The ninth season of animated television series Family Guy first aired on the Fox network in eighteen episodes from September 26, 2010, to May 22, 2011, before being released as two DVD box sets and in syndication. Family Guy follows the dysfunctional Griffin family—father Peter, mother Lois, daughter Meg, son Chris, baby Stewie and dog Brian, all of whom reside in their hometown of Quahog.
| Family Guy | |
|---|---|
| Season 9 | |
  DVD covers for Volumes 9 and 10 | |
| Starring | |
| No. of episodes | 18 |
| Release | |
| Original network | Fox |
| Original release | September 26, 2010 – May 22, 2011 |
| Season chronology | |
Season nine was the debut of the series' eighth production season, which was executive produced by Chris Sheridan, David Goodman, Danny Smith, Mark Hentemann, Steve Callaghan and series creator Seth MacFarlane. The season's showrunners were Hentemann and Callaghan.
The season received a mixed reception from critics, who called it "a mixture of laugh out loud gags, groan inducing puns, and astonishing 'I can't believe they got away with that' statements."[1] Season nine contains some of the series' most acclaimed episodes, including "And Then There Were Fewer",[2] "Road to the North Pole"[2] and "New Kidney in Town",[3] as well as some of the most controversial episodes, including "And I'm Joyce Kinney", "Friends of Peter G.", and "The Hand That Rocks the Wheelchair".[4][5][6][7] This season marks the first time Family Guy aired in 720p high definition and widescreen with a remastered title sequence.[8] It was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Composition for a Series, Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics and Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Comedy or Drama Series and Animation.
The Volume Nine DVD box set was released in Region 1 on December 13, 2011, and was released in Region 2 on May 9, 2011 (titled Season 10)[9] and Region 4 on June 15, 2011. Three of the eighteen episodes are included in the volume. The remaining fourteen episodes were included in the Volume Ten DVD box set, released in Region 2 on November 3, 2011, titled Season 11,[10] Region 4 on February 29, 2012, and finally on Region 1 on September 24, 2012.[11] One other episode, "It's a Trap!", was released independently on DVD.
In the UK, the debut episodes were shown on Sunday nights from May to July 2011 on BBC Three. These repeated the Saturday after, although re-runs of the series continue to be shown on the channel nightly.
Production
Production for the ninth season began in 2009, during the airing of the eighth season. The season was executive produced by series regulars Chris Sheridan, David Goodman, Danny Smith, Mark Hentemann and Steve Callaghan, along with series creator Seth MacFarlane. The showrunners for the ninth season were Hentemann and Callaghan,[12] who oversaw the series's transition into 720p high definition in the premiere of the ninth-season episode "And Then There Were Fewer".[8]
As production began, Callaghan, Andrew Goldberg, Mark Hentemann, Patrick Meighan, Brian Scully, Chris Sheridan, Danny Smith, Alec Sulkin, John Viener and Wellesley Wild all stayed on from the previous season. Matt Harrigan, Dave Willis, Anthony Blasucci and Mike Desilets received their first writing credit for the series. Series executive producer David A. Goodman returned as a writer for the series, with Goodman leaving immediately afterward to work on the Fox animated series Allen Gregory.[13] Kirker Butler, who wrote five episodes for the show, left the series before the beginning of the ninth season, in order to write for the Fox animated series The Cleveland Show, a spin-off of Family Guy.[14][15] Writer John Viener left the series at the end of the season to also write for The Cleveland Show. Recurring directors Dominic Bianchi, Greg Colton, John Holmquist, Brian Iles, Jerry Langford, Pete Michels, James Purdum, Cyndi Tang and Julius Wu all stayed with the show from the previous season. Peter Shin briefly returned to the series as a director to direct the sequel to the episode "Something, Something, Something, Dark Side", entitled "It's a Trap!". Shin also served as supervising director for the season, along with James Purdum.[14][15]
The main cast consisted of Seth MacFarlane (Peter Griffin, Stewie Griffin, Brian Griffin, Quagmire and Tom Tucker, among others), Alex Borstein (Lois Griffin, Loretta Brown, Tricia Takanawa and Barbara Pewterschmidt, among others), Mila Kunis (Meg Griffin), Seth Green (Chris Griffin and Neil Goldman, among others) and Mike Henry (Cleveland Brown and Herbert, among others).[16]
Episodes
| No. overall | No. in season | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date | Prod. code | U.S. viewers (millions) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 148 | 1 | "And Then There Were Fewer" | Dominic Polcino | Cherry Chevapravatdumrong | September 26, 2010 | 8ACX01 | 9.13[17] | |||||
| 8ACX02 | ||||||||||||
|
