How Has Family Guy Changed?

It's hard to imagine there's someone out there who hasn't seen at least one episode of Family Guy. The show has been on for almost 19 years and shows no signs of slowing down. When the show premiered after Super Bowl XXXIII in 1999, no one thought it would reach such monumental status. Family Guy is also a rare example of a show being brought back after cancellation due to highly rated reruns and DVD sales. Since its revival, Family Guy has received fairly stable ratings. While the ratings may not have changed much, the show certainly has. Naturally when a show is on for so long it will go through progressions, but this is different. It's not just that Family Guy has changed a character, a story line, or even a theme; there is a fundamental difference between Family Guy from 1999 and Family Guy from 2017.

What are these differences?

Joke Structure

The way Family Guy currently structures jokes is different than the way it did when it first premiered. Family Guy has always relied on cutaway gags as their style of humor. Cutaway gags are a great way of inserting jokes that wouldn't normally fit into the plot. However, the style and frequency of the cutaway gag has changed over time. I compared three separate episodes of Family Guy, 1 from season 2 (before the first cancellation), 1 from season 4 (the first episode it was renewed), and 1 from season 14 (the newest I could find on Netflix.) The breakdown is as follows:

Season 2 Episode 1

• In-Episode Jokes: 42
• Cutaways: 8

Season 4 Episode 1

• In-Episode Jokes: 31
• Cutaways: 13

Season 14 Episode 1

• In-Episode Jokes: 26
• Cutaways: 16

There is a clear trend here. Family Guy used to balance out their jokes with cutaways. The main characters were constantly telling jokes or snappy one liners and the cutaways elevated that. As the series went on, the jokes decreased and the cutaways increased. The cutaways also typically take longer, so that minimizes the amount of time they have to insert more jokes within the episode.

Not only has the quantity of cutaways changed over the years, but the way they're introduced has changed as well. Look how seamlessly these cutaways are set up.

And now look how forced these cutaways feel by comparison.

The jokes used to flow seamlessly into the cutaways, but now they're so disjointed that it almost takes away from the show. I also think the cutaways used to be funnier, but that's just my personal opinion.

Personalities

The personality traits of the Griffins have also changed over the years. I'm sure many people have seen this picture which illustrates that point:

At the beginning, the family balanced each other very well. Peter was the main character getting into trouble and Lois or Brian would help him out of it. There was usually a side plot involving one of the kids, but everyone pretty much stayed within their lane. As the years went on, these lines got blurred, the characters basically became caricatures of themselves. The change in personality also led to a change within the group dynamic. At the beginning, Peter and Brian were best friends and Brian was there to fix Peter's screw-ups. As the series progressed, Brian and Stewie became the best friend pairing. But Brian can't be the voice of reason for Stewie because Stewie doesn't need one. This led to Brian becoming the annoying pseudo-smart liberal character he is now. The original personality traits all worked together, but now they clash. That's why a lot of the episodes feature either Brian and Stewie, or Peter and his friends, or Meg and Chris. It's rare you get an episode that has the whole family interact for an extended period of time, because now they clash.

Family Dynamic

To me, this is the most notable change in Family Guy. At the beginning, the show was about a family of screw-ups, but at the end of the day, they loved each other. Now they borderline hate each other and that can be felt. There was something charming about watching a family that stuck together no matter how bad things got. Countless episodes were about Peter screwing up and Lois getting mad, but it always ended in them saying how much they loved each other. Now the whole family hates each other and because of that, the show has lost its charm.

Now I understand that a show can't stay the same for 20 years. Things change and characters evolve, in fact I don't think the show would still be on the air if it didn't adapt. It's worth mentioning that some of these changes are good. Stewie and Brian make a more dynamic pair than Peter and Brian did, and the show has done a great job expanding some of their minor characters. But it's become so formulaic that you can almost predict the episodes, and the appeal of the original show is gone.