Family Guy (DVD)

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Having first aired after the 1999 Super Bowl, Family Guy really hit its stride via cable re-runs and DVD sales (prompting Fox to announce the launch of Season 4 in May 2005, following the show's original cancellation following Season 3). An animated series building a similar cult following to The Simpsons and Futurama, Family Guy employs its own unique brand of humor distinct to its other animated peers…

Family Guy follows the life and exploits of Peter Griffin, an idiotic family man flanked by his intelligent and loving wife, Lois. The couple have two children - Chris (an overweight, mentally challenged teenage boy), Meg (a neurotic teenage girl with low self-esteem), and Stewie (a super-intelligent infant who believes his mother is his enemy). Together, the Griffins live with their human-like dog, Brian, in suburban Quahog, Rhode Island…

Below is a list of episodes and their plot summaries as they appear on the Family Guy (Season 1) DVD:

Episode 1 (Death Has A Shadow) Air Date: 01-31-1999
When Peter mistakenly receives a welfare check for $150,000, he attempts to return the money to taxpayers from a blimp at the Super Bowl.

Episode 2 (I Never Met The Dead Man) Air Date: 04-11-1999
After Peter topples the local cable TV satellite by crashing his car into it, he then drives the family nuts by spending more time with them - without television.

Episode 3 (Chitty Chitty Death Bang) Air Date: 04-18-1999
Meg infuriates Lois by going to a party instead of celebrating Stewie's birthday, and to make matters worse, the party turns out to be a cult meeting.

Episode 4 (Mind Over Murder) Air Date: 04-25-1999
After punching a woman he thought was a man at a soccer game, Peter is placed under house arrest and turns his basement into a bar where Meg becomes an acclaimed lounge singer.

Episode 5 (A Hero Sits Next Door) Air Date: 05-02-1999
Peter gets extremely annoyed when a wheelchair-bound neighbor one-ups him with his winning attitude and slick maneuvers at a company baseball game.

Episode 6 (The Son Also Draws) Air Date: 05-09-1999
Peter takes a wrong turn heading for New York City and winds up at a Native American casino where Lois becomes a slot machine addict.

Episode 7 (Brian: Portrait Of A Dog) Air Date: 05-16-1999
Brian's misbehavior at a dog show temporarily lands him on death row at the pound.

Episode 8 (Peter Peter Caviar Eater) Air Date: 09-23-1999
The solution to making good on a ten million dollar bid Peter makes at a charity auction seems to be donating a mansion Lois just inherited from an aunt - until the building, formerly a whorehouse, is deemed worthless.

Episode 9 (Holy Crap) Air Date 09-30-1999
When Peter's dad is forced to retire, he is hired on at Peter's factory, but the old man quickly creates misery with his autocratic style. Peter's idea for getting him fired again - convince him to kidnap the Pope.

Episode 10 (Da Boom) Air Date 12-26-1999
When worldwide disasters usher in the new millennium, the Griffins relocate to a new town where Peter becomes the weapon-championing leader of the citizens of this new world, who eventually run the family out of town.

Episode 11 (Brian In Love) Air Date 03-07-2000
A therapist tells Brian his carpet-wetting is the result of his repressed feelings for Lois.

Episode 12 (Love Thy Trophy) Air Date 03-14-2000
When Stewie is placed in a foster home because Meg falsely claims he's a crack baby in order to get bigger tips as a waitress, the neighborhood puts aside its differences to get him back.

Episode 13 (Death Is A Bitch) Air Date 03-21-2000
In an attempt to avoid a hospital bill, Peter pretends he's dead, thereby attracting, then trying to outrun, Death. When Peter injures Death in a scuffle, he must temporarily take over Death's unpopular duties.

Episode 14 (The King Is Dead)Air Date 03-28-2000
Peter wrestles control away from Lois during a Quahog Players theatre group production of "The King And I," making the play into a cyborg battle, complete with bikini-clan dancing girls.

Episode 15 (I Am Peter, Hear Me Roar) Air Date: 03-28-2000
Peter's sexist remarks at work land him face-to-face with feminist attorney Gloria Ironbachs, who sends him to a sensitivity training class that makes him too sensitive.

Episode 16 (If I'm Dyin', I'm Lyin') Air Date: 04-04-2000
Peter gets a reputation for being a healer when he "miraculously" cures a made-up disease Chris uses as part of a scam on the "Grant-A-Dream" Foundation.

Episode 17 (Running Mates) Air Date: 04-11-2000
Lois and Peter face off against each other in a bitter run for the school board, culminating in Peter spreading lies and sexy pictures of Lois around town.

Episode 18 (A Picture's Worth A Thousand Bucks) Air Date: 04-18-2000
When Chris's painting is championed by a snobby New York gallery owner who alienates Peter, Peter decides to exploit Meg's bird whistling talents.

Episode 19 (Fifteen Minutes Of Shame) Air Date: 04-25-2000
The Griffins star in a reality television show, but Meg quits, prompting the producers to replace her with a scantily-clad vixen Meg while the real girl becomes a nanny for the Von Trapp children.

Episode 20 (Road To Rhode Island) Air Date: 05-30-2000
Brian goes to California to escort Stewie home from his visit with his grandparents, but the dog's drinking binge results in the two travelers losing their luggage and tickets, prompting them to jump trains and trucks all the way back to Rhode Island.

Episode 21 (Let's Go To The Hop) Air Date: 06-06-2000
When a craze involving frog-licking hits the high school, Peter goes under cover to stop the euphoria-causing trend and winds up as an icon of cool.

Episode 22 (Dammit, Janet!) Air Date: 06-13-2000
Stewie falls in love with a toddler in a day-care named Janet, while Lois, now a stewardess, and Peter, taking advantage of free trips, board a plane that is hijacked to Cuba.

Episode 23 (There's Something About Paulie) Air Date: 06-27-2000
After the mob helps Peter get his car repaired, he and Lois keep trying to avoid repaying the favor. In the process, Lois offends the nephew of the Don and a contract is taken out on her life.

Episode 24 (He's Too Sexy For His Fat) Air Date: 06-27-2000
Although Chris rejects the idea of liposuction in his efforts to lose weight, Peter becomes addicted to plastic surgery.

Episode 25 (E Peterbus Unum) Air Date: 07-12-2000
A technicality allows the Griffin home to secede from the United States as an independent country, but Peter's abrasive behavior towards his neighbors prompts sanctions against "Petoria" by the federal government.

Episode 26 (The Story On Page One) Air Date: 07-18-2000
Meg writes an unflattering newspaper article on Mayor Adam West, which Peter discovers before press time and replaces with an article claiming that actor Luke Perry is gay. Peter than tries to seduce Perry to prove the validity of his article.

Episode 27 (Wasted Talent) Air Date: 07-25-2000
An over-zealous Lois loses a young piano student she chloroforms in order to force-train the girl to win the State Piano Competition, but then discovers that Peter, when inebriated, is a piano-playing genius.

Episode 28 (Fore, Father) Air Date: 08-01-2000
Peter unsuccessfully teaches Chris to be responsible on a camping trip and then on the golf course. Meanwhile, Brian successfully convinces Stewie that booster shots he just received are part of an attempt to control his mind.

Additional Family Guy reviews:

Family Guy (Season 3) DVD

About the Author

Britt Gillette is author of The DVD Report, a movie and television review blog where you can find more reviews just like this one. All of Britt's reviews are available for reprint by other websites under the following Terms of Service.