Good Old-Fashioned Values

Seth MacFarlane has made an immense mark on popular culture through both his live action and animated television series: Family Guy, American Dad!, The Cleveland Show, and The Orville. While MacFarlane has garnered a large legion of fans, even those who do not personally watch Family Guy, this longest running series, will be quick to recognize images of Peter and Stewie Griffin: a caricature of the clueless dads from sitcoms of yesteryear and an inexplicably queer-coded evil baby genius, respectively.
This book explores Family Guy and Seth MacFarlane’s other animated series closely, examining how the series uses satire and other strategies to construct specific ideas related to sex, gender, and family. The authors argue that the series, like many other television series, contribute to our collective understanding of family, and reinforce (at times) unfavorable gender stereotypes.

Melissa Vosen Callens is an associate professor of practice in communication at North Dakota State University, Fargo, North Dakota. Her writing can be found in English Journal and The Journal of Popular Culture.
Olivia Vogt is an independent scholar in Fargo, North Dakota. Their research has been shared at a variety of academic conferences, including the National Communication Association, the International Communication Association, and the Popular Culture Association.

Melissa Vosen Callens and Olivia Vogt
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 195
Bibliographic Info: bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2024
pISBN: 978-1-4766-8892-3
eISBN: 978-1-4766-5365-5
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments vii
Preface 1
Introduction 3
1. The Family 35
2. Happy Homemakers 54
3. Bumbling Breadwinners 74
4. Children 95
5. Nonhumans 113
6. The Series Over the Years 130
Conclusion: Where Are Those Good Ol’ Fashioned Values? 151
Bibliography 171
Index 185