Reception
Ahsan Haque of IGN called the first season of Family Guy "extremely short but groundbreaking". Haque also named "Brian: Portrait of a Dog" and "I Never Met the Dead Man" as two of the best in the series. In 2008, IGN included Peter's idea of attaching a cardboard cutout of a television set around his waist from "I Never Met the Dead Man" in their list of "Peter Griffin's Top 10 Craziest Ideas". Later in 2009, they included Stewie's plan to freeze broccoli crops from the same episode in their list of "Stewie's Top 10 Most Diabolical Evil Plans". Another IGN editor, Jeremy Conrad, stated: "There aren't many shows on TV that are this sharp, or brave enough to offend everyone on the face of the planet. If you find offensive humor funny, chances are you'll love this show."
David Williams from the DVD Movie Guide gave Volume One of the Family Guy a positive review, saying that the first season did well in introducing the characters of the series; he ended his review as "If you’re a fan of shows like The Simpsons, South Park, Futurama, or Married With Children and enjoy your humor topical, dry, and with tongue firmly planted in cheek, then Family Guy is right up your alley". Aaron Beierle of DVD Talk said at the end of his review, "Often brilliant, extremely witty and darkly hilarious, Family Guy was unfortunately cancelled after Fox bumped it around six or seven different time slots. Fans of the show should definitely pick up this terrific sets, while those who haven't seen it should consider giving it a look. Highly recommended". Josh Wolk of Entertainment Weekly gave volume one a B, saying that "Family Guy Volume One: Seasons 1 & 2 rips through edgy gags, TV references, and fantasy sequences (some of which are hilariously inspired), but Fox's other buffoonish family has none of The Simpsons' heart. As Homer and family have shown, a cartoon doesn't always have to be this cartoonish".
Mixed assessments came from Robin Pierson of The TV Critic, giving the season an overall mixed score of 59 out of 100. Though he praised the series as "a different kind of animated comedy which clearly sets out to do jokes which other cartoons can't do" and found "enough promise to believe the show could become really funny", he criticized the season's "slightly lame collection of flashback jokes." Pierson considered "I Never Met the Dead Man" to be the best episode of the season, and regarded "The Son Also Draws" as the season's poorest. The ending joke of "The Son Also Draws" (which consisted of Peter stating that "Canada sucks"), caused controversy with Canadian viewers. Ken Tucker gave the series a D in Entertainment Weekly, calling the animation clunky, which he said made Hanna-Barbera's animation look like state-of-the-art. He also hoped that smart people would use the Family Guy half hour to turn off the television set and start a debate over the air strikes in Kosovo Combine. The premiere of Family Guy was the Super Bowl XXXIII lead out program, achieving a total of 22.01 million viewers.
Read more about this topic: Family Guy (season 1)
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