Family Guy

[ᾦɐļᵲʊʂ]

Never enough Family Guy, O My Brother!

[MacGuffin]

Family Guy Creator Directing Family Union
Source: Variety

Seth MacFarlane, who created the hit animated comedy series Family Guy, will co-write and make his directorial debut on the comedy Family Union for Spyglass Entertainment.

The film, being co-written by Mike Barker and Matthew Weitzman, centers on a commonplace nightmare scenario - going home every five years to face one's dysfunctional family.

The project is being fast-tracked for an early summer start. MacFarlane is also working on a new comedy animation pilot for Fox, American Dad, for which he will voice many of the parts.

[MacGuffin]

The Family Guy To Return
Production begins for a 2005 return to TV.

Rejoice, Griffin fans, production is about to restart on The Family Guy. Seth MacFarlane, the brains behind the show, tells IGN he's been given the go-ahead and the only question mark left is whether the new material will air initially on Fox or on Cartoon Network.

"Cartoon Network will be involved regardless," he says. "Whether it goes there permanently or winds up on Fox first and then Cartoon Network remains to be seen. So at the very least it will be on Cartoon Network, which is great because at the end of the day that's where we built our biggest fan base. So I'm happy either way."

He's doing what he can to restore as much of the old writing team as possible. However, there are a lot of good writers looking for work in Hollywood thanks to the reality show craze.

In fact, the series lost a few people before season three began, but MacFarlane expects to get back more of the original writers now than he did when season three was in production. The voice over actors won't be too much of a problem since it's animated and the voice recordings can be done around the actor's schedule.

If production begins in April, as he hopes, MacFarlane will present the new material to Fox around December, and it will decide if it picks up the show for 2005 or if it goes directly to Cartoon Network. That may seem like a long time, but MacFarlane says it would take even longer to get something done if he didn't have five leftover scripts from the show. Three are in good shape but two will need some rewrites, he says.

His other pitch, American Dad, is still in production. He created the show with Mike Barker and Matt Weitzman, who were supervising producers on The Family Guy. He describes the show as "Family Guy meets All in the Family, designed to poke fun at the particularly intense political state we're in right now."

The dad, Stan, is an extreme right-wing Republican while one of his daughters is an extreme left-wing Democrat. Stan works for CIA and has an alien (as in from outer space, not an illegal) living with the family. Fox is expected to decide on whether to pick up the series this spring.

The resurrection of The Family Guy comes after a groundswell of fan support, the strong ratings on Cartoon Network and stellar sales of the DVD sets. The Family Guy Volume 1 and Volume 2 have combined sales of close to two million units, according to MacFarlane.

"I think that's what made them sit up and take notice and say maybe there's more money to be made off this property and this thing is not dead yet," he says. "Because of DVD and cable, the show has been able to build an audience that, in the past, a show could only build on a network. So it's an indication that the landscape is changing a lot."

Needless to say, he's happy to do double duty with The Family Guy and American Dad "It's gonna be a challenge but this is what I do and what I love doing, so it's a monumental challenge that I'm happy to undertake. I'm thrilled. I think it's great," says MacFarlane.

[ono]

This is great, great news.  Thanks Mac!

[puddnanners]

so, if seth macfarlane comes up with two really funny ideas, which show gets to use it, Family Guy or American Dad?  seems like he will be making some tough calls.  Also, I'm rooting for the cartoon network tp air new Family Guy episodes only, not Fox.  I wonder if the straight to DVD movie is still in the works?  I hope so.

[modage]

This is great, great news.  Thanks Mac!

fan-fucking-tastic.

[MacGuffin]

New Family Guy Episodes Return in Early 2005
Source: The Cartoon Network

In an unprecedented move, 20th Century Fox Television has committed to producing a minimum of 22 new half-hour episodes of Seth MacFarlane's Emmy Award-winning animated comedy series Family Guy more than two years after the series aired its last original episode. The move comes on the heels of the series' elevation to pop culture phenomenon, particularly among the traditionally hard-to-reach young adult demographic, as demonstrated by its enormous success on DVD and on the Cartoon Network. In 2003, Family Guy was the #1 selling TV property on DVD. On Cartoon Network, Family Guy ranks #1 in its time period on cable among Adults and Men 18-34 and Adults and Men 18-24, and also beats both "The Late Show with David Letterman" and "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" in head-to-head competition among Men 18-34 and Men 18-24.

The new episodes will be available in early 2005 to be shown on Adult Swim, Cartoon Network's late night block of animated programming for adults on which Family Guy currently ranks as the #1 show. The Fox Broadcasting Company has an option to license the original runs of those new episodes.

Seth MacFarlane, creator and executive producer of Family Guy and two-time Emmy Award winner for his work on the series, and producer Kara Vallow are currently assembling the writing and production staff for the new episodes.

