The first animated television sitcom was The Flintstones, originally airing in the 1960s (Raymond, 2013). The Flintstones began the trend of portraying the nuclear family but the genre of animated tv sitcoms was not able to take-off, regardless of The Flintstones success, until the 1980s with the still popular hit, The Simpsons. The success of The Simpsons created somewhat of a rush into the animated sitcom genre. But this rush was without benefit as many of the sitcoms produced directly after The Simpsons’ air were busts (Evans, 2013). The next big tv sitcom produced after The Simpsons was Beavis and Butt-head in 1993 (Evans, 2013). From Beavis and Butt-head on, tv sitcoms seem to have gained popularity with audiences, as there has been an …show more content…
Out of the two, Family Guy has become most popular In both shows, MacFarlane and his writers do not shy away from controversial topics and often go at them head on, to the chagrin of some viewers, as well as the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The main disapproval for MacFarlane’s shows is in, “…complaints over the show’s abrasive language, perceived indecent content, and sexual overtones,” (Ricke, 2012). This year on a deadline.com list of 2015-16 TV Season Series Rankings, they put Family Guy at spot 111, which may seem like a fairly high number to be at but in comparison to shows around it shows that it is still relevant in the popular culture of 2016 (De Moraes, 2016). Author Chase Raymond (2013), references another author (Kenneally, 2011) as stating, “…even when scheduled during the same timeslot as Game 1 of the National Basketball Association playoffs on ESPN… a new episode of Family Guy secured the highest ratings of the night with 6 million viewers tuning in (which was actually down from the previous week’s ratings).” This is a big deal as sports playoffs are known to garner a sizable amount of