On September 15, 2011, Family Guy held midnight viewings in ten different cities to celebrate its 10th anniversary, entitled the “Something, Something, Something Anniversary” Screening event. When the e-mail came through, I leapt on it. I had spent the past couple days watching repeats of Family Guy’s Star Wars parody, which I felt deserved a theatrical release. I assumed the “Something, Something, Something Anniversary” Screening would feature an epic quality show similar to the Star Wars episodes. It didn’t, but it made me realize Family Guy’s one-line side humor is better suited to the small than the big screen, but that isn’t a bad thing.
The screening featured a preview of “Lottery Fever,” where the Griffins win the lottery and lose the money (twice), “Road to the Multiverse,” selected as the most popular episode by Facebook fans, and a 22-minute bonus feature from the upcoming Family Guy Volume 9 DVD entitled “History of the World” (out in December), which tells the history of the earth from a Family Guy perspective. The older cartoons didn’t hold up as well on the expanded screen as the smaller ones. All the same, throughout the theatre, titters echoed when watching the familiar episode.
However, all the same when “Lottery Fever,” the main event, appeared on screen, the titters gradually faded amongst the audience and myself. And, I realized why. It was a normal Family Guy episode. We had gone expecting something “cinematical” and received what typically appears on our small-screen on a weekly basis. I discovered myself laughing harder when re-watching the episode at home without the expectation of a cinema-defying Family Guy episode.
All the same, the episode featured some great jokes about skinny jean teenagers, Kyle, not-Kyle, scrimshaws, the lotto girl with turrets (“17!”), deliberately distant rich fathers, Anna Paquin’s boobs (which don’t count as nudity because it’s like looking at a 12-year-old), buying solid gold suits at nonsense stores (which requires fighting three rappers), Stewie’s suggestion his parents take advantage of the fire station “no questions asked” baby abandonment, Peter narrating the future death of his waiter and mocking drama’s overuse of the window stare. There was an iffy joke about Quagmire’s penis enlargement pill splitting Sandra the waitress in half. Part of me wanted to find it funny and part of me didn’t.
So, does Family Guy deserve a big screen release? Actually, I think so. I would love to see the Star Wars episodes in a $5 midnight showing. The amount of CGI used in those episodes, and the non-stop in-jokes made me think Family Guy was ready for a big-screen premiere. It was interesting watching Family Guy surrounded by fans who talked about it non-stop and excitedly wondered if McFarlane might appear (he didn’t). Plus, I always enjoy when screenings feature local talent with a fanatic love of the films that rivals the fans. I’ll admit, the security was tight. They checked our bags for laptops and mobile phones (which they held until the film’s end), they wanded us before letting us enter the theatres, and security checked on the room every so often to make certain that no one had a hidden video camera. It was very exciting super-secret spy stuff .
Although MacFarlane’s currently focusing on his music album, do you think his next project should focus on film? If so, should he focus on another parody for Family Guy and which one?
Clacked by An Nicholson 
on Sep 28, 2011 @ 10:00 EST5EDT
I gave up on Family Guy after the uncancellation. Before it got cancelled, it was raunchy with just a hint of heart… they lost that in the past few years.
The Star Wars parodies are better than most of their new episodes, but Robot Chicken did it better. So no, I don’t really think I’d watch the show on the big screen.
*POST AUTHOR*
I think the other reason I (and those in the audience) didn’t laugh as much is because the episode reminded me of old school FG. I went in expecting a laugh and pop cultural reference a minute. Instead it seemed to have a bit of heart towards the end.