HIS TWO DADS SETH MACFARLANE STORMS THE FOX SCHEDULE WITH THE RETURN OF 'FAMILY GUY' AND A BRAND-NEW SERIES.Byline: David Kronke TV Critic SETH MacFARLANE has political capital, and he intends to use it. MacFarlane has survived the lengthiest cancellation of a series that ever returned to broadcast prime time, Fox's ``Family Guy.'' In its first incarnation, it received the usual spate of network-issued indignities, including erratic scheduling, particularly a deadly Thursday time-share back when NBC's Must-See TV bulldozed everything in its path. Best-selling DVDs and a successful resuscitation resuscitation /re·sus·ci·ta·tion/ (-sus?i-ta´shun) restoration to life of one apparently dead. cardiopulmonary resuscitation on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim bloc convinced Fox to return it to its lineup. The titular tit·u·lar adj. 1. Relating to, having the nature of, or constituting a title. 2. a. Existing in name only; nominal: the titular head of the family. b. ``Family Guy'' is Peter Griffin (voiced by MacFarlane), a dumbbell Dumbbell An investment strategy, used mainly for bonds, where holdings are heavily concentrated in both very short and long term maturities. Notes: This is also known as a barbell, charting on a timeline gives the appearance of a barbell or dumbbell. who makes Homer Simpson seem (occasionally) enlightened. Patient wife Lois (Alex Borstein), snarky snark·y adj. snark·i·er, snark·i·est Slang Irritable or short-tempered; irascible. [From dialectal snark, to nag, from snark, snork, to snore, snort teen daughter Meg (Mila Kunis), idiot teen son Chris (Seth Seth, in the Bible Seth, in the Bible, son of Adam and Eve, father of Enosh. In the chronology in the Gospel of St. Luke, Seth is an ancestor of Jesus. The Nag Hammadi codices preserve revelatory discourses ascribed to or allegedly emanating from Seth. Green), sinister infant Stewie (MacFarlane again) and voice-of-reason Brian (and again, MacFarlane), the talking dog, round out his nuclear family. MacFarlane and his writers' approach to comedy is akin to an anarchic paintball paintball Sports medicine A sport in which marble-sized gelatin capsules filled with a nontoxic dye are shot at speeds of 300 kph/200 mph Warning: competition: Gags spray frenetically in all directions in hopes that a few will connect with a satisfying splat See asterisk. 1. splat - Name used in many places (DEC, IBM, and others) for the asterisk ("*") character (ASCII 0101010). This may derive from the "squashed-bug" appearance of the asterisk on many early line printers. 2. . Tonight's return opens with a self-congratulatory joke: Peter announcing to the family that their show has been canceled. He rattles off a rather impressive list of 29 shows Fox has canceled since ``Family Guy'' appeared in prime time. ``If all those shows go down the tubes, we might have a shot'' at returning, Peter deadpans. Had he mentioned all the shows that Fox had announced and never aired - e.g. ``The Grubbs,'' ``The Partner,'' ``Septuplets'' and so on - tonight's episode might never have advanced beyond that first scene. Thereafter, Peter and Lois embark on a botched botch tr.v. botched, botch·ing, botch·es 1. To ruin through clumsiness. 2. To make or perform clumsily; bungle. 3. To repair or mend clumsily. n. 1. second honeymoon that eventually results in their theft of the only print of Mel Gibson's sequel to ``The Passion of the Christ,'' ``Crucify This.'' (There's a reason the show appears in Adult Swim - its highest and lowest gags are decidedly not for kids.) Though Peter vows to preserve the sanctity of ``Jesus and Snoopy and all the other beloved children's characters,'' he's chased by ominous cardinals in scenes parodying ``The Blues Brothers'' and ``North by Northwest''; there are pointed little swipes at ``The Honeymooners'' and ``Two and a Half Men Two and a Half Men is a North American television sitcom centered around a freewheeling bachelor, Charlie, whose carefree lifestyle is interrupted when his newly separated brother, Alan, moves in, along with his son Jake. ,'' as well. ``South Park'' managed an inspired poke at Gibson's film while it was still in theaters, but tonight's ``Family Guy'' resurrects its family-values debate amusingly enough. Its return almost makes ``American Dad,'' which Fox picked up before belatedly renewing ``Family Guy'' and previewed after February's Super Bowl, seem fairly redundant. Stan Smith (again, MacFarlane lends his voice), as steroidally buff as Peter Griffin is beer-bellied - Stan's lantern jaw makes Jay Leno look positively chinless - is a CIA CIA: see Central Intelligence Agency. (1) (Confidentiality Integrity Authentication) The three important concerns with regards to information security. Encryption is used to provide confidentiality (privacy, secrecy). agent who thinks the Patriot Act is the work of the lunatic left. When his wife, Francine (Wendy Schaal) - who's not terribly dissimilar to ``Family Guy's'' Lois - sells the house across the street to two gay TV anchormen, he's offended, only because the ``liberal media'' have insinuated themselves into his rigid enclave. MacFarlane cribs mercilessly from himself in constructing Stan's family: acerbic daughter Hayley (Rachel MacFarlane); loser son Steve (Scott Grimes); and two oddities: Paul Lynde-channeling space alien Roger (yes, you guessed it - MacFarlane) and uber-Deutscher goldfish Klaus (Dee Bradley Baker Dee Bradley Baker was born August 31, 1962 [1] in Indiana. He is an American voice actor for multiple animated television series, as well as video games. Life Baker was born in Indiana. ), who lusts for Francine as much as Stewie loathes Lois. ``American Dad'' trucks in the same politically incorrect gags, pop-culture parodies and bumper-car-random plotting that defines ``Family Guy'' and, of course, the antecedent of both: ``The Simpsons.'' Stan's cluelessness approximates that of Peter Griffin's, only with the potential of a body count. My 15-year-old stepdaughter is a die-hard fan of ``Family Guy,'' but she has yet to embrace ``American Dad,'' mainly because it hasn't done anything to distinguish itself as fiercely fresh. After all, there's cutting-edge, and there's nostalgia, and all of us prefer the first time we got the joke to the time the joke got us. David Kronke, (818) 713-3638 david.kronke(at)dailynews.com FAMILY GUY - Three stars What: Breathtakingly stupid Peter Griffin is resurrected as Seth MacFarlane's original animated comedy returns. Where: Fox (Channel 11). When: 9 tonight. In a nutshell: Scattershot scat·ter·shot adj. Covering a wide range in a random way; indiscriminate: "his habit of scattershot comment on whatever issue catches his eye" Howell Raines. gags connect a little more than they miss; the anarchic attitude remains infectious. AMERICAN DAD - Two stars What: Peter's doppelganger doppelgänger Psychiatry A delusion that a double of a person or place exists elsewhere; it is related to other defects in recognition and suggests organic disease in the nondominant parietal lobe. See Depersonalization disorder, Schizophrenia. , Stan Smith, has a government job, a gun that rarely goes unfired and a very similar family life. Where: Fox (Channel 11). When: 9:30 tonight. In a nutshell: On the heels of ``Family Guy,'' this feels irrelevant. CAPTION(S): 3 photos Photo: (1) ``FAMILY GUY'' (2) ``AMERICAN DAD'' (3) MacFARLANE |
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