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Dom Robinson reviews 
- Cert:
- Cat.no: 22965 DVD
- Running time: 312 minutes
- Year: 1999/2000
- Pressing: 2001
- Region(s): 2, 4, PAL
- Chapters: 70
- Sound: Dolby Digital 2.0 (Dolby Surround)
- Languages: English
- Subtitles: English
- Fullscreen: 4:3
- 16:9-Enhanced: No
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: 2 * DVD 9
- Price: £24.99
- Extras: None
Directors:
- Peter Shin, Michael Dante DiMartino, Dominic Polcino, Roy Allen Smith, Monte Young, Neil Affleck, Jeff Myers, Bob Jaques, Jack Dyer
Creator:
- Seth McFarlane
Developed by:
- Seth McFarlane and David Zuckerman
Cast:
- Peter Griffin: Seth McFarlane
Lois Griffin: Alex Borstein
Chris Griffin: Seth Green
Meg Griffin: Lacey Chabert
Stewie Griffin: Seth McFarlane
Brian the Dog: Seth McFarlane
The Family Guy in the title is Peter Griffin (voiced by Seth McFarlane), head of the Griffin household and one that is has been very successful at taking the general dynamic of The Simpsons – in that it’s an animated sitcom about a family and the world they inhabit – and have just twisted it that little bit more rude, such as the time when an episode cut to a flashback of husband and wife Peter and Lois in the bedroom, her standing up in a striking red basque and him lying down on the bed in a gimp mask, with her simply saying “the password is banana” !
Seth McFarlane writes some of the episodes and voices Peter, the low-paid middle-class worker at a toy factory who gets into trouble for saying the wrong thing in the wrong place at the wrong time, but that doesn’t particularly bother him and one of the show’s strengths is the individual flashbacks to the scenes in question.
Alex Borstein voices his wife Lois, the homemakers and Rhode Island heiress from a very well-to-do family so it’s a wonder what she ever saw in Peter, but love is blind it seems. Their son Chris (Seth Green, who plays the son of Dr Evil in the Austin Powers films) is having difficulty coming to terms with teenage life at the age of 13. He can be a fine artist, but like most young boys finds solace watching episodes of Baywatch. Meg (Lacey Chabert, who was replaced by Mila Kunis after this series) is the daughter of the family and, at 16, gets frustrated because life never goes the way it should when you want to get in with the “in crowd” and are easily embarrassed by your father.
This leaves baby Stewie (also voiced by Seth McFarlane), who’s only one year old but has homicidal tendancies towards his mother because she had the gall to give birth to him which he expunges in an evil-voiced Noel Coward-a-like tone. I do wonder, though, how much of his hatred is actually picked up on by the family. As to the question of what the subtitles in the opening credits say, baby Stewie used to say – and was captioned as saying – “effin’ cry”. This was later redubbed and recaptioned as “laugh and cry”.
Finally, there’s the only intellectual in the family, Brian the Dog (also Seth McFarlane), who has a fine line in sarcastic put-downs and is most responsible for holding the family together.
Brian the Dog’s had better days… Although EpGuides.com lists series one as having only 7 episodes and series two as having 21, this “Season One” contains the first 14 episodes: Death Has a Shadow, I Never Met the Dead Man, Mind Over Murder, Chitty Chitty Death Bang, A Hero Sits Next Door, The Son Also Draws, Brian: Portrait of a Dog, Peter Peter Caviar Eater, Running Mates, Holy Crap, If I’m Dyin’ I’m Lyin’, Love Thy Trophy, Death is a Bitch and The King is Dead.
Highlights from the series include:
- Death Has a Shadow: A brilliant opening episode as we’re introduced to all the elements of the family unit, but not a great start for Peter who gets fired from his job after turning up while hungover after getting drunk at his friend’s bachelor party. On the plus side though, he’s just signed on the dole and has mistakenly been sent a cheque for $150,000!
- The Son Also Draws: A completely hatstand episode that sees the family going to New York to get Chris reinstated back into the scouts, but while they’re there Lois becomes addicted to video poker and loses the family car and Peter has to go on a vision quest to prove himself and that he has Native American blood. Of course, by being told about his quest from a vision of The Fonz, he could just be hallucinating.
- Peter Peter Caviar Eater: After Lois’ rich aunt snuffs it, the family inherits her mansion but aren’t keen to move. Peter, on the other hand, wants to attempt to live the high life and bids $100 million for a work of art at the Historical Society, thus getting into a lot of trouble when he comes to pay for it.
- Holy Crap: Peter wants to get closer to his father after the man gets fired from his job at the mill for being too old and invites him to stay with the family for a while, but when he takes him along to his workplace for some father-son bonding his boss is so impressed with Peter’s father’s strict work ethic that he hires him as the new foreman. Peter soon has a change of heart and it’ll take a kidnapping of the Pope to turn things around.
A father-son bonding moment in the woods. The programme has always been made and presented in 4:3 fullscreen and for such a recent show you expect it to look perfect – and it does. So crisp, clear and colourful. And you can watch them uncut without a stupid “Sky One” logo or their irritating “Sky Active” red dot.
The back cover states this series is in Dolby Digital 5.1, the same remix treatment given to season one of the Simpsons, but upon playing the disc there’s no such option. It’s standard Dolby Surround, which is effective at times and always clean (apart from the language) but it makes you wonder whether a DD5.1 soundtrack really exists, although the closing credits show only the “Dolby Surround” logo.
There must be some extras around somewhere, but they aren’t on here. The menu is silent but subtley animated with the family watching TV, there are subtitles in English for the deaf and hard of hearing and four chapters to each episode, making 70 in all, although the menu for each episode appears to allow a chapter selection of four apiece, but these are for chapters 2 to 5 in each case. Selecting the episode title will start the episode from the beginning.
Stewie’s writes of his origins. PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
0 OVERALL
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.