Despite being credited as executive producer, he’s not actually working on the show. His name is just there just to be there because it’s still his show no matter what.
It's there because people want to THINK it's his show to either blame him or get more views. Not everything as about what's mine and yours some things are just ours
3:31 This is the exact management lesson I've learned from dealing with multiple business environments on both the labor end and the operations end. Things work best when the boss is either there EVERY DAY and is doing the work and helping actually pull everyone along or they are NEVER THERE and let their GM or other managers actually run things according to how they see fit. Having "one hand in it" as he says, just throws everything off and devolves into micromanagement while showing neither trust nor true effort. Smart guy, and it shows he respects his showrunning and writing crew enough to get the job done.
I love Seth MacFarlane. I think he is a creative and comic genius, and Family Guy has had a great run, but it's no surprise when a show starts to go downhill after it's main creative voice decides to step away, just like The Simpsons, Spongebob and so many others. And Family Guy is no exception to this. It's also the same reason why South Park is still going strong to this day, as it's creators, Trey and Matt have never once stepped away from the writers room.
I disagree, creator or no creator, a show can still dip in quality, you can eventually run out of ideas. even though Matt Stone and Trey Parker still produce and right South Park, there have been some hit or miss episodes as the show progressed. South Park doesn’t have the same shock factor as it once did in its early days. since the guys are older now, it just sounds like they’re preaching to us now. Any rider of a successful TV series can eventually run out of ideas even if you’re the creative force behind it.
@@123theprodigy5wrong on SO MANY FRONTS. creativity never ends it's the corporate horseshit ideas that are forced into the creators that ruins it. Hit or miss is bound to happen after 20 years but there is ALWAYS more to create. Your trying so hard to sound wise but just because your well is dry doesn't mean everyone's is
Family Guy will always be a classic. The old seasons (1-5) are gold, but I really grew up with the next 5-10 and those just hit home every time with me (around when the animation changed to look new). One of those shows that will go down in history, kids my age talked about that show like it was the forbidden fruit when we were growing up.
I will rewatch the first few seasons every now and then and literally cry with laughter. The original writers, as well as Seth, created some of the funniest things ive ever seen. Up there with The Simpsons best work, its just 10/10 hilarious.
For real! I literally rewatch season 1-5 religiously! I'll move on to something else and then eventually always come back to those seasons, for literally years now LOL 💯👍
fr i said that to my friend he said 1-4 and I am like wtf after watching them back alot really amazing epsidoes in season 5, i would say 5 is like the culmination and after that it started getting bad, but in the whole american dad is a better show.
Keep in mind the dude is rather lonely. When you're as successful as he is at shaping American culture and animated comedy, you tend to be a workaholic. He definitely had to be in order to get Family Guy as special as it was to people growing up in the 1990s and the 2000s.@@mythicpeyote
Its refreshing to hear someone say not everything has to be "art" and that as long as it stays true to itself its okay for something just to be lighthearted entertainment that does its job and he is right more often than not Family Guy is perfect for when you just want something on while eating takeout and you don't want to think too heavily about what to watch, many sitcom shows are like that for me (rick and morty, friends, frasier, father ted) in that sometimes I just don't want to concentrate on what I'm watching and know that its funny but also that its not going to annoy me by throwing a load of woke nonsense and political messages into my face. There is something to be said for appreciating "Kitsch" but I don't define it as trash in its meaning, to me Kitsch is something that brings you comfort in the same way as the old house you grew up in brings you comfort, its the joy of familiarity in a world that seems to be going out of its way to make you feel like you are not a part of it.
What I find deeply interesting about Seth's view here is just how humble he is when it comes to passing the torch to a new studio of writers, producers and directors when really deep down we all know that Seth is basically 80% of the entire show just with his voice talents! Loved this man and all his projects since I was a young lad ❤
@@po.russkiYeah, Seth's whole career is putting effort into a property for a couple years then just dumping it to collect residuals. I doubt he's tearfully passing his "art" onto the new generation; more like a franchise owner buying a fourth and fifth Little Caesars.
The original run i liked more because it wasnt as direct and more light hearted. Even in the return the first few seasons were solid. I stopped caring around 2008-09. Todays FG just aint it for me from the little ive seen.
Definitely an iconic show that many of us grew up on. But unfortunately it lost much of its edge and then they just sorta started making cookie cutter episodes With that said though it’s still good even despite a lot of the horrible and corny jokes in the later seasons Definitely an interesting thing some of the gags and jokes are absolutely timeless and will always be funny The first five seasons are pure gold. And probably the next five are full of iconic moments too. But the first five are the best imo
@ArchibaldMeatpants lol thats common sense, you work for what you want, nithing in kife is free buddy im pretty aware of that. And he's a hardworker no doubt but he doesn't bs and make up all these sob stories like Ellen who said she was homeless or Steve-O who's dad ran Pepsi and he acted like he was broke his whole life. Like I said finally someone who doesn't bs and admits its luck and not just his skills.
Up until this interview.. I kinda thought I was one of the only people watching Family Guy (and American Dad) reruns to get to sleep every nite. Not because it is boring,... because it is familiar... it's home. Cheers Seth and thank you!
Yeah sure. You were one of the ONLY people. Hundreds of millions of people in the USA alone but yeah you are one of the ONLY ones who watched Family Guy as they went to bed
I like Seth. I never took his media super seriously, and I mean that in a good way. I was never a mega Family Guy person, but surely I like Stewie and Brian and the original Ted was great when released. He also had a strong hand in Johnny Bravo writing, which was a fantastic show. At the end of the day he just makes fun and entertaining media.
