The third season of Family Guy first aired on the Fox network in 22 episodes from July 11, 2001, to November 9, 2003, before being released as a DVD box set and in syndication.

It premiered with the episode "The Thin White Line" and finished with "Family Guy Viewer Mail #1".

An episode that was not part of the season's original broadcast run, "When You Wish Upon a Weinstein", was included in the DVD release and later shown on both Adult Swim and Fox.

Although Family Guy was initially canceled in 2000 due to low ratings, following a last-minute reprieve, the series returned for a third season in 2001.

[9] Following Family Guy's high ratings on Adult Swim, the first two seasons were released on DVD in April 2003.

[citation needed] They ordered 35 new episodes in 2004, marking the first revival of a television show based on DVD sales.

[12][13] Fox president Gail Berman said that it was one of her most difficult decisions to cancel the show, and was therefore happy it would return.

[15][16] For "One If by Clam, Two If by Sea",[17] several characters carried out fosse moves in prison — Povenmire went into the office of a color artist, Cynthia Macintosh, who had been a professional dancer, and had her strike poses in order for him to better illustrate the sequence.

[16] In the episode "To Love and Die in Dixie"[18] Povenmire drew on his childhood in the deep south to sequence a background scene where the "redneck" character nonchalantly kicks a corpse into the nearby river.