Author: HQH
Released: June 24, 2004
Updated: N/A
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Family Guy DVD Volume 1 contains two seasons of aired Family Guy episodes (first and second seasons). The first season only
contains 7 episodes, while second season contains a full blown 21 episodes. Volume 1 packs in a total of 28 episodes from season
one and two. The reason for season one's lack of plethora episodes is because Family Guy started airing late in a regular TV show
season. Family Guy aired right after Super Bowl XXXIII on January 31, 1999 on FOX.
Watching all 28 episodes from season one and two were entertaining. I don't really have a favorite episode from Volume 1. They
were all interesting from different story lines one episode after another. Each episode isn't a re-hash in jokes as far as I can tell
when I watched them. Plenty of new humor to laugh at. Sadly, this review from me isn't going to include reviews of each individual
episodes from season one and two. If you're looking for reviews of each individual episodes, you're looking at the wrong
place, as you can find what you might be looking for here.
I felt that Family Guy DVD Volume 1 lacked bonus feature incentives. I felt that it can use a lot more work to be put into the
bonus features. It all boils down that it's sort of lame. So let's get started on why I feel it's half-@$$ work on the bonus
features:
First up is the commentaries. Sure, the DVD box says, "Commentaries on Selected Episodes With Series Creator Seth MacFarlane,
Executive Producer David Zuckerman, Writers And Cast Members". What that means is that there are only two commentaries per DVD disc.
Since Family Guy DVD Volume 1 comes in 4 DVD discs, that equates to 8 episodes that have commentaries on in Family Guy DVD Volume 1.
Okay, a little weak on commentaries abundance. So let's move on to the commentaries itself. Pathetic. The commentaries itself needs
major help. Half of the time, it's silence. Not that hearing nothing from the people (not the cartoon characters) talk, but I'm
pretty sure instead of silence, they can fill up the silence by talking about the gags and jokes they employed into the episodes
or even the ideas of the scenes. Some of the scenes can use some explanation to help viewers understand what is happening. As the
creators put it, a lot of the gags are tuned to the "one-percenter" viewers who would understand the jokes. Helps to explain these
jokes. I must admit that I understand some of the jokes in Family Guy, but not all. Some jokes that I don't understand, I'm like,
what the heck? I don't get it. Sounds stupid.
Internet promo spots. Nothing great about it. Just advertisements about Family Guy. Great for collections, but not something
big and special. I find this a standard to include in a DVD compilation.
Behind the scenes featurette. Too short and lame in my opinion. I don't even need a stop watch to even time how short it is. And
the interesting factor sucked. It was padded with a lot of short clips from Family Guy episodes. Not enough of behind the scenes to
even qualify behind the scenes in my opinion. Shortly lived behind the scenes. When you see it, you will know what I'm talking
about.
That's it. How lame. The bonus section of Family Guy DVD Volume 1 gets a lame rating from me. Needs more work put into it. I
appreciate what's given on the DVD as bonus, but truth is, it can be done better. It feels more like padding in fillers into
the bonuses, doing a half-@$$ job of it, to make it lengthy enough so that it isn't too short. Missing bonuses that should be
included would be something like deleted scenes, interviews with the casts, outrageous takes, etc. You know, those real extras that
can be found from great DVD movies and make it worth the money to own the collection.
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The second DVD volume of Family Guy contained the third and final season of Family Guy before the show got cancelled. The third
season contains 21 episodes plus an episode that got canned at the last moment before being released due to its crude and cruel
humor, bringing it to a total of 22 episodes for the third season.
Of the 22 episodes that I watched through from season three, I have a favorite episode. It is Lethal Weapons (episode 7). I
enjoyed that episode because Lois earned the ability of martial arts from training and started to abuse it. Also the episode had
the entire family fighting each other in the end. It was hilarious. I just love fighting scenes in Family Guy, and Lethal Weapons
just did the trick. As mentioned in Volume 1 review, this review (Volume 2) from me isn't going to include reviews of each
individual episodes from season three. If you're looking for reviews of each individual episodes, you're looking at the wrong
place, as you can find what you might be looking for here.
So, how does Volume 2's bonus features compare to Volume 1's bonus features? Improved. What we get from Volume 2's are: unaired
episode, commentaries, deleted scenes, early developed pilot episode, and two featurettes: Uncensored and Series Overview. Now
that's more like it. Let's start with the first bonus feature from Volume 2.
The never before seen episode that wasn't aired on FOX (however aired on a different network that ran Family Guy - Cartoon
Network), titled, "When You Wish Upon A Weinstein". This episode, I felt that it dedicated an entire episode just to poke fun of
Jews and then Catholics in the mix as well. But the main theme was about Jews. It was entertaining. Plan on getting offended if
you're Jewish or Catholic, but just remember that this is a cartoon and it only serves as entertainment.
