9. Family Guy - Back To The Pilot
FoxStewie and Brian-centric episodes tend to be some of the best episodes of Family Guy. The two characters effortlessly play off each other, resulting in sharply written adventures in which cutaway gags are thankfully kept to a minimum. In this highlight from Season 10, Brian and Stewie travel back to the events of the show's very first episode in 1999 with the simple objective of finding a ball Brian buried somewhere in the garden. The episode is full of laugh-out-loud moments as Stewie and Brian observe their past selves. The show mercilessly mocks its own flaws through these two characters, highlighting its crude animation and how the Griffin family creepily stand in complete silence for a few seconds whenever a cutaway gag occurs. As with most time travel episodes, things don't go to plan. Brian unwittingly creates a bleak alternate future in which America is ravaged by Civil War, so Stewie suggests that they go back in time to prevent themselves from going back in in time in the first place. Just as they've seemingly rectified their mistake, they're interrupted by their future-future selves, who warn them that their actions have just created an even worse future. This happens over and over until there are dozens of Brian's and Stewie's from alternate timelines arguing amongst themselves. Back To The Pilot uses time travel to great effect to simultaneously poke fun at Family Guy's stale writing formula and the overly complicated nature of time travel plotlines.