"You better watch who you're calling a child, Lois. Because if I'm a child, then you know what that makes you? A pedophile! I'll be damned if I'm gonna stand here and be lectured by a pervert." - Peter Griffin (voice of Seth MacFarlane) to his wife
Family Guy: The Freakin' Sweet Collection DVD Review
By A.J. Carson
When DVDs were first introduced, releases were mostly limited to films. In the past few years, however, the release of TV shows on DVD has grown exponentially, changing the face of home entertainment. And now, DVD releases are about to return the favor and change the face of TV. The animated series Family Guy premiered on Fox in 1999 to mixed reviews and mediocre ratings. The fact that Fox bumped the show around its schedule on an almost weekly basis didn't help matters. During its two and a half seasons, the series ran on five different nights. Even the show's fans gave up looking for it, and Family Guy was cancelled. Then a funny thing happened. In 2003, the show became the year's best-selling TV series on DVD. Suddenly, the show was hot again, leading Fox to renew the series almost two years after it was originally cancelled. The network even picked up a new series by Family Guy's creator, Seth MacFarlane.
To capitalize on all the hubbub, Fox is releasing Family Guy: The Freakin' Sweet Collection, a compilation of MacFarlane's five favorite episodes: "When You Wish Upon a Weinstein," "Road to Rhode Island," "To Live and Die in Dixie," "I Am Peter, Hear Me Roar," and "Lethal Weapons."
The series centers on the Griffin family of Quahog, Rhode Island. Peter (voiced by MacFarlane) is the family's doltish leader, an overweight goofball who possesses more goodwill than he does smarts. His wife, Lois (Alex Borstein), wearily tries to keep her family in line. Their three oddball children are bespectacled Meg (That '70s Show's Mila Kunis), husky moron Chris (Buffy the Vampire Slayer's Seth Green), and maniacal baby Stewie (MacFarlane). Stewie is only a year old, but constantly speaks of ruling the world in his prissy, British-tinged voice. Rounding out the family is Brian (MacFarlane), an alcoholic talking dog who is the family's resident intellectual.
When Peter's terrible finance skills threaten his marriage in "When You Wish Upon a Weinstein," he does the only thing he can think of: he wishes for "a Jew" since he feels that all Jewish people are excellent with money. Things seem to turn around when accountant Max Weinstein shows up on his doorstep. The Griffins even attend temple with him, "like Indiana Jones." Peter takes things too far, however, when he decides that Chris should convert to Judaism in an attempt to make him smarter.
In "Road to Rhode Island," Stewie and Brian find themselves stranded in Palm Springs when their plane tickets are stolen. They are forced to find their way back to Rhode Island. First, however, they stop off at the Texas puppy mill at which Brian was born so that he can reunite with his mother. Unfortunately, she has moved on to the next phase in her life.as a taxidermied end table.
In "To Love and Die in Dixie," Chris does his civic duty and helps to finger a dangerous criminal, but when the thug escapes from jail, the family is put in the witness protection program and moves to the Deep South. Soon Stewie becomes an expert banjo player, Peter paints his station wagon to resemble the General Lee, and the entire family has to avoid the raccoon that has taken up residence in their TV.
After telling a sexist joke at work in "I Am Peter, Hear Me Roar," Peter is forced to undergo sensitivity training in order to avoid a sexual harassment lawsuit. The only problem is that the training leaves him a bit TOO sensitive. The family longs for the old Peter, rather than the Lifetime-loving freak he has become.
In "Lethal Weapons," the city is overrun by pushy New Yorkers who have come to see the leaves change color. A newly assertive Lois decides to defend her hometown from the obnoxious interlopers, but her badass attitude soon wreaks havoc on the entire family.
Family Guy is often outrageously funny. Each episode is as densely packed with humorous pop culture references (Star Wars, Seinfeld, The Graduate, Bing Crosby/Bob Hope films) as The Simpsons is, but Family Guy is more mean-spirited than the sweet, goofy shenanigans on The Simpsons. Its twisted, perverted sense of humor may not be for all tastes, but fans of gross-out jokes should enjoy the series. If the thought of Peter getting in touch with his feminine side by breast feeding Stewie offends your sensibilities, you should probably stick with something a little tamer.
So, if Family Guy's season sets sold a jillion copies, why put out this compilation? And, more importantly, should those jillion Family Guy fans add The Freakin' Sweet Collection to their DVD libraries? "Weinstein" never aired during the show's network run because it was deemed too controversial, but it was included in its entirety in the previous DVD sets. As a matter of fact, of the five episodes here, only "Road to Rhode Island" differs from its season set incarnation. When the episode originally aired in May 2000, it featured a brief joke about Osama bin Laden smuggling weapons onto an airplane. This bit was cut from the original season DVD releases, but has been restored here. Hardcore fans may want to get this collection simply for the restored episode, but the footage only amounts to a few seconds. Less rabid fans may want to peruse the list of extras below before deciding whether or not Freakin' Sweet is sweet enough.
Guest voices in these episodes include Mark Hamill (Star Wars), Ed McMahon (The Tonight Show), Peter Riegert (The Sopranos), Ben Stein (Win Ben Stein's Money), Brian Doyle Murray (Yes, Dear), Victoria Principal (Dallas), Brian Dunkelman (American Idol), Dakota Fanning (Taken), Waylon Jennings (Dukes of Hazzard), Candice Bergen (Murphy Brown), Faith Ford (Murphy Brown), Jennifer Tilly (Seed of Chucky), Patrick Warburton (The Tick), Michael Chiklis (The Shield), and Peter Gallagher (The O.C.).
The static menus are purely functional. Viewers can play all of the collection's episodes or choose each individually. Scene selection menus are also included.
