 Starring: Seth MacFarlane, Wendy Schaal, Scott Grimes, Rachael MacFarlane
Director: Various
Year Of Release: 2005-Present
Plot: Stan Smith is a super-patriotic CIA agent, whose life is dedicated to everything right wing, even though his daughter is a lefty liberal, his son an uncool geek and he has a talking goldfish and an alien living in his house. Stan has to deal with everything from national security to domestic squabbles, but normally ends up with his life becoming ever more absurd. |
In May 2008, Seth MacFarlane signed a $100 million deal with the Fox broadcasting network, which ensured that his shows American Dad and Family Guy would stay on the air until 2012 and that he’d also have the cash to develop new series for the network. The deal made him the best paid television writer in the world.
It’s not bad going for a man who only a few years ago had seen his first TV show, Family Guy, get cancelled twice in the space of just over a year. However something unusual happened. While the first showings on Fox in the US had low ratings that killed the series off, the repeats on the Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim strand started to get a bigger viewership than the original airings. DVD sales also took off massively, to the point where Family Guy is now the biggest selling TV show on DVD ever in both America and the UK.
Because of this Fox decided not only to bring Family Guy back and commission new episodes, but also allow MacFarlane to develop a new show, which turned into American Dad. It’s almost unprecedented for a show to go off the air for more than three years and then to be brought back and see more success than it did first time around. In fact more episodes have now been made since it was cancelled than beforehand.
Not content with having two shows on the air at the same time and having built Family Guy into a billion dollar franchise, MacFarlane has now launched The Cleveland Show, based on Family Guy character Cleveland Brown, which has recently started airing in the States.
So that’s three TV shows currently airing that MacFarlane executive produces, as well as writing many of the episodes, composing songs and voicing several major characters in each of the series. If that weren’t enough, he recently agreed to appear in a recurring role as an FBI agent in the hit new show, Flashforward (he had a blink and you’ll miss it part in the pilot, and will be back in later episodes).
He’s also sung as Family Guy’s Stewie at the BBC’s Proms (as well as in own voice, doing tunes from movie musicals), taken his top show show on the road with a series of Family Guy Live events, where the cast read upcoming episodes for fans, and he does talks in theatres and at universities. You can add to that Seth MacFarlane ’s Cavalcade Of Cartoon Comedy, which started as a series of animated shorts for Burger King, but has since become a YouTube channel, been shown on TV and will soon be coming to DVD. He’s also a double Emmy winner for Family Guy, picking up awards in the voiceover and music and lyrics categories. MacFarlane is even technically a doctor, after being given an honorary doctorate by the Rhode Island School Of Design.
He voiced Johann Kraus in Hellboy II, sang the opening credits for Futurama: Into The Wild Green Yonder (which is a bit of a surprise really, considering Matt Groening’s other hit show, The Simpsons, has taken pot-shots at Family Guy on several occasions). Stewie from Family Guy (voiced by MacFarlane ) showed up in an episode of Bones (as a brain-tumour induced hallucination) and Seth has guest starred in the likes of Star Trek: Enterprise and Gilmore Girls.
To be honest it’s all getting a bit ridiculous, particularly for a man who’s still only 35-years-old (he became TV’s youngest executive producer when Family Guys first starring airing, as at the time MacFarlane was only 24). At this rate, in another 10 years, he will produce and/or star in every show on American TV, and be well on his way to becoming supreme ruler of the world.
While his shows have sometimes proved controversial and they’re certainly not liked by everybody, he’s gathered a legion of devoted fans who absolutely love everything he does (and for my money, Family Guy is one of the funniest TV shows ever). And to be honest, with so much crap on TV, if somebody has to slowly start completely taking over the airwaves, MacFarlane certainly isn’t a bad choice.
TIM ISAAC
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