Yeah he just shows up, does his lines for whatever characters he’s playing in the episode and leaves, Mila Kunis even said that she doesn’t even see Seth in the studio anymore
@@ChrisGee1371 I figured he was at least approving scripts, and nudging stories here and there, given how integral he is with the voice acting. It's like being completely involved and not involved at all. Interesting.
@@kenrickkahnit's not a fact at all. Futurama and Simpsons are apples and oranges. It's like saying Metallica is better than Beatles or something like that. They are both the best in their respective genres. And American Dad is not better than Family Guy, not by a longshot
@@peterortiz1160 yeah but Brian is pretty much just Seth’s regular voice. There are plenty of people that can do great impressions of all of those other characters but Brian is literally Seth.
Family Guy will always be a classic comfort for me. I’ve fallen off the wagon for about the last 5 years probably, and there’s been some rough seasons here and there, but typically it’s still exactly what it needs to be: a ridiculous, quirky show. Even some of the latter rough seasons have good gems of episodes sprinkled through it. I’m glad he never limited himself though. The Ted movies, and now the series (I still have to put that on), American Dad, A Million Ways To Die In The West, The Orville- I just love Seth’s work. It’s such a mix: it can be intellectually funny, it can be so stupid it’s funny, it can just be plain funny.
The issue is that you can't remain fresh when you've been on air for over 20 years, following the same formula each and every episode, avoiding comparisons to your chief rival the Simpsons, and maintain dominance over the newer shows like Bobs Burgers and Rick and Morty. Then you have to walk the fine line of vulgar and actual good humor or else you lean too far into South Park and Drawn Together territory.
It isn't terrible. The "newer" writers want to make the characters more well rounded. When you used to watch Family Guy for the shock humor, and that was the only level of emotional investment you wanted to give the show, you wanted your quick joke to use as a social reference when you were in 7th grade and watching Family Guy made you edgy and offensive and (somewhat) countercultural. Family Guy knows their legacy and they want to change it.
Seth for an anniversary can you please write the full season your writing was great and I can’t help but go back to old seasons it was just to good I grew up watching Family guy and I just loved waiting for the next episode to come on get a good laugh and make memories with family watching the show helped me through tough times
"it takes alot of ego to leave the show" his response "or trust". Mic drop. This mentality is key to making new relationships and keepimg them TRUST. "Its not about how many times you fall but how many times you get back up" rocky. You can say whatever you want about shows having hit or miss episodes but if those minds keep trying they will get to a better place. You have to trust the process and the people you choose to keep your legacy going.
For over a decade Family Guy stayed mostly away from direct political attacks and poked fun at both sides. After Trump, the quality of writing took a huge nosedive. Way too much politics.....attacks on republican senators that many viewers wouldn't even know (insider political hate)....low level attacks on Trump that may as well appear on banal late night TV. When Seth says "the show sets out to be funny"......I agree, pre 2016. After that, the writers are trying to "educate and influence". Its obvious and too bad.
Family Guy was basically the office compared to South Park in terms of being offensive, I think people exaggerate just how edgy they were and the amount of pushback they receive. Matt and Trey regularly received death threats from religious groups that's the big leagues 😂
The only people family Guy ever attempted to offend were religious Christians and political conservatives, yeah man, you're really poking the bear with those groups.
Family Guy is one of those shows where it can pretty much say/do anything. It's like having a close friend that knows you well enough to insult you but make it slide. Where if anyone else were to insult you the same way, you wouldn't be having it. Shouldn't be fair, but that's just the way it is. It has established itself as "that show".
I don't think Seth is some irreplaceable genuis or anything, but he understood the show. I feel like the show really lost the plot shortly after he stopped writing. None of the characters are unique anymore. They're all the same kind of terrible.
I think even at its best, Family Guy was just a decent show. The jokes always came before everything else (characters, storylines, etc.), but in the first few seasons, they were generally pretty funny. At some point the show lost its air of light-heartedness and became more edgy in a mean-spirited/graphic way, and to me, that always signified the end of its charm. Early Family Guy has a certain playfulness that just isn't there in later seasons. It's like watching a comedian become more cynical over time.
If family guy ever reaches it's last episode, I hope Seth returns to write for ot one more time, a final episode written by the creator would be a great send off.
It should be noted the series was canceled around the 3rd season, and would have been dead, were it not for fans mass buying the dvds. Fox was like "oh well, this is actually a money maker. Lets try another season and sell more dvds. And what was great was they never had to pay million dollar and ep salaries to actors.
I wish someone would have a really serious talk with him on what his thoughts are on the total tonal shift of the series after season 3. I want to know if any part of him prefers the more wacky, character driven, heartfelt humor of the first 3 seasons.
He said himself it was just a job. Obviously being a little bit tongue & cheek but it seems clear his goal was to have a career in show business, not to create the best show ever
Setting out to make something revered as acclaimed as a classic is a surefire way to never make something like that. Most creatives aren't super anal or sentimental about something once it's off the ground
I'm sure he cares, but obviously he wanted to do other things and he'd never be able to move on without making a clean break from being creatively involved.
Makes perfect sense. First bunch of FG seasons were brilliant. Then he clearly shifted focus on to American Dad and that show was fantastic for many many seasons.
Seths fingerprints were what made family guy special. Peter and everyone in his family had a distinct characterisation that became ignored by writers after Seth wasnt there to enforce his vision. A good example of what made family guy work well as a satire is that it was a TV show about TV. Peter was a dumbass, but he had an encyclopedic memory of American TV such as when he was on wheel of fortune and managed to guess "Alix Karis In Webster" with no hints whatsoever, or when he was on family feud and guessed "the flute that Pickard played first in hie imagination and then in real life in that one episode of star trek the next generation." The second Seth left, gone were all the obscure 80s TV references about the Honey Mooners or the Brady Bunch, and gone were the unique character traits of each character. Now every episode is a dumb idea like: "LOL peter is millenial!" Its the same thing that happened to the Simpsons with jerkass homer
The fact that he doesn't even remember the day he decided to stop running Family guy means he has stopped caring about it for while before he even decided to leave as the showrunner does it suck that he no longer writes any episode at all yeah as fan it does suck as quality went down quick and it just kept on dropping and I guess it will never recover until the show goes off the air.
