Seth MacFarlane gets to have his cake and eat it, too. Plus there are leftovers to shove some in the face of his critics. Satirists have that kind of leverage when they have already created TV series as demented, delicious and funny as Family Guy and American Dad!
But the signs of decay are setting in. This is not because MacFarlane's showpieces on are the hit list of crusading American parent groups, who target adult animation as a sign of the apocalypse. Their attacks just embolden MacFarlane and his team. The core audience becomes more defiant, too.
Instead, the warning signs come from within that MacFarlane fanbase. You find them on the Internet, grumpy again because Family Guy: Volume Eight, Ye Olde Uncensored Version and American Dad!: Volume 5, Uncensored debuted on DVD this week. Both are in three-disc sets with the usual extras, including episode commentaries.
The problem is that many devoted fans think Family Guy, in particular, is getting stale. That the same jokes and cultural references are endlessly recycled. Less so for American Dad!, which launched in 2005. Family Guy has been around (although not continuously) since 1999.
The grumpiness is warranted, somewhat. But the counter-balance is that both shows still contain moments of absolute satirical brilliance. In the case of Family Guy, Vol. 8 contains the savagely funny Road to the Multiverse (a printed copy of the script is packaged inside the collection).
Part of the appeal of both shows is that they become cruder and ruder on DVD. A flyer boasts they are: "Uncensored and out of control!" Turns out, that is part of the enduring appeal, even with the slippage in overall quality.
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