Unless you are yourself Matt Groening (and if you are, I have some pretty good Simpsons episode ideas for you), you have not created a television show as good as The Simpsons. For some unknown reason, the only person on the planet who gets criticized for this "inferiority" is Seth MacFarlane.
Seth MacFarlane, creator of Family Guy, is constantly slammed by most hardcore Simpsons aficionados for the quality of his show, which is perceived to be quite bland and unfunny compared to The Simpsons, particularly episodes from the show's "golden era" (Note: Nobody agrees on when this era spanned, but I personally say it's mid-Season 3 to Season 9).
I agree with the overall point that Family Guy isn't nearly as funny, smart, or innovative as The Simpsons was in the 1990s. But does this mean that television should give up?
Consider the most popular shows on television right now. American Idol. Dancing with the Stars. Shows on CBS That I Haven't Actually Seen But My Aunts Seem to Find Gripping.
Is Family Guy better than these shows? Absolutely. Family Guy does make jokes about politics, culture, and the world in which it is set. It's not shallow escapism--it does a lot of the same things that a certain yellow-skinned family did in my childhood. And the thing is, The Simpsons in 2011, while still very much a watchable show, is not what it was in 1993. It's essentially a tribute to itself--a monument to a fully functional Springfield world in which the entire town can be populated with characters we know a great deal about due to the long run of the series and the conscious effort to explore virtually every person that the Simpson family encounters. But this monument can be pretty damn tedious to watch sometimes--one-note characters like Cletus (the slack-jawed yokel, as he was so eloquently referred from Seasons 5 to 7) make okay jokes in the midst of a bigger story but don't work when they're expected to function as three-dimensional characters.
But come on, you can't possibly think Family Guy can ever reach The Simpsons' level. Are there any Family Guy episodes even close to as funny as any episode in, say, Season Five?
Well, maybe the one where Homer's dad and Marge's mom start dating. But overall, no, Family Guy is not as good and will almost certainly never be as good. King of the Hill is also not as good, but that didn't prevent it from having a special place in my heart (as well as a very long TV run by any standard other than that set by The Simpsons). Perhaps I'd be more inclined to start bashing Seth MacFarlane if he was a pompous ass about the whole thing--if he claimed his show was better or something like that. But he really isn't. Has anyone ever seen a report of Seth MacFarlane badmouthing what was obviously a major influence on his creation?
I can only recall one Family Guy joke which specifically mocked The Simpsons--one in which Stewie mocked Bart Simpson's endorsements of Butterfinger. But isn't that a fair point? Shouldn't a good satirist point out the insanity of a so-called anti-establishment show becoming willing icons of corporate America? I would hardly call this disrespectful, just as I wouldn't call The Simpsons referring to Family Guy as "plagiarisimo", or American Dad as "plagiarisimo di plagiarisimo" disrespectful. And to those who mock Family Guy as a ripoff of The Simpsons, keep in mind the high level of Springfieldians who are admittedly based on someone else in culture. Homer is Walter Matthau, Barney is Crazy Guggenheim from Jackie Gleason, Chief Wiggum is Edward G. Robinson, Moe is Sonny from Dog Day Afternoon, etc.
So if you want to lambaste Family Guy, it's your call. But it just seems silly to do so because "it's not as good as The Simpsons".
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