic book was released on July 27, 2011.

Live performances
As promotion for the show, and, as Newman described, "[to] expand interest in the show beyond its diehard fans", Fox organized four Family Guy Live! performances, which featured cast members reading old episodes aloud. The cast also performed musical numbers from the Family Guy: Live in Vegas comedy album. The stage shows were an extension of a performance by the cast during the 2004 Montreal Comedy Festival. The Family Guy Live! performances, which took place in Los Angeles and New York, sold out and were attended by around 1,200 people each.

In 2007, at the 59th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards, MacFarlane performed (as the digitally inserted Stewie and Brian) the ceremony's opening number. He performed a song insulting modern television to the tune of the song "The Fellas At The Freakin' F.C.C." performed in the episode PTV. The song insulted TV shows such as Two and a Half Men, Desperate Housewives, and Scrubs, as well as the final scene of The Sopranos.

In 2009, a special televised performance show aired entitled Family Guy Presents Seth & Alex's Almost Live Comedy Show, in which voice actors Alex Borstein and MacFarlane performed songs from the show, as well as a parody of Lady Gaga's song "Poker Face" in the voice of Marlee Matlin, who appeared on stage as a guest during the performance. Some new animated gags also appeared in the show.

Film
On July 22, 2007, in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, MacFarlane announced that he may start working on a feature film, although "nothing's official." In TV Week on July 18, 2008, MacFarlane confirmed plans to produce a theatrically released Family Guy feature film sometime "within the next year." He came up with an idea for the story, "something that you could not do on the show, which [to him] is the only reason to do a movie." He later went on to say he imagines the film to be "an old-style musical with dialogue" similar to The Sound of Music, saying that he would "really be trying to capture, musically, that feel." On October 13, 2011, Seth MacFarlane confirmed that a deal for a Family Guy film had been made, and that it would be written by himself and series co-producer Ricky Blitt.

On November 30, 2012, MacFarlane confirmed plans to produce a Family Guy film. The project was put on hold while MacFarlane worked on Ted 2.

On August 10, 2018, Fox announced that a live-action/animated film based on the series is in development.

In July 2019, Seth MacFarlane confirmed that there will be a Family Guy movie.

Spin-off
MacFarlane co-created—alongside Mike Henry and Richard Appel—the Family Guy spin-off The Cleveland Show, which premiered September 27, 2009. They began discussing the project in 2007.

Video games
The Family Guy Video Game! is a 2006 action game released by 2K Games and developed by High Voltage Software.

Family Guy: Back to the Multiverse, which is centered around the episode "Road to the Multiverse", was released on November 20, 2012.

Family Guy: The Quest for Stuff launched on iOS and Android on April 10, 2014.

Animation Throwdown: The Quest For Cards, a card game with content and characters from five animated television shows from Fox – Family Guy, Futurama, American Dad!, Bob's Burgers and King of the Hill - was released in 2016 by Kongregate,.

Family Guy: Another Freakin' Mobile Game was released on iOS on April 25, 2017.

Merchandise
As of 2009, six books have been released about the Family Guy universe, all published by HarperCollins since 2005. The first, Family Guy: Stewie's Guide to World Domination (ISBN 978-0-06-077321-2) by Steve Callahan, was released on April 26, 2005. Written in the style of a graphic novel, the plot follows Stewie's plans to rule the world. Other books include Family Guy: It Takes a Village Idiot, and I Married One (ISBN 978-0-7528-7593-4), which covers the events of the episode of the same name; and Family Guy and Philosophy: A Cure for the Petarded (ISBN 978-1-4051-6316-3), a collection of 17 essays exploring the connections between the series and historical philosophers. A book written from Brian's point of view (written by Andrew Goldberg) was published in 2006, called Brian Griffin's Guide to Booze, Broads and the Lost Art of Being a Man.

Family Guy has been commercially successful in the home market. The show was the first to be resurrected because of high DVD sales. The first volume, covering the show's first two seasons, sold 1.67 million units, topping TV DVD sales in 2003, while the second volume sold another million units. Volumes six and seven debuted at fifth place in United States DVD sales; volume seven was the highest-selling television DVD, selling 171,000 units by June 21, 2009. Family Guy Presents Blue Harvest, the DVD featuring the Star Wars special "Blue Harvest", was released on January 15, 2008, and premiered at the top of United States DVD sales. The DVD was the first Family Guy DVD to include a digital copy for download to the iPod. In 2004, the first series of Family Guy toy figurines was released by Mezco Toyz; each member of the Griffin family had their own toy, with the exception of Stewie, of whom two different figures were made. Over the course of two years, four more series of toy figures were released, with various forms of Peter. In 2008, the character Peter appeared in advertisements for Subway Restaurants, promoting the restaurant's massive feast sandwich.

