"Partial Terms of Endearment," a never-seen episode of the racy animated series, will be available for sale on DVD on Sept. 28 from Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment — more than a year after the Fox network deemed it outrageous even by "Family Guy" standards and pulled it from last season's slate of episodes.
Since then, the episode, which will not be downloadable, has gained a sort of "banned-in-Boston" notoriety. Further upping the ante is its subject matter. Bumbling, moronic Peter Griffin and his patient but libertine wife, Lois, throw themselves into the abortion debate.
The episode's narrative has never been a secret. In fact, it was performed live last summer by the cast (including Seth MacFarlane, the series' creator, who serves as executive producer, writer and the voice of numerous characters) for members of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences as well as members of the press.
Still, here's a spoiler alert for those who don't want to know what happens.
Most of the episode dwells on Lois (voiced by Alex Borstein) agreeing to become a surrogate mother for a friend who can't have a child. But after her friend and her husband are killed in a car crash, the Griffins are left with the difficult decision of whether to proceed with the pregnancy or not.
To see the episode in all its cartoon glory is to conclude three things:
_It's wickedly funny, no matter how offensive.
_It was never (at least, not in this lifetime) ever going to make it to the air of any commercial TV broadcaster. (Hmmmm. Was shooting it, then "censoring" it always a marketing ploy to super-charge DVD sales?)
_And, finally, it's recommended only for the "Family Guy" faithful. The uninitiated, the faint-of-heart and, most of all, the anti-abortion crowd should maybe choose to take a pass.
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