Seth Macfarlane fights back against "The Simpsons Vs. Family Guy" Feud

Zero-V

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Style 92 said:
I'm not sure I know what your saying, especially when I stated that those were just my opinions. But I'll reiterate: Those are just my opinions, and you're free to disagree.
When you said "Neither is true", you kind of implied you were treating it like fact in general, thanks for correcting me.
 

Majin Buu

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simpspin said:
The meanest slam at Family Guy, IMO, on the Simpsons was from the episode "The Wandering Juvie" (the episode where Bart and Gina Vendetti are on the run) and when they're rolling around, choking eachother:

BART: Future skank!
GINA: Family guy!
o_O How is that mean? In the context of the episode, Gina called him that because he had a family, and she didn't. I mean, sure, it might be a small reference to the show, but certainly it isn't their "meanest" slam.
 

Underdunkt

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Fone Bone said:
I think you've hit the nail on the head as to why many of us think The Simpsons producers should be more civil: they've said their piece, they should move on. It's one thing to spell out once that don't appreciate Family Guy ripping off the Simpsons, but to do it over and over again during episodes and commentaries just smells of sour grapes. They do it so much, I no longer take anything they say about the situation seriously. They need to let it go and move on. Despite initially being a lot like the Simpsons Family Guy has evolved into something completely different. I wish the writers would stop being so petty. Note they only did the Dinosaurs slam ONCE.

As for Al Jean learning class, well it's not only the Family Guy thing that makes me say this. After Harry Shearer took a wry jab at recent Simpsons episodes Jean essentially called him out saying he thought some of the best Simpson episodes were stupid back in the day and that he never shows up for work on time. Honestly, alienating the core cast of your show ESPECIALLY when the show would be prohibitively costly to replace them is not only in bad taste, it's stupid. When I say Al Jean needs to grow up and get some class it ISN'T just because I am defending Family Guy.
Understandable. On the Jean/Shearer thing though I will note that some of Shearer's comments in the press were taken out of context and hyped up in the way they were published, so it made it look like Shearer was directly attacking Jean's work basically. Even though he really wasn't as far as I know/can tell, it gave off that impression and it's understandable that Jean would be peeved, especcially since I get the impression from his comments that he had had some big problems with Shearer in the past. His hasty respones were bad decision making on his part though, no doubt.

As for why they persist in attacking Family Guy, there's a few possible reasons that might explain it. One would be Jaime's explanation; that they think it's simply a poorly crafted show and dislike it when poorly crafted shows get lots of attention. Especcially being an animated show, I can see why they might want to after another animated show (and another one on the same network, no less) that they think is really bad. Another might have to do with the amount of criticism they've gotten over the years. "Dinosaurs"....hardly anyone even really cared much about that, and that parody was done before the venom started to really pour in from the fans. On the other hand, they've been getting a lot of criticism from fans since season four, and it's only gotten worse. Where FG fits in to that is that it's a show specifically compared to The Simpsons a lot, and specifically has often been cited by some people as being better then The Simpsons in the last few years. This has to be a little annoying, especcially if they (again) feel that it's a poorly done show, and derivative of them to boot (akin to my example of someone else's plagerized term paper being cited as better the one it ripped off). It didn't happen with "Dinosaurs", but it's certainly happened with FG. One last thing might be the issue of Matt Groening's Futurama. One thing some of the people who regularly say that "Fox sucks for cancelling Family Guy" forgot is that, some mistakes aside (mostly pitting it against Friends and Survivor in it's first return season) is that it actually got quite a bit of support from Fox at the beginning, and to the detriment of the other animated shows they were premiering at the time, The P.J.s and (of course) Futurama. There may be a certain bitterness that Futurama was originally to hold the spot after The Simpsons, and to be the focally supported Simpsons successor, but Fox instead shifted gears and gave more support to Family Guy, including the Sunday spot. This arguably hurt Futurama's start and probably helped lead to it's eventual death. (I base this, actually, on a direct quote from Simpsons writer Matt Selman, who once said something like "Futurama was really brilliant. But Fox put all their support beind 'Family Guy', which was this horrible bizzarro version of The Simpsons. And here they had this really brilliant show and they just flush it down the toilet"). So any of those reasons might explain why they've been more persistent, whereas "Dinosaurs" they ultimately left alone (plus that show was cancelled quickly enough that it wasn't a concern, whereas Family Guy keeps popping back up....)