In case anyone was wondering (like myself) who the actress is... she is Elizabeth Gillies. I guess Zach's team didn't see fit to include her name anywhere in the description. I didn't see the whole podcast but I guess she was there talking about singing duets with Seth.
He can't delegate emotional investment into multiple projects at the same time. It was either Family Guy or Ted and he was able to say "I have to step away from Family Guy to do Ted." and honestly that's a skill that I still have yet to learn.
Seth was a comic genius in family guys prime. Stuff like "taking candy from a baby", or "the meatball in the vacuum" and just random bits like that always make me bust a gut laughing. The new seasons have fallen off, but theres always some memorable moments here and there. 20 years I've been watching this show, and i aint stopping anytime soon haha. It would be cool if seth came back to write though.
Well that explains how the show has gone downhill but Seth MacFarlane still writes other great things. Anyone who calls him a hack needs to shut up. He is extremely talented and an incredible singer and has an amazing voice and the episodes he wrote are incredible!
Seth MacFarlane is an artist and a half ...dude have you seen him in Lucky Logan... I didn't even recognize him I had to look it up and see that it was him.. I barely recognized him while he was playing his character.. he's such a good actor he's such a good voice actor he's so intuitive when it comes to his work.. he's just amazing at what he does.
New Family Guy sucks. The numbers don't lie. Viewership numbers for season 10+ have plummeted. They avaraged 6-8 million viewers in their peak and now are struggling to hit 2 million. The characters lost their charm, the jokes fall flat and are predictable, repetitive, and out right not funny. It's lame, and dumb. Period. The show lost its wit and just became a cliche of itself.
i don't know if i just don't have the context, but "how do you define or rationalize what you've contributed to culture" is a literal nonsense question.
I think they do a fine job with the episodes that's why he is OK. I still laugh at the callbacks or the things they do like the Peter and Louis mother or the lost boys song in the table tenis match all that stuff it still has that old family guy feeling.
He's never been shy about voicing his opinion that family should have ended, you can tell he's just over family guy at this point, his show has literally become another simpsons, but the sad thing is many viewers agree while the simpsons has gotten good again, family is at its lowest point and it's probably only gonna get worse.
Funny because I was thinking the exact opposite. Simpsons is still going downhill as usual, while Family Guy is getting better with the humor and animation quality.
Watched a new ish episode recently, just before christmas, where peter gets pressured into trying streaming services and in a very cliche way, once he tries it. Hes obsessed, literally like stan in american dad with the my morning jacket episode. Staunchly against it until he tries it, and then when he tries it. It becomes his personality. One of the jokes is just peter naming off 100 netflix shows back to back without any jokes in between. Felt like youtubers who'd stretch 1 min of content into 10 so they could get ad rev. Modern family guy seems pretty awful
they love that naming off 100000 things gag that goes on, they do it to eat up air time like you said, saw an ep at the gym and they did it with the name of this rich woman. She had like 500 names and took up like 7 mins of the show here's just one scene of it lol th-cam.com/video/Nm8DBcuxAPE/w-d-xo.html
Yeah, right...When I hear Seth saying how "it's just a show that sets out to be funny and make people laugh", I remember those episodes like where Meg unleashes at the whole family for being horrible parents and horrible people, while Brian takes some mushrooms, starts tripping, cuts he fucking ear off and bleed from that... Or the episode where Quagmire's sister is being beaten by her husband or smth, and at the end of the episode, there's a very violent and disgusting scene where they try to murder each other. And there are many example like that. What in the actual FUCK were they thinking when making and writing those episodes? Where was the "just a show to make people laugh" attitude? They're not funny, they're not done in a sarcastic or self aware manner. It takes itself seriously for some reasons. And each of those episodes are the most atrocious 20 minutes of television ever produced, probably. I wish I was able to fucking forget I ever watched it. So when I see Seth sitting in an interview and be like "oh, we're just tryna make people laugh, ya know, we're a funny show" - NO. Just NO. I would buy hearing that about American Dad, cause that show is MILES better than Family Guy, and it actually wants to make people laugh without going off its rails for no reason.
There is an episode that came out around this time of stewie revealing his real voice and how he’s always been insecure of his voice so he use a British one, stewie’s real voice sounds like Seth in this interview!
I remember going to blockbuster with my dad EVERY weekend to rent the same 1-5 seasons of FG to rewatch and laugh at the same jokes. It was just that good. Culture impact is an understatement. It changed comedy and what an animation tv show could be!
I remember the original short film on the "What a Cartoon!" show as a kid. It was weird, and peter was a little old man lol. What a cartoon had so many cartoon network pilots.
as someone who jus binged all 20 seasons of family guy i really dont think the shoe is even as bad as ppl say there was never a season that hasnt had me dying laughing imo
I can't go to sleep without family guy playing in the background. I've been doing it for 20 years, since I was 17 years old. It will literally knock me out. I can also quote every episode from the first 12 or 13 seasons. They went downhill bad after that imo.
i never really noticed what the comments say is “deterioration”. I only quit watching in 2013 because I graduated college and went to work for a corporation and just didn’t make time for it anymore. Made time to binge other stuff, lol. Well that’s my excuse anyway. But it appeals to somebody because it’s still on. And those people won’t know anyway because they might be younger watchers and all folks saying it went bad in ‘09 are probably like, my age or not much younger anyway. Same deal with the Simpsons. One of the ways shows survive for that long is by hiring newer younger writers who are current and hip to the culture and, so they can make better jokes about it than their forebears
@@bensheard3969that episodes were built around the cutaways that mostly tethered to things like products fox support etc. they stopped putting interesting plots very early on
@@bensheard3969I assume he’s talking about the cartoon wars episode. South Park has more than one banned episode, so that was confusing for him to write that lol. In the cartoon wars episode of South Park, they make a joke that they use manatees to create jokes for family guy, so they don’t need humans to write for them.
