9. Family Guy A Very Special Family Guy Freakin' Christmas (2001)
Back when Stewie was evil and Brian was alive and well we celebrated the golden age of Family Guy. 'A Very Special Freakin' Family Guy Christmas' captures all of what was good about Family Guy, while filling us all with festive cheer. The episode revolves around Lois wanting to have a perfect Christmas and the rest of the family inadvertently sabotaging this. It begins when she signs Stewie up to star as baby Jesus in the Quahog Christmas pageant, his ulterior motive for agreeing is that he believes Father Christmas is an all powerful being who can supply him with plutonium if he's good. Lois also repeatedly reminds Peter to donate a present to charity but he accidentally donates all of their presents by mistake. Although Lois is unfazed by this it's the first step towards her inevitable breakdown. Brian agrees to stay at home and keep an eye on the turkey while the rest of the Griffin's go to the mall to re-buy their gifts. This ends disastrously when an ember from the fireplace sets the living room on fire distracting Brian from the turkey which promptly burns as well. When they return Lois tries to contain her anger, stating that they just need to clean up a bit, but when she is told by Meg that they have no paper towels she flips. In her rage she kills the protagonist of It's a Wonderful Life and melts Frosty the Snowman before attempting to destroy the ornamental star atop the tree. Before she can do any more damage she is taken down by a tranquillizer dart and the family are able to celebrate Christmas. The main highlight of this episode is without doubt Peter's favourite holiday special, Kiss Saves Santa, in which we see the make-up loving glam rockers battling monsters with the power of rock to save Christmas. It's surreal, funny and demonstrates the on-point humour the show used to be able accomplish before they started playing entire music videos to fill time. This was Family Guy at its best.