With its heavy use of cutaway gags and breezy style of humor, Family Guy is one of the most rewatchable shows on television. Whether you stick it on as background noise or fervently follow the tangents that Seth MacFarlane's comedy series takes you on, Family Guy is a very entertaining show.
Self-isolation and social distancing have made binge-watching TV shows more of a way of life than a pastime, so now is the perfect time to catch up on some of Family Guy’s greatest episodes. So, here are 10 episodes of Family Guy that fans will never get tired of watching.
Baby Not On Board (Season 7, Episode 4)
In a spoof of Home Alone, the Griffins go on vacation and accidentally leave Stewie behind. “Baby Not on Board” is a darker take on the story of Kevin McCallister, as Stewie ties up Quagmire and Cleveland in the basement and has to get a degrading job at McDonald’s when he runs out of food.
Meanwhile, the Griffins’ road trip brings plenty of hysterical gags, from Lois’ Planes, Trains, and Automobiles rant at Peter to the family’s rendition of “The Rose.”
Mother Tucker (Season 5, Episode 2)
In “Mother Tucker,” Peter gets the loving dad he never had when Tom Tucker starts dating his mom. Any episode where Peter gets to act like a petulant child is a delight, and that’s perfectly exemplified here — especially when he eats ice cream against Tom’s wishes and gets spanked.
The B-plot is also brilliant as it sees Stewie and Brian hosting their own radio show. Brian wants to keep it serious, interviewing guests like Gore Vidal, but Stewie wants to use sound effects and have wet t-shirt contests.
Brian Writes A Bestseller (Season 9, Episode 7)
After years of struggling to write a meaningful novel, Brian churns out a self-help book in an afternoon, and Stewie’s friend in publishing manages to get it to presses.
At first, Brian uses it to point out the downfall of culture, but he quickly gets swept up in the hubris of becoming a bestselling author.
Meet The Quagmires (Season 5, Episode 18)
When Peter asks Death to send him back to his youth to spend a night as a carefree, unmarried teenager after years of being a family guy, he accidentally torpedoes his relationship with Lois and changes the course of history.
In the new version of the present, Lois is married to Quagmire. So, Peter goes back in time with Brian to fix the timeline in a hysterical homage to Back to the Future that sees Brian singing “Never Gonna Give You Up” instead of “Johnny B. Goode.”
Back To The Pilot (Season 10, Episode 5)
Brian and Stewie screw up the space-time continuum in a major way in “Back to the Pilot” when Brian goes back in time to see where he buried a bone and tells his past self about 9/11.
They return to the present and find that Brian prevented the attacks. A brief trip to the future confirms that this eventually leads to the outbreak of World War III, so they go back to season 1 again to fix things.
Stewie Loves Lois (Season 5, Episode 1)
After years of despising Lois and trying to kill her, Stewie became endeared to his mom in the season 5 premiere “Stewie Loves Lois” when she saved Rupert from the jaws of a dog.
Much like the narrative progression of The Simpsons’ “Homer Loves Flanders,” Stewie’s incessant love eventually drove Lois to hate him.
Blue Harvest (Season 6, Episode 1)
Family Guy had featured a ton of Star Wars gags before the writers came up with the bright idea to do a loose remake of the original trilogy with Family Guy characters filling the Star Wars roles: Chris as Luke, Lois as Leia, Stewie as Vader etc.
The first part of the trilogy, “Blue Harvest,” is the most inspired, and does a great job of blending familiar shots, sound effects, and music cues from the Star Wars saga with Family Guy’s unique style of humor.
PTV (Season 4, Episode 14)
When the FCC’s regulations of television start to get on Peter’s nerves, he sets up his own TV station so that he can air all the graphic material he wants. Eventually, the FCC starts censoring real life.
“PTV” was a meta episode on the Family Guy writers’ part as they are constantly under fire from TV censors who want to cut down their explicit material, and that passion shows.
Road To The Multiverse (Season 8, Episode 1)
The season 8 premiere “Road to the Multiverse” was a different kind of “Road to...” episode, as it sent Brian and Stewie across several alternate dimensions. This was long before Rick and Morty made interdimensional travel a well-worn comedic device.
A common criticism of Family Guy is that its animation is lazy, but the parallel universes depicted in this episode — from the world of Disney to the Robot Chicken universe — are all beautifully animated.
And Then There Were Fewer (Season 9, Episode 1)
The extra-long season 9 premiere “And Then There Were Fewer” brilliantly parodies the tropes and conventions of Agatha Christie-style murder mysteries as the residents of Quahog drive out to James Woods’ remote mansion for a dinner and start getting picked off one by one.
The episode has a ton of great gags that land on every viewing, like Peter’s awestruck reaction to the photo of Derek holding the Hollywood sign, as well as a few genuinely spooky moments and a whodunit plot that’s quite captivating.