Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy: DVD Review

Seth MacFarlane’s series of short comedy blurbs, better known as the Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy, have been coming our way now for the past six months or so, and wouldn’t you know it Fox put them all together in a DVD – an uncensored DVD, at that. I finally got a chance to sit down and watch it this weekend and was not disappointed. Grossed out and vaguely offended, but not disappointed.

There are 50 shorts on here in all, which sounds like a lot until you realize they are only about 30 seconds each. Most of them are spit-your-milk out funny, there are a few misses (the whole StickNipple family thing was kinda lame), but overall, this DVD is a good complement to your Family Guy collection. Should I buy it? If you are a FG fan, absolutely.

Family Guy Season 7: A Review

Season 7 of Family Guy is officially over, and it’s time for the retrospective/review posts. First, let’s take a look at the list of episodes we got this season:

Love Blactually
I Dream of Jesus
Road to Germany
Baby Not on Board
The Man With Two Brians
Tales of a Third Grade Nothing
Oceans Three and a Half
Family Gay
The Juice is Loose
FOXy Lady
Not All Dogs Go to Heaven
Stew-roids
We Love You, Conrad
Three Kings
Peter’s Progress

Lots of new stuff this season, lots of pushing the envelope, and a fair amount of exploring the show’s characters. For the casual watcher who perhaps had not watched Family Guy before, this season might have pulled them in.

Or not.

Family Guy Season 7 was, frankly, a big disappointment. After the prolonged writers’ strike of Season 6, I think we were all expecting something…well, better than what we got. Unexplained delays between new episodes that went on for weeks is not okay. Using a Conway Twitty video – the ENTIRE video – to fill up space in an episode (and that’s all it did) is not okay. Stupid stereotyping jokes that we’ve already seen in previous seasons is NOT OKAY.

Here’s the thing. We all understand by now that Seth MacFarlane is basically a genius on wheels. He’s a funny guy with lots of creative talent – Family Guy, The Cleveland Show, Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy, and American Dad are the proof of that talent. However, this season felt like an afterthought. With everything that Seth is doing, is it possible that Family Guy has gotten the VERY short end of the stick? Has Seth given over this show to lesser writers in order to manage his burgeoning empire? Say it’s not so!

I haven’t given up on Family Guy – far from it. I look forward to Season 8 this fall, as well as the premiere of The Cleveland Show. I want to believe that this was just an off season and the next one will be better written and more appealing to true Family Guy fans. I think we ALL want that, right? Right.

Seth…are you listening?

New Cavalcade of Comedy video titled “Why Beavers are the A**Holes of the Forest”

Whoo hoo – a new Cavalcade of Comedy video has arrived, in which forest Animals describe how a vagina became synonymous with the word “beaver”.

Backstage with Bob Dylan – new Cavalcade of Comedy short

Here’s a new Cavalcade of Comedy video making fun of Bob Dylan, Tom Waite, Popeye, and Mohammed Ali. I remember seeing this on Saturday Night Live with David Spade, do you?

New Cavalcade of Comedy episode: Fred and Barney try to get into a club

There’s a new Cavalcade of Comedy episode up! This one is about Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble; they try to get into a club and it doesn’t quite work out. The opening is with William Shatner from Priceline. Watch:

This isn’t the first time that FG has spoofed on the Flintstones; it happened back in Family Guy Season Six, “Peter’s Daughter”, in which Peter compares Meg’s date to Fred Flintstone.

March 8, 2009 Family Guy episode: “Family Gay”

According to MSN, the new Family Guy episode for March 8, 2009 will be “Family Gay”. Here is a synopsis:

Peter is injected with the gay gene as part of a scientific experiment to determine whether or not homosexuality is a learned trait or something that people are born with. He ends up in a gay relationship and winds up in a straight camp. Meanwhile Jasper and Ricardo get a divorce.

Now, if this sounds familiar, it is – Seth MacFarlane already did a story that was similar to this in Family Guy Season 2 titled “I Am Peter, Hear Me Roar”:

After being sued for sexual harassment, Peter is forced to attend sensitivity training seminar. After failing miserably Peter is then sent to an all women’s retreat. Upon returning Peter has a new personality and a new outlook upon life. Both of which are exactly like that of a woman’s.

So is Seth et al getting lazy and recycling their storylines? Sure sounds like it. I guess we’ll have to wait and see, but so far, I haven’t been that impressed with Season 7. How about you – do you think that Seth and the other FG writers are getting burnt out, perhaps? They do have a lot on their plate: American Dad, the Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy, the new The Cleveland Show, constant contributions to Robot Chicken….it would be easy to get overwhelmed. Let’s hear what you think:

image courtesy Fox Home Entertainment

Latest videos from Seth MacFarlane’s Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy

Seth MacFarlane has quietly put out a couple more Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy videos. First, the Bartender:

Mad Cow Disease:

And Ted Nugent is visited by the ghost of Christmas past:

Priceline signs on to sponsor Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy

Priceline, you know, the travel company with William Shatner as the spokesman, has signed on to sponsor Seth MacFarlane’s Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy.

Priceline will be replacing Burger King’s previous sponsorship. The first clip is called “”Ted Nugent Is Visited by the Ghost of Christmas Past”. Watch:

Seth MacFarlane is the smartest guy in television

Our very own Seth MacFarlane has been voted the smartest guy in television by Entertainment Weekly! Here’s the official blurb:

It takes some pretty big brains to make it in the TV business, which is why this week’s Entertainment Weekly honored and ranked the smartest people in TV. They come from all corners of the industry – from execs to whiz kids to foulmouthed comedians.Entertainment Weekly polled Hollywood insiders to find out which 25 TV titans are behind the sharpest shows and deals around. The top slot goes to Seth MacFarlane, who earns the $100 million that FOX is paying him to keep Family Guy and American Dad on Sundays through 2012, especially when you consider that Family Guy DVDs and merchandise have pulled in a reported $1 billion for 20th Century Fox. MacFarlane has also secured a full-season order for a Family Guy spin-off called The Cleveland Show, and still finds time to shoot his Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy Web shorts for a separate deal with Google.

Here’s what the promo in EW will look like:

Image courtesy Fox Home Entertainment

Two new Cavalcade of Comedy clips!

First, we have Jeff Goldblum wafers:

And then we have Marital Troubles:

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