'Family Guy,' 'American Dad' Pulled By Fox In Wake Of Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting

Fox has decided to replace all-new episodes of Sunday night's "Family Guy" and "American Dad" with repeats, a network source confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter.

Due to the tragic shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., which left 28 people (including 20 children) dead on Dec. 14, Fox made the change as to avoid airing any potentially sensitive content during this heartbreaking time.

The new episode of "Family Guy," "Jesus, Mary and Joseph!" and "American Dad's" "Minstrel Krampus" will be replaced by repeats of "Grumpy Old Man" at 9 p.m. and "Wheels & The Legman and The Case of Grandpa's Key" at 9:30 p.m., respectively, The Futon Critic revealed.

The network has also decided not to air the 7 p.m. repeat of "The Cleveland Show" titled "Die Semi-Hard." Instead, that episode has been replaced by another repeat, "Menace II Secret Society."

New episodes of "The Cleveland Show" (7:30 p.m.), "The Simpsons" (8 p.m.) and "Bob's Burgers" (8:30 p.m.) will air as scheduled.

Family Guy has been pulled by Fox in the past. After a string of storms and tornadoes left a path of destruction throughout the South in April 2011, Fox canceled the hurricane-themed crossover episodes of "Family Guy," "American Dad" and "The Cleveland Show" from its schedule.

Yesterday, Syfy also changed it's schedule due to the tragedy in Newtown. "Haven" was pulled from the network's Friday lineup due to its storyline about school violence. Syfy has yet to decide when the episode, titled "Reunion," will air.

• Charles Montgomery Burns/Donald Trump

  C. Montgomery Burns may not share Trump's signature comb-over, but there's not much else the two corporate overlords don't have in common. Aside from their ostentatious wealth (Forbes magazine ranked both <a href="http://www.forbes.com/lists/fictional15/2011/profile/c-montgomery-burns.html" target="_hplink">Burns</a>' and <a href="http://www.forbes.com/lists/2010/10/billionaires-2010_Donald-Trump_U5WX.html" target="_hplink">Trump's</a> net worth in the billions) the two power brokers boast a history of corporate ventures that have left hordes trembling at their feet. Though we have to admit -- Burns' trademark "Excellent" beats Trump's "You're fired" any day.

• Lurleen Lumpkin/Sarah Palin

  Lurleen Lumpkin has made appearances on "The Simpsons" as a pretty, ambitious aspiring celebrity who knows how to work a crowd and bag TV appearances. She also has a certain good old American charm that feels awfully familiar. We wouldn't be surprised if Palin embarks on a country singing tour when her fake political career runs out of steam.

• Rich Texan/Rick Perry

  Texas Governor Rick Perry might actually out-Rich Texan the version from "The Simpsons," the unnamed Rich Texan. For starters, Perry once shot a coyote while walking his dog. On the other hand, Perry doesn't block his beautiful crop of hair with a ten-gallon hat like Springfield's version.

• Ned Flanders/Rick Santorum

  Undoubtedly, we'd prefer Ned Flanders as a next door neighbor over Rick Santorum. Because even though Flanders and Santorum share a dogmatic interpretation of the Bible, Ned doesn't impose his beliefs on his others. Santorum, on the other hand, has long voiced the opinion that non-Christians and gay people are hardly "okily dokily."

• Mayor Joe Quimby/Rudy Giuliani

  Two-term NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani may not have the devilish track record of his Simpson's counterpart Joe Quimby. The longtime mayor of Springfield has unabashedly admitted to fraud, taking extended European vacations, and hunting down his enemies on the taxpayers' dime. But Giuliani is decidedly Quimby-esque in his love of the spotlight.

• Bleeding Gums Murphy/Jimmy McMillan

  Jimmy "The Rent is Too Damn High" McMillan parlayed his New York gubernatorial bid into a musical career. If he releases an album with a title half as inspired as "Sax on the Beach" like Lisa Simpson's jazz hero Bleeding Gums Murphy, the likeness is impeccable.

