Family Guy Creator Seth MacFarlane Won't End The Show Until Audiences Stop Caring
"Familly Guy" is more than a show at this point. 25 years into its long run on television, it's a straight-up, locked-in part of the larger pop culture fabric. It's similar to "The Simpsons" in that way. But as the show is in the midst of its 22nd season, with a 23rd on the way, are we getting close to wrapping it up with the Griffin family? Creator Seth MacFarlane certainly doesn't seem to think there is any good reason to end it any time soon.
The Los Angeles Times recently caught up with MacFarlane, as well as the showrunners and members of the cast, to celebrate 25 years of "Family Guy." MacFarlane, who voices a number of characters on the show including Peter, Stewie, and Quagmire, among others, was asked whether he believes the show could run for another 25 years. After some back and forth, the animation guru explained that there are plenty of reasons to keep the show going for as long as possible.
"At this point, I don't see a good reason to stop. People still love it. It makes people happy and it funds some good causes. It's a lot of extraneous cash that you can donate to Rainforest Trust and you can still go out to dinner that night. There was a time when I thought, it's time to wrap it up. At this point, we've reached escape velocity. I don't know that there's any reason to stop at this point unless people get sick of it. Unless the numbers show that people just are, 'Eh, we don't care about 'Family Guy' anymore.' But that hasn't happened yet."
Co-showrunner Rich Appel then chimed in saying, "And we're still not strong. So he can't quit." The biggest difference these days is that Disney owns the rights to "Family Guy," even though it still airs on Fox.
'It's this guy's vocal cords. That's what we're all concerned about.'
Currently, it seems like the powers that be are still happy with how the show performs, which is keeping it pretty comfortably on the air. It's fascinating given the show's bumpy start in its early years. MacFarlane's animated comedy originally premiered in 1999 before being canceled by Fox, only for "Family Guy" to be revived later thanks to strong DVD sales and reruns on Adult Swim. But once it came back in 2005, the show never again faced cancelation. 423 episodes and counting, there appears to be no end in sight, based on MacFarlane's comments.
"It's this guy's vocal cords. That's what we're all concerned about," co-showrunner Alec Sulkin joked in the piece. At 50 years old, MacFarlane does have certain considerations to make on that front. "Look, recording long hours in a booth is different now than it was when I was 24," he said. MacFarlane has "American Dad" to worry about as well, which has its 21st season on the way. He also signed a big overall deal with NBCUniversal in 2020.
Be that as it may, MacFarlane seems content to make time to lend his voice talents to the show for the foreseeable future. Other cast members seem happy to keep the train moving as well. Alex Borstein, who voices Lois, says the show still passes her litmus test:
"I feel like every time we have a table read or recording, I'm laughing. For me, that's my litmus test, if I'm still laughing at the scripts, if there's three out-loud laughs. Because we've all been reading and doing comedy for so long. There's not many guffaws left."
"Family Guy" currently airs on Wednesdays on Fox, in addition to streaming on Hulu.