The Simpsons aren't the only ones out in 'toon land to attack Family Guy by the way. The "South Park" (a show people from The Simpsons often praise, by the way) creators expressed how much they despise it in a pretty recent interview (Interviewer: "What's the meanest thing anyone's every said to you after a show?" Matt Stone: "'You guys do one of the best shows on tv. You and Family Guy'. God that *&%$ing hurts so much." Trey Parker: "Yeah, well said. It's such a kick in the balls."). I've also noticed some comments from animators at the studio Rough Draft, on their forum, that come off as less then positive about McFarlane in general.
Edit: Happy Birthday Underdunkt! Hope it's a great one!
Thanks! Off topic, but it was a good one.
 

Fone Bone

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Spongebrain2.0 said:
Hold on a minute.........AHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA...wait, wait, let me read it again.....phmph...hmp.......AHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHA, sorry I can't help it:p
While I certainly don't agree with ALL of Jaime's post it was certainly well thought out and crafted. Treating it as a LOLOLOMG!!1! post is rather insulting.

Spongerbrain, you have to understand something about my previous gripes that Family Guy offers no subtext or deeper meaning and why it is CRUCIAL to it's long term success: Family Guy's humor is NOT the kind of thing everyone will find funny. People have a lot of different senses of humor and while purposely dumb jokes and pop culture references are enough to make SOME people laugh, it isn't enough for EVERYONE. ESPECIALLY those who don't appreciate that kind of humor.

Why am I saying this? Because if someone doesn't find Family Guy funny, it IS a rather worthless and appalling show. The characters are unlikable, the character designs are uninteresting, and the stories pacing and plotting aren't very good. If I didn't find it funny, not only would I not WATCH the show, I'd loathe it. People dismissively saying that they only watch the show to laugh and if someone is looking for anything else they are wasting their time are damning the show more than they realize. If someone does not find Family Guy funny (and there ARE no rights and wrongs in senses of humor) they will more than likely just hate the show. FG has enough internet fans now, but what happens to it when the general public (who OFTEN have very different tastes than those on the internet) keeps seeing that same jokes about the chicken fight or the greased up deaf guy? Unlike internet fans the general public is MUCH less likely to stick with a show just so they can criticize it. And once regular people are tired of Family Guy, Fox will cancel it again. I'd LIKE it to last for the nine seasons that Seth wants. But it isn't a sure thing.

One of the reasons I love The Simpsons (yes, even the new ones) is that EVERY single episode has something in it that I find funny, creative, cool or that I just plain like. It has a MUCH worse batting average nowadays than in the golden years but even the worst episode, with VERY few exceptions I find something in it that makes me glad I spent a half hour with the show, be it character development, voice acting, freeze frame gags, or just Homer being stupid. Any episode of Family Guy that I don't find funny, (and there are more of them than it's defenders would have you believe) I find an utter waste of my time and utter trash. And despite what the internet would have you believe, I doubt I'm the only one who feels this way.
 

Zero-V

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SirLemming said:
My question is, why "animals" and not just "things"? But that's society's fault, not yours.
Because on the Internet, singular opinion often prefers to eat others' up without considering them?;)
 

Spongebrain2.0

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Underdunkt said:
The Simpsons aren't the only ones out in 'toon land to attack Family Guy by the way. The "South Park" (a show people from The Simpsons often praise, by the way) creators expressed how much they despise it in a pretty recent interview (Interviewer: "What's the meanest thing anyone's every said to you after a show?" Matt Stone: "'You guys do one of the best shows on tv. You and Family Guy'. God that *&%$ing hurts so much." Trey Parker: "Yeah, well said. It's such a kick in the balls."). .

I HIGHLY doubt Trey & Matt said that, ON SPS, they've been said to have actually been fans of Family Guy. And on IMDb.com, it says Seth Macfarlane was supposed to guest star on South Park a while back
 

Spongebrain2.0

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Jaime_Weinman said:
The interview where Parker and Stone bash Family Guy is here.

