Once again it's been awhile since I've done a Raiders. So it's time to change that. Let's get to it.
Part One - What is Family Guy?
Really? Do I really need to explain what this show is? I'm sure you know about one way or the other. Oh well, let's do it anyway.
Family Guy is animated sitcom created by Seth McFarlane that premiered on Jan 31st, 1999 on FOX following Super Bowl XXXIII with the rest of the first season airing on April 11th of the same year. The show was originally canceled shortly after the third season in 2002. But due to favorable DVD sales and high ratings from syndication, FOX was convinced to revive the show in 2004. The fourth season would later air in 2005, since then the show has continued with currently twenty-four seasons and over 400 episodes. The show also spawned two spin-offs the first being The Cleveland Show (2009-2013) which focused on the character of Cleveland Brown. The second is Stewie focusing on Stewie Griffin and as of writing this is scheduled to air somewhere in the 2027-2028 season.
The main plot of the show is about the dysfunctional family called the Griffin family consisting of married couple Peter & Lois and their three kids of Chris, Meg, and Stewie along with their talking dog named Brian, who are just trying to living normal lives in Quahog, Rhode Island. But often times that normalcy takes a curve ball when something or someone crazy gets involved and turns their day upside down.
Part Two - History of the Unaired Pilot
Before the pilot episode titled Death Has a Shadow aired there was an unaired pilot. It was 16 minutes long and was made sometime during 1998. The pilot would eventually become the aired pilot but when you watch the two side-by-side you'll notice differences in clothing, character designs, and scenes.
FOX gave Seth McFarlane a very small budget, a total of $50,000 to be specific, where most animated half-hour pilots are giving a budget of $1,000,000. Seth spent six months animating the pilot along with Jim Keeshen Productions, but according to Jim Keeshen he was the one who did all of the work. He would later file a lawsuit against both FOX and McFarlane on June 1st, 1999 but it would later be dismissed on Dec 28th, 2000.
At first the unaired pilot could only be found on the volume two DVD of the show, but it was only 7 minutes long with a "Coming Soon" bumper replacing the rest of it. The other proof of its existence were images found on fan sites, IMDB, and a few articles on BlogSpot. There were also some snippets of it that aired on early commercials and interviews with Seth McFarlane. It was also assumed that the full pilot was shared around years ago, where exactly though was never confirmed.
Part Three - Discovery
So the story of it's discovery is a short one. On Mar 20th, 2025, a user going by the name GhostTheDeadGirl discovered the full 16 minute pilot was on Robert Paulson's personal website and it's been there since Sept of 2022. Paulson's credited as one the "Digital Ink & Paint" crew members and is also credited under "Compositing".
So that's all for now. Come back on Saturday, Apr 4th for my review of The Super Mario Galaxy Movie. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day.
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