3 Family Guy episodes written by series creator Seth MacFarlane

A common misconception among more casual “Family Guy” fans is that creator Seth MacFarlane is personally responsible for every creative decision. Although he voices many characters, his presence in the writers' room is much lighter than one might think. He has mentioned in interviews that he hasn't written for “Family Guy” since around 2009, and even before that he only officially wrote scripts for three episodes. That's right: only three episodes in the show's 400+ episodes have been written by MacFarlane.

Of course, as any long-running comedy writer will tell you, the writing of these shows is very collaborative. There is often one writer who gets credit for an episode, but usually the script will be reviewed by the rest of the staff. I know from interviews with Rick and Morty and Futurama staff writers that it's often difficult for the staff to keep track of who wrote which joke and who exactly came up with each individual idea. (If it's a show worst episodes everthis ambiguity is perhaps a relief.)

To say that Seth MacFarlane only ever wrote three episodes is likely an understatement of his creative contribution to the series; however, the fact remains that he has only received primary writing credit for three episodes: “Death Has a Shadow,” “Family Guy Viewer Mail #1,” and “North by North Quahog.” So how did they do?

Seth MacFarlane wrote the first episode of “Family Guy,” and he pretty effectively set the tone for its pre-cancellation era. Sure, there's a lot of early-episode shocks that will be ironed out later — Meg is a completely different character here, even with the voice actor change, and most of Peter's group of friends will be written out — but for the most part, it feels like just a regular season opener.

Perhaps the most interesting part of “Death Has a Shadow” is the way it accidentally takes off from “The Simpsons.” even if it is clearly inspired by it. The pilot introduces a mean-talking baby, a smart-talking dog and a slightly jarring cutout format within the first few minutes, and just waits for viewers to get on board. It has a kind of confidence that it shares pilot of “Futurama” of the same yearwhere you can see the writers learning from that awkward first season of The Simpsons and trying their best to deliver.

While the pilot is some people's favorite Family Guy episode, it's probably one of the best-remembered episodes of the series, mainly because Family Guy will return in 2011's “Back to the Pilot,” giving fans a fun twist about how much the series (and the world) has changed since the first episode aired. “Death Has a Shadow” isn't MacFarlane's best episode, but it's hardly a bad start to the show.

Although “Family Guy” would never have the annual anthology tradition that “The Simpsons” has Treehouse of Horror episodesthis season's episode 3 was one of their early attempts to try something similar, and it worked out pretty great. The first story is about Peter getting three wishes from a genie and granting them with all the wisdom we know he's capable of; the second is about a family getting superpowers and running around with them; the third is an adorable “Little Rascals” tribute where we get to see the grown-up “Family Guy” characters when they were chubby kids.

No segment will outstay its welcome, and the occasional anthology episode will continue for the rest of the show. I don't think anything here lives up to Season 7's Three Kings, which uses its three-in-one format to give us parody segments from Stephen King's Misery, Stand By Me, and Shawshank Redemption, but I not sure this episode would have even happened if “Viewer Mail #1” hadn't been so well received in the first place.

Additionally including a hilarious parody of Alfred Hitchcock's best film The Season 4 premiere also featured arguably the best show ever on the Fox network. After the show spent nearly four years off the air, “North by North Quahog” opens with Peter walking into the house and announcing that they have been canceled. When Lois asks if there's any hope Fox might change her mind and get them back on TV, Peter says:

“We just have to accept the fact that Fox has to make room for terrible shows like 'Dark Angel,' 'Titus,' 'Undeclared,' 'Action,' 'That 80s Show,' 'Wonderfalls,' 'Fast.'” Lane, Andy Richter Controls the Universe, Skin, Girls Club, Cracking Up, The Pits, Firefly, Get Real, Freaky Links, Wanda at Large, Costello, The Lone Gunmen, “Minute with Stan Hooper”, “Normal Ohio, 'Pasadena', 'Harsh Realm', 'Keen Eddie', 'The Street', 'American Embassy', 'Sedriks Izklaidatejs', 'Erce', 'Luija' and 'Tusītis' Greg”.

The joke is that all those shows were quickly cancelled; The early 2000s was a period when Fox executives made a series of terrible decisions, and apparently Seth MacFarlane really wanted to make sure everyone knew how rude they'd been. Kind of like “Futurama” years later“Family Guy” got the last laugh.

Outside of that opening, the episode takes its cues from “Death Has a Shadow” and goes about business as usual; Peter engages in strange magic in the A-plot, while Brian and Stevie try their hand at looking after Chris and Meg in the B-plot. It's interesting how much the definition of a “normal episode” has changed since 1999; by Season 4, “Family Guy” had realized how well Brian and Stevie worked together as a comedic duo. (In the first season, they'd likely pair Brian with Peter while Stevie was busy trying to kill Lois again.) MacFarlane essentially got to write two different pilots for “Family Guy,” and they both did a lot to set the series' new norms.