The reason why the show is still on today is just the business climate of television and even film. Fox would much rather hold on to the brands of Simpsons and Family Guy forever and just put them on TV because its familiar to people instead of taking a chance on the next Simpsons or Family Guy or entirely new genre in general. I'm glad KOTH never became like those shows.
This makes a lot of sense. 2000s family guy and 2010s family guy are two completely different shows.
*2001s, dumbass.
It's still early 2000s, idiot.
anything you dont like sucks obviously
1999 _Family Guy_ is different than all of them.
@@Freestyle80he didnt even say which is bad. just said they are different
Not true actually
Despite being credited as executive producer, he’s not actually working on the show. His name is just there just to be there because it’s still his show no matter what.
It's there because people want to THINK it's his show to either blame him or get more views. Not everything as about what's mine and yours some things are just ours
@@bensheard3969well no, he created it. it’s his show
@@bensheard3969are you retarded..?
It’s there because he wants the money that comes when you’re credited as an EP
@@kavid8120
If I still had to show up to do half of the voices including the main characters, I'd want that extra money too.
Family guy dvd menu still holds world records for keeping people awake.
ah the crackling fire menu of Stewie sat in an armchair
Accurate hahaha
"vagina junction, what's your function? Taking in sperm, and spitting out babies!"
Try the dvd menu for House of 1,000 corpses
@@freebird0147 is it scary?
3:31 This is the exact management lesson I've learned from dealing with multiple business environments on both the labor end and the operations end. Things work best when the boss is either there EVERY DAY and is doing the work and helping actually pull everyone along or they are NEVER THERE and let their GM or other managers actually run things according to how they see fit. Having "one hand in it" as he says, just throws everything off and devolves into micromanagement while showing neither trust nor true effort. Smart guy, and it shows he respects his showrunning and writing crew enough to get the job done.
Man this comment hit me
Summed up very well
Seth’s speaking voice has gone from 100% Brian to about 50% Brian, 30% Quagmire and 20% Stewie
Wow that's fucking funny
Wow that's fucking funny
Wow that’s funny af!
Whoa, that is fuck funny!
Funny, fuck that is woah!
It’s like hearing about how Brian wrote family guy
Faster than the speed of love
He copied Iron Eagle 3
I love Seth MacFarlane. I think he is a creative and comic genius, and Family Guy has had a great run, but it's no surprise when a show starts to go downhill after it's main creative voice decides to step away, just like The Simpsons, Spongebob and so many others. And Family Guy is no exception to this. It's also the same reason why South Park is still going strong to this day, as it's creators, Trey and Matt have never once stepped away from the writers room.
I disagree, creator or no creator, a show can still dip in quality, you can eventually run out of ideas. even though Matt Stone and Trey Parker still produce and right South Park, there have been some hit or miss episodes as the show progressed. South Park doesn’t have the same shock factor as it once did in its early days. since the guys are older now, it just sounds like they’re preaching to us now. Any rider of a successful TV series can eventually run out of ideas even if you’re the creative force behind it.
Yeah there's been some really shitty seasons of South park ... like the member berries season was pretty lame
@@perc3136happens to everyone pumping out nonstop content for 20 years
@@123theprodigy5wrong on SO MANY FRONTS. creativity never ends it's the corporate horseshit ideas that are forced into the creators that ruins it. Hit or miss is bound to happen after 20 years but there is ALWAYS more to create. Your trying so hard to sound wise but just because your well is dry doesn't mean everyone's is
I feel like South Park peaked years ago, before season 15 even
Family Guy will always be a classic. The old seasons (1-5) are gold, but I really grew up with the next 5-10 and those just hit home every time with me (around when the animation changed to look new). One of those shows that will go down in history, kids my age talked about that show like it was the forbidden fruit when we were growing up.
Kids your age are morons
I will rewatch the first few seasons every now and then and literally cry with laughter. The original writers, as well as Seth, created some of the funniest things ive ever seen. Up there with The Simpsons best work, its just 10/10 hilarious.
For real! I literally rewatch season 1-5 religiously! I'll move on to something else and then eventually always come back to those seasons, for literally years now LOL 💯👍
fr i said that to my friend he said 1-4 and I am like wtf after watching them back alot really amazing epsidoes in season 5, i would say 5 is like the culmination and after that it started getting bad, but in the whole american dad is a better show.
Big book o' crap is a funny classic family guy comic despite the bad title lol
nice of them to invite brian to the podcast and let him talk about his screen play
Well, he's still voicing half of the main characters and plenty of side characters so I wouldn't say he's OUT out of the show.
I was just wondering how he does so much voice acting work between that and American dad and still has time to produce and work on other projects.
