Comedienne Burnett sues 'Family Guy' Over Bad Joke
03-20-07, 08:58 PM
#29
Challenge Guru & Comic Nerd
Originally Posted by porieux
I figured if anyone would sue FG it would be the viewers.
There are a couple of Carol Burnett DVDs available, and they look interesting, mixed reviews here at DVDtalk.
Lawsuit is frivolous.
03-20-07, 09:30 PM
#30
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Yep, sad to see a show that started off with some promise deteriorate so quickly.
I haven't seen this particular "joke" but I see people bringing up Burnett's "Gone with the Wind" parody but there's a very clear difference between that and something I see a lot in "Family Guy" and other equally horrible stuff like "Date Movie" and "Epic Movie".
"Family Guy" has a habit of not satirizing or parodying things but merely just taking an established character and including them in a joke with no clever spin or twist. You know "Family Guy" writers sit around in a room and go "wouldn't it be hilarious if Mr. Belvedere just popped up at random here?" and that's not parody or satire.
03-20-07, 10:28 PM
#31
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Is Burnett insane? Talk about being a hypocrite.
She wouldn't even have enough money to hire a lawyer to sue Family Guy for parodying her if she didn't build her entire career parodying others
She wouldn't even have enough money to hire a lawyer to sue Family Guy for parodying her if she didn't build her entire career parodying others
03-20-07, 10:39 PM
#32
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Originally Posted by Jeremy517
She can sue, but I don't think the manatees will have any money to pay her if she wins.
03-20-07, 10:54 PM
#33
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FG went overboard with references for a while, but mostly recovered, its humor lies mostly with the tasteless jokes it manages to produces by the bulk.
The Carol Burnette thing is pretty weak, both the lawsuit and the joke.
The Carol Burnette thing is pretty weak, both the lawsuit and the joke.
03-20-07, 11:05 PM
#34
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Yep, sad to see a show that started off with some promise deteriorate so quickly.
03-20-07, 11:22 PM
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Do you people that claim that there was a huge decline in quality between pre-cancellation "Family Guy" and post-cancellation "Family Guy" actually watch the old episodes and find that they still hold up?
If I catch the show on TV I'll often watch a few minutes out of morbid curiosity and I honestly see no difference. I personally think it's the "Star Wars" syndrome where the audience has changed during the hiatus as opposed to what they're watching.
If one could travel back in time I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if a fan of "old-school Family Guy" would be satisfied with the new episodes just like I think you could pull an "Eternal Sunshine" on a person that currently thinks the old episodes were much better and find that they were merely holding onto opinions formed several years earlier.
If I catch the show on TV I'll often watch a few minutes out of morbid curiosity and I honestly see no difference. I personally think it's the "Star Wars" syndrome where the audience has changed during the hiatus as opposed to what they're watching.
If one could travel back in time I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if a fan of "old-school Family Guy" would be satisfied with the new episodes just like I think you could pull an "Eternal Sunshine" on a person that currently thinks the old episodes were much better and find that they were merely holding onto opinions formed several years earlier.
03-21-07, 08:59 AM
#36
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Okay this is just stupid.
a) It was a DIRECT reference to her. Joe comments that the ear tug was a signal to her mother. Then Quagmire says "How did she say goodnight to her father?". Then they show the "charwoman" character. Big deal. Not even a parody in my opinion - just a reference like Kool-Aid Man.
b) How are they going to edit it out? The friggin' "Peterotica" episode originally aired 4/23/2006 and has been out on DVD for MONTHS now. Talk about coming late to the table. This all sounds like BS to me.
a) It was a DIRECT reference to her. Joe comments that the ear tug was a signal to her mother. Then Quagmire says "How did she say goodnight to her father?". Then they show the "charwoman" character. Big deal. Not even a parody in my opinion - just a reference like Kool-Aid Man.
b) How are they going to edit it out? The friggin' "Peterotica" episode originally aired 4/23/2006 and has been out on DVD for MONTHS now. Talk about coming late to the table. This all sounds like BS to me.
