'Family Guy' Through The Years

FAMILY GUY is reimagined as a series that’s been on the air for 60 years and, in a special retrospective, it looks back at the cultural events and issues that were tackled on the show in the 1950s, '60s and '70s.

'Family Guy' Through The Years

April 22, 2018  |  Season 16   |  Episode 16

FAMILY GUY is reimagined as a series that’s been on the air for 60 years and, in a special retrospective, it looks back at the cultural events and issues that were tackled on the show in the 1950s, '60s and '70s.

In a special retrospective hosted by Peter, Family Guy takes a look back at its first thirty years on the air, starting with its pilot from 1956, with the show being sponsored by a cigarette company that is targeted to children.

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After a hard day of work, breadwinner Peter and Chris chat about girls as they experience an atomic blast. After hearing about Elvis appearing on The Ed Sullivan Show, the family wishes they could watch but Peter had spent the life savings on a fallout shelter. Brian suggests just buying one for the weekend and returning it after, claiming it didn't work which draws rebuke from Stewie, but Peter rejects Lois' suggestion of her getting a job. The neighbors gather to see Elvis appear on the new television, but Peter becomes angry when he sees Lois got a job after all in a news report. However, he becomes hooked on it and agrees to let her keep her job. Exhausted from working, Lois reveals that she has quit her job, but surprises Peter by telling him that she only took it long enough in order to build him his own set which promptly blows up when he tries to turn it on, allowing Lois to joke that women shouldn't work. When he threatens her in the style of Jackie Gleason by threatening to send her "to the moon," she attacks his logic.

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Chris quits his paper route intending to run off to Woodstock in a 1969 episode, but is forbidden by Peter. After being tattled on by Meg after he does it anyway, Peter travels to the festival and confronts him. Chris announces his intention to smoke dope and when Peter protests, the family history of drinking is thrown back at several generations of Griffins who also arrive. Peter apologizes, but realizes that Chris is already on an acid trip. Back home, Chris returns to his paper route and despite clicking though the moon landing, The Beatles and the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Peter complains that there is nothing on until he finds Gilligan's Island.

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In an episode dating from 1973, Peter tries to encourage Chris to enlist, so they greet Quagmire who has just returned from Vietnam by spitting on him. The guys go out for drinks that night and Quagmire describes some of his experiences. This stuns Peter who takes Chris' place in the army, but as he is being shipped out, tries unsuccessfully to protest that he isn't Chris and is killed overseas by a "lady-boy."

In the wrap up, Peter hopes that the exhibits surrounding him of television icons don't come to life in the style of Night of the Museum, only to have Don Knotts pursue him and tell him horror stories about his past co-stars.