The myth of Family Guy discontinuity

Supposedly Family Guy has no continuity whatsoever, and Wikipedia, the grand bastion of ignorance, stupidity and fighting on the Internet, is trying very hard to cement this myth. The encyclopedia that once mixed up Canada and the United States, and routinely slanders politicians past and present, has on several occasions tried to say that because of the "throwaway" gags used on the show, the show doesn't have continuity. This myth, lacking journalistic and scholarly support, is grown on the "talk" pages of Wikipedia, which goes to show you that you can't believe anything on any Wikipedia page. Most recently (to my knowledge) Elecmahm said that "Anyone looking for continuity in this show is going to be gravely disappointed" and that "Even the show lampoons that about itself." Wikipedia's editors lack the sophistication to know that the show is actually lampooning perceptions (and misperceptions) people have of it. When Seth MacFarlane said that South Park understood the show correctly, he was just being a good sport, much unlike South Park's creators.

Granted that Family Guy has had slip-ups of continuity, and when they occur this blog will try to be the first to point them out. But myth-busting demands that we take the unusual step of lauding the show for at least some of its continuity plusses. The best batch of episodes to do that with is, in my opinion, the fourth season, when the show came back from cancellation and could very well have taken the opportunity to discard continuity built up prior to the first cancellation. Instead, these episodes reassert prior continuity and build on it. So:

1. "North by North Quahog" Tom Tucker's son, Jake, who had an upside-down face when he was introduced in "Brian Does Hollywood," still has an upside-down face and Brian can't avoid a Freudian slip about it.
2. "Fast Times at Buddy Cianci Jr. High" Chris is still at Buddy Cianci Jr. High.
3. "Blind Ambition" Peter once again fights the Giant Chicken introduced in "Holy Crap."
4. "Don't Make Me Over" Lois is still trying to make Meg more appealing to boys.
5. "The Cleveland-Loretta Quagmire" Instead of counting on viewers to forget about Loretta, the writers actually felt a need to write Cleveland's wife out of the show by having her cheat on him with Quagmire.
6. "Petarded" This one just confirms what viewers must've suspected from the first episode, that Peter is retarded.
7. "Brian the Bachelor" Brian still has trouble finding the right woman.
8. "8 Simple Rules for Buying My Teenage Daughter" Meg is surprised to hear that Neil Goldman is no longer interested in her.
9. "Breaking Out Is Hard to Do"
10. "Model Misbehavior" This episode builds on one of the consequences of Lois's privileged upbringing, first established in "Peter, Peter, Caviar Eater."
11. "Peter's Got Woods" Peter and Brian's friendship is tested and ultimately affirmed in this episode.
12. "Perfect Castaway" With Peter lost at sea, Brian takes the opportunity to marry Lois, whom he's lusted after since at the earliest "Brian in Love."
13. "Jungle Love" The writers felt the need to advance Chris to high school. It's social promotion, but continuity development nevertheless.

I think that's quite enough, so I'll break it off there. When it comes to continuity, Family Guy actually fares as well as other scripted shows. And when it comes to credibility, television in general fares a lot better than Wikipedia.