Seth MacFarlane Quotes

1. The only problem is time.


2. "American Dad" is, by its nature, much more political.

3. Chris Elliott could read the phonebook and he's funny.

4. The good thing about Broadway is that you don't have to worry about an airdate. It gets done when it gets done.

5. I wrote on a show called Johnny Bravo when I was at Hanna-Barbera.





6. Some of those more out-there jokes were written in the wee hours of the morning. Somehow, they remained funny the next day.

7. With any half-hour comedy, it kind of takes on its own life and finds itself.




8. The success of The Simpsons really opened doors. It showed that if you were working in animation you didn't necessarily have to be working in kids' television.

9. When you are in a room and your job is to write jokes 10 hours a day, your mind starts going to strange places.

10. You gotta keep the funny intact.





11. I'm always amazed when someone tells me they've listened to the Family Guy commentary, like: "Really? You could honestly sit through that?"

12. Aside from Family Guy? I spent most of my career-life on Family Guy. It's a good question. Since Family Guy was my first show, my first original property, and I just finished it...I couldn't tell ya. I don't know that I have an answer.

13. I would love to write a Broadway musical.






14. Flatland was a great book…Edwin Abbot. I gotta say, I went nuts over A Brief History of Time, the Stephen Hawking book. I'm sort of a sucker for that type of stuff.

15. I love. I love All in the Family. The Honeymooners. The Twilight Zone. Here's my nerdiness coming out, Star Trek: The Next Generation. I would actually, in all seriousness, put that as possibly the finest hour-long series ever written. How they did that on a weekly basis is beyond me, it's so impressive. There you go…I got that out of my system…

16. The Simpsons was a pretty heavy influence, in that it sort of redefined, after The Flintstones, what else television animation can be. I would be remiss if I didn't mention them. Here and there there are comic influences like Jackie Gleason, The Far Side, Woody Allen…lot of different sources. As far as an influence on my career, certainly the Rhode Island School of Design had a pretty darn heavy influence. Not in one specific way, but it definitely changed my course.

17. With the Titanic, enough time has passed and you can make fun of that.

18. There's really no hope of anyone turning off the Olympics to watch something on Fox.

19. The characters don't get older. No one wants to see Stewie grow up because then he'd just get bigger and become a mean guy.

20. Absolutely, we were influenced by The Simpsons. We'd be stupid not to be. They put that out there, and we took a cue from that.


21. A well-produced musical number that's orchestrated well makes it 10 times funnier, when it actually sounds really good.

22. At this point, there are a lot of high-profile actors who are fans of the show, and it's easier for us to bring those people on than it used to be.




23. Certainly there are things we won't make fun of. If there's a plane crash we're not going to make fun of it-at least not right away.

24. Every executive told us privately that they think it's hysterical, but it can't be aired.



25. Family Guy has this weird thing: People either hate it or can't get enough of it. There's really no in between. There doesn't seem to be any group that can take it or leave it.

26. For the characters that I voice on the show, I find it easier to come up with the personality first, figure out who the character is, then do the drawing.

27. God, anywhere we can fill a theater, we'll go.





28. I don't have time to breathe, let alone work on anything else.

29. I got a call from a company that produces Broadway shows, and they said they were familiar with Family Guy and were asking if I was interested in writing a Broadway show.

30. I grew up in New England, which has a lot of character but also isn't touched on much in American sitcoms.





31. I had a nice break after Family Guy ended, which was the one positive thing that came out of it. I had not had a vacation in four years.

32. I had these large, round frames that made my eyes look big and bulbous. My assistant hauled me out of the office one day and forced me to go get new glasses.

33. I had to learn how you break a story, what the time constraints were. For someone like me, who hadn't dealt with celebrities, it was a little jarring.





34. I was the new guy, I had no credits, and I thought: "Whatever it takes, I'll pull this off".

35. I would gladly give up the comedy to have a President Kerry. But you work with what you have.

36. I would not be so presumptuous to compare us to All in the Family, but I think it may make some noise. But it's also an animated show.


