So as not to hijack the ongoing Family Guy on Adult Swim thread, I opened this one to debate the relative merits of the two shows.
To sum up: Family Guy has replaced Home Movies in the 11:30 PM EDT slot on Cartoon Network. Many are elated by this; I am not.
Home Movies is awesome! The main characters, Brendon, Jason, and Melissa have perfect chemistry together. Guitar god Dewayne is always brilliantly incoherant–his rock opera based on the life of Franz Kafka is one of the high points of the show so far. I think Coach McGuirk was the basketball coach at my elementary school. And my SO and I have a big Walter and Perry fixation for some reason. But my favorite part of the show are the movie sendups. This allows the writers to do both broad parody and keep the relationships between the characters believable and down to earth. In short, it’s a great, subtly-written show.
Family Guy, on the other hand, sucks. I’ve only been able to sit through two episodes. The only character I remotely like is the little kid. The father character is a blatant Homer Simpson ripoff, only less funny and much less loveable. I don’t even dig King of the Hill very much, but it covers the same territory and is far superior to Family Guy, IMHO.
I’ve only seen one or two eps of FG, and found it relatively amusing. But I love Home Movies. How sad it has been bumped. Please tell me that CN will still be showing at other times, since TiVo has given me the power to laugh at their puny “schedule.”
Home Movies has about one laugh every 3-4 shows. Family Guy has about one laugh every 3-4 lines. Send HM back where it belongs, to the netherland of Kazaa downloads and internet obscurity.
There have to be some people from the “Family Guy DVD” thread who are going to side with it, but I’m not one of them (or perhaps they all love “Family Guy” but admit that “Home Movies” is still better?).
Home Movies & The Daily Show were the only shows I missed after moving and no longer having ‘free’ cable. Last week I visited my parents’ house and was rather disappointed when I saw it was no longer running.
“Family Guy” had some occasional good jokes but there wasn’t much else to it. “Home Movies”, though, has the ability to do great jokes, but there’s also likable characters. The touch of sentimentality at times that just makes it more pleasant to watch, too.
I wouldn’t mind if they had both of them in the lineup (although as I can’t see it anyway it’s a moot point for me).
I just discovered Home Movies, which I found especially clever, humorous, and well-acted, with a cast of funny & memorable characters.
Family Guy, on the other hand, comes from the anything-for-a-laugh school, which means that there are always some undeniably outrageous moments, but you never give a damn about anything or anyone. Ever. Also, the gags come at the expense of everything else, including characterization and stories (all of which pretty much sucked). Developed by people who learned all the wrong things from shows like The Simpsons.
I hope they bring Home Movies back in some form on some days–2 am for all I care!
Home movies was an innovator. Family Guy an imitator.
The thing I love best about Home Movies (and all Science Court/Squigglevision produced shows) is the scriptless format. You never hear characters talking over each others lines in other cartoons, usually because the are recordered by the actors one at a time reading from their scripts. Home Movies sounds like the actors are all in one room riffing with each other, veering from the script when they want to (excepting of course when the same actor plays two parts in one scene. even then it sounds like they are talking to another person.)
Family Guy strikes me as a Simpsons ripoff where they decided they can’t out-write them, so they’ll out-“shock” them with “edgy” innuendo and double entendre.
I agree with the OP’s assessment of FG, but I’ll add this: it puts too many gimicks in one package. There’s the Simpson-esque father, the talking dog with a drinking problem, and the mad scientist baby. I’ll always find something to laugh at in that show, but I don’t really respect it.
HM, on the other hand, is hilarious b/c it seems so natural and real. Characters interrupt each other and get caught up in laughter while they’re talking. Coach McGuirk is the living embodiment of every human flaw I’ve ever hoped to have. McGuirk is the most gimmicky character they have, but he’s marvelously well done, and his flaws are human. In other words, you’d never hear the line, “since when do you know how to fly a blimp?” on HM. Which is beautiful.
Home Movies, IMHO, just is not that funny. I respect your opinions regarding the witty writing and likeable characters but I personally just don’t EVER find my self laughing at anything that goes on in that show. Also, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, that nasal drone of the fat kid makes my skin crawl. Annoying. Just plain ol’ cat-in-heat, fingernails on chalkboard, chewing with your mouth open Annoying!
I find Family Guy hilarious. I mean you actually laugh out loud. Of course it is over-the-top and often uses crude jokes and such, but it is FUNNY. Something good to escape from the horrors of every day reality.
There is my $0.02
I love Home Movies for reasons not quite clear to me. It’s mesmerizing, like the lobster tank at Red Lobster. Sometimes it’s laugh out loud funny, and sometimes not, but I enjoy watching it either way. For some reason, I like the later episodes done in Flash the best.
I don’t like Family Guy. Honestly, I don’t like most cartoons with the ‘wacky family,’ just like I don’t enjoy most sitcoms. Home Movies somehow makes it past this barrier.
