SALON

Tuesday, Jul 28, 2009 10:18 AM UTC

“Family Guy” takes on abortion

But it's "unlikely" Fox will let us see the unaired episode

By

Topics: Abortion, Broadsheet,

It’s awfully rare that abortion is tackled on prime-time television. In a quickfire round of e-mails with the Broadsheet staff, we were only able to come up with the following examples off the top of our heads: “Maude” (the 47-year-old lead had an abortion just months before Roe v. Wade), “Roseanne” (the matriarch considers it but ultimately doesn’t have one), “The Real World: Los Angeles” (a cast member terminates her pregnancy), and“Party of Five” (a planned abortion is thwarted by a miraculous miscarriage). So, it comes as no surprise that Fox just might terminate an abortion-themed episode of one of its most prized shows: “Family Guy.”

On a weekend panel at Comic-Con, series creator Seth MacFarlane revealed that he’s made the abortion episode, but added:”20th Century Fox, as always, allowed us to produce the episode and then said, ‘You know what? We’re scared to fucking death of this.’” The official word is still out on whether Fox will let it air, but MacFarlane speculates that it’s “unlikely.” It’s possible this is just a publicity stunt to get people to watch the supposedly controversial episode and, for the record, Fox scrapped one past “Family Guy” show only to have it air in syndication and pop up on the season DVD.

I’m all for more prime-time, or any time, TV discussions about abortion, but let’s just say that I’m not enthused by the idea of “Family Guy” — an animated series worshiped by actual and, more so, emotional 13-year-olds across the nation — tackling the issue of abortion. That’s particularly true when considering the show’s past treatment of rape (see: Quagmire’s “rape machine” and recent comments by the cast about Meg’s upcoming trip to prison). The show rolls in political incorrectness like a pig in mud or a dung beetle in manure — only difference being that there is no point to the show’s nasty revelry. It might at times successfully execute smart satire, but mostly it’s just laughs by way of oh-no-they-didn’t disbelief.

That said, as a co-worker pointed out, “The mind reels at the musical numbers that must have been planned.” It’s almost enough to make me wish for Fox to air the episode.

Tracy Clark-Flory

Tracy Clark-Flory is a staff writer at Salon. Follow @tracyclarkflory on Twitter and Facebook. More Tracy Clark-Flory.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 48 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: Chekhov's story mirrors Russia's own

Recommendations