Fall TV Preview

Where We Left Off: Last season's finale episode, "Peter's Progress," regained some of the humor that had seemed to be missing from a lot of the season (we're almost ready to wait for the Shovin' Buddies sitcom the episode's satiric promos promised!). Ironically, off of one of its weaker years, Family Guy ended up becoming the first animated series since The Flintstones in 1961 to be nominated for an Emmy as Best Comedy Series.

What To Expect: In the season premiere, "Road to the Multiverse," Brian and Stewie travel through alternate universes in an homage to a sci-fi series. This season fans will also finally be able to see the long-anticipated follow-up to the "Blue Harvest" episode, which was a hilarious parody of Star Wars. "Something, Something, Something, Dark Side" will similarly spoof The Empire Strikes Back (and creator Seth MacFarlane did mention that a Return of the Jedi parody episode called "We Have a Bad Feeling About This" was also in the works for the future). MacFarlane also mentioned that this season Lois would discover that she is Jewish. Other episodes this season will feature Peter, Joe and Quagmire (remember that Cleveland is off fronting his own series) looking for the source of all dirty jokes; Meg going to prison; Chris finally revealing the evil monkey in his closet to his family; Lois learning to box and bonding with her mother; Brian hitting a dog while driving drunk; spies Dan Aykroyd and Chevy Chase (guest-voicing themselves) moving into Cleveland's old house; Stewie scoring tickets to a sold-out concert; and Rush Limbaugh and Karl Rove making guest voice appearances. Controversy swirled around a planned abortion-themed episode, which is unlikely to be aired by FOX, making it the second episode of the series (the other being "When You Wish Upon a Weinstein," which now airs in reruns on Adult Swim) to not be shown by the network.

What To Expect During Season 8, the Griffins and fellow Quahog residents attend a party at James Woods' mansion and are embroiled in a classic "whodunit" murder mystery. Also in future episodes, Lois becomes a local sports hero, and Stewie works for Brian as his literary manager. Finally, the Griffin family returns to the Star Wars universe with a parody of Return of the Jedi called It's a Trap! Guest voices include Rainn Wilson, John Ashcroft, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Drew Carey and Bill Maher.