@@mythicpeyoteA.I. probably
He actually does it from home or the studio he’s currently working at, he doesn’t go into the offices they use for either show
@@p-slayerno I don’t think so
Keep in mind the dude is rather lonely. When you're as successful as he is at shaping American culture and animated comedy, you tend to be a workaholic. He definitely had to be in order to get Family Guy as special as it was to people growing up in the 1990s and the 2000s.@@mythicpeyote
Its refreshing to hear someone say not everything has to be "art" and that as long as it stays true to itself its okay for something just to be lighthearted entertainment that does its job and he is right more often than not Family Guy is perfect for when you just want something on while eating takeout and you don't want to think too heavily about what to watch, many sitcom shows are like that for me (rick and morty, friends, frasier, father ted) in that sometimes I just don't want to concentrate on what I'm watching and know that its funny but also that its not going to annoy me by throwing a load of woke nonsense and political messages into my face. There is something to be said for appreciating "Kitsch" but I don't define it as trash in its meaning, to me Kitsch is something that brings you comfort in the same way as the old house you grew up in brings you comfort, its the joy of familiarity in a world that seems to be going out of its way to make you feel like you are not a part of it.
28 in March. Crazy that Family Guy is one of my first memories. Seth really helped curate an entire generation of humor.
Perfect interview. It's infuriating how poorly some podcast hosts like can't let their guests finish and don't really listen.
What I find deeply interesting about Seth's view here is just how humble he is when it comes to passing the torch to a new studio of writers, producers and directors when really deep down we all know that Seth is basically 80% of the entire show just with his voice talents! Loved this man and all his projects since I was a young lad ❤
He's getting a fat check with 5% of the workload. Of course he's happy.
@@po.russkiYeah, Seth's whole career is putting effort into a property for a couple years then just dumping it to collect residuals. I doubt he's tearfully passing his "art" onto the new generation; more like a franchise owner buying a fourth and fifth Little Caesars.
My mom has had my brothers ringtone to Stewie saying Mom mom mommy momma for the last about 10 years and it's great.
Dude same here!
Same here. My moms name is Lois so it’s perfect 😂
Love thissss!!!!😂😂😂😂😂
The original run i liked more because it wasnt as direct and more light hearted. Even in the return the first few seasons were solid. I stopped caring around 2008-09. Todays FG just aint it for me from the little ive seen.
Definitely an iconic show that many of us grew up on. But unfortunately it lost much of its edge and then they just sorta started making cookie cutter episodes
With that said though it’s still good even despite a lot of the horrible and corny jokes in the later seasons
Definitely an interesting thing
some of the gags and jokes are absolutely timeless and will always be funny
The first five seasons are pure gold. And probably the next five are full of iconic moments too. But the first five are the best imo
I really stop watching between seasons 14-15
family guy has always been mediocre
@@fauxbro1983Gen-Y and 80’s babies have always been mediocre
He’s right, it was always a derivative mediocre show aimed at half-wits.
You just know a good episode is coming on when the screen ratio is 4:3 haha
The same can be said for American Dad
Finally someone who admits its luck snd doesn't make up a sob story on how he got to his position. I love the honesty
@ArchibaldMeatpants lol thats common sense, you work for what you want, nithing in kife is free buddy im pretty aware of that. And he's a hardworker no doubt but he doesn't bs and make up all these sob stories like Ellen who said she was homeless or Steve-O who's dad ran Pepsi and he acted like he was broke his whole life. Like I said finally someone who doesn't bs and admits its luck and not just his skills.
It’s luck he got this show but he prob would have had a diff type of show maybe . Mb on adult swim or somehrong
Up until this interview.. I kinda thought I was one of the only people watching Family Guy (and American Dad) reruns to get to sleep every nite. Not because it is boring,... because it is familiar... it's home. Cheers Seth and thank you!
Yup I do the same, an episode of FG, AD, Futurama, or Rick n' Morty is my night time jam haha.
Yeah sure. You were one of the ONLY people. Hundreds of millions of people in the USA alone but yeah you are one of the ONLY ones who watched Family Guy as they went to bed
shut up michael
@@Michael-rn1moyou’re a dork michael
Some shit stewi would say @@Michael-rn1mo
I like Seth. I never took his media super seriously, and I mean that in a good way. I was never a mega Family Guy person, but surely I like Stewie and Brian and the original Ted was great when released. He also had a strong hand in Johnny Bravo writing, which was a fantastic show. At the end of the day he just makes fun and entertaining media.
American Dad and The Orville are also both really consistently good.
I hope to see more shows from Seth.
He’s doing Ted TV show that’s coming to peacock soon
@@victoralire5067It's already on peacock
@@JeffreyMarksWorld nice
You should watch Orville, that's another one of his shows. It has a lot of the same cast.
@@Quinzzi was skeptical on orville but its genuinely good lol, even aside from the comedy its pretty entertaining
Damn, I had no idea he hadn't written on the show for so long.
Yeah he just shows up, does his lines for whatever characters he’s playing in the episode and leaves, Mila Kunis even said that she doesn’t even see Seth in the studio anymore
It's pretty obvious. When he left is when the big dip in quality came
@@ChrisGee1371 I figured he was at least approving scripts, and nudging stories here and there, given how integral he is with the voice acting. It's like being completely involved and not involved at all. Interesting.
His timeline mirrors mine. I was a huge fan and wore the shirts to school. Then I couldn’t be bothered to watch in 2010-2011. Too political and boring
I grew up with family guy 😂 the griffins are practically family to me
Family Guy was always a fantastic show for what it was. I have always preferred American Dad though.
American Dad is to Family Guy what Futurama is to The Simpsons. The less popular show that’s also superior.
I prefer American Dad cause it is very story driven and that is awesome.. Plus Stan Smith is very likeable as a character..
@@nepesilva2284That is a fact! It's always that way..
American Dad sucks and I don't watch Futurama.
