WI: Seth McFarlane didn't miss his flight on 9/11

I'm sorry, but I don't think "Iraq lobster" is gonna have the same impact as Mein Kampf.

I'm not comparing Seth MacFarlane to Hitler. I'm surprised I have to say so. That's misreading what I wrote. I said disregarding and ignoring things in pop culture you dislike, when you are discussing popular culture as a social topic and a historical topic, is like leaving out Hitler and the Nazis from the history of WW2 because you dislike them. It's absurd. It's also common to pop culture discussions on impact and history. This area is riddled with bias and lack of academic neutrality. It's like disregarding Pat Boone in a discussion of 1950s popular music because you like Elvis better and see him as the genuine one, despite both selling equally well and to the same fan base, and both having an impact and importance in that time and place. By the same token, it's like saying that if 'The Simpsons' never were, that'd have a huge impact on everything, while meanwhile, if the 'Family Guy' animation universe never were, it would not matter because you personally dislike the show and therefore it has no merit or impact. A personal opinion on quality cannot disregard the importance of something. If you change something that has massive popularity, there will be things that result from it.

Now that I explained that, I hope no one thinks I'm comparing Seth MacFarlane to Pat Boone. I don't want to offend anyone here who loves or hates Pat Boone. I know Pat Boone is a controversial issue, and there's always the danger of someone getting compared to Pat Boone. In this current political climate, everyone and their brother keeps getting compared to Pat Boone, and it's hindering civil discussion. So let's keep this thread free of Pat Boone accusations from here on out.
 
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I think I made a similar topic a few years ago - and I believe it was slightly more civil and respectful than this one. Kudos to Emperor Norton for a very profound post.

As someone who specializes in adult animation... Family Guy is cancelled and Animation Domination never really exists in the form it does now. That much is glaringly obvious.

People blinded by a not unjustified hatred of MacFarlane's humor ignore some pretty significant butterflies though - Animation Domination had a profound effect on the genre as a whole, and on [adult swim], and Family Guy's return based on home video sales was unprecedented at the time. Futurama is a very different show from Family Guy, both ran back-to-back on [adult swim] for years and the revival of Family Guy was crucial to Futurama's eventual revival. The recently acclaimed Bob's Burgers could be butterflied away as it was born from one of the same writers who used to work on Family Guy, as well as someone who worked on King of the Hill, which can really go either way right now. [adult swim] might never gain the same levels of viewership, as reruns of MacFarlane's shows remained some of it's highest-rated programming for years and remain a staple of the block today. Beavis & Butthead probably never gets revived either.

The Simpsons will either retain the perception of better quality by remaining the only long-running animated sitcom on FOX, or possibly die even faster if FOX has less reason to continue investing in animation and decides to drop the genre.

We also lose the critically-acclaimed Cosmos revival. Family Guy basically paid for.

It's hard to estimate the loss of Family Guy's long-term effects on pop culture, given people often go out of there way to disassociate Family Guy jokes away from their source material if they actually like them, and MacFarlane rarely gets credit for anything that goes well. For a niche example of a pop culture effect though, the South Park "Cartoon Wars" episodes are probably a single episode and use Terrance and Phillip instead of Family Guy, resulting in a better episode character-wise but a less exciting one satire-wise. That could, however, derail the episode's infamy and newsmaker status, as I believe splitting it up made it into a bigger news story.
 
No Cleveland Show (the only one of his productions I actually liked). Without it, I probably wouldn't be saying Cleveland's notorious line, "That's nasty."
 
Supposedly Meg was written that way because the writers had no idea how to write the character of a teenage girl. Not sure how true that is. If you look back at the earlier episodes, there's definitely a difference in how she is treated (it's more loveable neglect as opposed to outright abuse).

Back to the topic. I concur with most posters. It would be a another life lost on that tragic day, but wouldn't have a huge effect outside of pop culture. Pop culture from 2005-2008 (when the show hit i's stride) would latch on to something else.
 
Just thinking aloud, this may butterfly away more beloved animated sitcoms like The Venture Brothers and/or Rick and Morty, since there wouldn't be the sustained example of gross-out, very crude animated comedy for adults (South Park may be looked at as happening in a vacuum).
 
Family Guy is nothing more than a cult classic. American Dad never comes into existence and neither does The Cleveland Show,and without Cleveland Show, King of the Hill might last a little longer as, IRC, it was cancelled to give its slot to The Cleveland Show. The Simpsons over the last nine or ten years might've also faired differently for the better or it would've ended sooner. Futurama may also have a different history in a No McFarlane TL.
 
