Family Guy - Series 1 To 4 - Complete (Box Set) (DVD)

Family guy is an animated comedy created by Seth Macfarlane. It follows the life of a family name the Griffins and the adventures they get up to in the town of Quahog, which is fictional but is said to exist in the actual state of Rhode Island. It works much like the Simpson's apart from there are many side jokes in family guy. One of the characters will usually say:
"This is like that time..."
Which will be followed by a ...
...colour! More similarities include the family itself:

Peter Griffin - Peter is voiced by Seth Macfarlane himself - He wears greenish pants and a white shirt. He is quite similar to Homer. He is fat, lazy and not always the most sensitive person towards his family. He is very child like and often his comedy centres around being immature. It is often hilarious! Early episodes of the show Peter seems to be the lead character with a greater ... more

Family guy is an animated comedy created by Seth Macfarlane. It follows the life of a family name the Griffins and the adventures they get up to in the town of Quahog, which is fictional but is said to exist in the actual state of Rhode Island. It works much like the Simpson's apart from there are many side jokes in family guy. One of the characters will usually say:
"This is like that time..."
Which will be followed by a small scene of the events they are describing. They have no impact on the actual story but will often poke fun at celebrities or recent news stories. These gags are usually quite short but can last up to a minute. I will give some examples later.

Quahog itself is very much like Springfield. It is fictional but could well exist. It has all the normal amenities you would expect in a small town. The Griffins Street and house reminds me slightly of evergreen terrace from the Simpson's. The general layout is the same. I do not think this is a rip-off however, it is more just a generic town so there are bound to be certain similarities. The Griffins however do drive a car that is exactly the same as Marge's from the Simpson's. It is even the same colour! More similarities include the family itself:

Peter Griffin - Peter is voiced by Seth Macfarlane himself - He wears greenish pants and a white shirt. He is quite similar to Homer. He is fat, lazy and not always the most sensitive person towards his family. He is very child like and often his comedy centres around being immature. It is often hilarious! Early episodes of the show Peter seems to be the lead character with a greater proportion of episode time given to him. You will find by the end of season 4 in this box set that many of the the characters have their own storylines. This is due to the rising popularity of the other characters with the audience.

Lois Griffin - Voiced by Alex Borstein - Lois is the wife of Peter. She is much better looking than Peter and many episodes flash back to their early life to show how Peter on Lois by his personality rather than looks. This too happens in the Simpsons! Lois is the least funny of the characters and is more sensible than the others. She can be quite violent at times and is never too far away from killing Peter due to his crazy antics!

Chris Griffin - Voiced by Seth Green - You may know Seth Green from Buffy as the character OZ. He has been in many other roles however as is the co-creator of a popular show called Robot Chicken. Chris is the middle child of the Griffin family. He is around 14. He is still quite immature but a much nicer person than his father! He isn't the most intelligent guy in the world and his humour originates from his stupidity! I'm a big fan of Chris and find him amazingly funny. This is opinion however and I could understand if some found him to be annoying! There is a running gag where Chris often mentions not wanting to go to his room due to an evil monkey in his closet. Whilst his family laugh at the statement the evil monkey will pop out and point evilly at Chris!

Meg Griffin - Voiced by Mila Kunis - Mila is best known for her roles in That 70's show and Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Meg is the eldest daughter of the Griffins. She is around 16. To be honest, nobody likes Meg. She isn't liked by her family either. Not in a mean way , it often provides the bulk of her comedy. She is blamed or things she couldn't have done or often told to Shut up! She isn't very popular and will make up friends or talk to her teddies. In one episode her teddies actually commit suicide rather than have a tea party! The hatred angle becomes more evident towards the later seasons but is always there!

Stewie Griffin - Voiced by Seth again - Stewie is a fan favourite. He is the baby. He is however very intelligent and can speak at a high level. It is however unknown if other people can understand him. Brian the dog (who I will come to later) can understand him but it is often accepted that people can hear him when it is needed for a gag but he is generally ignored when he is being evil. He has a passion to kill Lois, in his words the "vile woman". He makes advanced weapons to kill her his attempts always accidentally thwarted at the last minute. Stewie really is hilarious.

