On "The Family Guy,"
the Griffin family includes
16-year-old daughter Meg,
dad Peter, mom Lois holding Stewie,
Brian (the dog) and son Chris.

CURT SCHLEIER

Special to the Jewish News

A

lex Borstein was amazed at the reaction.
"I'm a 5-foot-tall middle-class Jew, and
people are freaking out when they meet
me," she told the New York Times. Borstein was
referring to fan reaction when she and the rest of
the cast of Family Guy made a recent live appear-
ance in the Big Apple.
But truth be told, she shouldn't have been sur-
prised at all. Borstein is co-producer, writer and
gives voice to many characters on the animated
hit, one of the hottest shows on television. It
recently rose Phoenix-like from the ashes of reruns
on the Cartoon Network because fans refused to
let the show die.
Family Guy ran on FOX from 1999 to 2002
before being put out to pasture. But great cable
ratings and superb DVD sales — more than 3 1/2
million sold — prompted FOX to order 35 new
episodes of the show, which airs Sundays at 9
p.m.
If you haven't heard of Family Guy, you may be

6/30
2005

40

Equal Opportunity

OFFENDER

Meet "Family Guy" co-producer,
writer and voice actress Alex Borstein.

the wrong demographic. The show skews to
younger viewers, especially males and mostly that
subset with a "subversive" sense of humor.
It's the story of the dysfunctional Griffin family:
Peter, the dad (voiced by series creator Seth
MacFarlane); his wife, Lois (voiced by Borstein);
and a clan that includes Brian, a dog with a
drinking problem, and an infant son, Stewie, who
has a Ph.D. in vocabulary and the desire to take
over the world.
OK, it loses something in the translation. But
Borstein explained in a recent telephone interview
that the central theme of the show is to offend
everyone. "We cover our bases completely. No
punches are pulled, and we are kind of an equal
opportunity offender."
It is, however, not a mean-spirited offense. It's

just plain funny (based of course, on a listener's
sense of humor) with numerous pop culture refer-
ences. On a recent episode, "Passion of the Christ
II: Crucify This," one of the targets was Mel
Gibson and his controversial film.
Then there was the episode the network refused
to air (but is part of a DVD collection): "Wishing
on a Weinstein."
Peter is having money problems and notices
that his friends with Jewish financial advisers are
doing well. Told that not every Jewish guy is good
with money, Peter says: "Of course — not the
retarded ones."
To assure the success of his oldest and dimmest
son, Chris, Peter decides Chris must become a bar
mitzvah. When they go to temple, whom do they
see? Bill Nye, the Science Guy, and half of Lenny