I tend to think King of the Hill would actually end earlier than OTL. After all, season 10 was originally going to be its last, and that may well be the case ITTL, since it won't be a part of the Animation Domination programing bloc that was supported by the ratings of both The Simpsons and the revived Family Guy throughout its existence. Fox has one less reason to keep it around.

We also lose the critically-acclaimed Cosmos revival. Family Guy basically paid for.

I wonder if the a lack of a successful Family Guy revival might mean recent TV revivals from OTL other than Futurama and Cosmos (like The X Files, Fuller House, and the upcoming 24 revival) are less likely to occur ITTL.
 
Supposedly Meg was written that way because the writers had no idea how to write the character of a teenage girl. Not sure how true that is. If you look back at the earlier episodes, there's definitely a difference in how she is treated (it's more loveable neglect as opposed to outright abuse).
Mixed levels of truth.

My understanding is that they always had trouble with her, but initially kept it grounded looking for something to stick, until they discovered most members of the target demographic at the time found her annoying and disliked her. So, they sort of ran with that, and it spun out of control. I think the voice actor shifts in the first two seasons also might've played a part, since Alex Borstein played a big role in shaping Lois, and Seth Green with Chris, etc.

I do find it often disputed whether or not viewers are supposed to sympathize with Meg, but for anyone curious, yes, you're supposed to. The writers don't torture her out of sheer hatred.

What gets the green light which would not have otherwise?
Nothing that we know of. Family Guy was not considered a success at the time and FOX mostly wanted it gone until the [adult swim] reruns later on.

I tend to think King of the Hill would actually end earlier than OTL. After all, season 10 was originally going to be its last, and that may well be the case ITTL, since it won't be a part of the Animation Domination programing bloc that was supported by the ratings of both The Simpsons and the revived Family Guy throughout its existence. Fox has one less reason to keep it around.
This is what I was getting at before, yeah. FOX did not have an animation line-up before Family Guy's revival and American Dad's simultaneous premiere, going alongside their two existing animated franchises. With neither of those shows, it's just the highly successful The Simpsons and the underrated unfavorite King of the Hill, and the latter does likely go earlier.

Pretty much anything else animated on FOX is probably killed. Most *network* animated sitcoms between The Simpsons and Family Guy's revival were failures, and that's a huge reason why ABC, NBC and CBS have generally avoided animated projects since, even today, twenty years after the fact. It was widely assumed The Simpsons was this one-time lightning-in-a-bottle moment, and I think Family Guy proved the formula could still work on network television.

Just thinking aloud, this may butterfly away more beloved animated sitcoms like The Venture Brothers and/or Rick and Morty, since there wouldn't be the sustained example of gross-out, very crude animated comedy for adults (South Park may be looked at as happening in a vacuum).
This is something I've thought about as well, but a lot of it depends on how [adult swim] pans out ITTL. The original programming lineup is iconic to me as a nut on this stuff, but I'm not sure how many people really caught on to Space Ghost: Coast to Coast, Sealab 2021 and Aqua Teen Hunger Force. I pointed out before, I think, that Family Guy reruns formed the backbone of [adult swim]s' programming for years and still are the highest-rated syndicated shows on the network, and the other FOX projects still litter it, including the likely butterflied Bob's Burgers.

I think Venture Bros. still has a chance, since it was mostly born from that first wave, but Rick and Morty is far enough down the line I'm really not sure.

South Park could easily be placed in a vacuum. Viewership was pretty consistent between the second and eleventh seasons and while it had (and has, myself included) a very dedicated audience, I don't think it was percieved as a breakout hit within the industry, and at the time of Family Guy's cancellation, it hasn't fully broken out of the "surreal comedy" reputation of it's early years, into the "social commentary and satire" reputation it's more known for today. The eighth thru tenth seasons did a lot of that work, since that's when controversy hit a fever pitch for it.

I wonder if the a lack of a successful Family Guy revival might mean recent TV revivals from OTL other than Futurama and Cosmos (like The X Files, Fuller House, and the upcoming 24 revival) are less likely to occur ITTL.
I tihnk Futurama is definitely wiped out. I love Futurama, it's a fantastic show, but I specifically remember the success of the Family Guy revival was the example used by fans to get Futurama back on the air, and considering both are from FOX, that makes it a much better selling point than if they never tried.

The general trend is harder to say, but I believe it's a plausible butterfly. Family Guy was still *the* TV revival at the time it took place.

(If you all can't tell, adult animated programming is my jam.)
 
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