Toxic TV- Family Guy

"It seems today that all you see
is violence in movies and sex on TV
But where are those good old fashioned values
On which we used to rely" Excerpt from Family Guy theme lyrics

They sure aren't on the Family Guy!

Foist upon us in 1999 by Seth MacFarlane, Family Guy is an on-going cesspool of bathroom humor, sex, gratuitous violence and outright perversion that would make Homer Simpson blush and the kids from South Park snigger all day long. It's no wonder MacFarlane developed this show since he gets to write, direct, produce and play numerous parts. Sid Caesar, you say? Oh, contraire! While there is indeed talent here, it is not suitable for the prime-time airwaves.

Family Guy is a potpourri of sitcom stereotypes. Peter is the quintessential idiotic suburban dad. He is vain, gluttonous, oversexed, morbidly obese and terminally moronic. Of course Lois, his wife, is somewhat more intelligent at times and has a fabulous figure, aka King of Queens or Life With Jim and does not seem to find her gelatinous spouse sexually repugnant. Chris, the eldest son, is a chip off of Peter's warped block in almost every way except sexually. Meg is overwritten as the neglected middle child going through awkward pubescence as she is continually snubbed by her family. Stewie, a Machiavellian toddler, continues to plot ways to take over the world and kill his mother. By the way, if Stewie comes to the point of Oedipal musings, Peter is toast, given the enormous gap in their intellects. Brian, the family dog, talks, smokes, drinks liquor like a fish, gets busy with nearly anything female and has a gay brother. All that aside, Brian is usually the most intelligent and sensible member of the family.

I understand that Family Guy is intended as satire. I understand that we live in a free society with freedom of expression. However, the fact that Family Guy is a cartoon makes it answerable for some of its excesses in pushing the boundaries of decency. I read somewhere that it rated as the top primetime show for kids 2 to 12 at one point. Since this is supposedly not the targeted demographic for this show it begs the question of intent of Mr. MacFarlane and his cast. South Park is not shown on network TV until late night and then I understand that it is an edited version of the cable content. How is it that Family Guy is shown by local Fox affiliates during the hours when kids are coming home from school and being allowed a little TV while dinner is being prepared?

It's just another step in the long, long march toward total repudiation of what used to be mainstream American values. Ten years from now, our mainstream values will probably look just like the ones espoused by the Griffins. Won't that be sad?