Seth MacFarlane is essentially a household name these days. He has been wildly successful in the television industry and has an hour and a half of his shows on Fox alone. He has taken cartoons and made them enjoyable for an older audience, while never losing sight of the hilarity of a good fart joke. Let’s take a look back and see how Seth MacFarlane got to where he is today.
The Early Days
Do you remember the old Cartoon Network shows like Johnny Bravo, Dexter’s Laboratory, and Cow and Chicken? Seth MacFarlane worked on all of them. Before he was a big time executive, he was a simple writer and animator. Yeah, Seth MacFarlane can draw too. It is almost like some sort of conspiracy where Seth MacFarlane got into our heads when we were younger by working on the cartoons we enjoyed, and then used that to create cartoons we’d enjoy after we grew up. He is a devious one.
Family Guy
Seth MacFarlane also worked on creating a series entitled The Life of Larry and Steve. Larry and Steve was about a man and his intellectual dog. If this sounds familiar it is because it is the idea that would be turned into Family Guy. Seth MacFarlane proposed the idea to Fox and received a $50,000 budget to create the pilot episode. It took half a year to make, but it was worth it. The unique blend of irreverent and often juvenile humor has proved to be extremely entertaining. Family Guy can definitely be crude at times, but it is always enjoyable. It’s immense popularity opened up many doors for MacFarlane, allowing him to create other spin-off series and Family Guy related project. He has also stated plans on making a Family Guy feature film, saying he would like it to be a musical. Seth MacFarlane is all about those musicals.
American Dad
American Dad is another show about an animated family. Seth MacFarlane created American Dad in 2005, and much like Family Guy, it caught on fast. The combination of a morally ambiguous alien and overzealous but unintelligent CIA agent living together has brought forth many laughs. While American Dad has not had the same success as Family Guy, it has done well and brought Seth MacFarlane brand new buckets of of crisp hundred dollar bills for when his Family Guy money gets wrinkled.
The Winner and Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy
Seth MacFarlan steered away from animation and it didn’t go well. He tried to create a live action series called The Winner starring Rob Corddry, about some guy trying to get with some girl. It got canceled pretty fast and, unlike Family Guy, fans did not demand to see it picked up again. This was just a minor setback for MacFarlane, as in 2008 he got right back on track. First, he signed a $100 million contract with Fox and became the highest paid television writer in the world. He also created the web series Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy that was wildly popular and later released on DVD.
The Cleveland Show is a direct spin-off from Family Guy which sent the only African American resident of Spooner Street back to his hometown of Stoolbend. This diverse cast features African Americans, Appalachian Americans, Frat Bros, and Bears. It turned out to be another winning combination for Seth MacFarlane as The Cleveland Show was received well and is going strong. Appalachian Americans is the polite term for hillbillies by the way.
The Future
Seth MacFarlane is currently working on a movie called Ted, about a man and his Teddy Bear. Expect lots of dirty jokes and a hard “R” rating from this one. As previously mentioned, he is also interested in making a Family Guy movie for theatrical release. It can’t be said with any certainty what the future holds for Seth MacFarlane, but chances are he will remain ridiculously successful and spend his days swimming in money.
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