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Family Guy Season 17 Release Date, News, and More

Fox is bringing back its "other" flagship animated comedy about a wacky family. Family Guy Season 16 is confirmed

By Alec Bojalad | June 28, 2018 | | 0

Fox canceled Family Guy once and now it seems determined to never do that again.

The network has renewed Seth McFarlane’s debut animated comedy. Family Guy Season 17 will make it the third longest running animated show on television behind its network mate The Simpsons (29 seasons) and South Park (21 seasons).

Family Guy is a model of consistency for Fox. The network knows it can just plug the show in to its Sunday lineup, leave it alone, and watch the ratings come in. It wasn’t always that way, however. Family Guy debuted on Fox in 1999. Fox then canceled it partway through its third season in 2002. The show found a second life on cable via late night reruns on Adult Swim.

Fox revived the show for a fourth season in 2005 and it’s been smooth sailing ever since.

Family Guy features the Griffin family of Quahog, Rhode Island. Father Peter (MacFarlane) is a prototypical dumb sitcom dad, Mother Lois (Alex Borstein) is more put together but also sometimes insane. Chris (Seth Green) is the underachieving son. Then there’s the intellectual alcoholic dog, Brian and megalomaniacal baby-turned-effete weirdo baby Stewie (both MacFarlane). There’s also something called a “Meg?”

The show is of course best known for its absurdist cutaway gags, which sometimes draws accusations of poor storytelling. But it’s also hard not to appreciate something that can so easily be plugged into any Family Guy article like this:

Fox is now very much in the Seth MacFarlane business having also renewed the showrunner and actor’s other major project The Orville for a second season earlier this moth.

Family Guy Season 17 Trailer

At San Diego Comic-Con, Fox released a “reel” for Family Guy Season 17. This isn’t a trailer per se’. It’s just four minutes of wall-to-wall Family Guy jokes. Since most people’s (rightful) Family Guy complaint is that it’s all absurdist jokes surrounded by needless, barebones plot, this reel might be Family Guy in its purest, most joyful form.