I'd take that interview not very seriously. They sounded very jokey during the whole thing. It seems odd they'd say that about FG when Seth was scheduled to voice someone on the show, but had to back out. I coulda sworn someone on the SPS BBS said in some FAQ that Trey & Matt love the show & own the DVDs, eh. But Trey also said in the documentary "Goin Down to South Park", he said something like "Eff You Mom", he said very explicit things about his mother, so I wouldn't take Trey & Matt that serious at times;)
 

Underdunkt

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SPS's FAQ shows nothing of that sort (based on a quick search of FG's title). IMDB, though most certainly an excellent site, frequently has innacurate infortmation due to people from all over the internet submitting things. And in that interview Matt and Trey don't come off as joking (and that "Goin' Down to South Park" thing was pretty much made not to have any serious comments from them, but in most interviews, including this one, they don't talk like they did in that one, or make many jokes). So I think it's fair to say they don't care for FG.
 

Stewie

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Seeing what people have to say about Futurama (especially when compared to Family Guy) makes me feel like I'm being lectured. You'd think Family Guy caused an earthquake but Futurama saved us by flying around the Earth making us go back in time.
Family Guy is funny, usually. That's all. Futurama, while very very good, isn't the pinnacle of human creation.

"Futurama was more than just a show, man. It meant something. When Fry got rejected by Leela, I could feel his pain. And every time Bender said "Bite my shiny metal ass" he was standing up for the robot in all of us."

But none of this matters. All that matters is The Simpsons feud against Family Guy. And either side that wants to feud is stupid.
If The Simpsons people want to waste time moaning about someone else's show, fine. My attention will just wander during that part of the commentary. But if they focused on making a good show 1. They wouldn't be such hypocrites and 2. I would be able to watch The Simpsons and laugh.
And The Simpsons didn't invent the idea of two parents, a few kids, and a dog. That was a cliche decades ago. A nuclear family. Oh my, traditional conventions turned upside down! If they want to blame Family Guy for something, blame them for the fact that The Simpsons hasn't had more than a few good episodes since before Family Guy was on the air.
As for the South Park guys, whether or not they're serious doesn't matter. They're idiots.
 

Jave

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Spongebrain 2.0 said:
YES! I hate it when people say TS did FG-Style Cutaways, because guess what...THEY NEVER DID!
The Simpsons used (and still use) cutaway gags A LOT, except that for the most part (if not all of them) they weren't flashbacks.

I'm not saying FG ripped it off from The Simpsons, I'm saying it's not a particular style of humor restricted to one cartoon.
 

Spongebrain2.0

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Stewie said:
Seeing what people have to say about Futurama (especially when compared to Family Guy) makes me feel like I'm being lectured. You'd think Family Guy caused an earthquake but Futurama saved us by flying around the Earth making us go back in time.
Family Guy is funny, usually. That's all. Futurama, while very very good, isn't the pinnacle of human creation.

"Futurama was more than just a show, man. It meant something. When Fry got rejected by Leela, I could feel his pain. And every time Bender said "Bite my shiny metal ass" he was standing up for the robot in all of us."

Yeah, I love Futurama, but it is Overrated hugely. There's people who act like it is the animated equivalent of God
 

Fone Bone

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Spongebrain2.0 said:
Yeah, I love Futurama, but it is Overrated hugely. There's people who act like it is the animated equivalent of God
Wow, Spongebrain I thought the revelation that Matt and Trey hate Family Guy would melt your brain. Which franchise do you have a bigger loyalty to? Just askin'.

Runs off to the Entertainment Board to create new thread.
 

Style

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PowerZord said:
Actually, I don't see FG lasting more than two years, if the movie bombs
I haven't been watching the new eps, but I think I'll still pick up the DTV. Mostly, because I wanna see Family Guy with Hardcore cussing and Animated Nudity. Why? Do you really need to ask?
 

FlooterFlatter

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I'm not sure about Family Guy. The show was cancelled twice by Fox (first time between season 2 and 3 and the other between season 3 and 4) and it might come back again if cancelled anyway.

Now, I don't think "American Dad", while a great show, lasting. I know it will be cancelled when President Bush leaves office or the terrorisim dies down.
 

Spongebrain2.0

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Family Guy will last, it has been in the Top 25 two weeks in a row now, even more surprising is that ratings actually have gotten BETTER, the past two weeks have seen an upward trend in ratings:)
 

PowerZord

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Spongebrain2.0 said:
Family Guy will last, it has been in the Top 25 two weeks in a row now, even more surprising is that ratings actually have gotten BETTER, the past two weeks have seen an upward trend in ratings:)

Show me some links with official reliable ratings report, plus comments
 

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