You could make a boxset or two out of the Star Wars/Indiana Jones/Back to the Future references that Family Guy makes. Not that theres anything wrong with that, its a sign of an astute team of writers who can merge the old and the new in such a way that the audience understands both the show theyre watching and the show being parodied. Its also the sign of an unfortunate paradox. The more specific Family Guys references to various pop culture events/people, the more it becomes trapped in the time of its making. Being a tea-loving Brit myself, there are a good handful of references in Family Guy that throw me, and I just dont get them, a sign of either how specific the shows references are, or a sign of how lacking I am in todays world. American Dad has its own fair share of pop culture references (even less specific ones to ensure a wider appeal), but it trumps Family Guy here as it doesnt rely nearly as heavily on these elements to keep the story together. Instead, the main focus is the quirkiness of the driving plots rather than stopping to make a joke at some musician/politician/sitcom that our kids, who well most probably force-feed these shows too, simply wont get because the people featured in those references would be so far out of their time.
Senior editor for the superhero/comic book hub A Place To Hang Your Cape. BA in Creative Writing and Film Studies from Hull Uni. Currently getting lost in the big wide world of freelance writing. And some other stuff.
