Microsoft Pulls Plug on 'Family Guy' Special

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Remember that Family Guy – Microsoft team up announced awhile back? Yeah, that’s not gonna happen. The reason? The totally-obvious-to-everyone-NOT-involved-in-the-deal reason:

"We initially chose to participate in the Seth and Alex variety show based on the audience composition and creative humor of 'Family Guy,' but after reviewing an early version of the variety show it became clear that the content was not a fit with the Windows brand," the representative said.
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Awesome! Now they can go to Plan B - with the money saved from not doing this, they can sponsor both "South Park" AND "Robot Chicken" episodes!
 
I hope seth got some contractual cash out of this. What a bunch a nancy boys!
 
Good. Family Guy is middle school humor and has been going downhill ever since the first few seasons.
 
Damn it, I really wanted to see Stewie kill Steve Jobs and take over Apple. I'm sad now :(
 
Son of a beeoch! I was looking forward to this! Hell Microsoft, give me the money and I'll make Windows 7 a household name..., never mine Apple did that this weekend!
 
and just when The Cleveland show was going to have a Windows 7 house party, and invite the Family guy cast.
 
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Bah, no one does research anymore. They pulled their sponsership from the "Almost Live" part of the skit, the Windows 7+Family guy portion is still agreed on and still remains.

Although Microsoft is no longer a part of "Almost Live Comedy Show," the rest of the company's marketing deal - which still includes a "Family Guy" component - remains.
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http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118010418.html?categoryid=14&cs=1
 
Thank god.

They need to try and use shows that are actually funny, like Futurama, South Park.
 
3far4shot said:
Thank god.

They need to try and use shows that are actually funny, like Futurama, South Park.
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IMHO both of those shows are NOT funny.

I've never liked Futurama, and South Park quit being funny years ago. The last good episode I saw was when Parker + Stone were apparently trying to get canceled out of the CC contract and they ran the most shocking stuff ever...from Mr. Garrison making the IT to Puff Daddy, Will Smith and other black people moving to South Park and being scared away by the townspeople wearing sheets and pretending to be "ghosts". :D
 
From what I see on other sites it is still going to air, Microsoft just isn't going to pay for it. Free advertising. They probably planned it all along.
 
MS advertising is a joke... not a funny joke unfortunately :(

How hard is it to effectively advertise their products? The only lasting impression any of their campaigns have left, on me, is embarrassment.
 
This is Wayne's world all over again... How stupid is Microsoft? I bet Steve Ballmer was like "there is this show on tv that is really popular that airs on fox, what if we were to sponsor the show for a whole episode". Two weeks later when they review it. Steve: "WTF is this, I thought we were sponsoring a popular kids cartoon"...:rolleyes:
 
Ehren8879 said:
MS advertising is a joke... not a funny joke unfortunately :(

How hard is it to effectively advertise their products? The only lasting impression any of their campaigns have left, on me, is embarrassment.
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True, but beyond that they don't seem to stick with it. The Laptop Hunter ads were actually great. Microsoft could be running things in addition like Software Hunter or Game Hunter or Hardware Hunter ads and kick Apple in the balls. It's simple as PIE and yet they just don't do it and I have no idea why.
 
zero2dash said:
IMHO both of those shows are NOT funny.

I've never liked Futurama, and South Park quit being funny years ago. The last good episode I saw was when Parker + Stone were apparently trying to get canceled out of the CC contract and they ran the most shocking stuff ever...from Mr. Garrison making the IT to Puff Daddy, Will Smith and other black people moving to South Park and being scared away by the townspeople wearing sheets and pretending to be "ghosts". :D
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Both of those shows are better than Family Guy by a zillion miles ;), however. South Park has had some good episodes mixed in, while Simpsons has gone downhill insanely. I haven't watched anything but the original runs of Futurama, did they ever do additional seasons as I heard were rumored?
 
GoldenTiger said:
Both of those shows are better than Family Guy by a zillion miles ;), however. South Park has had some good episodes mixed in, while Simpsons has gone downhill insanely. I haven't watched anything but the original runs of Futurama, did they ever do additional seasons as I heard were rumored?
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Microsoft wasn't interested in the quality of Family Guy, they were interested in it's 18-49 demographic viewership which is in the top 10 of ALL shows on TV today.
 
Trimlock said:
Family Guy is F'ing badass
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+1

the folks at Microsoft went to the taping of the special last week and were shocked, shocked to find racy humor and tasteless jokes about deaf people, the Holocaust, feminine hygiene and incest.
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That's like being shocked that the sky is blue and water is wet. What did they expect?

