'Family Guy' Hulu-Exclusive Christmas Episode Release Date, Details Revealed
'Family Guy' Hulu-Exclusive Christmas Episode Release Date, Details Revealed
It’s the white abrooch to Christmas in November
Christmas is coming from Quahog rather early this year. Following last week’s release of their exclusive Family Guy Halloween episode “Peter Peter Pumpkin Cheater”, Hulu is preparing viewers for their Christmas episode. It’s called “Gift of the White Guy” and will be premiering on the streamer before the calendar even hits December on November 25. It continues to be part of the show’s 25th anniversary celebration.
The release of “Peter Peter Pumpkin Cheater” revealed several things about how these releases work that weren’t clarified beforehand. Both episodes are standard-length episodes and are listed on Hulu in its own “Exclusives” submenu of the season dropdown. “Gift of the White Guy” sees Peter attempt to recover Lois’ Christmas brooch after giving it away in a White Elephant exchange. Stewie meanwhile changes his attitude upon learning he’s on Santa’s Naughty List. For a 25th anniversary marker, it does somewhat evoke Peter’s accidental donation of all the family’s gifts to Toys for Toddlers in the show’s first Christmas episode, season 3’s "A Very Special Family Guy Freakin' Christmas" in 2001. As for Stewie being on the naughty list despite his giving Santa a healthier work life in the second Christmas episode, season 9’s double-length “Road to the North Pole” in 2010. Though it’s not like the revelations were touched upon in subsequent Christmas episodes, and surely Stewie’s done enough naughty things to offset the good.
Family Guy has had 12 Christmas specials, with “Road to the North Pole” signaling a sense of regularity with them. The subsequent Christmas episodes were Nativity retelling “Jesus, Mary, and Joseph!” in 2012, “Christmas Guy” in 2013 with the third act that resurrected Brian, 2014’s “The 2,000 Year-Old Virgin” where Jesus tries to sleep with Lois, 2016’s “How the Griffin Stole Christmas” where Peter becomes Mall Santa, 2017’s “Don't Be a Dickens at Christmas” where Peter has his Patrick Swayze A Christmas Carol experience, 2019 brings Meg a sexually thrilling “Christmas is Coming”, “The First No L” saw Lois abandon the family due to a lack of appreciation, and then there was “Christmas Crime” in 2021, and arguably the least Christmasy episode of all of their Christmas episodes “The Return of the King (of Queens)”, where the end of linear TV in the Griffin household meant somehow that Kevin James lost his entire audience and employability.
The show’s main cast, as has been for the 2020s, includes creator Seth MacFarlane, Alex Borstein, Seth Green, Mila Kunis, Patrick Warburton, and Arif Zahir. Mike Henry is also still credited in the main cast despite losing Cleveland, leaving him to mostly portray Bruce, though Herbert did return after a two-year absence in “Peter Peter Pumpkin Cheater”. There’s no big celebrity guest star being touted like Glen Powell was for the Halloween episode, but the first look images, specifically the one being used as the article’s thumbnail confirm that MacFarlane’s The Orville co-star Peter Macon will voice his recurring role of Preston Lloyd. The character was introduced Peter’s boss at the Pawtucket Brewery since season 20’s “The Birthday Bootlegger” in 2021, replacing Bert and Sheila as the brewery navigated after Angela’s death.
From 20th Television Animation, Rich Appel and Alec Sulkin serve as executive producers and showrunners, while MacFarlane Steve Callaghan, Tom Devanney, Danny Smith, Kara Vallow, Mark Hentemann, Patrick Meighan and Alex Carter are executive producers. Family Guy’s 25th anniversary celebration saw Peter follow Donald Duck and Venom to guest on Hot Ones earlier this week, and he had a very difficult time handling it. Unfortunately, having a Christmas special two to three weeks sooner than it would on Fox means it will be that much longer a wait for the proper start of the 23rd season on the network sometime next year.
Source: Deadline