"This is incredibly exciting for everyone at Fox," enthused 20th Century Fox TV President Gary Newman. "The overwhelming response to 'Family Guy' this past year is a real tribute to Seth's vision and talent and it's been really gratifying to all the executives who never stopped championing him and the show. The fact that after all this time we were able figure out a way to get back into production is a testament both to Seth's passion for keeping it alive and some really great teamwork among the executives at our studio and home entertainment and syndication divisions and those at Turner and the Cartoon Network. We're thrilled for Seth, we're thrilled for his fans, and to be honest we're thrilled for our teenage kids who threatened to emancipate themselves if we didn't figure out a way to bring the show back."

Commented Seth MacFarlane, "I'm just incredibly excited that we're back in business on 'Family Guy'. Now all those crazy kids who've been hounding me to bring the show back can stop bothering me and move onto more serious matters - like saving 'Coupling.' "

Family Guy chronicles the lives of the Griffin family, a tight-knit but tense nuclear family living in Quahog, Rhode Island. Peter, the loving but not-overly-ambitious patriarch, and Lois, his devoted wife, maintain a comfortable middle class home. Teen queen Meg, slacker Chris and homicidal infant Stewie round out the Griffin brood, but the most sensible and well-spoken member of the clan is the family dog, Brian. Family Guy had its series preview on FOX on January 31, 1999 following the Super Bowl and its series premiere on April 11, 1999. It earned an Emmy Award in 2000 for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance (Seth MacFarlane) and an Emmy Award in 2002 for Outstanding Music & Lyrics (Walter Murphy and Seth MacFarlane) and was nominated for Outstanding Animated Series in 2000. The final original episode aired February 14, 2002. Family Guy joined Cartoon Network's Adult Swim on Sunday, April 20, 2003 and immediately became the block's top-rated programming, dominating late night viewing in its time period vs. cable and broadcast competition.

"Bringing 'Family Guy' to the Adult Swim lineup last April really helped turn the block into a cultural phenomenon with young adults," said Jim Samples, Cartoon Network executive vice president and general manager. "Now, as the destination for new episodes of what has become the block's most popular series, 'Family Guy' will help boost Adult Swim to the next level in terms of buzz and ratings. We could not be more excited to have Seth and 20th Century Fox Television on board as Adult Swim continues its growth as the best place on TV for young adults."

[cron]

MacFarlane: New Episodes to be "bigger than Jesus."
Tuesday, April 6, 2004

Seth MacFarlane recently appeared in a video that was aired during Adult Swim's Upfront presentation. He takes the time to thank Cartoon Network for all of the success (Family Guy is the top rated cable tv show in it's timeslot) and for being an important part of the show's comeback. He also talks a little about the next season and predicts that it will be "bigger than Jesus" or at least bigger than The Passion of Christ.

Video of that Interview:
http://www.adultswim.com/webcam/gal_mov/macfarlane/index.html





Alex Borstein Says New Episodes to be "Freakin' Funny"
Tuesday, April 13, 2004

Alex Borstein (Lois' voice, among others) recently updated her site with news of the progress of the new episodes:

"Well, after my first week back at Family Guy I can say that we are going to deliver some funny freakin' stuff. It's a great group of writers with still more to start in the next coming weeks.

We will be very busy in the next few months getting the new story ideas together and then writing them. In late May we will start to record the new shows."


---------------

[ono]

Thanks for the info, Mac and crono.  Man, they really just totally shafted Meg, though, didn't they?  No toy for her or anything.  Although, what props would they even give her, what with her being so underwritten and all.

[cron]

Thanks for the info, Mac and crono.  Man, they really just totally shafted Meg, though, didn't they?  No toy for her or anything.  Although, what props would they even give her, what with her being so underwritten and all.

Meg has once again been over-looked.

by the way, there's another Stewie figure but I didn't bothered to post it.

www.planet-familyguy.com

[ᾦɐļᵲʊʂ]

Ironically you post everyone but Meg's figure (who is constantly ignored in the show).

[ono]

Ironically you post everyone but Meg's figure (who is constantly ignored in the show).

I don't know if you're trying to be cute or what, but there is no Meg figure.  That's the point.  I said it, crono reiterated/explained it, but you ... what're you doing?

[cron]

LOOOOOOOOOOONG interview with Seth McFarlane here:

http://planet-familyguy.com/main.php?mod=article&article=seth_may2004.php

[cron]

Pilot for Seth McFarlane's new series "American Dad" here:



i'm downloading it as i post this so i don't have an opinion yet

[UncleJoey]

Pilot for Seth McFarlane's new series "American Dad" here:



i'm downloading it as i post this so i don't have an opinion yet

Looks funny. Pretty similar to Family Guy. Enjoyed the political edge to it.