The Family Guy Revival Misconception

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Marcus L

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Any show that is canceled usually has fans rallying for a revival of some sorts. Especially ever since Family Guy (and Futurama to a lesser extent) came back from the dead due to insane DVD sales and cable ratings.

But lately, I've seen everyone use the DVD sales excuse as a crutch, like "maybe if it does well on DVD it'll come back!". But you're forgetting that Family Guy was a series that, had it stayed in a consistent timeslot may have stayed in production, and also after it was canceled it found an audience that never saw it when it was on. It was a complete fluke.

Lately though, I see the team from The Goode Family swearing they will come back with new episodes despite being canceled. I also saw someone trying to say that if All Grown Up got good DVD sales, the series would return. Despite Klasky Csupo not existing anymore and the fact very few people watched AGU when it was on.

It's a shame, almost as if FG gave people false hope for whenever their favorite series was canceled that it had some chance of returning.
 
I think you're right, especially since Seth claims that Fox really did like Family Guy, just the decision to cancel the show laid in the wrong hands of the few people that didn't like it. You can't say the same thing about The Goode Family or All Grown Up.

BTW, who has actually read the full interview that Seth did for Playboy? I read it, and that is where I got the info that Fox really did like Family Guy ever since it's premiere in 1999, at least according to Seth.
 
Family Guy started a really bad trend with that. Now anyone believes that if a DVD set sells well enough, the show can make a comeback.

I think what helped Family Guy sell when it was released was the fact that 'complete seasons' were still a relatively new thing; The show had been off for a good amount of time between Fox taking it off the air and Adult Swim picking it up; and there were very few "legal* ways to catch the show online.

If Family Guy was canceled in the current day, I don't think it would have had the same impact in DVD sales.
 
Yeah, this was back when FG was not being rerun that much. Now with Hulu and such, you can watch a whole season without buying it. It's gotten quite absurd with people think Invader ZIM would come back if not enough people bought the DVD, they are forgetting FG set records in DVD sales that had never been seen before by any TV show.
 
You're absolutely right: it was a complete fluke.

Remember, this was the early 2000's, where TV-on-DVD was a brand new venture (interesting piece of trivia: the popular site TVShowsonDVD.com was started when the creator started a petition to release FG on DVD), and despite there being only slightly over a year between the last episode airing and the first volume release, the demand was pretty high in cult circles on the internet.

And why wouldn't there be? People found FG to be fresh, hilarious and not mention wildly underrated and mistreated. It felt to many like their dirty little secret that they wouldn't mind unleashing upon the world. And that's exactly what they did when it sprung on DVD. The numerous college kids and cult fans showed to another and so on. What really made sales spring up was the show being added to Adult Swim very shortly after. Then everybody knew about it and fell in love, causing an immediate surge in sales.

Basically, it was something that caught fire because it never had the chance to. The DVDs and reruns finally gave those who weren't "in the cult" (i.e. following it from timeslot to timeslot in 2000 and 2001) a chance to catch what they were missing. And they LOVED what they were missing...
 
Exactly. There will never- NEVER- be a repeat performance like FG's DVD performance/revival, thanks to instant reruns (DVR/Tivo; Hulu/Youtube; almost instant cable airings, etc.)
 
Good thread topic, CaptainHero. Every internet poster with an ax to grind over their favorite show getting canceled needs to read this.

I can't tell you how many times I've read posts from people who think that every Tom, Dick and Has-Been canceled or ended show has a chance of coming back because of what happened with Family Guy. Whenever you point out to them how unlikely the chances of a revival are and how difficult a process it is to resurrect a show (especially when said show has been out of production for 2 or more years) they always brand you as "being negative" or a "hater" of said show and shoot back with "Well, Family Guy came back, so maybe if we keep buying the DVDs of fill-in-the-blank show or sign some online petition, the show will come back."

Look, what happened with FG was a FLUKE. It just happened to be in the right place at the right time, with [as] being there to raise interest in the show via constant reruns and the insanely huge DVD sales. But FG is the exception, not the norm. And shows are not, repeat, NOT brought back by online petitions. Network executives rarely scan internet message boards, nor are they swayed by petitions. Fan outcry alone doesn't bring back canceled shows; it's not the fans who are going to pay to produce the show, so ultimately it's not their call to make.

It's sad really; that once-in-a-blue-moon occurrence has gven dozens of fans misgivings and false hopes of how the TV industry works. It's not as simple as saying to the Mayor of Television, "Hey, I liked that show! Bring it back!".
 
