By Julie Miller, Vanity Fair
When the Seth MacFarlane was announced as the 2013 Academy Awards host earlier this week, many Internet users registered their enthusiastic approval of the decision on Twitter. Some television critics registered their surprise and mixed opinions on what to expect. And at least one movie actor previously targeted by the writer-producer registered his skepticism of the Academy's decision with Vulture. Now a vehemently anti-Seth MacFarlane stance has been added to the mix, supplied by longtime foes of MacFarlane's programming, the Parents Television Council.
In a press release issued on Wednesday, the group asks its members to file formal complaints to the F.C.C. about a recent episode of the animated series American Dad that featured "graphic verbal and visual reference to oral sex and ejaculation."
This kind of content is nothing new from Fox or Seth MacFarlane. In the past, American Dad and MacFarlane's other programs have included scenes mocking people with Down syndrome, implying father-daughter incest, a man masturbating a horse, a baby eating horse sperm, and a character eating vomit and excrement out of a baby's diaper. Some of those broadcasts are under review at the FCC for violating the broadcast decency law.
P.T.C. president Tim Winter adds, "This is the man that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has selected to host next year's Oscars telecast, following in the footsteps of such Hollywood legends as Bob Hope and Johnny Carson?" Needless to say, the Parents Television Council is none too pleased with the Academy's choice of host.
For his part, MacFarlane has also voiced his own complaints with the P.T.C., which has challenged other American Dad episodes, in the past, saying, "They're literally terrible human beings. I've read their newsletter, I've visited their website, and they're just rotten to the core. For an organization that prides itself on Christian values -- I mean, I'm an atheist, so what do I know?-- they spend their entire day hating people."
With or without the Parents Television Council viewing, the 84th Annual Academy Awards is slated to air on February 26.