The History of Family Guy
On January 31st, 1999, immediately following the Super Bowl, FOX aired the episode "Death has a Shadow." The first season was contracted for seven episodes, mainly to introduce the show to the US, and in the event that the new series failed, FOX was not under any hefty obligation.
Season two began on September 23rd, 1999 on FOX. Containing 22 episodes, season two started many controversies, which many would argue lead to the cancellation of the show. "When You Wish Upon a Weinstein" was never actually aired until season two ended; Cartoon Network aired the episode on August 6th 2003, while FOX didn't air it until over a year later. However, the airings did not come without editing; the line "even though they killed our Lord" was changed to "I don't think they killed our Lord." The Family Guy DVD has both the original line and the alternate line, but Cartoon Network was asked to use the alternate. Cartoon Network did air the alternate line, but with closed captioning on, the original is seen. Also, when FOX finally showed the episode, the scene where Lois asks Quagmire for his keys was edited so it wouldn't imply Quagmire pleasuring himself. The episode "Road to Rhode Island" had scenes cut which included Osama Bin Laden passing security gates with guns (which, ironically, was written before the attacks, but was scheduled to air after the 11th). At the end of season two, the show was officially cancelled, but not announced.
Why Family Guy was cancelled is still a topic of debate. FOX claims poor ratings along with expensive production costs caused the show to cancel itself, but many can view that as a cover up. Perhaps if FOX didn't move their timeslot, or at least kept their time the same every week, poor ratings would not be a factor. While this controversy is going on, Cartoon Network was playing reruns, and their ratings prove to be excellent; beating Dave Letterman and Jay Leno. Did FOX want the show to be cancelled? Liability issues?
Despite being cancelled, contracts allowed a third season. Unfortunately, Family Guy lost their time slot, so airings of Family Guy were sparatic. Season three started July 11th of 2001, and contained 21 episodes. During this season, FOX announced the show's cancellation.
After the shows cancellation, fans began to speak out against FOX by creating websites and signing petitions. The biggest petition gained over 10,000 signatures in only a few weeks, and ended with almost 140,000. The petition can still be found online here: http://www.petitiononline.com/savefg2/petition.html