The original pilot for the long-running animated comedy series Family Guy has resurfaced online after being considered “lost media” for nearly three decades.
Lost media refers to any content — whether movies, TV shows, music, video games, or books — that’s believed to no longer exist or for which no copies can be found. This has become increasingly rare in today’s digital age where almost everything gets preserved somewhere.
Until just days ago, the Family Guy pilot belonged to this elusive category, joining other famous examples like the 1927 silent film London After Midnight (destroyed in an MGM lot fire in 1965), over 90 missing episodes of Doctor Who, Jerry Lewis’s unreleased 1972 film The Day the Clown Cried about a concentration camp clown, The Beatles’ experimental 14-minute track ‘Carnival of Light’, and the Siegfried & Roy tiger attack footage.
The discovery came when the pilot was found on the portfolio website of Robert Paulsen, an animator who worked on the original episode. (He shouldn’t be confused with the fictional Robert Paulson from Fight Club.)
A Partial History
Previously, fans could only access the first 7 minutes of the pilot (minus a portion of the communion wine cutaway) through the Family Guy Volume 2 DVD set released on September 9, 2003. The remainder was replaced with a “Coming Soon” bumper.
That changed on March 20, 2025, when user GhostTheDeadGirl discovered the complete 16-minute pilot on Paulsen’s personal website. According to Lost Media Wiki, “Rob is credited in the pilot as both one of the ‘Digital Ink & Paint’ crew members, and under ‘Compositing.’”
The find has thrilled longtime fans.
While the pilot’s tone closely resembles the show we’ve come to know, there are several noteworthy differences. The animation is noticeably rudimentary compared to what eventually aired. Perhaps most surprising is hearing series creator Seth MacFarlane — who voices many characters including Peter, Stewie, and Brian Griffin — also voicing Chris Griffin, a role that Seth Green would later take over.
Family Guy premiered on Fox in January 1999 and ran for three seasons before being canceled in 2002. The show gained massive popularity through DVD sales, leading to successful fan campaigns for its revival. It returned to television in 2005 and has continued airing ever since — making it one of animation’s most remarkable comeback stories.