Death Has a Shadow

“Death Has a Shadow” is the pilot episode of the animated series Family Guy. It originally aired on the FOX network in the United States after Super Bowl XXXIII on January 31, 1999. The episode is based on series creator Seth MacFarlane’s original pitch to FOX, The Life of Larry, and is a remake of the original Family Guy pilot. In the episode, Peter loses his job after drinking too much at a stag party and falling asleep at work. He then signs up for welfare to keep his wife Lois from finding out, but gets much more money than he expected. Lois finds out and Peter decides to dump the money from a blimp at the Super Bowl. He is then arrested, and must await his family’s rescue.

The basis for Family Guy was MacFarlane’s thesis film The Life of Larry, created in 1995 while he was a student at the Rhode Island School of Design. A sequel was conceived in 1996 called Larry & Steve, which aired in 1997 as a segment of Cartoon Network’s World Premiere Toons. Both shorts caught the attention of Fox, who contacted MacFarlane in 1999 to develop a series called Family Guy based on the films. A hand-drawn pilot was created by MacFarlane with a budget of $50,000, which led to the series being accepted for production. It was rated TV-PG-L (TV-14-L on Adult Swim).

Critical responses to the episode were mostly positive. According to Nielsen ratings, it was viewed in 22.01 million homes during its original airing in the United States. “Death Has a Shadow” was written by Seth MacFarlane and directed by Peter Shin, and featured a guest performance from Pat Summerall as well as various recurring guest voices from the series. In the tenth season episode “Back to the Pilot”, which premiered on November 13, 2011, Brian and Stewie go back in time to “Death Has a Shadow.”