ShareThis

Seth MacFarlane: An Animated Interview

Seth MacFarlane—the creator of Family Guy, American Dad —sat down with Hustler to talk about what it is like to be the “King of Cartoons.”

HUSTLER: Are you from Rhode Island, which you continually poke fun at?

SETH MacFARLANE: No, I’m from Connecticut, but I did go to the Rhode Island School of Design, and I got to know the city of Providence pretty well. It’s sort of a mini-Boston where everyone talked with that funny accent, and it had so much character. I spent so much time there, I decided that was the place to make a home for Family Guy.

Why is the smallest state in the Union such a gold mine for material? There are just lots of loudmouths—these big, fat loudmouths who are also big-hearted guys who will take a bullet for you. But some of the shit that comes out of the mouths of Rhode Island men is just hilarious.

Can you give us an example? My grandfather was a die-hard New England man. One year I was going to Germany as an exchange student, and my grandfather, who was in World War II, said [in Peter Griffin’s voice ], “You know those Germans are real nice people when you meet them in civilian life, but you get them in uniform and holy shit!” That was his nutshell assessment of the whole culture.

Watching Family Guy is like viewing a tennis match on meth. It jumps all over the place. Do you have attention deficit disorder? Believe it or not, I’m probably, attention-wise, the polar opposite of what the fans believe me to be. I’m enormously patient. I can sit and watch a two-hour black-and-white movie from the 1940s and be completely riveted the whole time.

Does the pacing of Family Guy reflect the American public’s short attention span? It’s more that it felt right for the medium. The Simpsons really defined that fast pace for the new prime-time animation sensibility. We’re sort of just taking that to the next step.

As the voice of various Family Guy characters, how did you decide which ones to do yourself? I do Peter, Brian, Stewie, Quagmire and Tom Tucker, the news guy. It wasn’t a conscious decision for me to do all of them. At one point we were casting Brian, but I found that it was easier for me because there is a lot of me in that character.

It seems to have worked out. When I did the original presentation to sell the show to Fox—partially due to budgetary reasons because I couldn’t afford to hire actors—I had done those voices. In some ways it was already preordained that I would be those characters.

So of all the show’s characters, Brian the Dog is most like you? Yes.

You’re an alcoholic and—? (Laughs.) Oh, yeah!

Did specific individuals inspire the Family Guy ensemble? Peter is a melting pot of every big, fat, loud New England guy that was a friend of my father’s. Stewie is based on Rex Harrison, the old character actor from the 1960s. The other characters are defined by the actors who do them. Seth Green, when he was developing the voice for Chris, worked it out from an impression of Ted Levine from Silence of the Lambs, which I think is hilarious.

In a wrestling-style, steel-cage match, who would win: you, Mike Judge of Beavis & Butt-head fame or Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons? I think I would win since I have the strength of 25 men.

Do you ever run into your rival animation titans? Mike Judge, I haven’t run into him as many times as I have run into Matt. Matt is great. He’s called me on a number of occasions when there were articles in the papers about the rivalry. He’s made a point to say, “I love your show. My kids love your show.” Matt is a class act. Mike is great, but I’ve only met him a couple times, and he’s been cool.

What did you think when Matt Stone and Trey Parker spoofed Family Guy on South Park ? It would make us giant hypocrites if we had any objection. I was actually flattered that they spent two half-hours of their airtime— two full episodes—to talk about Family Guy. It’s the old adage of say something good, say something bad, just say something. I’m not sure what their motivation was, but it helps my show. I don’t know those guys personally. I have not had a warm reception when I run into them, but it’s tough to tell.

So again, if you were to oppose Stone and Parker in a steel-cage match or stick fight, who would win? I think I would still win because Trey would be too busy trying to fuck me.

Have you gotten any backlash from celebrities who’ve been lam- basted on the show? We got a really angry call one day from [former SNL comedienne] Ellen Cleghorne. I’m not really sure what the context of that was. Generally, people are pretty good sports. If we are making fun of a celebrity, we frequently offer the role to that person to see if they want to be part and parcel of the joke.

