Family Guy/American Dad/The Cleveland Show - Top 10 Christmas Episodes

Now that today is Christmas Eve, I thought I'd do a list of the ten best Christmas episodes from Family Guy, American Dad and The Cleveland Show.

1: Road To The North Pole (Family Guy)

A glorious two parter where David Boreanaz shone brighter than his days on both Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Angel and Brian and Stewie are tasked to save Christmas upon realising the stress it's taken on Santa Claus himself. Also Christmas Time Is Killing Us among the musical moments of the two parter.

2: For Whom The Sleigh Bell Tolls (American Dad)

Never give Steve Smith a gun. It only results in Santa being shot and manning a mission to murder the Smith clan in the bloodiest Christmas episode Seth McFarlane has ever produced. It's probably also one of the best episodes from the Smiths as well to boot.

3: A Very Special Family Guy Freakin' Christmas (Family Guy)

The first Christmas special we got and one that I've enjoyed seeing no matter the time of the year. Whether it's Peter wanting to watch a Christmas special featuring Santa and Kiss or Stewie determined to be nice to get some plutonium, it's all good - more so when Lois loses the plot within the last five minutes as well.

4: Season's Beatings (American Dad)

Stan got ex-communicated from the church after giving Roger a probably deserved beating while Hayley and Jeff adopted the antichrist in another joyfully ridiculous Christmas themed episode. Also Steve being possessed managed to churn out some great moments too.

5: The Best Christmas Story Never Told (American Dad)

The one known where Stan messes up pretty bad and the US is taken over by Russia during the holiday period. Not to mention the fact that Stan took great exception to no-one using the word Christmas and his resentment towards Jane Fonda and later Donald Sutherland later came to light. Also the delight of Roger making money of disco music.

6: Die Semi-Hard (The Cleveland Show)

It's a Die Hard spoof. For that alone it was always going to be a contender for this list. However, I don't think Cleveland will be giving John McClane a run for his money any time soon though.

7: Minstrel Krampus (American Dad)

With various episodes featuring/factoring in Santa (including this one too), it was time for Krampus to make an appearance when Steve's bratty behaviour becomes even more annoying than usual. Turns out that Krampus is actually good for kids and Santa not so much. Also the episode gave us an interesting redemption story of sorts for Jack too.

8: Jesus, Mary & Joseph (Family Guy)

I'm surprised it took McFarlane to give us a version of The Nativity and this one was rather interesting, even if yet again in a special episode Meg is relegated to a less flattering role (the donkey of course). Certainly a fun version of a classic story.

9: Christmas Guy (Family Guy)

Brian came back to life and just around the time I was starting to like Vinny. To be honest, Brian's death was never going to stick because let's face it, both him and Stewie are the highlight of the series and having them reunited made for a nice festive treat.

10: Tis The Cleveland To Be Sorry (The Cleveland Show)

Another entry from Stoolbend, it's also one where Kendra dressed up as Santa to save the day (and had some nice bonding scenes with her and Roberta) while Cleveland pretends to be homeless in order to eat some nice food.

Merry Christmas everyone!!!!

Top 40 TV Characters Part 2

And here is the second part of my Top 40 characters blog. This time, it's a bit of an animated special. Hope you all enjoy. 

31: Death (Adam Carolla) - Family Guy

Yes, the almighty creature known as Death gets to be my favourite character because given how divisive the population of Spooner Street can be, you almost wouldn't blame the guy if he decided to kill every single resident on that street at some point. Plus, the fact that he hasn't killed Peter shows an admirable self-restraint I didn't think was possible.

32: Charles Montgomery Burns (Harry Shearer) - The Simpsons

Excellent himself. Yes this might be a man who will happily trample on anyone who gets in his way and even will consider skinning greyhound puppies for a new coat but Burns cartoony villainy, coupled with the odd doses of humanity do make him a fascinating character to root for, be appalled by and grudgingly admire from time to time. Though how he hasn't noticed Smithers overt fondness for him does beggar belief at times.

33: Klaus Heissler (Dee Bradley Baker) - American Dad

Ah, the fish. One we can often feel a little bad for. If you live with a family like the Smiths and an entitled alien like Roger, then like Klaus, you'd probably have the odd bouts of rage and resentment from time to time. The fish is often the most sympathetic character on that show.

34: Father Jack Hackett (Frank Kelly) - Father Ted

Drink. Feck. Arse. Girls. It's amazing how those four particular words have been associated with this character. An alcoholic, violent, often lecherous priest played to absolute perfection by Frank Kelly. Jack might have been the very character whose bad side you did not want to get on but he certainly made for entertaining viewing, especially that time he punched Bishop Brennon for good measure.

35: Rallo Tubbs (Mike Henry) - The Cleveland Show

This might be the weakest of Seth Macfarlane's creations but as a character goes, Rallo is pretty entertaining and considering that Cleveland has become every bit as a jerk as Peter is in Family Guy, it's kind of nice to have Rallo make an idiot out of Cleveland every now and then. When he isn't commenting on his mother's fondness for drinking.

Okay, this new Blogger format is going to take some getting used to. Happy April everyone.

The Genius Of Seth MacFarlane?

Oh, FXUK and BBC3 - your neverending love/obsession/bloody hard on for Seth Macfarlane means that I can't go a single day without seeing one of his show. American Dad: I wasn't initially impressed with this show and most of the time, I'm either watching repeats or not knowing what season I'm watching but either way, the show has won me over but the characters are the same steretypes and then some - sexist caveman Stan, hot, bored housewife Francine, sexually liberated freedom fighter, nerdy loser Steve, alcholic alien Roger and Nazi fish Klaus but there's definitely a fun, pithy humour to this show that's making it a better watch than MacFarlane's first creation.

Family Guy: A year ago, I would've preferred this one to American Dad but now Family Guy slightly loses out. It's still a good show though I kinda wish that BBC3 would get a move on and air the current season as I've nearly rewatched all the first eight seasons over and over. In terms of characters, the show continues to strike gold with dog Brian and psychotic baby Stewie but loutish Peter is still a little hit and miss for me at times. Lois and Chris are funny enough but aren't the jokes at Meg's expense a little old now? Then again, maybe not.

The Cleveland Show: It's the one that I've watched the least of the three MacFarlane shows on TV and also the one I like the least. It's not as funny as the other shows and Cleveland is a weak character to base a spin-off on but it's better than some other animated shows. Maybe I should give it a bit more attention but overall, Seth MacFarlane is definitely someone who should keep making TV.