Release Date:
Tuesday, September 9, 2003
The producers of Family Guy promise “good old-fashioned values” right in the theme song. If only they’d kept their word. Instead, the show’s edge-teetering tendencies prompted Fox advertisers…erm, executives, to yank it off the air roughly a year ago. But the show must go on…to DVD for the release of the third and final season. The 21 episodes alone are enough to merit purchase, but there’s also a never-before-aired episode (even Family Guy can get “too controversial”) that’ll have true fans foaming at the mouth. On top of that, there are a slew of extras. The 28 deleted animatics offer up even more unaired material (Brian as an assassin, the truth behind Alf, French jokes), and a clip from the pilot proves that The Simpsons isn’t the only ingenious show with humble, badly drawn origins. The two featurettes, “Uncensored” and “Series Overview,” get interviews out of everyone from the show’s voice talent (That ’70s Show’s Mila Kunis looks a hell of a lot better than her animated alter-ego, Meg) to show creator Seth MacFarlane (who handles a majority of the voices himself—and even looks better than some of them). They delve into how to deal with censors, where each character comes from, and why the show has a talking baby and dog. It just proves that seldom do good old-fashioned values coincide with entertainment value. And even more seldom does Fox know what it’s doing.