Here we go again: “Family Guy”, PTC trade punches

While the FCC has moved on to Net Neutrality and the upcoming spectrum auction and Fox is busy celebrating the success of new hit drama Empire, the Parents Television Council wants to remind you there is some unfinished business that needs to be attended to – old rival Family Guy.

As first reported by The Hollywood Reporter, the conservative group is urging members to file indecency complaints against a Feb. 8 episode of the animated series, which featured a joke about statutory rape in a scene where Quagmire is tried in court for the crime.

In a statement, PTC president Tim Winter said the following: “We urge our members, as well as other Americans who agree that the broadcast was legally indecent, to file formal indecency complaints with the FCC.”

The PTC has filed six complaints with the FCC against Family Guy dating back to 2006, but none have been acted on. During this time however, the FCC has taken action against Liberman Broadcasting, fining the broadcaster $110,000 in 2013 for airing the now-defunct Jose Luis Sin Censura, a Jerry Springer-like Spanish-language talk show which featured fights; bleeped and unbleeped profanity; guests shouting racial and homophobic slurs; and pixilated nudity. Complaints were brought against the show by the National Hispanic Media Coalition and GLAAD.

The Parents Television Council – perhaps because of the groups’ liberal stances on issues such as immigration and gay rights – declined to take part.

Don’t you love hypocrisy?

It’s been a tough season for Family Guy as well as Fox’s entire Sunday comedy block, which only seem to do well when football is its lead-in. The episode in question Sunday drew a series-low 1.4 rating among adults 18-49. To be fair, the show did go up against The Grammys but is now whooped by AMC’s The Walking Dead every week.

Family Guy’s erratic scheduling of new episodes has also hurt ratings. As media expert Anthony Crupi noted, only ten episodes of Family Guy has aired so far this season.

Creatively, the series has been running on fumes – especially after the show “killed” Brian – and then brought him back, with creator Seth McFarlane spouting some bullshit about “never take your love ones for granted” when its all about ratings, publicity, and ad dollars. Only now the series is paying for the “jump the shark” stunt, showing no respect for the fanbase and playing Family Guy viewers for fools. All the idiotic Meg-bashing jokes the writers can come up with won’t make up for it.

So let Family Guy and the PTC battle it out to the death. No one gives a shit anymore about both. The FCC has more important telecommunications issues to deal with instead of the raunchiness of some past-its-prime cartoon.