Family Guy - "Not All Dogs Go to Heaven" - Talkback [3/29]

I just saw the episode on my DVR and I loved the Stewie plot way better than the A plot every thing that happend there was pure gold. Also it seems Stewie and Chris are getting along better these days I can see them developing a close brother relationship bond LOL.
 
Yeah, but the thing about South Park is that Trey and Matt has this smugness about them that everything they say or represent is right, and if you feel the opposite of what they do, then you're an idiot that should go away. Seth's that way too, and, perhaps the last couple of episodes showcased his viewpoints more prominently than others have. I can't excuse it either.

And yeah, I do feel a lot of South Park episodes are preachy and often blissfully ignorant. Family Guy's just idiotic and moronic, and I go into each episode with that expectation. But at times, it seems like South Park can get away with a lot of things, and if Family Guy did the opposite (or even the same), they get blasted by commentators and couch critics as being the worst thing ever crafted.

Here's the thing about that.

The writer's reasoning for Meg's "born-again" attitude is because she was only exposed to the religious programs seen on networks such as TBN, Daystar, Worship, and others, which do tend to skewed towards right-leaning evangelical Christianity. The Way of the Master, Kirk Cameron's daily show, airs on a lot of those channels, and it, along with a LOT of those shows, does seem like it's perpetuating the so-called archaic stereotype of Christians wanting to convert everybody and feeling that everybody not like them are evil or unworthy to be in the same room with them.

This, coming from a Baptist from the South, grandson of a Trustee, great-grandson of a Deaconess, with cousins who are Bishops and Deacons, miles away from CBN HQ and Liberty University. Those people do exist. Some are in my family, and they do have these attitudes. But not all Christians are like that.

It's those Christians that are that dominate the mainstream, controlling the media and the message. The Robertsons, Dobsons, Hagees, Falwells, Camerons, and Bonzels of the world are the dominant Christian voices, and the ones who personify and embrace the stereotype.

Perhaps if Meg (and Seth for that matter) was exposed to more than conservative Christian programming in the "TBN/CBN" mold (although, to be honest, because the evangelical wing of Christianity has a lock on the Christian media market including the channels, progressive voices are far and few between), then maybe she would have been less of a stereotype, and maybe Seth could see there are more than one side when it comes to Christianity.
 
I think this is going to be a fantastically enjoyable episode...

...considering it's following two episodes of the Simpsons and we can't compare it to the always reliable King of the Hill which usually airs before it.

Just why is KOTH not airing tonight anyway?
 
I think that Simpsons ep. with the stone angel did a much better job, with Lisa and Marge's little debate. Marge came off as much more realistic when Lisa chided her for believeing that angels exist.
 
No particular reason. My guess is that FOX wants April 19th to be at full strength, because that's when the new animated series, Sit Down, Shut Up debuts. Which explains why aside from a new Simpsons next week, the block goes into rerun mode until then.
 
It was Rob Lowe. I swear at my second job, it's a running gag that some of us guys have that we say "git to da choppa!" whenever we clock out, and that scene made me laugh so hard due to it.
 
Remember the days when we got first run episodes through April and never had to worry about extended periods of repeats?

Sad.
 
Well, I hear that Lacey Chabert who originally voiced Meg is a dedicated Christian in real life. Makes me wonder how this ep would have been different if it were made back then.



Yeah. That's true. It seems like Brian might have been trying to convert her to atheism. I'm still a bit surprised about Brian being an atheist since he did seem to have Christian qualities, especially in that ep someone else mentioned. 'If I'm Dyin', I'm Lyin' I think it was.

Also, what was up with the ending scene. Was that 'going through space' thing a parody of something? also, the live action cut with the two guys in bed... Was that part of the show or was that an ad for something?' That really confused me.

I did like the Stewie subplot though. It seems like we saw both sides of him here, the evil genius Stewie from early eps and the more comical Stewie from the later eps. Anyway, I could say more but I have to go to work.
 
The difference between Family Guy and South Park is that South Park was a political and social show since day one while Family Guy wasn't. People became fans of Family Guy for its silliness and mindless entertainment. It gave you something that South Park, Simpsons, and King of the Hill didn't. It was pure comedy. Even when it seemed like the an episode would have a message they instead ended it with a silly joke. Like in To Live and Die in Dixie, for example, it seemed like it would be an episode about family, community, and tolerance but instead it ends with Peter saying, "it doesn't matter where you're from as long as we're all the same religion." So for the show to become a soapbox now turns people off. They don't watch the show to be preached at.
 
So, what you're saying is that they watch South Park to be preached at? That's what I'm understanding you saying, since you said they don't watch Family Guy to be preached at.

First of all, don't turdmine the episode. It basically had Peter confronting his own stereotypes about Southerners, who were equally intolerant of him, but when Chris and the southern girl he was smitten with were both in danger, they worked together, and in his own way, admitted that even though they have their differences, they're all the same. It ended with the family listening to answering machine messages from Herbert the pervert wondering where that burly paperboy was and why he hasn't received his paper in days.

Second, Family Guy IS a social commentary that happens to be insane, ridiculous, and moronic while South Park is social commentary that happens to be profane, bigoted, and crude. The first episode of Family Guy had Peter defrauding the government who moronically sent him welfare checks worth $10,000 dollars. The first episode of South Park had aliens putting a satellite probe in Cartman's ass. I . . . don't really see anything political or socially relevant in that.

In the end, both shows are the same crass, ribald animal, both have hit-or-miss episodes, and both are equal-opportunity offenders. It just so happens that they're both on the opposite ends of the political spectrum. South Park is center-right while Family Guy is center-left, largely because Trey and Matt are center-right and Seth is center-left.

Family Guy isn't the worst thing ever created and South Park isn't the best. They're both equally okay. Plus, they both have a common enemy in the form of the PTC, who has targeted both shows with equal fanatical furvor.
 
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