7. North By North Quahog
Season: 4
Episode: 1
Original Air Date: May 1st, 2005 What makes this episode so special is simple... it was the show's first episode back on the air after three years away. In the time after being cancelled in 2002, Family Guy would go on to set all kinds of DVD sales records, forcing Fox to take notice and bring them back. Right off the bat, you knew the show was going to hit as hard as it ever had before. The opening scene features Peter telling the rest of the family that they had been cancelled. When asked if they'll ever be brought back, Peter goes on to list 29 shows that were cancelled by Fox since Family Guy was first cancelled, and says that if all those shows are dropped, then the show might have a chance to return. Realistically, the plot of the episode isn't even all that important. Fans were just glad to have Family Guy back on the air, and because of that fact, the writers probably could have given us anything, and we would have happily accepted it. We ended up getting Peter and Lois going on a second honeymoon to liven up their marriage, only to have Peter crash the car and spend all of their honeymoon money on car repairs. From there, they finagle their way into a private hotel suite used by Mel Gibson, where they discover the sequel to Gibson's The Passion Of The Christ movie, this time titled The Passion Of The Christ 2: Crucify This. They steal the film, only to be outed by Gibson's associates, and the chase is on. A crop duster, a shopping mall, a field of corn, Mount Rushmore, and Christianity's lack of belief in gravity all come into play during the chase, and as we watched it all unfold, we were just thrilled to have FG back.