Family Guy (partially lost unaired pitch pilot of Fox animated sitcom; 1998)

Original logo as seen in the pilot.

Status: Partially Found

Family Guy is an animated sitcom created by Seth MacFarlane that premiered on January 31, 1999. Before its premiere, there was a 15-minute unaired pilot made sometime in 1998. This pilot would eventually become the series premiere, Death Has a Shadow. Many differences from the final version can be seen throughout this pilot, such as different clothing, different character designs, and multiple scenes that were eventually cut. Aside from that, there's not much that's different from the final.

History

FOX gave Seth MacFarlane a fairly small budget to create the pilot, namely $50,000, while most half-hour animated pilots cost about $1 million. Seth spent six months animating the pilot out of his house, and co-created the pilot with Jim Keeshen Productions. Jim Keeshen reportedly took all credit for making the pilot, and filed a lawsuit against FOX and Seth MacFarlane on June 1, 1999 (which was quickly dismissed on December 28, 2000).

Availability

The first 7 minutes of the pilot can be found in the Family Guy Volume 2 DVD set that was released on September 9th, 2003 but eventually made its way online. The rest of the pilot is replaced with a "Coming Soon" bumper and remains lost. The only proof of its existence is low-quality images from a fan's Tripod site, a few images on the official IMDb page and a few articles on Blogspot. However, some short snippets of the pilot can be found in an interview with Seth MacFarlane and an early commercial for the show.

Seven QuickTime Player clips of the full 15-minute pilot were previously available for download on another fan's Tripod site, circa 2002. These clips were in the same lower quality as other found images, but are no longer accessible. It can be presumed that the full pilot was once shared online, but further details are currently unknown.

Gallery

The first 7 minutes of the pilot.

1999 interview with Seth MacFarlane, containing footage from the pilot.

Commercial for Family Guy containing footage of the pilot (1:05:25-1:05:38).

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  Low-quality image of the pilot. (1/31)

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  Low-quality image of the pilot. (2/31)

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  Low-quality image of the pilot. (3/31)

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  Low-quality image of the pilot. (4/31)

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  Low-quality image of the pilot. (5/31)

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  Low-quality image of the pilot. (6/31)

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  Low-quality image of the pilot. (7/31)

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  Low-quality image of the pilot. (8/31)

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  Low-quality image of the pilot. (9/31)

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  Low-quality image of the pilot. (10/31)

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  Low-quality image of the pilot. (11/31)

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  Low-quality image of the pilot. (12/31)

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  Low-quality image of the pilot. (13/31)

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  Low-quality image of the pilot. (14/31)

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  Low-quality image of the pilot. (15/31)

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  Low-quality image of the pilot. (16/31)

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  Low-quality image of the pilot. (17/31)

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  Low-quality image of the pilot. (18/31)

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  Low-quality image of the pilot. (19/31)

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  Low-quality image of the pilot. (20/31)

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  Low-quality image of the pilot. (21/31)

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  Low-quality image of the pilot. (22/31)

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  Low-quality image of the pilot. (23/31)

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  Low-quality image of the pilot. (24/31)

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  Low-quality image of the pilot. (25/31)

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  Low-quality image of the pilot. (26/31)

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  Low-quality image of the pilot. (27/31)

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  Low-quality image of the pilot. (28/31)

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  Low-quality image of the pilot. (29/31)

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  Low-quality image of the pilot. (30/31)

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  Low-quality image of the pilot. (31/31)

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  Image of the pilot. (1/2)

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  Image of the pilot. (2/2)

External Links

• Wikipedia article for Family Guy.
• Wikipedia article for Death Has a Shadow, the series' pilot.
• Tripod web page containing low-quality images of the pilot.
• Tripod web page containing broken direct downloads to clips of the pilot.
• IMDb page of the pilot.
• Wikipedia article on Brian Griffin.
• Credits for the pilot.
• Article on the remaining 8 minutes of the pilot.
• The lawsuit between Jim Keeshen and FOX.