In a parody of a murder mystery, the residents of Quahog are invited over to a honorary dinner at James Woods' mansion, where Quagmire's overweight date Stephanie, Woods, his girlfriend Priscilla, Muriel Goldman, and Derek Wilcox are all murdered in sequence. A bloody golden globe and Priscilla's dead body are found in Tom Tucker's room leading the group to believe he is the killer. In the morning, Lois finds out that Diane Simmons is the true killer and she did it because James Woods was her boyfriend and dumped her on her 40th birthday and Tom pushed Channel 5 to replace her with a younger woman so she planned to kill Woods and frame Tom. As she prepares to kill Lois, she is shot by Stewie, vowing to be the one to kill Lois. | ||||||||||||
| 149 | 2 | "Excellence in Broadcasting" | John Holmquist | Patrick Meighan | October 3, 2010 | 8ACX03 | 7.98[18] | |||||
|
Brian decides to confront Rush Limbaugh when he comes to Quahog for a book signing. Brian becomes a Republican after reading Rush's book. As Lois opposes his new ideas, he moves in with Rush and tries to "help" his party in different ways. | ||||||||||||
| 150 | 3 | "Welcome Back, Carter" | Cyndi Tang | Wellesley Wild | October 10, 2010 | 8ACX04 | 6.97[19] | |||||
|
After Peter catches Lois's dad, Carter, having an affair, he is strong-armed into keeping a secret. Joe and Quagmire tell him about how he can use this situation to blackmail Carter. But when Peter accidentally spills the beans, Lois's mom demands a divorce, and Peter is in charge of Carter's return to bachelorhood. | ||||||||||||
| 151 | 4 | "Halloween on Spooner Street" | Jerry Langford | Andrew Goldberg | November 7, 2010 | 8ACX06 | 8.00[20] | |||||
|
Peter and Joe team up to execute a series of painful and humiliating Halloween pranks on Quagmire. While Brian shows Stewie the ropes of trick-or-treating, Meg sets out to attend her first high school Halloween party with high hopes for the evening. She and Chris, who have both dressed up in an attempt to hide their faces, find themselves in an unpleasant situation. | ||||||||||||
| 152 | 5 | "Baby, You Knock Me Out" | Julius Wu | Alex Carter | November 14, 2010 | 8ACX05 | 7.06[21] | |||||
|
After Lois accidentally gets involved in boxing, she proves herself extremely skilled in the ring as she tries to picture Peter in place of her opponent. Peter gets ambitious and tries to make Lois a professional boxer even when she is resistant. | ||||||||||||
| 153 | 6 | "Brian Writes a Bestseller" | Joseph Lee | Gary Janetti | November 21, 2010 | 8ACX07 | 6.59[22] | |||||
|
Feeling discouraged with the progress of his writing career, Brian decides to throw in the towel until Stewie become his manager and one of his books hits the bestseller list. But when the fame goes to his head, Brian gets a wake-up call from Bill Maher (appearing in a live-action scene as himself). | ||||||||||||
| 154 | 7 | "Road to the North Pole" | Greg Colton | Chris Sheridan & Danny Smith | December 12, 2010 | 8ACX08 | 8.03[23] | |||||
| 8ACX09 | ||||||||||||
|
After getting blown off by the mall's Santa, Brian and Stewie travel to the North Pole to kill Santa Claus. They get there, only to find that Santa is very sick and near dying because of all the work he does each Christmas. Brian and Stewie promise to deliver the presents for him, but fail at the first stop after being discovered by a family. On Christmas morning, when everyone wakes up with no presents under their trees, Brian explains the problem on the news and tells them to shorten their demands to one gift a year. Everyone agrees and one year later, Santa recovers and everyone has a merry Christmas. | ||||||||||||
| 155 | 8 | "New Kidney in Town" | Pete Michels | Matt Harrigan & Dave Willis | January 9, 2011 | 8ACX10 | 9.33[24] | |||||
|
Peter needs a new kidney after his disturbing energy-drink addiction causes renal failure. Brian agrees to give him both of his kidneys and the family prepares to bid adieu to their dog. Meanwhile, Chris is chosen to introduce President Obama at school after winning an essay contest. Trouble is, Meg wrote the essay. | ||||||||||||
| 156 | 9 | "And I'm Joyce Kinney" | Dominic Bianchi | Alec Sulkin | January 16, 2011 | 8ACX12 | 7.06[25] | |||||
|
Lois encounters the replacement to Diane as the anchorwoman for Quahog's news station, Joyce Kinney. Seeking a bond with someone famous out of sheer ego, Lois tries to befriend her. During a late-night dinner, Lois accidentally confides in Kinney that she is a former porn star. Kinney promptly reveals this on the news the next day which turns Lois into a pariah and enrages her. When Lois confronts her, Kinney reveals she's an ex-classmate of Lois during her days as a high-school cheerleader and that revealing her secret was part of a deep-seated grudge she had on Lois because of a terrible prank she played on Kinney in high school. Lois becomes depressed leading Brian to try and pull her out of it. Eventually, Lois decides to publicly admit her mistake during a church sermon and eventually win the town's approval back and completely infuriating Kinney. | ||||||||||||
| 157 | 10 | "Friends of Peter G." | John Holmquist | Brian Scully | February 13, 2011 | 8ACX13 | 5.98[26] | |||||
