"Family Guy" Creator Signs Record Megadeal

From wunderkind to TV mogul: After 2 1/2 years of negotiations, "Family Guy" creator Seth MacFarlane has inked a new overall deal with 20th Century Fox TV that would make him the highest-paid writer-producer working in television.

The pact, which could be worth more than $100 million, will keep MacFarlane at 20th TV through 2012. It covers his services on "Guy" and his other two animated series for 20th TV and Fox -- "American Dad!" and the upcoming "Guy" spinoff "The Cleveland Show" -- as well as his series development, which includes a multicamera comedy with "Guy" writer Gary Janetti. It also encompasses new-media projects related to MacFarlane's TV series as well as DVD and merchandising revenue from them. ("Guy" alone has grown into a $1 billion franchise with red-hot DVD and merchandise sales.)

"I get a lot of pleasure out of making shows," MacFarlane said. "It's a bonus to be getting paid well for it, and it's a double bonus to be getting paid exorbitantly for it."

Read the whole story here.

Comments

[ChrisR]

The show is lame, obviously written with a junior high school mentality. How people can use the word "genius" to describe the show highlights the low expectations which people have today, and how sick the general sense of humor is. Thankfully, there are great shows like Lost and...well, just Lost, to balance the drivel on network TV. And thank goodness for PBS (sometimes (haha)).
I've tried to watch it a few times, but then immediately see a bit like where the husband kills the wife in the kitchen, and the baby laughs and laughs...yeah, genius for psychopaths. I wouldn't care if it was only on at 10:30 PM, but it's now on in reruns at 7 PM. This is an "adult" show and should NOT be on before 10 PM.
And how the network can offer this clown so much money is ridiculous. What a high-budget low-brow world.

[qdog112]

It had to be more than coincidence that you cited "Lost" as great and "Guy" as lame. perhaps it was divine intervention that guided your hand. For lost is what you are if you think Seth's work is lame.

[PJX]

Seth does great work. As the South Park guys put it, every episode is basically the same. Doesn't matter...great show. American Dad, too.

[Affraidknot]

I didn't care for Family Guy at first, either. But that was before I saw the episode of Peter and a human-size rooster beating the crap out of each other for 5 full minutes. First, chickens are ALWAYS funny. Second, it wasn't explained. Genius. And third, Peter arrives back at the conversation he left, all beat up and in tatters, and just continues like nothing happened, and no one comments on it. That was as rich as any Marx Brothers film. Pure comic gold. Then I saw Peter and a football/cheerleader team do "Shipoopi" and it just KILLED. The number of pop culture references, the quality of the homages to past and present TV, and the fabulous recreation of famous song and dance routines are all really kind of extraordinary. So now I have to beg my friends (I'm not MacFarlane's target audience: I'm 45 and female) to watch it. And when you start reading the credits and realize just how much MacFarlane does on each episode, and again with American Dad, you have to hand it to the guy. He's got the talent to match that deal and he's worth every damn penny. And I probably wouldn't like him in real life. But the man is brilliant.

[Sardonica]

You are the perfect demographic for the show - all the references are tailor-made for the 40'ish age group. I'm female too and have been watching the show from the get-go. Stewie had me at "oppressive gynocracy". lol Seth MacFarlane is insanely talented - his voice work is just stellar.

Oh, and there is a back story with the chicken in the early episodes involving an expired coupon.

[RaraAvis17]

Nothing is better than adult cartoons. I am over 50 and I enjoy South Park, Family Guy, American Dad, and King of the Hill. The humor on Family Guy though is LOL funny to me.

[OriginalScreenName]

I went to a Family Guy live show once. It was hilarious. If anyone ever gets the chance, you have to go.

[totalliberal]

I saw an interview with Matt Groening (The Simpson's) where he was asked if it was done live in front of a live audience. He replied, "We tried that once but it was too hard on the animators".

[badnfluence]

I'm really glad Hollywood Reporter and Yahoo News decided to abbreviate "Family Guy" as just "Guy". That saved me a lot of time reading the article. From now on, I think "Grey's Anatomy" should just be "Anatomy", and "LOST" shall be referred to as "ST".

