|
The Movie:  For those unfamiliar with the show, it focuses on the Griffin family, residents of Quahog, Rhode Island. Peter (creator Seth MacFarlane) is the heavy-drinking father who works in a toy factory, Lois (Alex Borstein of "Mad TV") is the mother and general voice of reason, Meg (Mila Kunis of "That 70's Show", replacing Lacey Chabert) is the insecure daughter, Chris (Seth Green) the chubby and dim-witted son, Brian (MacFarlane) is the alcoholic dog who talks and Stewie (creator Seth MacFarlane earned an Emmy for his voice work on the character) is the diabolical baby who is bent on world domination. "Family Guy" may not have won in the ratings each week, but the series gained a devoted cult audience. Every week, the show turned pop culture on its head, offering twisted and laugh-out-loud spoofs of "Tron", "The Truman Show", "The Brady Bunch", "Willy Wonka" and "Dawson's Creek", among many others. Most episodes smoothly tied in as many of several of these hits at the entertainment industry. Still, despite a growing number of fans, the show went off the air after several time slot changes and long breaks eventually resulted in the show being cancelled. When the series became an enormous hit on DVD (the first sets were the biggest TV-on-DVD hits the year of their release), "Family Guy" was resurrected, to the delight of fans. Is the reborn "Family Guy" the same as it always was? Maybe not, as the first season of the show's return seems somewhat less envelope-pushing in comparison to the first run of the series. Still, while stricter regulations appear to have kept a bit of a lid on the show's language and humor (which is made fun of in "PTV", where Peter starts his own network in response to network shows being overly censored), the show's pop culture references (including a dig back at "The Simpsons" after that series has taken a few swipes at "Family Guy"), fantasy sequences and inspired musical numbers are still mostly intact. This set includes the second half of season 4. Some of the highlights from these episodes include: "PTV" (Peter puts together his own TV network as a response to the FCC, who respond by censoring real life), "The Father, the Son and the Holy Fonz" (Peter, having trouble finding a new religion, decides to create a church dedicated to worship of the Fonz), "Petergeist" (a hilarious spoof of "Poltergeist" that has Stewie getting stuck in another dimension after Peter disturbs a Native American burial ground) and "Patriot Games" (after impressing Tom Brady, Peter ends up playing football with the Patriots). 64. 4-14 6 Nov 05 PTV 65. 4-15 13 Nov 05 Brian Goes Back to College 66. 4-16 20 Nov 05 The Courtship of Stewie's Father 67. 4-17 27 Nov 05 Fat Guy Strangler 68. 4-18 18 Dec 05 The Father, The Son, and The Holy Fonz 69. 4-19 8 Jan 06 Brian Sings & Swings 70. 4-20 29 Jan 06 Patriot Games 71. 4-21 12 Mar 06 I Take Thee Quagmire 72. 4-22 26 Mar 06 Sibling Rivalry 73. 4-23 9 Apr 06 Deep Throats 74. 4-24 23 Apr 06 Peterotica 75. 4-25 30 Apr 06 You May Now Kiss The...Uh...Guy Who Receives 76. 4-26 7 May 06 Petergeist 77. 4-27 14 May 06 Untitled Griffin Family History The DVD  VIDEO: "Family Guy" is presented in the show's original 1.33:1 full-frame aspect ratio. The picture quality is good, although there's the occasional issue. Sharpness and detail remained satisfactory, as the rather low-tech animation appeared about as good as it can likely look here. The picture does offer the show's bright color palette well, as colors remained vivid and well-saturated throughout. No instances of edge enhancement appeared, but a couple of slight instances of artifacting were seen. The jagged line issue that was seen in some of the earlier seasons is not spotted here. SOUND: The show's Dolby 2.0 soundtrack is included here in English, French and Spanish. The show's dialogue remains crisp and forward throughout, with the surrounds providing some reinforcement for music and occasional sound effects. Audio quality is superb, as sound effects remained clear (and occasionally punchy) throughout. EXTRAS: Once again, creator Seth MacFarlane and many different members of the cast/crew provide commentary for every episode. Once again, MacFarlane and the other participants have a lot of fun chatting about the creation of each episode. Freqeuent topics include bits that were changed or didn't make it to the final episode, inspirations for jokes, scoring the show, stories from the writing room, fights with network censors and more. "A Director's Life: Debunking the Myth" is a 13-minute documentary that has the show's animation directors discussing their work on the show and going into detail about what an animation director is faced with when an episode goes into production. "Behind the Scenes" is a 7-minute look behind-the-scenes as Adam West visits the "Family Guy" offices, heading into the recording booth, visiting the writer's room and heading into other areas of the production facility. "Peter Shin Draws Stewie" is a short featurette that has supervising animator Peter Shin showing how to draw Stewie. Finally, over 40 deleted scenes are also included.  Final Thoughts: "Family Guy" isn't quite the show it once was, but the series still provides plenty of laughs and there are some definite highlights in this group of episodes. This fourth volume DVD set provides fine audio/video quality and a great set of supplemental features. Recommended. |