Well, it's run on Adult Swim helped a lot as well.

And I thought Futurama came back for the same reason, the ratings were great and reruns, and the DVDs were selling well.
But I could be mistaken.
 
You're not mistaken; that's precisely what happened with Futurama as well as Family Guy.

But that's not the case with every show. Shows like Hey, Arnold! and Invader Zim have had little to no exposure since going off the air, and there are plenty of shows which haven't seen the light of day since their cancellation or their respective production companies, artists and staff have since moved on to other projects. And, let's face it, some shows like All Grown Up, The Goode Family and As Told By Ginger just were never that popular even while they were on the air. It's erroneous to think that shows like Time Squad and Robot Jones have the same chances of being revived as shows like Family Guy and Futurama which never fell out of the public eye and had massive exposure and huge fanbases backing them up with support, ratings and merchandise/DVD sales.
 
Yes, Family Guy's airings on Adult Swim were also a big benefactor as well, but how do you explain Futurama's triumphant return to television??

Rumor is that Comedy Central picked up 26 new episodes for Futurama, which I am anticiapting to see. Also, I think one of the reasons behind Futurama's return is because it's Matt Groening!! FOX might've not liked Futurama [as it was always, always, ALWAYS pre-empted by some Baseball or Football event.] but I believe if the fans want more, they'll do anything it takes to get their favourite show back on.
 
I mentioned that Futurama is the only other show to return other than Family Guy. But even Futurama had a long and difficult time getting renewed after its high ratings and DVD sales. Truth is, it never reached Family Guy's massive DVD sales and never got as high ratings on Adult Swim. Futurama always played second banana to FG during its time on Adult Swim, and I think Fox always knew it had a strong fanbase but they didn't know how sure they were on renewing it like they did with FG, so they tested the waters with the four DTVs, and those did well, leading to a revival.
 
From what I can gather, the only thing stopping an Invader Zim revival after the DVD selled great was Jhonen's refusal to work with Nickelodeon again.
 
Did Nickelodeon or any other network actually ever offer to revive the series? I never heard about anyone actually showing interest in producing new episodes.
 
Around 2004 or 2005, I remember the Palisades Toys forum had mentioned an article that said that a Zim revival was likely due to the DVD sales (though it seemed more a rumor than anything else), and it was discussed on the board that Jhonen wouldn't want to make more Zim episodes.
 
It sounds like an internet-fueled rumor, if there were any serious discussions about reviving Zim, there would be many, many articles all over the internet discussing it.
 
lmfao Zim coming back... that's funny, especially since the creator hated working on it. Also those are the same people who think Nickelodeon cancelled Zim. Like FOX actually liked FG, Nick actually liked Zim.

Zim won't come back unless pigs fly and a whole new staff is set in to work on it, like what happened to Ren and Stimpy when John K was fired. 'Nuff said.

Also IMO, it's better off canceled. The last few episodes that didn't make TV are pretty... bad. "Girl Who Cried Gnome" and "Gaz Taster of Pork" are two episodes that make good examples of that.
 
There's also a difference between adult shows like Family Guy and Futurama and kids shows like, say, Hey Arnold. Adults wanted the first two shows back, and the adult fanbase for Futurama was incredibly strong and dedicated.

On the other hand, what would Nick care if adult fans of Hey Arnold want the show back? Adults weren't the target demo for that show in the first place and they would certainly not be the target demo for it if it came back. Kids under TZ's age restrictions probably couldn't care less about HA. They're not clamoring for it to return. So it's not going to return.
 
Exactly. It's just a shame because seeing Family Guy and Futurama return, it gives people this false idea in their head that somehow if enough people buy a DVD, their favorite show will return. I even see people foolishly thinking live action series will return from the dead to DVD sales. People also forget that Family Guy and Futurama not only had strong DVD sales, but attracted high ratings on their cable reruns as well as selling a ton of merchandise. It's a large amount of factors that all come together, not just DVD sales.
 
Well, I'm not sure about the possibility of a revival being true, but I do know that Jhonen has gone on record to say that he'll never do another Invader Zim-related project ever again.
 
Let's not forget the funniest revival attempt:

Petitions that only end up getting like 12 signatures, showing people how many people truly care about the show. If anything, these petitions with low counts would only convince the networks that they made the right choice to cancel the show.
 
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