[PJX]

See "SNL: David Spade as Don Lapre"

[GeraldineFerraro]

Family Guy sucks.

[DWI-illegals]

I once thought like that.

Where's my money?

Hey a Dr. Pepper Machine.

it's just a mirage Uh, an RC Cola Machine!

Imagination Land, a place where you fart where you burp and you burp where you fart.

[unsharpmask]

Why is it always a story when someone gets the big bucks? Is any worth $120 million? No, but if revenues from DVDs, prime-time ads, merchandise is worth $1 billion, then you gotta pay the creator his share. If he doesn't pocket it, then News Corp,Rupert Murdoch and his share holders keep it for themselves. Let's stop whining when someone gets his piece of the pie, even if its the size of a Beverly Hills estate.

[MikeDu]

Its kind'a ironic that 'megadeal' MacFarlane had his show cancelled on him for two years. I still don't know how he managed to get the series back on the air, must've had incriminating photos of studio heads. I've got to admit Family Guy get more out-loud laughs from me than anything else on TV.

[DWI-illegals]

I heard it got pick back up when 20th Century Fox was amazed at the volume of DVD sales. Probably had nothing else and gave it a second try. Lucky for us. I love it.

[ErnestineBass]

"Family Guy" is a guilty pleasure.

[Passenger57]

From what I read , the show did fairly well,then FOX cancelled it .When they released the first seasons on DVD,they flew off the shelves.FOX said, "Hmmmmm...".
On the first show back,They worked their return into the opening by having Peter rattle off all the crappy shows that FOX kept on over FG that had a) sucked and b)were LONG gone.

[JaneaneTheAcerbicGoblin]

Family Guy is always uneven. When the jokes work, they're an absolute riot. When they don't, they're abysmal.

Is Seth worth paying 100 million dollars to? Probably not.

[DWI-illegals]

Criticism of time filler? I'd say that is a fair complaint but every show does it. Comedy is hard so I give it a pass. My bigger gripe about the animated shows like South Park (jumped the shark can't watch any more), Family Guy and Simpson usually go off the storyline a few minutes and the begging doesn't even resemble the ending. It's like they spliced two shows together, which they probably did. Not enough material for one show. Seen this in sitcoms and dramas too but really FG is about all I watch these days. TV sucks.

[JaneaneTheAcerbicGoblin]

Your argument that "every show does it" over time filler isn't necessarily true. True, sometimes they pad things out to get to the 30 minute mark (or 20 minutes with commercials), but not everything TV show/film is like this. Many film comedies like Duck Soup and Dr. Strangelove are extremely tight, and don't have any filler. They're consistently funny. It can be done. Monty Python's Flying Circus (a somewhat popular show in the U.K. in the 60's and 70's) rarely had a bad sketch or superfluous moment in it.

And as others have said here, Family Guy does that "beat a joke to death" thing which isn't very funny, just annoying. And no, it's not funny that Seth and the writers want to annoy people. It's not edgy, it's not hip, it's not art, it's just annoying.

Your point about The Simpsons being two spliced shows in spot on, though. Quite often, the first 3 minutes of the Simpsons show is completely different from the remaining 17 minutes.

[PJX]

He's not getting "paid" $100 million...it's just like Dave Chapelle's $50 million dollar deal...gets a cut of DVD's, etc. which is why it says "may be worth up to".

[citizenofmars]

I prefer "King of the Hill" myself..

[OriginalScreenName]

That's a show I just don't get. I know tons of people that watch it, and I love Family Guy, South Park, and the Simpsons, but I can't get into King of the Hill.

[ming099]

....apparently MD (above) has NO sense of humor........FG is one of the funniest, freshest programs on the tube.........campy,tongue in cheek,irrereverent and just plain funny........American Dad is funny but FG is funnier.....

.....high or not....they are a good escape from the Hillary,Barack and "Old Fart" McCain show .....

[UkieOlie]

It's damn funny.
Plus I love seeing someone creative and crazy making lots of money instead of no talent airheads.