It seems today that all you see is Ashton Kutcher in movies and the pope on TV.
It's 2005, and a lot has changed since "Family Guy" first premiered way back in 1999. The majority of the audience reading this was in high school at the time.
Six years later, the show's creator admits the show is more popular than it ever was. "Family Guy" airs in reruns on two networks - TBS and Cartoon Network - and DVD sales of the first three seasons have totaled 3 million, ranking fourth among most-sold TV shows.
So what can viewers expect when the show premieres its fourth season May 1 on its original home at Fox? Seth MacFarlane says the show will remain true to its original form.
"We really want to keep the show exactly as it was," MacFarlane said in a teleconference Tuesday. "For the fans, in order to give them exactly the same show, it would ideally be on a network."
For those who don't watch it religiously on Adult Swim or have a friend with the entire DVD collection, "Family Guy" is a cartoon sitcom about the topsy-turvy lives of a Rhode Island family led by patriarch Peter Griffin. Most of the comedy satirizes current events.
"'All In the Family' ... that's like the best sitcom ever," MacFarlane said. "Hopefully we can do half the job they did."
MacFarlane wants to assure fans the same off-color humor that made the show popular will still be seen in current episodes, even after the Federal Communications Commission's crackdown on programming that might be vulgar.
"Fox has been under pressure, obviously, from the FCC to watch their stuff, I guess, which does translate to us," MacFarlane said. "They are doing their best to kind of help shield us from as much of that as they can and keep the show the same as it has been."
Later this year, "Family Guy: The Movie" will be released on DVD. MacFarlane would not divulge much, but fans can expect baby Stewie to investigate whether Peter is his real father. But just because it's a movie doesn't mean the creators will push the envelope.
"We're not 'South Park' - we don't get that racy," he said.
Along with "Family Guy," Fox is premiering another MacFarlane-produced cartoon, "American Dad," on the same day. The father, Stan, is an ultra-conservative CIA agent married to closet party girl Francine and has two kids - a nerdy son, Steve, and daughter Hayley, a liberal college student. They've also got to deal with their pet, a German goldfish named Klaus, and Roger, an alien Stan rescued from Area 51.
Unlike "Family Guy," "American Dad" will have more political comedy. MacFarlane said the country's current political landscape is a perfect backdrop for the show, just as "All in the Family" was in its prime.
"We made a conscious effort not to come off as liberals," MacFarlane said. "We do try to make fun of both (political parties), and I think hopefully both sides will be able to laugh at themselves and the other," he added.
After the network hiatus, getting back in the studio to work on the two shows wasn't a challenge.
"We did have five scripts that were waiting to be produced from the previous season," MacFarlane said.
But even if the show gets canceled again, MacFarlane has ideas in case the show gets a third chance.
"Certainly if the show gets canceled, then those ideas will scurry to the forefront," he said.