Trivia
File:Catch 21 logo.jpeg | caption      = | genre        = Game show | runtime      = approx. 22–26 minutes | location     = Hollywood Center Studios Hollywood, California | creator      = Merrill Heatter | presenter    = Alfonso Ribeiro | starring     = Mikki Padilla | language     = English | country      = United States | company      = Merrill Heatter Productions Scott Sternberg Productions | network      = Game Show Network | first_aired  = July 21, 2008 | last_aired   = July 1, 2011 | num_seasons  = 4 | num_episodes = 300 | related      = Gambit | website      = http://www.gsn.com/shows/catch21/index.html }} Catch 21 is an American game show broadcast by Game Show Network (GSN). Created by Merrill Heatter (who also produced the show's predecessor Gambit), the series followed three contestants as they play a card game centered on blackjack and trivia. The show is based on a popular online game from GSN's website and aired for four seasons from 2008–11. It was hosted by Alfonso Ribeiro, with actress Mikki Padilla serving as the card dealer.

The show received positive critical reception as a whole; the series itself was hailed as "a fun game with a solid concept" while Ribeiro was praised as "hands-down, one of the best game show hosts out there." Additionally, the series was acquired by Bounce TV in 2013, with the network hopeful it could "add fuel" to the channel's growing momentum.

Main game
Three contestants are each given a card to start a blackjack hand from a standard 52-card deck shuffled prior to taping. Alfonso Ribeiro reads questions and the first contestant to answer correctly earns 100 points. All questions are multiple-choice, however contestants can ring in to answer at any time before the host finishes the question, including before when the choices are given. The contestant who answers correctly can freeze their hand, preventing them from receiving additional cards or reveal the next card from the top of the deck. After revealing the card, the contestant can either accept it for themselves or pass it to one of their opponents who has not yet frozen.

If keeping a card, the contestant in control is given another chance to freeze. However, once a contestant has frozen, the remaining contestants must freeze at a score higher than that contestant; ties are not permitted. A contestant is eliminated from the round if their hand exceeds 21. The process is repeated with additional questions and cards until two contestants have frozen or busted.

A contestant whose score reaches 21 exactly instantly wins the round. Beginning in season two, a bonus prize is given to the contestant regardless of the outcome of the game. If two contestants bust, the remaining contestant automatically wins the round. If only one contestant has not yet frozen or busted, no additional questions are asked; the remaining contestant simply continues drawing cards until either beating the highest frozen hand or busting. The winner of this round receives 500 points and a power chip to use in the bonus round, assuming that contestant gets that far.

After two rounds, the contestant with the lowest score is eliminated. The two remaining contestants play one more round involving the same toss-up question format, but point scores are not kept. The contestant who wins the round receives $1,000 and two additional power chips (originally one), then moves on to the bonus round.

Bonus round
The winner now controls three separate hands, each staked with one card. A new deck of 52 cards that has been shuffled and cut is used. Cards are drawn for the contestant, one at a time and the contestant then chooses a hand in which to place each card. The contestant can use a power chip to dispose of an unwanted card. The contestant can end the round at any time if they fear the next card will cause them to bust on any of the three hands. However, using a power chip forces the contestant to place the next card in a hand or use another chip if one is available; the contestant cannot stop immediately after playing a power chip. Getting 21 in one hand wins $1,000; in two hands wins $5,000; and if 21 is scored on all three hands, the contestant wins the grand prize of $25,000. If the contestant busts on any one of the three hands, they will lose everything except the $1,000 that the winner received earlier. On some episodes in season two, the top prize was increased to $50,000 with the other payouts remaining the same.

Online game
The television version of the game was based on a popular online version from GSN's website. In this version, the online player has five minutes to make as many hands of 21 as they can using four columns. The player can play a card in any of their columns as long as the subsequent total is 21 or less; if the card cannot be played in any column, it must be discarded. Playing exactly five cards in a column earns the player a bonus, while the jacks of spades and clubs allow any column to be cleared no matter what.

Production
The series featured executive producers Scott Sternberg and Merrill Heatter, and premiered on July 21, 2008. On February 18, 2009, GSN renewed the series for a 65-episode second season, which featured the addition of an extra power chip in the bonus round in order to increase contestant's chances of winning the top prize. A third season, which was announced on September 16, 2009, debuted on October 12, with some episodes featuring celebrities with a common bond (such as three The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air cast members or three former child stars) playing for charity. The show's fourth and final season debuted on August 16, 2010.

On March 21, 2019, Adweek reported that GSN would revive Catch 21, producing new episodes for the first time in nearly a decade.

Reception
Critical reception for Catch 21 was generally positive. Carrie Grosvenor of About Entertainment argued that the series was "a fun game with a solid concept...It's definitely worth checking out." Hollywood Junket also praised Ribeiro, calling him "hands-down, one of the best game show hosts out there...the fun, brother/sister type chemistry between himself and [Padilla] is rare and benefits the show greatly." Additionally, Bounce TV expressed excitement when announcing their acquisition of the series in 2013, citing the series' popularity among GSN viewers and consistent ratings growth during its original run. The network's chief operating officer Jonathan Katz commented, "We are very confident that the broadcast premieres of The American Bible Challenge and Catch 21 will add fuel to Bounce TV’s skyrocketing growth."