 The Griffin family first appeared on the demo that MacFarlane pitched to Fox on May 15 , 1998 . Family Guy was originally planned to start out as short movies for the sketch show MADtv , but the plan changed because MADtv 's budget was not large enough to support animation production . MacFarlane noted that he then wanted to pitch it to Fox , as he thought that that was the place to create a prime @-@ time animation show . Family Guy was originally pitched to Fox in the same year as King of the Hill , but the show was not bought until years later , when King of the Hill became successful . Fox ordered 13 episodes of Family Guy to air in midseason after MacFarlane impressed executives with a seven @-@ minute demo . 