37. I'm not a fatalist. I'm not a religious person. I'm sure there are close calls that we're not even aware of hundreds of times a year.

38. If anything, I started drinking more.

39. In a perfect world, we would love the Star Trek phenomenon.

40. In some ways DVD is more important than television now. I think that's where the lion's share of profits are being made these days.


41. It was nice to be able to use some of the more colorful words we can't use on TV.

42. It's always been essential whether American Dad was there or not, because I can't always be in the writer's room.

43. It's funny, but at the same time we wanted to make an album that is musically very, very high class, which is what we always try to do on the show.




44. It's unheard of for a network to reverse a decision about cancellation, for no other reason, usually, than ego. Luckily for us, Fox is thinking in a business way rather than an ego way.

45. King Of The Hill was compared to The Simpsons, and is clearly its own show in its own right. It's not even close.

46. Most of the writers on the staff are married and have kids and a lot of discussions that go on are along the lines of: "Is this too mean? Is this gonna get a gasp?"




47. My credit rating went up overnight. Prior to that deal, no one would give me a credit card. I've been with FOX for five years, and it's been a great experience.

48. Since the Catholic Church has been having the troubles its had, they've been a little less quick to criticize, because it's just a little hypocritical.

49. Sometimes I have to deal with the visual end of things, the production end of things.

50. Stewie's voice is based on Rex Harrison from My Fair Lady.

51. The brilliant thing with Family Guy is that they bought the DVDs, which showed what a huge fan base we have and meant another series was commissioned for TV.


52. The DVDs were just beautifully done. That home video department, they're just so friggin' sharp and just so on the ball. They really know what they're doing.

53. The episode we did with the Pope was a lot more offensive to Catholics than the Weinstein was to Jews. I think it had to do with internal politics.





54. The Simpsons did a harassment story and we did a harassment story, and they were two very different stories. I think the same goes for American Dad.

55. The Simpsons, I think, should have done their movie about six or seven years ago.

56. There are a lot of shows about the Midwest or the South or California, but New England isn't mined all that much.

57. There are plenty of those jokes we've put in there, then screened and were just not at all funny, and just felt moronic.

58. There is more creative pressure, but we're also at season 4, so it's in a groove. It balances itself out.





59. There was a lot of press coming out about the show topping Leno and Letterman. I never in a million years would have thought they would actually order more episodes.

60. There were so many factors that contributed to the good luck, despite the amount of work, to turn the pilot in and then have it picked up for 13 episodes.

61. There weren't any episodes cut. The only thing that was cut was that Osama bin Laden scene.


62. There's less and less money because the viewership is spread so thin.

63. There's this constant threat of fines and a lot more government monitoring of television shows.

64. To look at a storyboard and be involved with what the visual acting looks like, as well as the voice acting, is nice. It frees me up to do jokes that are unconventional.

65. We didn't know how well the show was going to do when it came back on air, so doing a straight-to-DVD movie was a way for Fox to justify the risk.


66. We have a better idea about what we're doing now, and it's a smoother running process because we've been doing it for as long as we have.

67. We use the big orchestra for our episodes, and an even bigger orchestra for the album.

68. We want the show to be as good, particularly when you hear that the Simpsons staff hates our guts. It's a motivator to do as good a show as possible.




69. We were in every terrible timeslot available against these monster shows, like Friends and Survivor. I used to joke and say: "We're on against the Olympics next year". And then, sure enough.

70. We were the equal opportunity offender. If you single out one particular group, you're in trouble. But if you hit everyone equally, it becomes a general kind of thing.



71. We're careful to be edgy and funny but not horrifyingly so.

72. We're still ahead of the game. We still have the luxury of being at least one script ahead.



What do you think of Seth MacFarlane's quotes?



Feel free to comment and share this blog post if you find it interesting!