Not All Dogs Go To Heaven
Posted on 8 April, 2009Family Guy, American Dad, The Simpsons, and King of the Hill are four shows that I regularity keep up with on Hulu lately. I noticed today that last week’s episode of Family Guy was pulled, however. I thought it was a little odd and noticed that on the main page for family guy that it was pulled for “a legal matter.”
So I thought it was just a dispute between Hulu and FOX. Checking out FOX’s website for Family Guy, the online episode of “Not All Dogs Go To Heaven” is also pulled. So no longer was it a Hulu problem – it was a FOX problem.
It really could have been one of three things – the usage of Star Trek material, the usage of Calvin and Hobbs, or Brian’s atheism and the negative portrayal of fundamental Christianity.
The episode description on FOX’s website doesn’t mention Brian at all, so I have a hint of suspicion it was the tons of hatemail to FOX about Brian and the negative image that pulled the episode from the world. That or it is Calvin and Hobbs. Let’s hope that it is Calvin and Hobbs – surely FOX had more sensibility and is only dealing with a licensing issue.
The episode is a wonderful explanation and exploration into atheism and some of the problems one may face as an atheist and presents a valid case for atheism. The negative portrayal of Christian fundamentalism may be over-the-top, but in a little part, still hold some truth. Book burnings do occur, atheists do get hated on by their communities, and some people are overly oppressive with their religion.
9 Responses to “Not All Dogs Go To Heaven”
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Actually, Hulu is an initiative of FOX and NBC. So a “FOX problem” is a “Hulu problem”.
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wow, well put. I dont have anything else really to say. I really liked this.
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Hulu is owned by fox and NBC
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Good thing it is back up now! I had a good laugh with this episode since im a Star Trek fan myself. Family Guy is always making fun of religion and there is never any “legal issues” with them so it was most likely the Calvin and Hobbs thing.
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A comment on Hulu mentioned a William Shatner scene was removed from the episode after it was reposted, but have not yet checked it out for myself. There are also tons of pissed off fundies in the Hulu comments as well, very entertaining to read. I would have guessed it would have been the Calvin reference, as Bill Watterson refuses to license the characters. Such a shame, they were cut down in their prime and all of his fans have nothing to look forward to or remind of us his work, even if it is just padding Watterson’s retirement fund by buying a poster.
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Everything Family Guy is genius! I was upset to hear about another banned episode, but I guess why they get released on DVDs XD
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Thanks, that was nice!
I bought the episode on iTunes sometime during the beginning of the week and it’s been pulled from there as well. It was a really good episode and I do imagine that they probably got a lot of angry e-mails from it. It wouldn’t surprise me if it was really pulled for other reasons than legal issues.
I too hope that it was just pulled for legal reasons but if not I think FOX should have just dealt with it and kept it up.