Season 16 · Episode 1 · First aired 1 October 2017
Emmy-Winning Episode
Episode 1 of Family Guy season 16 (S16E01), the 290th Family Guy episode overall. Written by Aaron Lee and directed by James Purdum, Dominic Bianchi and Peter Shin. First broadcast on 1 October 2017.
Story
Peter takes it badly that Family Guy has never won an Emmy Award. He responds by mounting a campaign of his own, remaking the programme in the manner of shows that do win. A run at the comedy categories borrows from Modern Family, Girls and Transparent, and is rejected. Brian steers him towards drama, so Peter turns out spoofs of Game of Thrones, The Wire, The Sopranos, Breaking Bad and House of Cards. That fails too, and the Emmy board tells him to stop. Bill Maher explains that the same programmes take the award every year. Lois then gathers a group of past winners at the house, who set out the show's failings. Peter gives up and settles for his family as his prize. The closing sequence is live action, with Ty Burrell fighting a rubber chicken.
Production and reception
- The first showing drew 2.80 million viewers, which placed it fourth among the Fox programmes broadcast that night, behind The Simpsons, Ghosted and Bob's Burgers. Wikipedia, Emmy-Winning Episode
- Jesse Schedeen of IGN rated it 7.6 out of 10, with praise for the first two acts and criticism of the third. Wikipedia, Emmy-Winning Episode
- Guest voices included Bill Maher, Miriam Margolyes, Jonathan Kite, Louis C.K. and Christina Pickles, with Julie Bowen, Sofía Vergara and Ty Burrell from the cast of Modern Family. Wikipedia, Emmy-Winning Episode
- The live action chicken fight was directed by James R. Bagdonas rather than by the three credited directors of the episode. Wikipedia, Emmy-Winning Episode
Voices
| Voice | Characters |
|---|---|
| Seth MacFarlane | Peter Griffin, Brian Griffin, Stewie Griffin |
| Alex Borstein | Lois Griffin, Tricia Takanawa |
| Seth Green | Chris Griffin |
| Mila Kunis | Meg Griffin |
| Mike Henry | Cleveland Brown, Consuela |
| Asa Akira | Asa Akira |
| Julie Bowen | Julie Bowen |
| Ty Burrell | Ty Burrell |
| Frances Callier | Shonda Rhimes |
| Sylvianne Chebance | Heidi Klum |
Principal voice credits as recorded by IMDb, which lists up to ten credits per episode, so recurring characters can be missing here. Guest voices below come from Wikipedia and TVmaze.
Guest voices
- Asa Akira as herself (live-action sequence), Asa Akira
- Julie Bowen as herself, Julie Bowen
- Ty Burrell as himself (live-action sequence), Ty Burrell
- Louis C.K. as himself, Louis C.K.
- Frances Callier as Shonda Rhimes, TBA
- Jonathan Kite as Alec Baldwin
- Bill Maher as himself, Bill Maher
- Miriam Margolyes as Maggie Smith's Right Eyeball, Miriam Margolyes
- Ryan O'Neal as Tim Madden (uncredited archive footage from Tough Guys Don't Dance)
- Christina Pickles as Maggie Smith's Left Eyeball, Left Eyeball
- Sofía Vergara as herself, Sofia Vergara
- Patrick Warburton as Joe Swanson
- Adam West as Mayor Adam West
- Ralph Garman as Additional Voices
- John Viener as Additional Voices
- Danny Smith as Additional Voices
- Kevin Michael Richardson as Additional Voices
- Mark Hentemann as Additional Voices
- Fred Tatasciore as Additional Voices
- Chris Cox as Additional Voices
- Sylvianne Chebance as tba
Season 16: episode 1 of 20
- E1Emmy-Winning EpisodeYou are here
- E2Foxx in the Men House
- E3Nanny Goats
- E4Follow the Money
- E5Three Directors
- E6The D in Apartment 23
- E7Petey IV
- E8Crimes and Meg's Demeanor
- E9Don't Be a Dickens at Christmas
- E10Boy (Dog) Meets Girl (Dog)
- E11Dog Bites Bear
- E12Send in Stewie, Please
- E13V Is for Mystery
- E14Veteran Guy
- E15The Woof of Wall Street
- E16Family Guy Through the Years
- E17Switch the Flip
- E18HTTPete
- E19The Unkindest Cut
- E20Are You There God? It's Me, Peter
SourceFacts from Wikipedia: Family Guy season 16 and the episode's article (CC BY-SA 4.0). Spotted an error? See corrections.
Provenance
Facts only- Data refreshed
- 6 September 2026
- Verification
- Checked against Wikidata and IMDb: Wikidata lists fewer directors
- Licence
- Facts are not copyrightable. Source text on Wikipedia is CC BY-SA 4.0; Wikidata is CC0; IMDb data is used for verification under its non-commercial terms.
- Note
- The story summary and notes were written for this site from the sources listed, by Claude in Claude Code on 2026-09-08, awaiting editorial review. Facts only; no dialogue is reproduced. Voice credits: Information courtesy of IMDb (https://www.imdb.com). Used with permission. Guest cast data from TVmaze (https://www.tvmaze.com), CC BY-SA.