• Chief Wiggum/Newt Gingrich

  As longtime head of the Springfield Police Department, Chief Wiggum has years of crime-fighting (and even more so, ineptitude) under his belt. But you can't blame the guy for trying. Wiggum's repeated slip-ups haven't prevented the earnest officer from charging on, a quality Jon Stewart <a href="http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-may-18-2011/fast-dive" target="_hplink">recently identified</a> in Newt Gingrich. If only Newt had a son half as funny as Ralph Wiggum, we'd want to keep him around.

• Helen Lovejoy/Michele Bachmann

  Michele Bachmann may want to use Helen Lovejoy's shrieking catchphrase, "Won't somebody think of the <i>children!</i>" as her campaign slogan. After all, Bachmann certainly has thought of them enough -- she claims to have <a href="http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/politics-raising-children/2011/jun/15/michele-bachmann-uses-gopdebates-elevate-case-fost/" target="_hplink">raised 23 foster kids</a> as well as five of her own. Plus, despite her small-government credentials, she's so intent on imposing sexual morality that we could easily see her getting up in arms about Springfield's burlesque house.

• Milhouse Van Houten/Tim Pawlenty

  Milhouse' soft-spoken nature has made him an easy target for schoolyard bullies as well as his best friend Bart, earning him the title of "little wiener" from Homer. But that seems like a generous insult considering the names being thrown at the mild-mannered Tim Pawlenty. A recent article in <em><a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/06/so-what-if-tim-pawlenty-is-boring/240462/" target="_hplink">The Atlantic</a></em> argued "the case for electing a bland, uncharismatic president in 2012," and in response to the hints Pawlenty posted on his members-only Facebook page before announcing his candidacy, the folks over at <a href="http://wonkette.com/440978/tim-pawlenty-about-to-officially-announce-hes-boring" target="_hplink">Wonkette</a> wrote "Here's something that's not a secret: Tim Pawlenty is still calling himself 'T-Paw' to pretend he's a real human being with a real personality who people care enough about to give a nickname."

• Troy McClure/Mitt Romney

  "Hi, I'm Mitt Romney. You may remember me from such GOP primaries as the ones I won in 2008 and the ones I didn't win in 2008." Romney appears to currently be the frontrunner for the 2012 Republican nomination, but one gaffe could result in hosting filmstrips and after-school specials for the rest of his life like his kindred spirit Troy McClure. But as long as Romney avoids a fish fetish (like McClure), we think he'll be fine.

• Blue Haired Lawyer/Paul Ryan

  The Blue Haired Lawyer has shown up many times on "The Simpsons" over the years, usually as an attorney for Mr. Burns. Cold, calculating and fierce in the courtroom, the Blue Haired Lawyer would make a great chairman of the House Budget Committee. And with Rep. Ryan's eyes being the same color as the lawyer's hair, it's a match made in bureaucratic heaven.

• Luigi Risotto/Herman Cain

  By now, many know Herman Cain's unusual backstory; before throwing his hat into the election ring, the GOP frontrunner worked for Coca-Cola, Pillsbury, and other food companies before becoming CEO of Godfather's Pizza. It seems "The Simpsons" predicted such a tale: Springfield's resident pizza man Luigi Risotto was revealed to serve on the Hollywood Foreign Press Association when he's not making pies.

• Superintendent Chalmers/Chris Christie

  It's not difficult to imagine how Springfield's dogmatic school Superintendent Gary Chalmers would react to the news that a public servant--New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, for example--had arrived to his son's baseball game <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/02/chris-christie-helicopter_n_870325.html" target="_hplink">via helicopter</a>. But for all his strict enforcement of school rules, the militant Chalmers has been known to make some pretty bad decisions himself, like replacing Principal Skinner with Ned Flanders. It still remains to be seen, however, whether Christie's <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/11/chris-christie-schools_n_875262.html" target="_hplink">controversial plans</a> for education reform will transform New Jersey public schools into--as Chalmers puts it--"a hell of a toboggan ride!"

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/15/family-guy-american-dad-pulled-by-fox-sandy-hook-school-shooting_n_2306911.html

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