Emmy for a 'Guy'?

[Blogger's note: Apologies for the post-Monday post, but all Half Shell staff spent the past three days in the mountains of New Hampshire, listening to the screeching of barred owls into the wee hours. And now back to our regularly scheduled blog...]

News that the set-in-Rhode Island cartoon “Family Guy” earned an Emmy nomination for best comedy series has created a firestorm of angst on the airwaves and in the blogosphere. Often vulgar and tasteless, “Family Guy” has offended just about everybody since it was created in 1999 by R.I. School of Design graduate Seth MacFarlane, who based his fictional town of Quahog, R.I. on Cranston. If you haven’t seen it, think “All in the Family” meets “The Flintstones.”

Despite a high gross factor (something that seems indelibly connected to the Rhody funny bone – see Farrelly Brothers), the show can also be outrageously clever, funny and satirical. Twice canceled, “Family Guy” was the first show to be resurrected based on DVD sales. Some TV watchers consider it a cheap knockoff of “The Simpsons” (including, apparently, the creators of “The Simpsons,” who took a shot at “Family Guy” by depicting Peter Griffin as a “clone” of Homer Simpson in a Halloween special). The creators of “South Park” aren’t fans, either. They devoted a two-part episode (“Cartoon Wars”) to savaging “Family Guy,” depicting the show’s writers as manatees who create episodes by pushing rubber “idea balls” inscribed with random topics into a bin. MacFarlane responded to his critics by saying they’re right.

Rhode Islanders, of course, watch the show differently than people who live anywhere else, looking for the local references and inside jokes that make this cartoon essential viewing on a par with “Caught in Providence.” Several times in most episodes, the Providence skyline is visible in the distance. Kids go to Buddy Cianci Junior High School and James Woods Regional High School. Happy-Go-Lucky toys, Inc., where Peter works on an assembly line checking for unsafe toys, is a stand-in for Hasbro in Pawtucket. The Web site www.quahog.org routinely updates its “Family Guy” concordance, connecting the Rhody dots on the show. My favorite local culture moment: In “The Cleveland-Loretta Quagmire,” Peter paints over the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel with the Andre the Giant “Obey” graphic invented by former R.I. School of Design student Shepard Fairey. The now iconic street art image started popping up in Providence neighborhoods in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Worthy of a Wicked Pissah?
Kevin Costner in “Thirteen Days?” Fred Gwynne in “Pet Sematary?” Tom Bosley in “Murder, She Wrote?” Rob Morrow in “Quiz Show?” You’ve heard them, you’ve cringed, and now Half Shell wants to know: What’s the worst New England accent ever attempted in film or on television?

Extra Pissah
New England is not only Red Sox country. It’s Team Wicked Pissah country. A New England-based adventure racing team, Team Wicked Pissah represents the region on those 9-day eco-challenges that involve kayaking, mountain biking, rock climbing and bushwhacking without sleep in remote parts of the world. It’s also the best New England sports team name this side of the professional tennis Boston Lobsters and the R.I. high school Coventry Knotty Oakers.