I am just curious to know why Bonnie Swanson, wife of Joe Swanson, was kept pregnant until the seventh season.
2 Answers
Because it's cartoons — Stewie is still a baby, too. Generally, cartoons are not too happy about altering the state of the show by letting big things happen.
Cartoons are for a lot of people not shows they follow consistently, rather they just watch a few episodes once in a while in no particular order. To that end, if the scenario changed in every episode (like it does with more continious story-telling tv shows like Breaking Bad), it would confuse the audience.
Imagine watching just a few random episodes of Breaking Bad: you'd have no idea what was going on. That's great for such a dramatic show, but not the norm in comedies and cartoons.
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Why would an animated series have inherently less loyal viewers? If I like a TV show I keep watching it, whether the characters are drawn or played by humans doesn't matter to me. - The serial vs procedural issue exists for live action shows as well. And there are animated shows that are serialized, e.g. Young Justice, which I watched every episode of.– Oliver_CNov 23, 2013 at 13:10
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@Oliver_C This might sound condescending, but I can assure you it's not: From your profile I can see that you're 36 and you say you've watched every episode of a TV show produced for Cartoon Network (a children's channel). I know there are exceptions, and I feel like it's fair to say that you're not the avenrage viewer that I'm describing in my answer. Notice I say "a lot of people", not "all people". Besides, this is just what I gather from my understanding of the viewers of shows such as Simpsons, Family Guy, American Dad, South Park, etc.– kbaNov 23, 2013 at 16:03
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2According to Seth MacFarlane the target audience for Family Guy is
Men, 18 to 34
. Just because a show is animated doesn't mean it's only for kids, at least not anymore. Some of todays "cartoons" are actually rather sophisticated.– Oliver_CNov 23, 2013 at 16:28 -
1I'm not talking about Family Guy, but Young Justice. I know Family Guy is an adult show.– kbaNov 23, 2013 at 17:45
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1I will say not cartoons but Comedy shows kept then non-serialize to attract part-time viewers. But it is also an assumption.– Ankit Sharma ♦Nov 26, 2013 at 10:55
Family Guy, American Dad and shows like that are semi non-linear. They reference past seasons and so time does go on in their worlds, but they aren't that linear that they define age of characters.