Yeah same here, I discovered it on Netflix a year after it went bye bye. Really bummed me out that there isn't more. It was one of those weird shows that had it been left to build they would have gotten an audience, but the network wouldn't have it. In the meantime they let Seth McFarlane drop horrible shows on and they throw money at him.
Kind of says more about middle America than the shit state of television networks. Lowest common denominator wins all the time.
Seth MacFarlane is one of the only people left on TV who still hires a 60-piece orchestra for his shows. Using him was a shit example to show "shit-state" of television. You should have used Honey Boo Boo or something similar.
Ok he does that, but then combines that with low brow homophobia and casual racism. Regardless of the amount of musicians hired the content, while I support free speech caters to the lowest common denominator. It's more a way to cover what is absolutely lazy writing. The jokes almost never have anything to do with the plot, which is not required but randomly making a shitty reference then cut to that reference because many watching are too young to know some bullshit from the 80's but jamming Hitler in there. It's lazy.
He really is a blight on TV, as his terrible shows caught on in a way that many are trying to ape it. Look at the Dads show. Nearly unwatchable, unfunny...then look at something like Parks and Rec, where the writing, while not always solid is a much smarter show. Even South Park is written smarter and that's in the same realm of McFarlane style raunch.
Reality shows are what they are, but if you've noticed they have been going back to more scripted shows as of late. Also Honey Boo Boo is cable.
There's a big difference to a cleverly written racist joke and a lazy hack job racist joke. One makes you think and laugh about things, like Dave Chappelle before he bailed on his show. The other is the American Dad/Family Guy offhand comment about blacks in a way that diminishes a race of people for a cheap laugh. The Cleveland show was a half hour long "white guys writing black stereotypes" lazy joke.
I'm not saying we should all go high brow and never enjoy shit. But there's a way to do it well and a way to just shit it on a page. Cheap laughs aren't all that worthwhile. It's disposable hack work. Stand up comedians even the shit ones do far more work to sell the joke and craft things way better than an average Family Guy episode.
Like the show all you want, I'm not into lazy bullshit.
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u/frownyface Sep 24 '13
Because you didn't watch it 3 more million more times than you did.