AmericanDad-related stories
Posted Oct 30th 2009 9:33AM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Programming, OpEd, Pickups and Renewals, Reality-Free
The Fox network cannot risk pissing off Seth MacFarlane. If they do, they run a good chance of suddenly finding most of their entire Sunday night line-up sucking eggs. At least, that's one possible reason for the renewal of
American Dad for a sixth season. That pickup gives MacFarlane the renewal trifecta for Sunday nights.
Actually, of MacFarlane's three series,
American Dad is the best one (although I'm finding
The Cleveland Show inching closer to first place). As opposed to
Family Guy, the storytelling is more linear than the other two and the jokes actually have some relevance to the plot or characters (I'm on Team
South Park regarding that "feud").
The Cleveland Show is also better at linear storytelling and jokes than its predecessor, but it's still not up to the standards of
American Dad. Sadly,
American Dad will likely live in the shadow of
Family Guy and
The Cleveland Show for years to come. At least MacFarlane has three chances with Fox to keep on working.
Posted Oct 26th 2009 9:09PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Industry, OpEd, Animation, Music and Variety, Reality-Free
Well, it seemed like an unusual pairing when it was announced. Kind of like oil and water. Well, the oil slick has hit the proverbial fan.
Microsoft has withdrawn its sole sponsorship of Fox's Seth MacFarlane comedy special. That's the special that Fox was promoting like crazy yesterday all during the NFL games, the special called
Family Guy Presents: Seth & Alex's Almost Live Comedy Show.
In the grand tradition of show business, though, the special will go on November 8, just without Microsoft commercials. Fox is looking for alternate sponsors. Here's my first call if I'm at Fox -- Apple. Don't you think those Mac/PC ads would send a message to viewers who might still think Microsoft is behind this?
It would also be a brilliant PR move by Steve Jobs and Apple. After all, they could say, "Hey, we're not afraid of the content in Seth MacFarlane's show. We have a sense of humor."
Continue reading Microsoft backs out of MacFarlane's Fox comedy special
Posted Oct 15th 2009 5:47PM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Animation, Pickups and Renewals, Ratings, Reality-Free
Not that the future of this series
was ever in doubt, but Fox has extended its original season-and-a-half order of
The Cleveland Show to a full two seasons. Given the strong premiere ratings for the show, seasons beyond number two will likely be in the bag. If Fox didn't extend, they'd have to deal with an irate Seth MacFarlane who currently controls most of their Sunday night line-up.
Is
The Cleveland Show going to end up being more popular than its progenitor
Family Guy? Do these ratings simply represent a high initial interest in the new show that will wane over time? I have used the analogy of
The Jeffersons spinning off from
All In The Family, but did
The Jeffersons ever beat
All In The Family in the ratings?
Whatever the case, Seth MacFarlane doesn't have to worry about it for at least two seasons, and probably longer.
[Watch
clips and free episodes of The Cleveland Show at
SlashControl]
Posted Oct 14th 2009 1:08PM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Programming, Celebrities, Pickups and Renewals, Reality-Free
The man who virtually owns Fox Sunday nights, Seth MacFarlane, will be
joining Carrie Underwood in what is seemingly Fox's attempt to
revive the variety show genre. Didn't anybody learn the lesson of
Rosie O'Donnell?
The show is called
Family Guy Presents: Seth and Alex's Almost Live Comedy Show. It'll be broadcast on November 8th and be commercial-free thanks to Microsoft (who will be promoting Windows 7). The special will be a mix of animated and live performances. I've seen Seth MacFarlane and Alex Borstein (the voice of Lois Griffin) perform together in
Family Guy Live and they're certainly better together than anything Rosie could produce.
It's interesting how retro these planned variety shows are going. It used to be that shows like
The Colgate Comedy Hour would have live sketches about their sponsors sprinkled throughout the show. I wonder how MacFarlane and company will handle shilling Windows 7. Do they even like Windows 7? MacFarlane strikes me more as a Mac guy. "Mac" is even part of his last name.
Posted Oct 12th 2009 9:25AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: OpEd, Animation, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
This is the third week of the new FOX Sunday night, so it's time to check in and see how the lineup is shaping up. I wanted to give
The Cleveland Show a few weeks to settle down and start to figure out what kind of show it wants to be. The pilot wasn't the strongest, but there was so much set-up involved, you couldn't tell anything about what future episodes would be like.
With Seth MacFarlane now providing a full hour-and-a-half of FOX's Sunday programming, we decided to take a look at all of his shows in a single post each week. At first, I wasn't sure if I was even going to like
The Cleveland Show enough to do this, but it's already grown on me. And that's much faster than
American Dad, which took more than a year of sampling here and there before I tuned in regularly.
Continue reading Sundays with Seth: Meet the Crinklesacks and fly with the Smiths
Posted Jun 24th 2009 10:01AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, OpEd, Animation, Reality-Free
I was one of those people who bought the
Family Guy DVDs and helped bring that show back to Fox. As such, when word came out that Seth MacFarlane was branching out with a new show, I was beyond excited about it. And yet, try as I might I just couldn't get into
American Dad. I didn't make it past the first season, and hadn't checked in with it since. Maybe it was too different than what I was used to.
When a friend of mine told me that
Dad was better than
Guy now, well I wasn't buying that at all. Lo and behold, suddenly it was summertime and I had all this freetime on my hands ... because I'm not going to watch
Surviving Suburbia and
CSI reruns and I'm certainly not going to go
outside! I decided to take advantage of the time to catch
American Dad reruns and see if the show got better. Fortunately for
American Dad,
Family Guy has been really hit or miss this past season with more episodes devoid of laughter than before.
