It’s one thing when Family Guy releases episode anthologies or direct-to-DVD movies as their own products, but when they have the gall to put out a single “uncensored” episode for $10 when you could be buying it for $.99 off iTunes – you have to wonder just how inappropriate it must be for a $9 mark-up and all the packaging that goes with. Surely it had to be released on DVD because it includes some deep insights into the episode’s creation, or some startling revelation about the censorship ruling that got it pulled. But no, the offerings on the disc are paltry and the episode itself quite tepid by Family Guy standards. By the end of it all, it’s not really clear why it was banned or why the release warranted its own DVD and not just inclusion as an extra in a season set.
An old friend of Lois (Alex Borstein) pops up, compliments the wonderful family unit the Griffins have become and eventually propositions Lois to carry their child to term, as for whatever reason the friend is unable. Caught up in the beauty of bringing a child to a family that can’t have one on their own, Lois accepts without any formal agreement from Peter (Seth MacFarlane), which leads him to act like a child and do crazy things as he’s wont to do.
What made this episode so bad they pulled it from airing? Was there a point when an egg getting lampooned in an animated depiction of abortion was the cutting edge of Family Guy’s pushing of the envelope? Or slightly too far? If an episode like this goes too far for network television censors, it makes you wonder what the show would become if moved to a cable channel like Cartoon Network during Adult Swim. How far would the line get pushed back to the boundaries of indecency if they didn’t have to worry about something as small as an abortion joke getting it pulled?
But as it stands, Family Guy is still on Fox (and going strong if their commissioning one show after another from Seth MacFarlane is any indication of success). It’s still on Fox and now its jokes have become the curse of its own formula. The shock tactics that launched it during the initial seasons and made it a hit with younger audiences wore thin and now the show resorts to over-the-top shenanigans and ridiculously politically incorrect comedy which is funny because you can see how hard the writers are trying to make the show cutting edge and not because they’re still making ribald stabs at the very popular culture that holds them aloft. In short, Family Guy tries too hard to shock audiences, and whether or not this episode was actually pulled or Fox just wanted some more DVD revenues off the show, it definitely isn’t so politically incorrect that it warrants the DVD treatment it got here.
Wait a few months and it’s a solid bet that the arbitrary “moral standards” that got this episode “censored” will have been stretched a little further and there’ll be a special night where they hype the showing of the episode they could never show before.
DVD Bonus Features
In an effort to legitimize the release of this episode as being unique and worthy of a DVD purchase, there’s a basic and less than interesting audio commentary, a basic animatic, a table read (which isn’t actually special, as these happen all the time), and Seth and Alex’s comedy bit.
There’s no reason to purchase this DVD, but more importantly it should never have been released as its own entity.
"Family Guy: Partial Terms of Endearment" is on sale September 28, 2010 and is not rated. Animation, Comedy. Directed by Joseph Lee. Written by Danny Smith. Starring Alex Borstein, Mila Kunis, Seth Green, Seth MacFarlane.