@@kenrickkahnit's not a fact at all. Futurama and Simpsons are apples and oranges. It's like saying Metallica is better than Beatles or something like that. They are both the best in their respective genres. And American Dad is not better than Family Guy, not by a longshot
I hope if they do a movie he writes for it
I miss his style and format so much
Felt like an actual show at one point
What? No it did not. lol
@@justin9744 yes it did. You're a dumbfuck.
The show was at it's best when seth was writing it
I can't imagine anyone else voicing Brian.
You mean Brian, Peter, Stewie, Quagmire, Carter, etc
@@peterortiz1160 yeah but Brian is pretty much just Seth’s regular voice. There are plenty of people that can do great impressions of all of those other characters but Brian is literally Seth.
Family Guy will always be a classic comfort for me. I’ve fallen off the wagon for about the last 5 years probably, and there’s been some rough seasons here and there, but typically it’s still exactly what it needs to be: a ridiculous, quirky show. Even some of the latter rough seasons have good gems of episodes sprinkled through it.
I’m glad he never limited himself though. The Ted movies, and now the series (I still have to put that on), American Dad, A Million Ways To Die In The West, The Orville-
I just love Seth’s work. It’s such a mix: it can be intellectually funny, it can be so stupid it’s funny, it can just be plain funny.
Solid comment.
The ted series was pretty good at least this first season
There's only 1 season. Tf. Are you braindead...
Ah so that's why he's giving interviews.
Family Guy has definitely gotten slightly worse but I still think it's hilarious. Not sure why everyone pretends it's terrible now
I agree its still funny but more often than not there are hacky jokes and it seems like they are chasing trends.
The issue is that you can't remain fresh when you've been on air for over 20 years, following the same formula each and every episode, avoiding comparisons to your chief rival the Simpsons, and maintain dominance over the newer shows like Bobs Burgers and Rick and Morty. Then you have to walk the fine line of vulgar and actual good humor or else you lean too far into South Park and Drawn Together territory.
It just feels AI written
It isn't terrible. The "newer" writers want to make the characters more well rounded. When you used to watch Family Guy for the shock humor, and that was the only level of emotional investment you wanted to give the show, you wanted your quick joke to use as a social reference when you were in 7th grade and watching Family Guy made you edgy and offensive and (somewhat) countercultural. Family Guy knows their legacy and they want to change it.
Watched the newest Christmas episode. Joke were not funny and somehow dated. It simply isn’t good
Seth for an anniversary can you please write the full season your writing was great and I can’t help but go back to old seasons it was just to good I grew up watching Family guy and I just loved waiting for the next episode to come on get a good laugh and make memories with family watching the show helped me through tough times
he’s not reading these you tard
He never wrote an entire episode, you know. That's not how it works
I def appreciate the visual touch Liz adds
kid from RI here. pisses me off he’s so humble he’s an actual straight legend to so many of us
And to think he's also the main voices on American Dad! Stan and Roger... What a talent!
"it takes alot of ego to leave the show" his response "or trust". Mic drop. This mentality is key to making new relationships and keepimg them TRUST. "Its not about how many times you fall but how many times you get back up" rocky. You can say whatever you want about shows having hit or miss episodes but if those minds keep trying they will get to a better place. You have to trust the process and the people you choose to keep your legacy going.
He educated me on movies and tv shows but also put a broadway showtune cancer in my brain.
I had a tumor in my brain back in September lol
For over a decade Family Guy stayed mostly away from direct political attacks and poked fun at both sides. After Trump, the quality of writing took a huge nosedive. Way too much politics.....attacks on republican senators that many viewers wouldn't even know (insider political hate)....low level attacks on Trump that may as well appear on banal late night TV. When Seth says "the show sets out to be funny"......I agree, pre 2016. After that, the writers are trying to "educate and influence". Its obvious and too bad.
Family Guy was basically the office compared to South Park in terms of being offensive, I think people exaggerate just how edgy they were and the amount of pushback they receive. Matt and Trey regularly received death threats from religious groups that's the big leagues 😂
The only people family Guy ever attempted to offend were religious Christians and political conservatives, yeah man, you're really poking the bear with those groups.
Family guy is my favorite comedy show. Seasons 1-12 have so much gold.
Family Guy is one of those shows where it can pretty much say/do anything. It's like having a close friend that knows you well enough to insult you but make it slide. Where if anyone else were to insult you the same way, you wouldn't be having it. Shouldn't be fair, but that's just the way it is. It has established itself as "that show".
I don't think Seth is some irreplaceable genuis or anything, but he understood the show. I feel like the show really lost the plot shortly after he stopped writing. None of the characters are unique anymore. They're all the same kind of terrible.
There are the occasional good episodes still, but the first several seasons were nearly all good episodes.
I think even at its best, Family Guy was just a decent show. The jokes always came before everything else (characters, storylines, etc.), but in the first few seasons, they were generally pretty funny. At some point the show lost its air of light-heartedness and became more edgy in a mean-spirited/graphic way, and to me, that always signified the end of its charm. Early Family Guy has a certain playfulness that just isn't there in later seasons. It's like watching a comedian become more cynical over time.
What an awesome guy! Do they get to discussing The Orville at all?
Unfortunately not
If family guy ever reaches it's last episode, I hope Seth returns to write for ot one more time, a final episode written by the creator would be a great send off.
Ayyye I’m not the only who loves falling asleep to family guy
It should be noted the series was canceled around the 3rd season, and would have been dead, were it not for fans mass buying the dvds.
Fox was like "oh well, this is actually a money maker. Lets try another season and sell more dvds.
And what was great was they never had to pay million dollar and ep salaries to actors.
I wish someone would have a really serious talk with him on what his thoughts are on the total tonal shift of the series after season 3.
I want to know if any part of him prefers the more wacky, character driven, heartfelt humor of the first 3 seasons.