|
Brian and Peter are required to attend a 12-step program to deal with their drinking problems after a night of their disruptive drunken shenanigans; Death gives Peter a glimpse of what life would be like without alcohol. | ||||||||||||
| 158 | 11 | "German Guy" | Cyndi Tang | Patrick Meighan | February 20, 2011 | 8ACX14 | 6.57[27] | |||||
|
Chris's search for a new hobby leads him to befriend an elderly puppeteer named Franz, until his checkered past is revealed by Herbert. After Chris and Peter get in trouble with Franz, they are rescued by Herbert. | ||||||||||||
| 159 | 12 | "The Hand That Rocks the Wheelchair" | Brian Iles | Tom Devanney | March 6, 2011 | 8ACX11 | 6.33[28] | |||||
|
Meg is enlisted to check in on Susie and Joe while Bonnie is away but she soon becomes a little too involved. Lois intervenes when she realizes that Meg‘s misrepresentation of the situation. Meanwhile, Stewie accidentally creates an evil twin. When he tries to take Stewie's place, Brian has to step in. | ||||||||||||
| 160 | 13 | "Trading Places" | Joseph Lee | Steve Callaghan | March 20, 2011 | 8ACX17 | 6.55[29] | |||||
|
Chris, Meg, Peter and Lois all trade places to teach each other a lesson. The stunt backfires on everyone except Meg, who surprisingly becomes an excellent housewife. Chris, however, proves to be incredibly productive at Peter's desk job leading Angela to fire Peter and replace him with Chris. Angela then proceeds to overwork Chris to the point where he becomes ill-tempered and nasty which eventually leads to a stress-induced heart attack. | ||||||||||||
| 161 | 14 | "Tiegs for Two" | Jerry Langford | John Viener | April 10, 2011 | 8ACX16 | 6.59[30] | |||||
|
Brian tries to score on a date with a new friend, Denise, but ends up striking out. Instead of throwing in the towel, he decides to enlist Quagmire's help through the latter's new class on how to score women. Unfortunately for Brian, the class was not to find love but to simply have sex. Fed up with Quagmire, he later encounters Cheryl Tiegs (Quagmire's one true love and the reason he became so sexually active). Brian and Cheryl hit it off immediately and the former begins rubbing it in Quagmire's face. This leads Quagmire to snag Jillian Russell (Brian's greatest romantic conquest) and rub it in Brian's face in response. Meanwhile, when the local dry cleaner loses his favorite white shirt, Peter goes ballistic. | ||||||||||||
| 162 | 15 | "Brothers & Sisters" | Julius Wu | Alex Carter | April 17, 2011 | 8ACX15 | 5.98[31] | |||||
|
Lois is skeptical when she hears that Mayor West is marrying her sister Carol, due to the problems she had before with nine break-ups. Meanwhile, Peter is ecstatic at the thought of having a new brother and gets mad at Lois when she tries to prevent the marriage. | ||||||||||||
| 163 | 16 | "The Big Bang Theory" | Dominic Polcino | David A. Goodman | May 8, 2011 | 8ACX18 | 6.52[32] | |||||
|
Stewie discovers that his time travel has in someway caused the Big Bang that formed the universe, so when Bertram reveals his plan of killing Leonardo da Vinci, Stewie's ancestor, in order to erase Stewie from the universe, he and Brian go back in time to stop Bertram from accidentally deleting the whole universe too. | ||||||||||||
| 164 | 17 | "Foreign Affairs" | Pete Michels | Anthony Blasucci & Mike Desilets | May 15, 2011 | 8ACX19 | 6.44[33] | |||||
|
Bonnie and Lois go to Paris, but Lois finds out that Bonnie only wants to go there to have an affair. After Joe discovers Bonnie's plans, he travels to Paris to try to get her back. All the while, Peter unsuccessfully homeschools Meg and Chris. | ||||||||||||
| 165 | 18 | "It's a Trap!" | Peter Shin | Cherry Chevapravatdumrong & David A. Goodman | May 22, 2011 | 7ACX21 | 5.84[34] | |||||
| 7ACX22 | ||||||||||||
|
Peter retells the story of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi. | ||||||||||||
Home media
The remaining episodes of the eighth season and the first three episodes of the ninth season were released on DVD by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment in the United States and Canada on December 13, 2011. The DVD release features bonus material including four featurettes, "Who Done It? The Making of 'And Then There Were Fewer'", "Brian & Stewie: The Lost Phone Call", "The History of the World According to Family Guy" and the Family Guy panel at the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con, along with audio commentaries, animatics and deleted scenes.[35]
| Family Guy Volume Nine / Season 10 | ||||
| Set details[35] | Special features[35] | |||
|
| |||
| Release dates | ||||
| Region 1 | Region 2 | Region 4 | ||
| December 13, 2011[36] | May 9, 2011[37] | June 15, 2011[38] | ||
| Family Guy Volume Ten / Season 11 | ||||
| Set details[35] | Special features[35] | |||
|
| |||
| Release dates | ||||
| Region 1 | Region 2 | Region 4 | ||
| September 25, 2012[11] | November 7, 2011[10] | February 29, 2012 | ||
References
External links
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