Family Guy's seventh season was originally broadcast on Fox in the United States between September 28, 2008, and May 17, 2009. It includes 16 episodes, including the first episode "Love, Blactually" and the season finale "Peter's Progress". The season contained hold-over episodes from the sixth season, which was cut short due to the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike. The seventh season was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series, making Family Guy the first animated series to be nominated in this category since The Flintstones in 1961.

The season aired in the UK on BBC Three starting April 18, 2009, with a double bill premiere and finished on July 26, 2009.

There were sixteen episodes produced for the season, with the Volume 7 DVD box set being released in Region 1 on June 16, 2009. Nine of the total sixteen episodes are included in the volume, with the remaining seven in Volume Eight.

During the sixth season, episodes of Family Guy and American Dad! were delayed from regular broadcast due to the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike. Creator Seth MacFarlane publicly sided with the Writers Guild, and fully participated in the strike. Official production of Family Guy was halted for most of December 2007 and various periods afterwards. Fox continued producing episodes without MacFarlane's final approval, and although he refused to work on the show during the strike, his contract with Fox required him to contribute to any episodes it subsequently produced. Rumors of continued production on Family Guy prompted the statement from MacFarlane that "...it would just be a colossal dick move if they [continued production without his final approval]". The strike ended on February 12, 2008 and the series resumed airing regularly.

"The Man" is a slang phrase that may refer to the government or to some other authority in a position of power. In addition to this derogatory connotation, it may also serve as a term of respect and praise.

The phrase "the Man is keeping me down" is commonly used to describe oppression. The phrase "stick it to the Man" encourages resistance to authority, and essentially means "fight back" or "resist", either openly or via sabotage.

The earliest recorded use^{[citation needed]} of the term "the Man" in the American sense dates back to a letter written by a young Alexander Hamilton in September 1772, when he was 15. In a letter to his father James Hamilton, published in the Royal Dutch-American Gazette, he described the response of the Dutch governor of St. Croix to a hurricane that raked that island on August 31, 1772. "Our General has issued several very salutary and humane regulations and both in his publick and private measures, has shewn himself the Man." ^{[dubious – discuss]} In the Southern U.S. states, the phrase came to be applied to any man or any group in a position of authority, or to authority in the abstract. From about the 1950s the phrase was also an underworld code word for police, the warden of a prison or other law enforcement or penal authorities.