'Family Guy' back on the air

By Michael Pellicio

In 10 days, I will be very happy to be alive. Why is that, you ask? Well, it will official be the first day of May, and with that comes the first new episode of "Family Guy" in over three years.

This is cause for celebration. When I was in high school, I downloaded every episode from KaZaa (that's right, arrest me) and watched them over and over again until I could recite every joke verbatim. After that, there was no satisfying my appetite for new episodes. I guess I was waiting for the cancelled to become the uncancelled.

Sure enough, Seth MacFarlane, the executive producer and creator of the show, has performed a magical trick. It was announced in mid 2004 that due to the high sales of "Family Guy" DVDs and to the awesome ratings on the Cartoon Network, new episodes would finally appear. Fox announced that 38 new episodes would go into production, and the first 13 episode titles are now available for the likes of fans everywhere.

This isn't just good news for me, but for most Santa Clara students. I've always been amazed at the number of people who could recognize "Family Guy" quotations.

With new episodes appearing, junkies like me will have something to look forward to every week. In the new season, we can nope to see some responses to as yet unasked questions such as: Can Stewie take over the world? If not, can he at least free himself from Lois' "oppressive gynocracy?" Can Brian conquer alcoholism, or is he even trying to? Will Meg finally determine whether or not Luke Perry is gay? And finally, will Peter finish off that chicken from the Y2K episode?

Hopefully, all these questions, and more, will be answered in the new season. We can also pray for the return of such characters as the Kool-Aid man, Death, the Black Knight, that stripper from the coconut cake, Minnie Mouse, Dick Armey, not to mention "Mayor" Adam West.

Amidst all this excitement over the rebirth of my favorite show, I haven't forgotten the reason it was cancelled to begin with: nobody watched it. Only after it was dropped did its fans, myself included, realize just how great it was. It is very important that these fans watch the show this time around.

And because of that, you will know where I will be Sundays at 9 p.m., because I'm not going to make that same mistake twice.

* Michael Pellicio's column appears once a month. He can be reached at mpellicio@scu.edu.