You have used lots of classic TV and music has-beens, particularly Adam West and Walter Murphy. What’s the story with them? It’s funny because I didn’t know Walter Murphy from his 1970s hit “A Fifth of Beethoven.” I hired him from his demo tape of rich and classic orchestrations. Adam West is someone I worked with over at Hanna-Barbera on a show called Johnny Bravo. He was so goddamn funny that I decided if I were ever running a show, I would have to have him somehow be involved. He’s become an icon for our show. A lot of the younger kids who are too young to remember Batman know him only as Mayor Adam West. We have now gone five seasons without making a Batman reference on purpose.

You deal with network censors all the time. Has there been anything that you’ve gotten away with that shocked you? We did a joke where Stewie gets a sunburn. While Brian is squirting white lotion on him, Mr. Furley from Three’s Company walks in. It looks like Brian is coming on Stewie’s face. I’m shocked that we got away with that one.

Anything that the censors have said flat-out no to? Right now, because of the FCC, shit jokes and bathroom jokes are hard to get on air. I don’t know why. It’s odd, because you can show a guy being beheaded, but you can’t do somebody grunting as if they are going to the bathroom. It’s very discouraging.

How did you ever pull off the “Prom Night Dumpster Babies” song? That one they did not blink at. Oftentimes, if it’s couched in the form of a musical number, you can get away with it. You never know what they are going to object to.

At one point, Family Guy was canceled, and then it came back. How did that happen? The return was a complete surprise. I thought maybe we would have a shot at doing a special or a straight-to-DVD movie, but never thought they [Fox] would pick up the series again, mainly because it had never been done, and it was tantamount to a studio admitting they had made a mistake. I was called one day by the studio after being off the air for two years, and they said, “We’re thinking about sneaking this thing back into production.” I said, “What?!” and damn near fell out of my chair.

What do you think was the motivating factor—fans campaigning for more episodes or brisk DVD sales? I’m sure that the fans’ campaigning didn’t hurt, but networks and studios respond to money. It was a combination of the Adult Swim airings on Comedy Central and how well they were doing against Leno and Letterman (in male demographics, they beat them), but what really did it were the DVD sales. Money going straight into the studio’s coffers; that really woke them up.

Have you experienced animation groupies, and what are they like? They don’t fall into categories, but they are always very enthusiastic. Animation fans are so devoted and passionate about the shows. They can get a bit odd. I had one guy waiting for me in front of my hotel in New York, and he offered me half of a corned beef sandwich. I had no intention of eating it. So I politely declined.

How about women who are animation groupies? Ah, yes. Animation tends to be male dominated, but with prime-time animation, there’s a nice balance of ladies.

Do you have any strange stories involving female groupies? This is HUSTLER. Be as graphic as possible? (Laughs.) As graphic as possible? Well, I’ve already made an enemy of Trey Parker. I don’t want to upset ladies, so we’ll just leave it there.

Will Brian be directing any more porn? It’s possible.

Have you ever considered doing full-length animated porn? I think Ralph Bakshi has already done that. Or maybe Robert Altman’s Short Cuts. Two hours of Julianne Moore’s bush screaming. That’s some animated porn.

What do each of your characters think of HUSTLER? Quagmire has three subscriptions to make sure he won’t miss anything: one to leave lying around to look cool, one to use in the bedroom and the third one to put in a glass case for posterity. Brian has a secret enjoyment. Stewie is confused by it—not sure if this is what he wants or not. Possible that Lois would get into it as well.

If you could bring one of your characters to life, which one would you want to have sex with? Maybe Francine from American Dad. Why not?!

Larry Flynt loves Family Guy, and it’s rumored that he even sleeps with a stuffed Brian. How does that make you feel? I’m flattered and honored, and God knows it’s appropriate because if it were not for Larry Flynt, we wouldn’t be able to legally make fun of all the pop culture craziness that we make fun of. I love it!

Photo Credit: Ladi Von Jansky

Click to browse new and back issues of HUSTLER Magazine.

Click to view subscription offers for HUSTLER Magazine.