Fox getting greedy with “Family Guy” DVDs

“Family Guy” Volume 5

I don't know what Fox is thinking, but I have a feeling they're thinking with their shareholders in mind. I have no clue why Fox decided to split up the seasons of “Family Guy” into different volumes. They don't (thankfully) do it with “The Simpsons” sets. With all that moaning put aside, we've been treated to another DVD set featuring Quhog's most offensive family.

While this set only features 13 episodes, they're mostly killer material. “Peter's Two Dads” is a hilarious drunken tale of Peter discovering that his father is really a sauced up bar patron from Ireland. “Barely Legal” is a disturbing tale of Meg's new found love/infatuation with Brian and “Prick Up Your Ears” features Peter and Lois both trying to teach Sex-Ed at James Woods High.

I find it quite odd that they have to round off the two DVDs filled with the season episodes with a “bonus” disc. I guess they have to make this package look like it's worth the expensive price tag. The bonus disc features deleted scenes, a “Drawing Peter” featurette and three animatic episodes that you can watch with commentary. I don't know why people would sit through the animatics when you can just watch the finished episodes. These “bonuses” are usually included right on the DVDs with the seasons, so you can tell Fox is trying to make this “package” look worth the dough.

It seems like “Family Guy” is now appearing on every single station and you can watch it as often as “The Simpsons” or “Seinfeld, but spending the dough on this set so you can watch the episodes without commercials, get crystal clear 5.1 audio, amazing picture quality and an uncensored voice track makes the package worth it. It's not worth $35, but if you track it down used, find it on eBay or wait until the inevitable price drop, then you shouldn't have that hard of a time parting with $20.

On a side note, I have to give the writers HUGE props for their Star Wars themed season premier. I thought it was really well done and I marked out big time for it. For me, the icing on the cake was when they set the Millennium Falcon into hyper-drive and the old “Dr. Who” theme/intro started playing and we saw the fourth Doctor, (the amazing) Tom Baker, appear. That was one of the coolest moments in TV ever.