"Family Guy" - 2/14/2002 (semi-spoiler)

(crossposted to rec.arts.tv and alt.tv.family-guy)

Is it just me, or was tonight's 8:00 "Family Guy" airing a shameless (albeit hilarious) imitation of the annual "Treehouse of Horror" Halloween episodes of "The Simpsons"?

David Levy

On Thu, 14 Feb 2002 20:34:32 -0500, David Levy wrote:

I think you could make the same type of statement about almost all the episodes of Family Guy. The Simpsons have been on *forever* and they've covered a wide range of material, it would be tough (and foolish to try) to not have any overlap.

Family Guy, although reminiscent of the Simpsons at times, always has something original to deliver and does so with more pizazz than the Simpsons could ever have done. They are/were fundamentally different shows.

Also, MacFarlane has stuck to his homage to 50's WB cartoons that came in shorts and always had different production teams as tonight's episode. Road to Rhode Island and European Road Show were also presented in a similar manner.

Tonight's SuperGriffins short was, of course, similar to the episode of the Simpsons where Lisa and Bart develop super powers, but I liked Family Guy's take on it much better. Meg's super-wonderous ability to grow her finger nails had me laughing out loud. And they didn't pander to the morons by having her fingernails `save the day' as would have happened in the Simpsons. E.g., the only way out of the diabolical trap was to give the evil monster a good back-scratching. I'm *so* glad I didn't see that in tonight's episode.

Bradley "Ow! Is that bleeding? No, I guess it's okay, but that really hurt!"

Don't forget Peter's ability to morph into Mrs. Garrett's cans. I about fell off the couch!

In article , Bradley wrote:

On Fri, 15 Feb 2002 15:03:57 GMT, [email] (Blowfly) wrote:

Actually, the guy's last words were "...OUCH, though!", said with a very catty delivery; loved that line.

I noticed that too. Personally, I kinda wonder about the use of the 3 episodes per half-hour in this case. I've once heard that when FOX was in talks with Groening about The Simpsons, one thought was to do that show that way, since they didn't know how well the show could do otherwise.

I personally thought it would've been dumb if they went the Simpsons ToH route and had Meg's nails sliced that guy's arm clean off in that case. Just glad they've didn't go there. FG likes to play with the conventions that we all have come to know from other cartoons.

That made me laugh, especially when Peter (as a dinosaur) slaps Meg with his tail onc ehe leaves the hall. The only thing missing by the end of this episode is one of those cute little musical riffs like I usually hear in these action shows. Funny how abrupt these commercial breaks are these days. It's getting so I don't know if the show's on or not.

Domo Arigatoo to Sayonara!

On Thu, 14 Feb 2002 20:34:32 -0500, David Levy wrote:

I dunno, but I have to admit that the haunted house "Scoobidoo" scene had me completely floored. Haven't laughed that hard in a while.

Allen

On Fri, Feb 15, 2002, 4:50pm (EST+5), [email] (Allen the Magic Goose) wrote:

The whole "Li'l Griffens" segment pretty much had me floored already. Kinda reminded me of a good idea for a parody comic I wanted to do of the Little Rascals personally (funny they didn't give Cleveland that accent as Buckwheat had, but that was O-tay!).

Domo Arigatoo to Sayonara!