Wow, am I the only person that likes both shows? They’re both funny, but in very, very different ways. Home Movies seems to be a little more plot-driven (yet still spontaneous) and tends to elicit chuckles rather than guffaws. I’d put it in the same category as King of the Hill, another great show. Both of these are cartoons that could just as easily have been live action shows. Neither seem to exist in that weird cartoon universe where virtually anything is possible (like the Simpsons and Family Guy do).
If I had to choose which one I’d rather see on Adult Swim, I’d pick Home Movies. Why? Well, because they’re still making it. Family Guy is dead. I’ve seen all the episodes and the only thing Adult Swim is going to show me is reruns.
I haven’t ever really watched Home Movies so I can’t comment on it, but Family Guy always struck me as being the middle ground between The Simpsons and South Park without being as funny or clever as either.
Not that the show isn’t good. I’ve watched a number of episodes and found something to laugh at in all of them, but as someone pointed out, Family Guy is all about the cheap gags at the expense of interesting stories and characters.
I mean hell, even South Park, when you get past the shock humor the show is known for, has interesting stories and characters and Family Guy never really had that.
I like Family Guy, it’s a good show, but compared to the shows that have so obviously inspired it, it’s merely okay.
Comparing Home Movies to The Family Guy is like comparing The Larry Sanders Show to, oh I don’t know, Gilligan’s Island. There is no comparison.[ul][li]Home Movies is subtle, whitty, wholely original, adult humor.[/li]
[li]Family Guy is dumb, sophomoric, soulless, disjointed, lame slapstick with tacked-on ‘edginess’ (i.e. pop-culture references) to try and appeal to ‘the kids’.[/li][/ul]If you’re constantly "waiting for the jokes" while watching Home Movies I don’t know what to say other than you just don’t get it.
I loved Home Movies. It was funny, but in a way I can’t explain. The characters were “grown-up kids”, theres an episode where Brendon’s mom tells him to stop worrying about stuff because hes only eight. Couch (cant spell name, will call M) M has to be the funniest character ever thought of. I think I will miss him the most.
I also love Family Guy. I loved it since I saw a commercial for it that ran during the super bowl a couple years ago. The jokes on that show are complex, yet simple, mature, yet childish. If you love the show then you understand why everything is so funny, and even then you miss some jokes. If you hate the show, then I pity you. I look forward to a couple months of laughter, but at the end of it all, I will have nothing to look forward to.
I would say put both of them somewhere, but that might get rid of Futurama. Maybe put Home Movies after FG, but I don’t know if I’d stay up to watch it. I would be happy seeing Home Movies once a week, knowing that they are new episodes. I think a lot of people would be happy with that.
Apparently Home Movies will be back with a new season at the end of May, presumably in its usual time slot. Until then you’ll just have to go cold turkey.
Holy cow. Mixing the HM and FG fanbase into one thread is like combining bug zappers and orange juice. Fun as hell to watch, but you don’t want to get too close…
Disclaimer: Do not attempt mixing FG and HM fanbase…
I was a fan of both shows. I say was because unfortunately I have lots a fondness for Family Guy. Hell, I remember watching the premiere at 1:00am or so after the Superbowl, waking up my parents because I had split my sides laughing at the surprise appearance of the Kool-Aid Man. (“Oh yeah!”)
Again, I’m supporting the theory that this is like comparing Meatloaf to a Buick. There’s a lot of people out there with their preferences, but no one wants to drive meatloaf to work. (Man, I am so drunk…)
Home Movies, like Dr. Katz and Science Court before it, did not target the Simpsons Demographic. It was something different. And even though I was a fan of Family Guy, upon reviewing it on it’s recent revival I’ve noticed that I, as many probably have, have been burnt out on that style of comedy. At the time Simpsons was soaring with sight gags and the like, and Fox was probably trying to give the folks what they wanted: Second servings of a buick. (Man, what proof is this stuff?)
I think many of the Family Guy Haters have simply either a) grown tired of a site-gag in-your-face style of humor and turned to something different and subtle or b) lost their copies of the Best of Seinfeld. (God I hate that show…)
Besides, if Family Guy made it to DVD, Home Movies (which had been on Comedy Central before Cartoon Network…years ago…when it tanked…) will be available soon.
I’ll leave you with the words of Coach McGirk. “I’ll cut them off! Would you like that? Would you like a life with no hands?!?!”
FG is a little like The Critic, only more irritating and contrived. I don’t think it’s a bad show, but Home Movies, like most of the original Adult Swim lineup, is unique sort of genius. (Aqua Team Hungerforce and Harvey Birdman and those shows are still the bomb though)
My fav HM moment was the whole monster bit where Jason kept getting shot. The Kafka musical was pretty sweet too. “I’ve got little tiny BUG FEET, I don’t really know what BUGS EAT!”