Microsoft has really gone down the tubes lately. Removing or killing perfectly good features for no apparent reason (Windows Movie Maker, classic start menu), shitty marketing, and unexplainable idiocy (Including all versions of 7 on each DVD, but only allowing you to install one)... all of it seems to suggest that something is really wrong with their management.
 
xxEIEIOxx said:
From what I see on other sites it is still going to air, Microsoft just isn't going to pay for it. Free advertising. They probably planned it all along.
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Yea, its going still air, because Microsoft paid for it and hasn't pulled out of the "family guy" part of the deal. People really should do their research and read the articles. :rolleyes:

Chilly said:
Bah, no one does research anymore. They pulled their sponsership from the "Almost Live" part of the skit, the Windows 7+Family guy portion is still agreed on and still remains.

Although Microsoft is no longer a part of "Almost Live Comedy Show," the rest of the company's marketing deal - which still includes a "Family Guy" component - remains.
Click to expand...

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118010418.html?categoryid=14&cs=1
Click to expand...
 
Family guy after season 4 has been terrible. It's becoming more retarded and cliche each season. Seth's other show American dad is much better than what Family guy is now. Cleveland show looks promising, still too early though
 
Really, why does anyone care about this???

The internet is really B I G and tv is so small...
 
DeathFromBelow said:
+1



That's like being shocked that the sky is blue and water is wet. What did they expect?

Microsoft has really gone down the tubes lately. Removing or killing perfectly good features for no apparent reason (Windows Movie Maker, classic start menu), shitty marketing, and unexplainable idiocy (Including all versions of 7 on each DVD, but only allowing you to install one)... all of it seems to suggest that something is really wrong with their management.
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Movie maker was good? Bah, for anything beyond incredibly simple uses it was crap. Movie Maker is now part of Windows Live and has to be downloaded from Microsoft.
 
Derangel said:
Movie maker was good? Bah, for anything beyond incredibly simple uses it was crap. Movie Maker is now part of Windows Live and has to be downloaded from Microsoft.
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Vista Movie maker Supported high-def video and had a timeline view. It was the best simple video editor out there and was very easy to use.

Live Movie Maker is a piece of shit. The version of movie maker that came with Windows ME had more features. They've finally put high-def format support into the latest release, but the lack of a timeline view makes it practically worthless. Its a glorified Youtube uploader.
 
DeathFromBelow said:
Vista Movie maker Supported high-def video and had a timeline view. It was the best simple video editor out there and was very easy to use.

Live Movie Maker is a piece of shit. The version of movie maker that came with Windows ME had more features. They've finally put high-def format support into the latest release, but the lack of a timeline view makes it practically worthless. Its a glorified Youtube uploader.
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Ah. I just use Vegas for all my editing needs, was never fond of movie maker.
 
Microsoft needs to think outside the box with it's ads. Family Guy was outside the box, but it's one of those things, you either get it, or you really DON'T get it. Most of us on here, whether we like Family Guy or not, would get it.

A lot of parents don't let their kids watch Family Guy, so the younger demographic is wasted on it, as are their parents.

I think that MS should do a submission/prize thing to the public for ads. The whole Seinfeld/Gates thing was a bust, but at least it was different. And for better or worse, we talked about it.

The ads they have that show little kids making slide shows or movies just makes older people feel useless, you know the old joke, "can't figure out a piece of technology? Give it to a 12 year old."

They also need to stop comparing themselves to Apple. It's like a Corvette comparing itself to a Ferrari. They're both great cars, but a Corvette buyer is NOT looking at a Ferrari, and vise-versa. Same goes for Apple.

Show something cool, show something easy, grab our attention (humor usually works best and puts a happy spin on the product), and keep me interested. Tell me why it's better than the outgoing product, hell, poke fun at yourself (which they are doing in the 7 ads).

I like the Family Guy idea, but I can see why MS pulled out of that agreement, I can't even see why they thought it would be a good idea for more than a second....
 
Derangel said:
Ah. I just use Vegas for all my editing needs, was never fond of movie maker.
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Yeah, Vegas is pretty nice.

I use Vista Movie Maker all the time for relatively simple projects. I make videos of my vacation trips and backpacking expeditions with animated maps. I've also put together a bunch of video slide shows for Eagle scout award ceremonies. Its easy to use and its free with Vista.

The whole "lets take features out of the OS and make them downloadable to decrease bloat" idea is pointless. Take Live photo gallery. In Vista it was built right into the GUI, if you had a photo open you just had to press a button and you had a basic photo editor. Now you have to download it separately, so you have both the included photo viewer and Live Photo Gallery (which is both a viewer and an editor) installed to get the same functionality. So much for reducing bloat.

Their other reason for moving things to live is that it supposedly makes updating easier, but as far as I can tell the Live components aren't being updated any more frequently then they were before.
 
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