Commentaries. Nothing improved over Volume 1. Same selected episodes condition, same old silence techniques. I believe that
from one of the commentaries in Volume 2 (if it wasn't, then Volume 1), one person says that there wasn't really a wrong or right
way to do commentaries. I'd beg to differ, as there is a good and bad way to do it. Not to mention that cell phones going off during
commentaries is just pathetic. Just turn off the cell phone or put it on vibrate.
Deleted scenes. I find a lot of them, well, thank goodness they were cut from the episodes. A lot of them were stupid. I wanted
to see a lot of deleted scenes that involved censorship that were talked about in the commentaries. Volume 2 provides 28 deleted
scenes from various episodes. They are shown in black and white animation (draft animation type), and contains voices. No colors.
Original series pitch (cut-down of pilot episode). Oh my gosh. This is one interesting bonus feature. Let's just say that good
thing Family Guy does not end up looking like how it is in this short clip of animated pilot (first) episode. Let me tell you, this
short showing of the pilot episode back in its early development days looked fruity, ghetto, and down right fugly. Thank goodness
that the current Family Guy animation looks well refined compared to the early days as shown in this bonus feature. To even start,
the Family Guy title was fruity. Plain simple, eye-sore view. Good thing they dropped the fruity looking title and just went with
an all blue coloring of Family Guy. This bonus feature is a good one to laugh at and point at the early days of Family Guy
animation. Gosh it looks so hideous. To make a point, I have took two snapshots: one that shows how fruity the title of Family Guy
was designed and the other the family's early design:
Comparing the early design of Family Guy from the picture above with the current Family Guy pictured below (DVD Volume 1 cover
scan), thank goodness Family Guy was refined to look better. Especially the Family Guy title. The old design should be titled
"Fruitcake Guy". Gosh, the silly color scheme is so fruity. Also, if you noticed, Lois got a hair color change from being a blonde
to being a red head. I got to hand it to them, that Lois looks much better being a red head than being a blonde.
The two featurettes: The first (Uncensored) was shortly produced for viewing. Nothing exciting from the first featurette. Needs
more work and longer segment. I'm pretty sure that Family Guy suffered through a lot of censorship, based on the jokes Family Guy
pulls. Sadly, following Volume 1's behind the scenes featurette style, the first featurette film rehashes a lot of short clips from
past episodes to pad the length. So so length on commenting about the censorship. The second featurette (Series Overview) however,
is the style I would like to be applied to the other lame featurettes. That's something I enjoy watching, because the focus is
about the topic, and not just displaying too many short clips and less talking. There's a balance between hashing short clips and
talking.
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Getting the complete set of Family Guy's lifespan of three seasons on DVDs is a decent entertainment value. It's not the most
funniest cartoon shows out there, but there are moments in the show that will make you laugh, provided that you do not get offended
by the gags, jokes, humor, and the action that takes place (e.g. Stewie vs. Lois). The humor is at times, crude and cruel. Some of
the scenes in the show are stupid, other times great, the remaining are generally awkward.
The beneficial reasons for watching Family Guy on DVD is that the quality of each episode isn't displayed like crap from analog
broadcasting to TVs. Each episodes are vividly displayed colorfully. I surfed on the Internet, and I see captured shots of the show
from the broadcast version, and gosh it sucks compared to the DVD quality. The other beneficial factor is: no commercials!
The value of owning Family Guy DVDs for extras is not that incentive. Family Guy DVD Volume 1 lacked loads of extras. Family Guy
DVD Volume 2 however, improves on Volume 1's insufficient set of extras. But overall, I'm pretty sure a lot of other extras can
be included, like more commentaries on the rest of the episodes, tour of their studio and casts, etc... They need to work on the
bonus features and make it worth the money and time. The bonus features lack intriguing values from each volume.
I do however, enjoy the cartoon. I'm not the only one who enjoyed Family Guy, as many other people who've bought volume 1 &
2 enjoyed it too. As a matter of fact, because of great sales of Family Guy DVDs (and good ratings on TVs running reruns of Family
Guy), Family Guy is coming back for a fourth season, emerging from a cancellation after the third season. You don't see this
happening quite often for shows that got cancelled and later brought back due to popular demands. I'll be awaiting for the fourth
season of Family Guy. What I enjoyed from Family guy the most is the character I like the most from Family Guy is Stewie, the 1 year
old bent on world domination. I love his intelligent remarks. Smart and witty. He's also funny looking, with his head that looks
like a football.
Well, this is my take on Family Guy DVD Volume 1 & 2. I would recommend getting the sets, provided that they don't cost too
much. $40 per volume is asking for too much. I would believe the cost should be a lot less. $30 should be a good pricing level. I
also hope that you have a weird sense of humor and that you don't get offended easily, as Family Guy employs a lot of crude and
cruel acts.
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