03-21-07, 03:26 PM
#40
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Originally Posted by GuruTwo
Do you people that claim that there was a huge decline in quality between pre-cancellation "Family Guy" and post-cancellation "Family Guy" actually watch the old episodes and find that they still hold up?
The episode where Stewie and Brian join the Army and Stewie mentions something and instead of cutting away to the incident Stewie says something like "oh we don't have a clip of that, huh?"
03-22-07, 05:15 AM
#41
DVD Talk Platinum Edition
I'm a fan of both shows, but I think it's unfair to keep calling Family Guy a ripoff of the Simpsons. The dumb dad, smart mom, 2-3 kid situation comedy has been a staple since the 50s. Simpsons didn't invent that, nor did they invent animation or even parody/satire. Family Guy has its niche as an outrageously tasteless show with nostalgic and absurdly incongruent pop culture references. Want to say that Simpsons has more genuine humor? Sure, but beyond the superficial resemblance in that they both present a typical family unit in an animated setting, I don't see a ripoff.
03-22-07, 02:40 PM
#42
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I am not a lawyer, although I do play one in school. My Media law class discussed this in class the other day. According to my professor, there is no case. The copyright infringement case will fail because the musical notes were very different from Burnett's copyrighted theme song. It evoked it, used the same instrument, etc., but weren't the same notes. The reference to Charwoman was a parody, a commentary. And it wasn't commercial use-there was no profiting off of Charwoman. Yes-of course Family Guy is out there for commercial gain, but the use of Charwoman didn't add any value to the program-Family Guy made no more money from the reference than it did before hand. For this and lots of other things that I'm not going to bother rehashing here, she has no case in my opinion (not a lawyer) and in that of my professor (is a lawyer, but none of this constitutes legal advice to you).
03-22-07, 07:26 PM
#43
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Another fan of Family Guy here. I tell you, the ones that hate the show sure seem to watch it awful lot being that they comment on it so often. And come on, how do you sue a cartoon? Now thats funny.
Also had no idea Burnett was so old which makes me now feel kind of old.
Also had no idea Burnett was so old which makes me now feel kind of old.
03-22-07, 07:37 PM
#44
DVD Talk Platinum Edition
Originally Posted by Fielding Mellish
In a related story, Carol Burnett has just been sued by the estate of Vivien Leigh...
05-29-07, 09:19 AM
#45
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Ridiculous lawsuit dismissed. From the imdb.com:
http://www.imdb.com/news/wenn/2007-05-29/
'Family Guy' Lawsuit Dismissed
A Los Angeles federal judge has thrown out a comedienne's lawsuit over the use of her cleaning woman character in hit animated TV show Family Guy. Carol Burnett's $2 million copyright infringement suit, filed in March , maintained the Fox show didn't have her permission to include her Charwoman character in an April 2006 episode. It depicted the character as a cleaning woman in a sex shop and also used a version of the theme music to her old TV series without permission, her lawsuit claimed. However, U.S. District Judge Dean Pregerson revealed on Friday he planned to throw out the suit against 20th Century Fox. He will issue a final ruling later.
A Los Angeles federal judge has thrown out a comedienne's lawsuit over the use of her cleaning woman character in hit animated TV show Family Guy. Carol Burnett's $2 million copyright infringement suit, filed in March , maintained the Fox show didn't have her permission to include her Charwoman character in an April 2006 episode. It depicted the character as a cleaning woman in a sex shop and also used a version of the theme music to her old TV series without permission, her lawsuit claimed. However, U.S. District Judge Dean Pregerson revealed on Friday he planned to throw out the suit against 20th Century Fox. He will issue a final ruling later.
05-29-07, 03:21 PM
#46
DVD Talk Special Edition
Not surprising. If the courts allowed a celebrity or other public figure to sue over a parody/satire they didn't like, it would open a whole nasty can of worms with regard to free speech issues.
