Family Guy Season 1 Was Freakin' Sweet

I obviously cover a lot of adult animated comedies here on my channel, and while I HAVE gotten a lot of requests for it, one that I’ve never really touched is Family Guy. And while the show does tend to have a bit of a bad reputation, and a LOT of haters, there’s one thing that cannot be denied: it is POPULAR, it apparently was the single most watched series on Hulu in 2022, and the series is now 21 seasons deep with no signs of stopping. Now when I was younger, I was a HUGE Family Guy fan, especially those first 3 seasons pre-revival. And so last year for my podcast I went back and revisited the very first season, truthfully expecting it to have aged very poorly. But honestly? Family Guy season 1 MOSTLY held up! And not only that, every episode had an intrinsically sweet quality that I think the series has moved away from over the last 20 years. So today I wanted to take a trip down memory lane and talk about why I think the first season of Family Guy is pretty freakin’ sweet.

Edited by Joe Murphy
Shout out to @ToonrificTariq for letting me steal part of his video

Music:
Johnny 2 Cellos Theme Music - Norman Marston

Video Used:
Family Guy (1999-2023)
King of the Hill
Futurama
The Simpsons
The Life of Larry
Larry and Steve
MadTV

Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted.

[terencemcfadden]

It’s crazy how different the pre cancellation seasons feel. It actually can be sweet and wholesome. Also as a bonus the cutaways were just more memorable in my opinion.

[coboby]

Something I like about early Stewie is how his evil plans almost always had something to do with him being a little kid. He wasn’t just doing random evil things, he was specifically trying to destroy broccoli or get a toy back, or it had to do with him being scared of the doctor. These are things real little kids might do if they were evil geniuses. He was evil, but they leaned into the childish side of it more than I think a lot of people remember.

[TealOpal]

I've always been a strong advocate for the "Early Family Guy is best Family Guy" camp. It's got such a quaint, almost innocent sense of humor and perspective compared to the later stuff. It's really nice.

[trinaq]

I really miss the days when Peter actually cared about his family, especially Meg, to the point where he'd infiltrate a high school to help her, instead of treating her as a walking punchline.

[LiShuBen]

The old family guy was great in part because the family actually loved each other and did their best to support each other despite their shortcomings. It seems like most of the characters noe don't like each other (including Peter's friends) and take every opportunity to be as cruel as possible to each other. The major exceptions being "road to" episodes and when characters are being cruel to others together and bonding over the joy they get from inflicting that cruelty.

[crumblyairship]

i binged season 1 of Family Guy recently and i've never enjoyed watching Family Guy so much in my life

[TotallyNotUni]

I love the native vision quest, as a native myself I still find it funny, and love the Fonz being his spirit animal goes back to the whole "Peter being raised by sitcoms" thing, I love it.

[nict]

Family guy season 1-3 was perfect television. One of the biggest reasons was because the cutaway gags flowed so smoothly, as Johnny pointed out. Also, the characters were likable.

[FalconsEye]

The animation of the early seasons also seemed much more vibrant and lively

[katelyn.l]

several years ago i was recovering from a procedure and decided to watch family guy from the beginning. i had never liked it growing up and i wanted to try to understand why so many people love it. I was shocked how charming those first three seasons were and it really helped me understand why it has a following to this day, despite a considerable shift in tone and style.

[brikdom]

All the episodes before Seth stopped writing are great because Seth actually cared about the identity of the characters and kept them consistent

[mushroomsalad]

evil stewie was SUCH a good addition to the show back then. i think some people say it's ungrounded or something, but personally the balance of the baby (who usually is never an interesting character in a show) being the outlandish almost comic relief while the rest of the family has actual struggles was a really good way to have it work
(not to mention nobody EVER mentions how good the storylines connected in the stewie's first birthday episode, the shot of stewie shooting the man he presumes to be the doctor saying "it's a boy!" is one of the best jokes ever)

[colleenlord]

Wow! It wasn’t just Peter ripping on Meg the entire episode! How refreshing! 😱

[Robbie_Haruna]

Seasons 1-3 of Family Guy is so different compared to everything after, and it's amazing for it.

[Mariohenri]

I always loved the early 3 seasons of Family Guy. After season 3 that's when you notice how they cut down on the animation for the characters. Also the characters were more lovable and Lois acted like a normal mom.

[FantasticMrFoot-hhzp]

Peter in season one was like frosty the snowman, a big innocent goofball. They even have similar voices lol.

[zoeb]

"Today means nothing if Meg isn't here" WOW. This is so strange to hear after all the recent seasons where everyone treats Meg like absolute garbage

[camilogarciaylasaari]

Considering Dan Povenmire worked on early Family Guy, I wonder if he picked up Doofenschmirtz's inventions affecting the main plot from Stewie

[thatpersonyouknow]

The lightheartedness that early Family guy shows is similar to how early American dad was with Stan learning different values at the end of episodes and what I love about Seth McFarlane is that those values stay throughout the series

[birdlegscass]

the way you described stewie's inventions often affecting the plot from afar brought phineas and ferb to mind, which really isn't that surprising since dan povenmire worked on the show