Family Guy Volume One: Seasons 1 & 2

There have been numerous shows that had their life sadly cut short. Quality programs like My So-Called Life and Freaks and Geeks barely keep their heads above water before sinking like into a sea of poor promotion. "What moron pulled Freaks and Geeks off the air," wonders Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane. "I was nuts about that show." Many were asking the same question when Fox finally pulled the plug on MacFarlane's brilliant Family Guy. "When we were on the air, I would venture to say that we were probably the edgiest half-hour comedy show on network television at the time," says MacFarlane. The show got away with murder for its primetime slot, yet they managed to pull off their many edgy concepts and one-liners with superb wit rather than basic shock value. Although there were exceptions. "We did a take-off on the DeBeers diamond commercial with the shadow of the man putting a ring on the shadow of the woman, and then you just see her shadow move down and out of frame to presumably fellate him," MacFarlane laughs. "We were actually fighting over individual frames as to how far down she could go. It's still in [the episode] but it's not what it should have been. The frustrating thing is that two days later we saw an episode of Dawson's Creek where a girl full-on moves down out of frame to give a guy a blow job." MacFarlane (the voice of Peter, Brian and Stewie) drops more titbits through several great episode commentaries, some of which also include Alex Borstein (the voice of Lois), executive producer David Zuckerman, various writers and Seth Green. "Thank god Seth Green was in the mix," recalls MacFarlane when remembering the casting auditions for the voice of Chris, the family's dim-witted son. "Everyone that was coming in would see the drawing of Chris and do this sort of surfer dude thing. Seth came in and did this impression of what he described as Buffalo Bill from Silence of the Lambs." the show may be gone, thankfully this family lives on in a digital format. Extras: commentary on selected episodes; behind-the-scenes featurette; internet promo spots. (Fox)