Tonight's Animation Domination line-up at Fox has changed in the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown Connecticut. As of Friday morning, Fox had a Christmas episode planned for American Dad and Family Guy, in addition to Cleveland Show and Bob's Burgers. But in the wake of the tragedy, they've pulled the Family Guy and American Dad episodes.
TheFutonCritic posted the change-up, stating that no official reason has been given, but it's understood that Family Guy's "Jesus, Mary and Joseph!" episode and American Dad's "Minstrel Krampus" feature sensitive content in light of the tragedy.
From the trailer and episode descriptions for Fox's holiday-themed line-up, Family Guy's episode involved a FG re-imagining of the Nativity story, while American Dad had Stan taking Steve to visit his incarcerated grandfather, who tells him the story of the legendary "Minstrel Kramus," a Christmas demon who punished naughty children on Christmas.
I believe laughter can be a good thing in the wake of any tragedy, but if there's something in these episodes that veers too close to what happened in Connecticut on Friday, I wouldn't fault Fox for taking the sensitive approach and moving the episodes off the schedule.
Fox has also swapped out a repeat of The Cleveland Show's "Die Semi-Hard" for a different rerun. Repeats of Family Guy and American Dad will air in the place of the new episodes that were originally scheduled to air for both shows. Meanwhile, Bob's Burgers, The Cleveland Show and The Simpsons will air new episodes as scheduled.
