Why was Family Guy Cancelled 2002?

For Joe Kaufman, a seventh grader at the Dalton School on the Upper East Side, last weekend really couldn't have been any better.

First off, there was the countdown to the season premiere of "Family Guy," the animated Fox sitcom, which had been cancelled in 2002, only to be revived after the show's DVD sales and its syndicated ratings caught the network's attention. The first new episode of "Family Guy" in more than three years was scheduled to be broadcast last night. The show, which follows the dysfunctional Griffin family (including a homicidal baby and an alcoholic dog), developed a cult following among those whose sense of humor skews towards the naughty, the bawdy and, of course, the repeatable.

"It's ridiculously quotable," said Mr. Kaufman, 13, who ran afoul of his gym teacher for quoting the show so heavily. "In the seventh and eighth grade at Dalton, everyone knows it by heart. Except, of course, some of the 'out of it' kids."

But even before the season premiere, thousands of "Family Guy" fans -- including Joe Kaufman, two buddies and Joe's father, Michael -- flocked to Town Hall on Friday and Saturday nights for four performances of "Family Guy Live!," which featured most of the show's cast reading an old episode onstage, answering questions from the audience and generally reveling in their unlikely comeback.

"Thanks for putting us back on television," said Seth MacFarlane, 31, the rakish "Family Guy" creator who also does the voices for the show's lummoxlike hero and family patriarch, Peter, and the aforementioned baby (Stewie) and dog (Brian). "We've taken great care with these new episodes because you bought these DVD's and put us back to work."

Backstage, Alex Borstein, who gives voice to the show's mother character, Lois, seconded that, saying she was stunned by the ardor of the fans, who queued several deep before the show to buy T-shirts, bumper stickers and DVD's.

"I'm a five-foot-tall, middle-class Jew with a pudge, and people are freaking when they meet me," said Ms. Borstein, who earned her comedic stripes as a cast member of "Mad TV." "People are anticipating the lines before they are coming."

Sure enough, the crowd inside Town Hall occasionally seemed to know the show better than Mr. MacFarlane, stumping him with questions about cut scenes. At one point he also received a marriage proposal from a smitten female fan. (Mr. MacFarlane, blushing and drinking what he said was bourbon from a coffee cup, said he'd give it some thought.)

That proposal notwithstanding, "Family Guy" -- whose characters include Glen ("All right!") Quagmire, an unreconstructed swinger, and a child known as Upside Down Face Boy -- seems to appeal especially to adolescent and 20-something males, who made up a hefty chunk of the Town Hall audience at Friday's first show. And the cast -- including, as the Griffin children, Seth Green (Scott Evil in the "Austin Powers" movies) and Mila Kunis ("That 70's Show") -- did little to disappoint that core audience, rampantly ad-libbing, cracking wise on each other and the audience and adding a few lines of dialogue that definitely would not make it past the network censors. (Mr. Green, in particular, had much fun with a video projection over his head and with his microphone.)

For all that silliness, however, fans like Ian Frons, a 19-year-old from Monmouth County, N.J., said the real appeal of "Family Guy" was its smart pop-cultural references (Adam West, television's original Batman, has a recurring role as himself) and its fearlessness.

"They do what you think they're not ever going to do," Mr. Frons said. "And then they do it."

Of particular interest to Friday night's crowd, of course, was the season premiere, a snippet of which was shown. (Mr. MacFarlane prefaced it by saying, "People are either going to be horrified or laugh, and the reaction so far has been a little bit of both.") In it, Peter Griffin announces to his family that they have been canceled in order to make way for fine Fox shows like "Dark Angel," "The Lone Gunmen" and "Andy Richter Controls the Universe." None of them lasted. But the list goes on. And on. And on. And the longer it went, the louder the laughs from the Town Hall crowd.

All of which delighted Mr. MacFarlane -- who blushed some more as the crowd gave him a standing ovation.

It also delighted young Mr. Kaufman, the "Family Guy" enthusiast. "I think that was probably the funniest first act I've ever seen," he said. "And I've seen them all."