Answer: Family Guy

It’s hard to imagine Family Guy not headlining the cartoon sitcom market alongside other animated titans like The Simpsons, South Park, and Futurama, but once upon a time, the fate of the show was grim.

The show launched in 1999 and ran for three seasons on the Fox television network. When it came time to renew the show in 2002, however, Fox executives balked at the prospect of green-lighting another year of production for a show they viewed as waning in popularity, expensive to produce, and in competition with other high-profile adult-oriented cartoons on their slate like The Simpsons and King of the Hill.

Despite Fox executives’ belief that the show wasn’t popular enough to renew, the show had garnered a large following and sales of the first three seasons on DVD radically exceeded expectations. Further, the show had gone into syndication on Adult Swim and had stellar ratings.

Fox renewed the contract and in 2005, Family Guy began airing again; it remains on the air and has won a total of eight Emmy awards.