As creator of the Emmy Award-winning animated series Family Guy and American Dad, Seth MacFarlane has earned a reputation for sparing little in his pursuit of no-holds-barred humor.
“I think of myself as an equal-opportunity offender.”
Family Guy chronicles the Griffin family, a somewhat-dysfunctional clan of which the smartest is Brian, a talking dog who prefers dry martinis to dry dog food. An anchor of FOX’s Sunday night lineup, the show took an unprecedented road to success. After receiving rave critic reviews for its debut following the 1999 Super Bowl, the show was canceled in 2002 due to low ratings. But ensuing DVD sales told another story, as Family Guy eclipsed the respective video successes of The Simpsons, South Park, Seinfeld, Friends and Everybody Loves Raymond. Coupled with rerun success via the Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim, this prompted Fox to bring Family Guy back for an unheard-of second chance at prime time.
“I was sure Family Guy would not be coming back. There was no precedent for [exhuming] it. It would require a network to say, ‘We’ve made a mistake.’”
MacFarlane also produces American Dad for FOX, based on another off-kilter family led by a CIA agent father on perennial alert for terrorist activity. Dad tackles issues with the same politically incorrect panache that viewers have come to love (and expect) from MacFarlane.
“The idea was to do a current-day All in the Family that [is] more political than Family Guy.”
In addition to his role as creator and executive producer, MacFarlane is the voice of many of his animated characters. At the podium, he takes audiences inside some of the most innovative and raucous television programming for a hilarious behind-the-scenes peek at everything from the writers’ many neuroses to the one Family Guy episode that Fox refused to air.
Family Guy took home Emmy honors in 2000 (“Outstanding Voice-Over Performance”) and 2002 (“Outstanding Music and Lyrics”), and more than 500 merchandise items have been licensed in over 10,000 consumer outlets (including Target, Wal-Mart and Kmart). In fall 2007, the show launched in off-net syndication in 20 major markets representing 37.8% of the United States.
MacFarlane’s latest project is the Family Guy spin-off, The Cleveland Show. The Cleveland Show instantly developed a cult following, as audiences couldn’t get enough of Cleveland, the well-meaning, likable leading man played by Mike Henry. Variety praised the show’s first season as “a running commentary on all things pop culture — riotous fun.”
AT A GLANCE: A cartoon illustrator during his childhood in Kent, Conn., Seth MacFarlane studied animation at the Rhode Island School of Design, where his student film, The Life of Larry, eventually attracted the attention of Hollywood. He relocated to his current residence of Los Angeles in the mid-’90s to work with Hanna-Barbera and MADtv before joining FOX to create Family Guy.
