This is the second installment in a four-part series investigating the current state of television comedy. Over the course of the week, the series will look at the half-hour comedy offerings on the four major broadcast networks. Today's installment focuses on those comedies airing on Fox, the top-rated television network in the all-important adults 18-49 demographic.
Just as CBS has become the Chuck Lorre laugh factory, Fox serves the same function for Seth MacFarlane. His three series, "Family Guy," "American Dad!" and "The Cleveland Show," are the bedrock of the network's Sunday night Animation Domination lineup, and at this point often draw more viewers than Fox's other signature animated show, "The Simpsons."
As with CBS, though, popularity is not necessarily a measure of quality. MacFarlane's shows have proven immensely profitable for him and for Fox, but have done so largely by appealing to the lowest common denominator, with cheap humor, gross-out gags and little-to-no character development.
"Family Guy," when it first premiered in 1999, seemed revolutionary in its use of cutaway gags and pop-culture jokes. Low ratings actually got it canceled in 2002, though, until strong DVD sales and a successful string of reruns on Cartoon Network led Fox to revive the show in 2005 — an unprecedented move in network television. The post-revival episodes have certainly made some improvements, especially in terms of animation quality, but, overall, have come to rely more and more on easy references and jokes, at the expense of any greater depth.
Similarly, "The Cleveland Show," a "Family Guy" spin-off that focuses on the character of Cleveland Brown, relies so much on cutaways that it would be almost indistinguishable from "Family Guy," except for the fact that its main characters are black. The show is certainly notable for that fact, considering the lack of diversity in network television, but otherwise has about as much creativity as its mother series. Cleveland is a more sympathetic lead character than Peter Griffin, so the writers can at least get some mileage out of his relationships with his family, but overall the show seems like a cheap rip-off that just furthers, rather than corrects, the faults of "Family Guy."
"American Dad!" focuses on CIA agent and ultraconservative Stan Smith and his family. The show is also co-created and executive produced by MacFarlane, but it has the least MacFarlane feel to it — perhaps why it is the best of the three. There are almost no cutaways, there is much less reliance on pop-culture humor and the characters actually have some semblance of continuity and believability. Granted, it is a cartoon and two of the main characters are an alien and a talking goldfish, but the fact that the show takes itself seriously while being so clearly absurd is one of its greatest strengths.
Outside the MacFarlane empire, "The Simpsons" is still going strong in its 22nd season. It's not what it used to be, but it still has some smart plotting, good jokes and original stories after all these years. Newcomer "Bob's Burgers" is proving to be a fun little show that is just starting to find its voice. Starring H. Jon Benjamin, one of the best voice actors in the business (see also: FX's "Archer"), "Burgers" struggled in the beginning to find a good mix of absurdity and heart, but a recent episode — about paintings of animal anuses, of all things — proved it knows how to strike the right balance and still provide big laughs.
Like CBS, Fox has two comedy blocks during the week. The animated series make up the Sunday lineup, while Tuesdays are dominated by live-action. "Glee" is an hour long and more of a dramedy, but "Raising Hope" and "Traffic Light" are both charming, if unextraordinary, sitcom offerings.
"Raising Hope" has been a solid performer since it began, and was the first new series of the 2010-11 TV season to gain a full-season pickup. The show's focus on a lower-class family is a nice change of pace, and it is bolstered by a strong cast, including Martha Plimpton and Garret Dillahunt.
The premise of "Traffic Light" is more generic — three friends from college, now at different stages in their lives — but is similarly held together by winning performances from a cast that seems to have genuine chemistry. It's funny and entertaining, if not necessarily appointment television.
Bottom line: Fox is the place to go for animated comedy, and its live-action offerings aren't half bad, either. Most of its shows will go for the cheap jokes first and foremost, but there is some quality comedy to be found if you look beyond the marquee MacFarlane name.
