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Family Guy is an American animated television sitcom created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series centers on the dysfunctional Griffin family, which consists of father Peter (MacFarlane), mother Lois (Alex Borstein), daughter Meg (Lacey Chabert in episodes 1–9, then Mila Kunis in "Da Boom" onwards), son Chris (Seth Green), baby Stewie (MacFarlane) and Brian (MacFarlane), the family dog. The show is set in the fictional town of Quahog, Rhode Island, and lampoons American culture, often in the form of cutaway gags, and tangential vignettes.
The concept of Family Guy was conceived by MacFarlane in 1995 while studying adult sitcom animation at the Rhode Island School of Design. He created two shorts entitled The Life of Larry and Larry & Steve, both of which played a key role in Fox executives' decision to pick up the series in 1998. After two seasons, Fox decided to cancel the show. Despite the cancellation, a third season was produced, after which the series was officially canceled at the end of 2003. Reruns on Cartoon Network's block Adult Swim drove up interest, and a letter-writing campaign, along with impressive DVD sales, encouraged Fox to bring the show back permanently.
Family Guy and its cast have been nominated for twenty-three Emmy Awards, with six wins. MacFarlane won the Outstanding Voice-Over Performance award for his performance as Stewie, MacFarlane and Walter Murphy won the Outstanding Music and Lyrics award for the song "You Got a Lot to See" from the episode "Brian Wallows and Peter's Swallows", Steven Fonti won the Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation award for his storyboard work in the episode "No Chris Left Behind", Greg Colton won the Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation award for his storyboard work in the episode "Road to the Multiverse", Patrick S. Clark and Jim Fitzpatrick won the Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Comedy or Drama Series (Half-Hour) and Animation award for their sound mixing work on the episode "Road to the North Pole", and MacFarlane won the Outstanding Character Voice-Over Performance award for his performances on the episode "Pilling Them Softly". The show was nominated for twelve Annies, and won three times, twice in 2006 and once in 2008. In 2009, it was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series, becoming the first animated program to be nominated in this category since The Flintstones in 1961.
As of March 5, 2017, 283 episodes of Family Guy have aired. Currently airing the fifteenth season, the show remains Fox's second-longest-running program, behind The Simpsons.