It's interesting that you say that... I've never thought of Fox as being conservative at all. I've always thought of them as being completely amoral and willing to do whatever gets them the most viewers. If that means being low-class and generally pandering to the lowest common denominator, great. If it means making concessions to certain elements of the audience with radical views, whatever. They'll do it. I think that explains why Family Guy got on their network in the first place, why it was cancelled, and why they brought it back, and if/when it gets cancelled again it will probably be for the same reason.
With that in mind, I was surprised at the treatment of Christianity in last night's episode -- not that the writers would write it, but that Fox would allow it. I can only imagine the angry letters that some people are composing right now. A late-night time slot on a cable channel is much better suited to getting away with that sort of thing.
As for my own opinion on the episode, I never thought FG was the funniest show on TV, but it certainly deserves to be called funny, and I think last night's episode was about par for the course. (Much better than American Dad.) My favorite part was probably the beginning, where Peter rattles off all the crappy shows that Fox aired during FG's downtime. Fox is at least pretty good about letting their shows talk smack about them on air.
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The what mentioned above is total fiction. Please don't take it seriously!