Brian - Again Seth's voice - Brian is the dog. He can talk as well but this time everyone understands him. He often has many storylines with Stewie and the two become a good pairing. Brian is treated very much like a human character. He has a job and usually walks on two legs. It is often funny when he actually acts like a dog. There is one moment when he barks at the Hoover and runs away from it which is unexpected and had me in stitches.

They then are the main characters of this series. There is however many other characters who I will give you a little taste of.

Glen Quagmire - He is a sex crazed maniac. He lives next door to the Griffins and is Peter's good friend. He is often inappropriate with everything he does and has the catch phrase "Giggity gigity goo"! He has a huge chin!
Joe Swanson - I love the guy who does Joe's voice (Patrick Warburton). Joe is in the house on the Griffins other side. He is in a wheelchair but is a good cop none the less as he has great upper body strength. His wife has been pregnant now for 6 seasons so don't expect her to give birth anytime soon.
Cleveland - Peter's friend who acts as support character like Joe and Quagmire. He can be very funny and speaks in a very slow voice.
Mayor West - The mayor of Quagmire is actually Adam West (voiced by the man himself). West was the original batman from the *0's TV show. In this he is very paranoid and fears most things. Some of the scenes with him are the funniest and I will not spoil them!

As I said before the main comedy in Family guy originates from Parodies or little Sketch gags that will interrupt the main story now and again! Some examples of these include:
Peter fighting a giant chicken (this happens once a season)
Stewie killing celebrities (will Farrell, Colin Farrell)
Other celebrity based ones such as Kevin Federline talking to a magic mirror!
They will often parody Star Wars as well as Seth is a big fan (later an entire episode parodies the first movie)

Some do not like these random jokes but I find them to be original and funny. Without them this is simply a more controversial version of the Simpsons. I would place the controversial content of the show somewhere between Simpsons and South Park. It isn't blatantly offensive but there are a few tongue in cheek moments!

Family guy has a huge following. It has been cancelled twice now due to letters complaining of its inappropriate content. However due to mass uproar at the cancellation and big DVD sales the sow has been un-cancelled both times and is still running to this day!

This DVD that you are buying contains the first four seasons of the Family guy show. That is a huge 80 episodes of entertainment for you! Not only that but the final 3 episodes of season 4 are actually the movie "Stewie Griffin the untold story" split into 3 parts. This means you don't have to buy that on top of this! This ox set is going to cost you around £60 - £70 which I must admit is a lot of money. The show is on BBC 3 most days of the week. If I were you I would either wait a while till t goes down in price or simply buy them separately. It will cost you more to buy them all separately but if you only want season one then that's all you have to buy for around £15. I would advise waiting for a while. I remember last Christmas many FOX DVD's such as the Simpson's and King of the hill were reduced to £10. I would say the same will happen this Christmas and you will be able to get this box set for around £40. You may even be able to get the season's 1 - 6 box set for around £50 which would be great value.

The good thing about this DVD set is you do get the two disc DVD "Family guy uncovered". This DVD contains 14 episodes from family guy that are uncensored. Sometimes you will find some scenes are shortens due to the content or that some words are bleeped out! If you are easy going and you let children of around 13- 14 watch family guy on the TV then I would be careful about letting them see this DVD. There are some nudity scenes and some quite abusive words! All of these episodes have audio commentary from Seth explaining what was cut etc…

Other special features you get on this set include TV spots on Fox. These are just segments on other shows promoting the family guy show. You get a few featurettes such as "behind the scenes" which are worth a watch but not as funny as the show itself! You also get 28 deleted scenes that are well worth a watch.

Overall I would not recommend that you buy this box set. It is expensive considering the show is on TV every day. I am a big fan however and fans of the Simpsons say will not be disappointed by this show. It isn't completely family friendly but children closing in on 15 should be OK with it. That depends upon the parent however! 

...less