The eighth season of animated television series Family Guy first aired on the Fox network in twenty-one episodes from September 27, 2009, to May 23, 2010, before being released as two DVD box sets and in syndication.

The series follows the dysfunctional Griffin family—father Peter, mother Lois, daughter Meg, son Chris, baby Stewie and dog Brian, all of whom reside in their hometown of Quahog.

Production season seven was executive produced by Chris Sheridan, David Goodman, Danny Smith, Mark Hentemann, Steve Callaghan and series creator Seth MacFarlane.

[8] As production began, Callaghan, Andrew Goldberg, Mark Hentemann, Patrick Meighan, Brian Scully, Chris Sheridan, Danny Smith, Alec Sulkin, John Viener and Wellesley Wild all stayed on from the previous season.

Dominic Bianchi, Greg Colton, John Holmquist, Brian Iles, Jerry Langford, Pete Michels, James Purdum, Cyndi Tang and Julius Wu all stayed with the show from the previous season.

"Blue Harvest" director Dominic Polcino briefly returned to the series to direct the episode's sequel, entitled "Something, Something, Something, Dark Side".

[14] Other guest stars who made multiple appearances as recurring characters from previous seasons were Carrie Fisher as Peter's boss Angela[15] and Mike Henry as Cleveland Brown, who briefly returned in "The Splendid Source".

[16] During the sixth season, episodes of Family Guy were delayed from regular broadcast due to the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike.

Series creator and executive producer Seth MacFarlane sided with the Writers Guild and participated in the strike until its conclusion.

In response to the group's criticism, executive producer David Goodman claimed that Family Guy is "absolutely for adults", and that he does not allow his own children to watch the show.

Ramsey Isler of IGN wrote mixed comments about the season, saying, "There was a time when [Family Guy] was one of the funniest shows on TV; it was comedy gold.

But somewhere along the line, the show's shine faded, its image was tarnished, and the magic disappeared", but added, "That's not to say that FG hasn't been good at all lately.

[58] He listed "Brian's Got a Brand New Bag", "Jerome Is the New Black", "Go Stewie Go", "Peter-assment" and "April in Quahog" as the worst episodes of the season.