19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Simpsons Did It! Simpsons did it!, November 4, 2005
This review is from: Family Guy: The Official Episode Guide: Seasons 1-3 (Paperback)
I've been waiting in anticipation for a Family Guy episode guide for many, many years. However, I must say I am a little underwhelmed by the final result.
This guide is so much like all of the Simpsons episode guides that it's almost laughable. I mean, it has the exact same format! A 4 or 5 paragraph plot summary, a collection of quotes from characters, and even a "Stuff You May Have Missed" section as well (here it is called "Stuff That May Have Slipped By"). For a show that already doesn't like being compared to Homer and company, they sure are trying to act just like them with this book.
Now, that isn't saying the entire thing is worthless. I haven't found a mistake yet (which is usually the case with a book like this--the amount of Simpsons geek fan sites listing every error in their episode guides is mind boggling), and the layout is quite cute, with lots of drawings/photos that I've never seen before. The only real original part of this book is every now and then there will be a little quote blurb from Seth MacFarlane or another writer on the show for some of the episodes. Unfortunately, most of the time the quotes are pretty meaningless and/or dumb, and do not add much. Plus, most of the "Stuff That May Have Slipped By" is well, stuff that is easily seen, such as "Stewie is seen reading (insert book title here)" which doesn't really slip by when it's on screen for 2 minutes. Why not have a list of each of the weird pop culture reference in each episode? That's what the show is famous for, right? In fact, there's an entire webpage devoted to debunking all the references on the show. I think it would be more beneficial to us to understand WHY Brian was chasing that mini horse and wagon around the kitchen rather than being told that Meg has a Hanson poster in her room.
One more complaint: This book only covers the FIRST THREE SEASONS of the show. Any new episodes that have aired after the series' return on May 1st, 2005 are not included. In fact, based on the wording in this book, I think it was supposed to be released BEFORE the season started re-airing, as there are several mentions of new episodes that will soon be airing, plus an ad for the "Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story" DVD, releasing September 22, 2005! Too bad the book was released November 1st. Oops! Well, most of that is forgivable, and it's not worth NOT buying this book over, but would Stephen King release a new novel and advertise "The Green Mile" as coming soon? I don't think so.
But, you know what? I'm being too hard on this whole thing. It's really a good investment if you want to be able to flip to a certain episode, and it's really great to have most of the memorable quotes in one volume for reference. However, if you're like me and you're already a die-hard fan of the show, it doesn't bring a lot of new information to the table. Almost everything in this book can be found on some of the excellent Family Guy webpages out there, especially all the pop culture references. But for the casual fan, or the new Family Guy fan, it's definetly worth a shot. Just don't expect to be blown away.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Very funny and interesting., April 9, 2006
This review is from: Family Guy: The Official Episode Guide: Seasons 1-3 (Paperback)
This is truly a must if you are a fan of the series. I always laugh when I see the episodes and I discovered that I also laugh when I read this guide. It is very interesting to know a little bit more from the characters, the people involved in the series and other funny stuff. They did an excellent job in selecting the dialogues. Even the scans are great.
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