Season 1

The first season of the animated comedy series Family Guy aired on Fox from January 31 to May 16, 1999, and consisted of 7 episodes.

The series premiere, "Death Has a Shadow", was broadcast directly after Super Bowl XXXIII and was watched by 22.01 million viewers. The series received praise from most critics, particularly "I Never Met the Dead Man" and "Brian: Portrait of a Dog", however some critics disliked the themes of the episodes.

Series creator Seth MacFarlane conceived the idea for Family Guy in 1995, while studying animation at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). There, he created his thesis film The Life of Larry, which his professor at RISD later submitted to Hanna-Barbera; this led to MacFarlane being hired by the company. Executives at Fox saw the Larry shorts and contracted MacFarlane to create a series based on the characters entitled Family Guy. While working on the series, Larry and his dog Steve slowly evolved into Peter and Brian; the rest of the series characters were added later.

With a total of 7 episodes, this is the shortest season of the show to date.