Production for the ninth season began in 2009, during the airing of the
eighth season. The season was executive produced by series regulars
Chris Sheridan,
David Goodman,
Danny Smith,
Mark Hentemann and
Steve Callaghan, along with series creator
Seth MacFarlane. The
showrunners for the ninth season were Hentemann and Callaghan, who oversaw the series's transition into
720p high definition in the premiere of the ninth-season episode "And Then There Were Fewer".
Kirker Butler, who wrote five episodes for the show, left the series before the beginning of the ninth season, in order to write for the Fox animated series
The Cleveland Show, a spin-off of
Family Guy. Writer John Viener left the series at the end of the season to also write for
The Cleveland Show. Recurring directors 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.
Peter Shin briefly returned to the series as a director to direct the sequel to the episode "
Something, Something, Something, Dark Side", entitled "
It's a Trap!". Shin also served as supervising director for the season, along with James Purdum. ==Home media==