Seasons 3-8 are classic television. Did he really not care at all about letting the show go down hill? I guess he gets payed really well for it.
He said himself it was just a job. Obviously being a little bit tongue & cheek but it seems clear his goal was to have a career in show business, not to create the best show ever
Setting out to make something revered as acclaimed as a classic is a surefire way to never make something like that. Most creatives aren't super anal or sentimental about something once it's off the ground
I'm sure he cares, but obviously he wanted to do other things and he'd never be able to move on without making a clean break from being creatively involved.
I miss the love Seth put into Family Guy. The full orchestra, the “road to” episodes….and so much more. Come back Seth!
Was he running the show when Conway Twitty happened? That's when I stopped watching.
Makes perfect sense. First bunch of FG seasons were brilliant. Then he clearly shifted focus on to American Dad and that show was fantastic for many many seasons.
Seths fingerprints were what made family guy special. Peter and everyone in his family had a distinct characterisation that became ignored by writers after Seth wasnt there to enforce his vision.
A good example of what made family guy work well as a satire is that it was a TV show about TV. Peter was a dumbass, but he had an encyclopedic memory of American TV such as when he was on wheel of fortune and managed to guess "Alix Karis In Webster" with no hints whatsoever, or when he was on family feud and guessed "the flute that Pickard played first in hie imagination and then in real life in that one episode of star trek the next generation." The second Seth left, gone were all the obscure 80s TV references about the Honey Mooners or the Brady Bunch, and gone were the unique character traits of each character. Now every episode is a dumb idea like: "LOL peter is millenial!"
Its the same thing that happened to the Simpsons with jerkass homer
Jokes by committee based on what’s trendy is all of those shows now
The fact that he doesn't even remember the day he decided to stop running Family guy means he has stopped caring about it for while before he even decided to leave as the showrunner does it suck that he no longer writes any episode at all yeah as fan it does suck as quality went down quick and it just kept on dropping and I guess it will never recover until the show goes off the air.
Amazing interview
In case anyone was wondering (like myself) who the actress is... she is Elizabeth Gillies. I guess Zach's team didn't see fit to include her name anywhere in the description. I didn't see the whole podcast but I guess she was there talking about singing duets with Seth.
He can't delegate emotional investment into multiple projects at the same time. It was either Family Guy or Ted and he was able to say "I have to step away from Family Guy to do Ted." and honestly that's a skill that I still have yet to learn.
Ted sucked though. Should a stuck with FG, except Orville was worth leaving for
@@heroinmom153teds just live action family guy
Well can't he write a few episodes because his writing is missed
Stop watching is my advice
Let him live a little instead of wishing he was killing himself to make more of the product.
I'd love to see him on 'We Might Be Drunk'
Seth was a comic genius in family guys prime. Stuff like "taking candy from a baby", or "the meatball in the vacuum" and just random bits like that always make me bust a gut laughing. The new seasons have fallen off, but theres always some memorable moments here and there. 20 years I've been watching this show, and i aint stopping anytime soon haha. It would be cool if seth came back to write though.
Impossible to not hear all the characters he’s voiced as he speaks
Well that explains how the show has gone downhill but Seth MacFarlane still writes other great things. Anyone who calls him a hack needs to shut up. He is extremely talented and an incredible singer and has an amazing voice and the episodes he wrote are incredible!
So Peter griffin meets jade from Victorious.
I didn’t even pay attention to who the lady was the whole time. Whole time it was Jade from Victorious lol
Cool it’s Jade and Peter and Stewie and Brian and Quagmire in the same room together lol
Seth MacFarlane is an artist and a half ...dude have you seen him in Lucky Logan... I didn't even recognize him I had to look it up and see that it was him.. I barely recognized him while he was playing his character.. he's such a good actor he's such a good voice actor he's so intuitive when it comes to his work.. he's just amazing at what he does.
Peter Griffin interviews Seth MacFarlane
New Family Guy sucks. The numbers don't lie. Viewership numbers for season 10+ have plummeted. They avaraged 6-8 million viewers in their peak and now are struggling to hit 2 million. The characters lost their charm, the jokes fall flat and are predictable, repetitive, and out right not funny. It's lame, and dumb. Period. The show lost its wit and just became a cliche of itself.
I can close my eyes to this and picture Brian talking
i don't know if i just don't have the context, but "how do you define or rationalize what you've contributed to culture" is a literal nonsense question.
He stopped writing for it about 12 years ago, that explains a lot…..
More like 15
I'd be interested to see what would happen if he stepped back in for a season or at least a few episodes
I think they do a fine job with the episodes that's why he is OK. I still laugh at the callbacks or the things they do like the Peter and Louis mother or the lost boys song in the table tenis match all that stuff it still has that old family guy feeling.
My only regret about being a fan of Seth McFarlane is that he didn't take over writing for Movie 43.😢, that movie could have been comedy gold for him.
Weirdly enough he was only in the American version.
Easily the worst movie ever made. I wouldn't toss it in a garbage can because it would stain the can forever.
He's never been shy about voicing his opinion that family should have ended, you can tell he's just over family guy at this point, his show has literally become another simpsons, but the sad thing is many viewers agree while the simpsons has gotten good again, family is at its lowest point and it's probably only gonna get worse.
Funny because I was thinking the exact opposite. Simpsons is still going downhill as usual, while Family Guy is getting better with the humor and animation quality.
Stopped being funny around season 11-12 from 1-9 there wasn’t a single bad episode
The Rise of Trump. As if his Family Guy jokes werent 100x more racist and sexist and offensive than anything Trump ever said or did.
He has many connections with Dan Schneider. Seth dated Amanda Bynes in 2008 and had many of Dan’s writers worked on Family Guy.
