‘Family Guy’ Celebrates 25 Years with Pumpkins, Panache

Take that, Bart and Lisa.

“The Simpsons” greets each October with a “Treehouse of Horror” installment.

’The Simpsons’ first ‘Treehouse of Horror’ episode aired 31 years ago tonight, October 25, 1990, on Fox pic.twitter.com/Q0NLZQx29W

— RetroNewsNow (@RetroNewsNow) October 26, 2021

Now, It’s “Family Guy’s” turn to christen Halloween.

The “Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Cheater” Halloween Special, streaming exclusively on Hulu starting October 14, lets the Griffin clan grapple with seasonal tidings.

• Pumpkins
• Costumes
• Candy
• Murder…

The half-hour isn’t just a sweet treat for “Family Guy” fans with not one but two celebrity voice cameos. It arrives on the show’s 25th anniversary.

It wasn’t supposed to be this way.

Fox canceled “Family Guy” after just two seasons before the network gave the show one last chance for season three. The ratings didn’t perk up enough, and the Griffins got their walking papers.

That seemed like the end, but brisk DVD sales and Cartoon Network reruns gave the show a second (third?) lease on life.

Series creator Seth MacFarlane, who provides the bulk of the voices, never looked back.

The Halloween special finds Joe (Patrick Warburton) entering the town’s largest pumpkin contest. Peter and the gang interfere, as is their wont, setting up a silly confrontation.

Cue the celebrity guest voice.

Meanwhile, Stewie’s plans for a duo costume – he’ll be Cher to Brian’s Sonny – collapses. The baby’s Plan B has classic horror roots and could spell doom for one key character.

End of not-really spoilers.

The episode is neither an instant classic nor sign of creative slippage. It’s alternately silly and smart, with the expert vocal work illuminating even pedestrian yuks. Warburton’s Joe can wring a smile out of one crooked line reading.

As always. 

Earlier this year, MacFarlane said there’s no reason to stop making new “Family Guy” installments.

The show no longer upends the Culture War apple cart. The show leans relentlessly to the Left, but it also gets away with some gags that would cripple other programs. Between the spry animation and killer vocal work, “Family Guy” remains a sly, and dependable distraction.

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