Is there any arena Family Guy creator, Seth MacFarlane, hasn't yet invaded?  The man seems on a mission to make his presence felt in the world of entertainment.  Last month, he became the highest paid television writer-producer after he inked a deal worth over $100 million to work his magic for 20th Century Fox TV until 2012.  Back in March, he was rumored to have started a romantic interlude of sorts with Tru Calling star, Eliza Dushku, also known as Sarah Michelle Gellar's cleavage-baring counterpart on Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Aside from the above, MacFarlane has also recently created a spin-off to his hugely popular Family Guy, to revolve around one of the lovable figures from the parent series.  The Cleveland Show starring Cleveland Brown, Peter Griffin's neighbor on Family Guy, is all set to debut this spring.  Finally, in yet another display of MacFarlane's pure genius, he and his Family Guy team have also managed to work around a sticky little Emmy loophole, to finally enter the race in both the animated AND comedy series categories.  So, just what is it that makes this MacFarlane dude tick?  Here's what the Boston Herald gathered about his guiding principle on Family Guy, which appears to be the Midas touch today on television.

“The thing that I try to do with Family Guy is to have this balance between the classic and the edgy.  We do a lot of poop jokes, but at the same time, we use a 45-piece orchestra every week with a full string section.  And, you know, we don't try to shock for shock's sake,” Family Guy's main man told the Boston Herald.  “If something is just shocking and not funny, then we'll cut it out.”

Speaking of editing things out, he went on to discuss the show's cutaway sequences:  “We see them as, in a weird way, these animated versions of one-frame Far Side cartoons that are something you can only do really, I think, effectively in the animation medium.  And they're just laughs for laughs' sake.  You don't have to know what's going on with the plot.  You don't have to know what's going on with character drive.  It's just pure comedy, we hope.”

As to what he plans to be doing in five years – he mentioned writing, directing and voicing Family Guy for the big screen.  Hey, given that 20th Century Fox TV has locked him up for the next three-and-a-half years for a cool hundred million, why wouldn't he stay on to deliver the franchise to an even bigger medium?


-Rosario Santiago, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
Source: Boston Herald
(Image Courtesy of news.harvard.edu)