Tacky cattiness at the expense of plot

The show: Family Guy, once a paragon of animated freshness compared to the stale Simpsons, now degenerated to a platform for offensive jokes for the sake of being offensive, simultaneously tacky and catty attacks on celebrities, and a complete disregard for both inter- and intra-episode continuity.
The episode: "Big Man on Hippocampus," first aired back in January and rerun recently.
What happened: Taking a page from The Simpsons, the writers set up the main story of Peter's amnesia with a seemingly unrelated first act in which the Griffins go on Family Feud. During taping, Peter has an accident and loses his memory. The family tries to restore his memory with some old family videos, but Peter is more interested in watching Pretty Woman. That night, Peter spies on Lois undressing, and Lois re-introduces Peter to sex. The next day, Peter decides that despite how much he enjoyed sex with Lois, he'd rather have sex with other women. That night he brings Tiffani-Amber Thiessen home with every intention of having sex with her. Lois leaves in a huff. Peter asks Tiffani about her necklace. "Is that how you spend your Saved by the Bell money?" Peter asks.
What doesn't make sense: So when did Peter relearn what Saved by the Bell is? And why would he know about that teen comedy but not remember how to drive? So basically, Peter's amnesia is suspended just long enough for him to make a tacky, catty remark to a celebrity. Do the writers feel proud of themselves here? Worse, this is one of those nits that could've been prevented with a simple line of dialogue inserted earlier: besides Pretty Woman, the box of videotapes could have also have had a Saved by the Bell tape. It wouldn't have been necessary to actually show Peter watching that show, but just to mention it eliminates this nit free and clear.
One more thing: Yes, I'm still watching this on FOX. Supposedly the jokes are funnier on Adult Swim. Why? Because they can use all the swear words and racial slurs they want? Hey, look at me, I find humor in the prevalence of racism in this country! Give me a break. Besides, bleeps can be exploited for humor much funnier than any catty stereotype that could air on Adult Swim; this is something which this show has actually done in the past. In my opinion, this bit from "PTV" is the funniest in all of post-cancellation Family Guy:

"You know, you're lucky you're good at (bleep) my (bleep) or I'd never put up with you. You know what I'm talking about, when you (bleep) a lubed up (bleep) of toothpaste in my (bleep) while you (bleep) on a cherry (bleep) Episcopalian (bleep) extension cord (bleep) wetness (bleep) with a parking ticket. That is the best." — Peter Griffin

My driver's license is in your bank statement

The show: Family Guy
The episode: "Family Goy," first aired last Sunday on FOX.
What happened: Peter falls in love with a cardboard cutout of Kathy Ireland and neglects his wife. When he comes to his senses, he tries to have make-up sex with Lois but instead discovers a lump in her breast. Lois goes to the hospital, where Dr. Hartmann gives her a clean bill of health and announces that her mother is a Holocaust survivor. The doctor knows this because that's what the birth certificate in Lois' medical record says. Peter then becomes obsessed with Judaism, even converting. Peter drops Judaism as soon as the ghost of his deceased father Francis shows up to threaten him with eternal damnation if he doesn't return to the Catholic faith.
Why it makes no sense: Now it isn't enough to make absurd revelations about Peter's relatives, the way those revelations come about don't even have to make any sense. I still think that the idea that Peter is a Mexican immigrant (in "Padre de Familia") is pretty damn ridiculous, but at least the way Peter comes to that revelation was more organic than what happens in that episode. Since when is a mother's birth certificate kept in the medical record of one of her daughters? What's next? Will we learn that Chris is actually an ordained Anglican bishop when Peter goes get a lube change at Wal-Mart?
Also, I'm having a real tough time believing that a blueblood like Barbara Pewterschmidt could actually be Jewish, and a Holocaust survivor at that. The problem is not chronology, but characterization. I would think that a woman who's gone through something as horrific as the Holocaust would choose someone of more substance to marry than Carter Pewterschmidt.

About nitpicking Cleveland's show

Well, last Sunday the long-awaited Cleveland Show premiered. It seems that of all the secondary characters on Family Guy, Cleveland Brown was the worthiest for his own show. But in all fairness to the Family Guy, Cleveland sometimes rose above the level of token black guy. There's plenty of grist for debate here, but for now it would be best to wait for a few more episodes of the new show before further expounding on this particular issue. Another issue to debate is whether the show is any good.

But what matters to us as nitpickers right now about The Cleveland Show is to what extent old Family Guy episodes can be used to nitpick the old show. I would say that quite a bit of the old show can be used for this purpose. The Cleveland Show starts out with Cleveland and his son Cleveland Jr. leaving Spooner Street behind, clearly establishing that Cleveland's history as established on Family Guy is perfectly valid for The Cleveland Show. Maybe the writers will occasionally forget, but we nitpickers won't. We have practically all the old episodes on DVD and won't hesitate to refer to them.

Peter Griffin has many ancestors invented for purely comedic purposes (as well as for jokes that don't really lift off), while Cleveland has hardly any. So almost everything about Cleveland's past shown on Family Guy can be used to nitpick the new show. Still, I would caution about using anything from the Family Guy episodes "Untitled Griffin Family History" and the Star Wars homage episodes.

Unverified Griffin Family History

The show: Family Guy
The episode: "Peter's Progress," first aired on FOX this past Sunday.
What happened: Cleveland introduces his cousin Claude, who claims to be a psychic. Claude tells Peter Griffin that his ancestor Griffin Peterson is the true founder of the Quahog colony, way back in either 1670 or 1760, contradicting the myth of chatty Miles Musket and the Clam (which Quagmire cites). Claude tells the story of how Griffin Peterson fell in love with Lady Redbush (who looks a lot like Lois) and asked her to marry him. Lady Redbush said yes, but King Stewart III (who looks like Stewie) decided he wanted Redbush for himself and sent Peterson off to the British colonies in America. His shipmates include versions of Joe Swanson and Quagmire. They land in what would become Rhode Island.
Why it makes no sense: Since when are psychics historians? Watch an episode of Medium: Allison Dubois tells fairly recent history, such as someone having been killed a couple of years ago, and not pre-Revolutionary War history. A psychic is supposed to read what is in someone's mind, and apparently this whole story of Griffin Peterson and the true founding of Quahog was news to Peter. If Claude really was reading Peter's mind, shouldn't she have come up with a story much like the one Peter told in "Untitled Griffin Family History"?
I'm perfectly OK with the Miles Musket story (from "Fifteen Minutes of Shame") being either a complete fabrication of Adam West's, or a commonly accepted myth (like Benjamin Franklin flying a kite in a thunderstorm). But it's not OK to rewrite Peter's genealogy because there is so much material already, a lot of it a lot more reliable than some random new character. This latest rewrite of Quahog history can't be taken seriously because it makes no sense and it can't be taken humorously because it's not funny. I watched the whole episode and laughed only once, at Brian announcing new shows on FOX, and even that must've been me being generous.
In fact, the Griffin history given in "Untitled Griffin Family History" is a thousand times better: it can be taken seriously, because it builds on previously established continuity, namely the story of Nate Griffin, the slave owned by the Pewterschmidts and given credence by historical records Peter found at the library and which were convincing enough for Carter Pewterschmidt to pay Peter reparations (in the episode "Peter; and it can be taken humorously because it actually was funny (at least to me).
In conclusion, this was a boring episode with little laughs and no usable continuity.