Review of Family Guy Season 1

Introduction

The first series of Family Guy ran for only seven episodes, and then got cancelled. But it was brought back to life again after some executive had their sense of humour bypass operation reversed. So what we get on this disc are those original seven episodes, plus a further seven episodes from the second series to make up what this disc describes as "Season 1".

Incidentally, there have been quite a few reports of players locking up with these discs - both discs played fine all the way through on my DVD player - others may not be so lucky.

Here are the episodes that you get, spread across 2 discs:-

Death Has a Shadow

We meet the main characters, as Peter gets drunk at a stag party, defying wife Lois. He gets fired for being drunk and then gets a huge benefit cheque. Who needs to go to work anyway....

I Never Met the Dead Man

While teaching daughter Meg to drive, Peter crashes into a satellite dish and knocks out the cable TV feed for the whole town. Stewie attempts to destroy all of the vegetables in the world...

Mind Over Murder

When Peter goes to a football match, he punches a woman he thought was a man. After being placed under house arrest he turns the cellar into a swinging bar. Stewie attempts to create a time machine.

Chitty Chitty Death Bang

It`s Stewie`s first birthday, and Lois wants a special party. Peter accidentally cancels it. Meg wants to be popular, and joins a suicide cult.

A Hero Sits Next Door

Peter is annoyed by his heroic new neighbour and attempts to prove that he is more heroic than him with a daring attempt to foil a robbery.

The Son Also Draws

Chris is kicked out of Scouts, so the family must go to New York to get him back in. However they end up at a casino run by Red Indians...

Brian: Portrait of a Dog

Brian loses his last shred of dignity at a dog show and leaves the family to start a new life. Not everything goes as planned...

Peter Peter Caviar Eater

The family inherit a mansion from one of Lois` relatives and start to enjoy the high life. However, Peter gets carried away and runs into money problems.

Running Mates

Lois wants to be president of the school board, but Peter also wants the title. Stewie wants Lois to win so that he can be home alone. Peter plays dirty in order to win.

Holy Crap

Peter`s father is forced into retirement, and comes to spend time with the family. Once again, the plan backfires....

If I`m Dyin`, I`m Lyin`

Peter cons a "Jim`ll Fix It" type foundation into believing that Chris is dying, just so that he can get more episodes of his favourite TV show. The show returns but Chris doesn`t die as Peter miraculously cures him. Someone up in the heavens isn`t too pleased by this new healer though....

Love Thy Trophy

After winning "best float" in a parade, the street fight over the trophy. Meg needs money for a Prada handbag, and takes a waitressing job. When she mentions that Stewie is her child (and addicted to crack), she gets big tips. However, Stewie gets taken to a foster home...

Death is a Bitch

Death (Stewie`s hero) visits the Griffins to kill Peter, but gets injured in the process. Peter must do his job for him while he recovers. Will Peter abuse his new position?

The King is Dead

A local production of The King and I causes more friction in the Griffin family, as Peter and Lois battle for control of the show. Who will win and what will the end result be?

Video

A standard 4:3 transfer, as you would expect for an animated TV series. Everything looks good, with the colour palette looking fine and contrast levels also looking good.

There are one or two artefacts lying around but on the whole it all looks very good and very watchable.

Audio

A lot of press releases claimed that there was a DD5.1 soundtrack on this disc - but it is in fact just DD2.0 stereo. I don`t think we`ve really lost much by not having a DD5.1 track as the programme doesn`t really call for it.

The audio is perfect for the most part, but I did note a few instances in episode 6 where it did sound a little tinny and over-compressed. These were only brief though.

Features

Unfortunately not a single thing, which is the only bad thing about this 2-disc set.

Conclusion

Family Guy is an excellent series, and the 14 episodes that you get here are very funny indeed. And more importantly, they are uncut - if you`ve watched the show on TV you`ve missed some great jokes that have been cut out so that the programme can be shown before the watershed. And it`s clearly not a programme for children, despite the fact that it`s animated. Some of the jokes are very near-the-mark indeed.

My favourite character has to be Stewie, the evil child genius who is always plotting and inventing. I also like the Channel 5 newsreaders who get some of the best lines. I`d like to share them with you but I don`t want to spoil them.

This disc is good from an audio/visual point of view, it`s just a damn shame that there aren`t any extras. However, the quality of the episodes is so good that you shouldn`t be put off by this lack of extras. Buy it and prepare to laugh long and hard.

Recommended for anyone who likes to laugh.