Family Guy is an American animated (animation) television series created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series centers on the Griffins, a dysfunctional family consisting of parents Peter (Peter Griffin) and Lois (Lois Griffin); their children Meg (Meg Griffin), Chris (Chris Griffin), and Stewie (Stewie Griffin); and their anthropomorphic pet dog Brian (Brian Griffin). The show uses frequent cutaway gags (Cutaway (filmmaking)), often in the form of tangential (wikt:tangent) vignettes (sketch comedy) which parody American culture (Culture of the United States).

MacFarlane conceived Family Guy after developing two animated films, The Life of Larry (The Life of Larry and Larry & Steve) and Larry & Steve (The Life of Larry and Larry & Steve). MacFarlane redesigned the films protagonist Larry and his dog Steve, and renamed them Peter and Brian, respectively. Shortly after the third season of Family Guy aired in 2001, Fox canceled the series. However, favorable DVD sales and high ratings for syndicated reruns convinced the network to renew the show in 2004. The series takes place in the fictional town of Quahog, Rhode Island (IPA-en?ko?h??pron), based on MacFarlanes upbringing and education.

Family Guy has been nominated for eleven Primetime Emmy Awards and eleven Annie Awards, and has won three of each. It has garnered three Golden Reel Award (Golden Reel Award (Canada)) nominations, winning once. In 2009, it was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series (61st Primetime Emmy Awards), the first time an animated series was nominated for the award since The Flintstones in 1961. Family Guy has also received negative criticism, including unfavorable comparisons for its similarities to The Simpsons.

Many tie-in media have been released, including Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story, a straight-to-DVD (Direct-to-video) special released in 2005; Family Guy: Live in Vegas, a soundtrack-DVD combo released in 2005, featuring music from the show as well as original music created by MacFarlane and Walter Murphy; a video game (Family Guy Video Game!) and pinball machine (Family Guy (pinball)), released in 2006 and 2007, respectively; and, since 2005, six books published by HarperCollins based on the Family Guy universe. In 2008, MacFarlane confirmed that the cast was interested in producing a feature film and that he was working on a story for film adaptation. A spin-off series, The Cleveland Show, premiered on September 27, 2009 as a part of the "Animation Domination" lineup on Fox. The eighth season of Family Guy also premiered on September 27, 2009.