Any other fun facts to share?
3:18 The people in every comment section on every Family Guy video on TH-cam need to hear that.
Watched a new ish episode recently, just before christmas, where peter gets pressured into trying streaming services and in a very cliche way, once he tries it. Hes obsessed, literally like stan in american dad with the my morning jacket episode. Staunchly against it until he tries it, and then when he tries it. It becomes his personality.
One of the jokes is just peter naming off 100 netflix shows back to back without any jokes in between. Felt like youtubers who'd stretch 1 min of content into 10 so they could get ad rev. Modern family guy seems pretty awful
they love that naming off 100000 things gag that goes on, they do it to eat up air time like you said, saw an ep at the gym and they did it with the name of this rich woman. She had like 500 names and took up like 7 mins of the show here's just one scene of it lol th-cam.com/video/Nm8DBcuxAPE/w-d-xo.html
I know why he stopped writing for Family Guy.
It's because he thought that converting The Orville from comedy to drama was a good idea.
Yeah, right...When I hear Seth saying how "it's just a show that sets out to be funny and make people laugh", I remember those episodes like where Meg unleashes at the whole family for being horrible parents and horrible people, while Brian takes some mushrooms, starts tripping, cuts he fucking ear off and bleed from that... Or the episode where Quagmire's sister is being beaten by her husband or smth, and at the end of the episode, there's a very violent and disgusting scene where they try to murder each other. And there are many example like that. What in the actual FUCK were they thinking when making and writing those episodes? Where was the "just a show to make people laugh" attitude? They're not funny, they're not done in a sarcastic or self aware manner. It takes itself seriously for some reasons. And each of those episodes are the most atrocious 20 minutes of television ever produced, probably. I wish I was able to fucking forget I ever watched it.
So when I see Seth sitting in an interview and be like "oh, we're just tryna make people laugh, ya know, we're a funny show" - NO. Just NO.
I would buy hearing that about American Dad, cause that show is MILES better than Family Guy, and it actually wants to make people laugh without going off its rails for no reason.
I didn't know Family Guy had writers. It just seems to just, you know, happen.
I was surprised they even had animators. I thought those characters just appeared on screen and someone filmed them walking around.
It's just a bunch of seals in a tank...
@@deontecoleman7047*manatees
Yet for some reason, people keep blaming him for the show's decline in quality.
I don't get it either it's been 13 years since he's been writing family guy .
Show sucks without his writing let's be real
This guy knows how to construct an interview! Class act
Can Seth come on to JRE already for Christ sake
Too much tds
There is an episode that came out around this time of stewie revealing his real voice and how he’s always been insecure of his voice so he use a British one, stewie’s real voice sounds like Seth in this interview!
♥
Family Guy is a national treasure please don't stop making the episodes
No. It's on life support. It needs to have the plug pulled.
I remember going to blockbuster with my dad EVERY weekend to rent the same 1-5 seasons of FG to rewatch and laugh at the same jokes. It was just that good. Culture impact is an understatement. It changed comedy and what an animation tv show could be!
Ya true ppl forget now but the show was cutting edge at the time
He will forever be a goat‼️
I remember the original short film on the "What a Cartoon!" show as a kid. It was weird, and peter was a little old man lol. What a cartoon had so many cartoon network pilots.
The Swedish baker bit is one of my favorites.
Probably because he was replaced by manitees
Nice
RIGHT out of the gate....GREAT QUESTION, sir. 🌱✌
as someone who jus binged all 20 seasons of family guy i really dont think the shoe is even as bad as ppl say there was never a season that hasnt had me dying laughing imo
They're trying so hard to flatter him. It's annoying when podcasters do that.
That makes sense why after 2010 the show kinda goes downhill and becomes massively unfunny
I feel like the last good season was before the Cleveland Show, before Cleveland left Quahog.
@@brandizzle1994Cleveland show is just a horrible knock off
Yes; 2022 on ... the series is starting to sag, repeat story, plot elements.
I can't go to sleep without family guy playing in the background. I've been doing it for 20 years, since I was 17 years old. It will literally knock me out. I can also quote every episode from the first 12 or 13 seasons. They went downhill bad after that imo.
Imo since season 5 the show started being worse.
Knew he left, same with South Park, both lost their edge and have become too soft. Same with Rick and Morty. They lose their cynical edge.
i never really noticed what the comments say is “deterioration”. I only quit watching in 2013 because I graduated college and went to work for a corporation and just didn’t make time for it anymore. Made time to binge other stuff, lol. Well that’s my excuse anyway. But it appeals to somebody because it’s still on. And those people won’t know anyway because they might be younger watchers and all folks saying it went bad in ‘09 are probably like, my age or not much younger anyway. Same deal with the Simpsons. One of the ways shows survive for that long is by hiring newer younger writers who are current and hip to the culture and, so they can make better jokes about it than their forebears
South Park already explained why in their banned episode
Explained what
@@bensheard3969that episodes were built around the cutaways that mostly tethered to things like products fox support etc. they stopped putting interesting plots very early on
@@bensheard3969I assume he’s talking about the cartoon wars episode. South Park has more than one banned episode, so that was confusing for him to write that lol.
In the cartoon wars episode of South Park, they make a joke that they use manatees to create jokes for family guy, so they don’t need humans to write for them.
@@NTB_Santoe right. This is just further proof that the actual writers don't need to be hired to keep making more episodes
The reason why the show is still on today is just the business climate of television and even film. Fox would much rather hold on to the brands of Simpsons and Family Guy forever and just put them on TV because its familiar to people instead of taking a chance on the next Simpsons or Family Guy or entirely new genre in general. I'm glad KOTH never became like those shows.