Just a year after Fox decided to bring back Family Guy back from the dead due to the 'toon's boffo DVD sales, show mastermind Seth MacFarlane is giving fans a thank you in the form of a direct-to-DVD movie featuring the irreverent Griffin clan.

The 83-minute, unrated Family Guy Presents Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story details what happens when the brood's resident evil baby genius has a near-death experience and reconsiders his long-held dreams of world domination. Instead, hoping to change his Machiavellian ways, and believing his pater familias Peter might not be his biological father, the pint-sized tot embarks on a journey to find to find his real dad.

The direct-to-DVD flick, the first of its kind spun off from a TV franchise, features the guest voices of Drew Barrymore, Jessica Biel, Ron Livingston, Jennifer Tilly and erstwhile Batman Adam West, along with three former Beverly Hills, 90210 denizens--Jason Priestley, Jennie Garth and Tori Spelling--in a "special gag," according to MacFarlane.

The DVD will include deleted scenes, still galleries, animatics and commentary from MacFarlane. There's also an animated bit showing the Griffins going to their own movie premiere and a post-screening after-party.

"It's been an enormous undertaking to juggle this with doing 35 new episodes of the show, but we think it turned out great," MacFarlane, who voices portly patriarch Peter, gin-swilling pooch Brian and would-be megalomaniac Stewie, tells the Hollywood Reporter.

Fox will distribute the DVD and has high expectations.

Family Guy premiered to great acclaim in early 1999 and won an Emmy for Best Animated Series, but was canceled in early 2003 due to low ratings.

But the first Family Guy DVD collection, featuring the first two seasons, sold a brisk 2.5 million copies--the second-biggest sales for a DVD of a TV show behind the first season of Comedy Central's Chappelle's Show.

Fox subsequently issued two more Family Guy packages, bringing the franchise's total DVD sales to 4.5 million units. The show's massive popularity on home video and in reruns on the Cartoon Network prompted Fox to bring the series back. Per Nielsen Media Research, nearly 12 million viewers tuned in to see Family Guy's fourth-season premiere in May, ensuring that the satirical animated comedy is here to stay.

MacFarlane has been working tirelessly to promote the resurrected series. He and fellow cast members brought a theatrical version of the show, Family Guy Live!, to New York and Los Angeles in April. That was followed by a CD release, Family Guy Live in Las Vegas.

"Fox had such a great amount of success with the previous DVD releases that I think they felt there was a built-in, surefire market for a Family Guy DVD," says MacFarlane. "It's also a lot easier to put out a DVD release than it is a theatrical film while you're doing a television series."

In a bid to get the most bang for its buck, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment plans a massive promotional campaign for Untold, including a viral marketing strategy aimed at college students with special screenings at schools, clubs, bars and fraternity parties.