‘Family Guy’ Season 3 review

“Family Guy” Season 3 (2001-02, Fox), episodes 1-21 — Like “Futurama,” Seth MacFarlane’s “Family Guy” (7 p.m. Thursday, Fox) has been playing in the shadow of “The Simpsons” since its 1999 premiere. Many viewers may have dismissed it early on as a crass “Simpsons” rip-off, but they might want to give it another chance, especially since

‘Family Guy’ writers run out of inspiration as they wrap up ‘Star Wars’ trilogy (DVD review)

Seth MacFarlane probably had the idea for “Blue Harvest” kicking around in his head for a while, and when it became an actual episode of “Family Guy” in 2007, he probably thought, “Wow, we really did a ‘Family Guy’ ‘Star Wars’ parody.” Some of the giddy excitement was still intact for the “Empire Strikes Back”-themed sequel, “Something,

John’s top 10 TV shows of 2009

Although two shows on this list are much missed and a third (“Dollhouse”) is on its way out, 2009 was generally a year when TV networks got smarter about marketing.