Continue reading Is American Dad really better than Family Guy now?
Posted May 25th 2009 12:02PM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Animation, Reality-Free
When it comes to
Family Guy, I really tried. I honestly gave it my best shot. I watched the Sunday episodes, the late night reruns on Adult Swim, and even some of the DVDs from my college-aged brother's collection, including the famed feature-length
Star Wars parody. I watched until my eyes started planning a prison break from my skull.
I wanted to like it. It's goofy, occasionally satirical and completely unafraid to be silly and bat#*$& crazy. Alas, I couldn't take it. I didn't find it funny or entertaining. The jumps to the pop culture flashbacks made the whole thing disjointed and screwed up the continuity. The characters are as two-dimensional as the paper the Korean sweatshop animators draw on for each episode. The way the show just drags on certain jokes is downright irritating. We get it. Peter hurt his knee jumping out of
The A-Team van. A prom night dumpster baby musical number would be hilariously tragic. It's the one and only time I ever rooted for Cartman in an episode of
South Park.
That doesn't mean the show's creator deserves the same contempt.
Continue reading Is it possible to hate Family Guy but still like Seth MacFarlane?
Posted May 18th 2009 12:59PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Programming, 24, House, The Simpsons, Pickups and Renewals, Upfronts, The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Fringe, Dollhouse
Fox showed some surprising stability in its schedule (our network is growing up) for the 2009-2010 season. But they are bringing in four new comedies, two dramas and a late night Saturday show.
Returning Summer: Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?, Don't Forget the Lyrics!, So You Think You Can Dance Returning Fall/Winter: 24, American Dad, American Idol, Bones, Dollhouse,, Family Guy, Fringe, House, Kitchen Nightmares, Lie to Me, The Simpsons, 'Til Death (for some reason),
So You Think You Can Dance (yeah, two separate seasons summer and fall)
Gone: Do Not Disturb, King of the Hill (though there's still episodes in the can which will air sometime next year),
Prison Break (a 2-hour film is being produced that may air next year),
Sit Down Shut Up, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles New: Brothers, The Cleveland Show, Glee (sneak peek tomorrow),
Human Target, Past Life, Sons of Tucson, The Wanda Sykes Show (late night Saturdays)
The schedule and some details on the new shows after the jump.
Continue reading The Upfronts: Fox
Posted May 4th 2009 6:36PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Animation, Pickups and Renewals, Reality-Free
That's a show of faith,
Fox, renewing The Cleveland Show for a second season before its first episode airs. Sure you can say it's because animated shows need more lead time as it takes a lot longer to complete an episode; how else can you explain
King of the Hill getting canceled back in 1976 and having new episodes through next season.
The second season pick-up is only for a half-season, but it does bring the total number of episodes to 35, which is a good start. Especially for a show that hasn't even started.
Continue reading The Cleveland Show renewed before it begins
Posted Nov 5th 2008 1:02PM by Richard Keller
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Programming, Animation, Adult Swim, Pickups and Renewals, Reality-Free
Geez, for a show that was recently canceled there is sure a lot of news about it. First, we heard that King of the Hill was being canceled by FOX at the end of this season (though it will probably remain on the schedule through 2010 because of long-term production of episodes). Then, the lovely and talented Bob Sassone reported that the show could be picked up by ABC, who seems to be in the market for other network programs as of late. Now comes word that repeats (is that term now taboo?) of the Mike Judge series will be heading to Adult Swim's lineup.
That's right. Cartoon Network's older brother will be picking up the 11-year-old program, making it the next-to-last FOX animated series to air on its program schedule (The Simpsons would be the last, and I have no idea if it will ever make it to Adult Swim).
Continue reading Still more King of the Hill news
Posted Oct 31st 2008 10:06AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Cancellations, Pickups and Renewals, Reality-Free
It looks like the Fox "Animation Domination" lineup will be changing. It took FOX long enough to put together a solid two hour block of animated cartoons on Sunday, but now comes word that the tides are a-changing. After thirteen years on the air,
King of the Hill will wrap production at the end of this season. Of course, there will be new episodes in the can for airing even into next season. Not to mention that this isn't the first time
Hill has been canceled, and ratings now are better than they were then. In fact, executive producer John Altschuler said, "It would be very odd for
King of the Hill to not keep going."
At the same time, Seth MacFarlane's "other" show
American Dad, has just been picked up for a fifth season. It makes sense for FOX to let
King of the Hill go at this time, considering that
Family Guy spin-off
The Cleveland Show is waiting in the wings. On the other side, though, shouldn't they wait to see if that's going to work before they dump a solid perennial performer like
Hill? The way they're going, Seth MacFarlane is going to own Sunday nights.
Continue reading King of the Hill to end, American Dad renewed
Posted Jul 26th 2008 4:15PM by Richard Keller
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Family Guy, Interviews, Reality-Free, Comic-Con
I have come to an epiphany when it comes to American Dad and Family Guy: a studio audience is needed. I came to this realization after attending both the Comic-Con panels for these respective shows, which showed clips from their respective series. Scenes that I would have generally smirked at or given a chuckle made me laugh out loud along with the rest of the audience. Which brings me to one of two conclusions: either laughter is contagious, or I am just a lemming.
Either way, an enjoyable two hours was spent with casts from both shows as they did some table readings, provided some clues to upcoming episodes,and provided clips from some previously run and new episodes of both shows.
Continue reading American Dad and Family Guy - Comic-Con Report
Posted Jul 15th 2008 12:05PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: The Simpsons, Family Guy, Animation, King of the Hill, TCA Press Tour, Reality-Free
As usual, FOX leaves the best press conference (at least as far as I was concerned) for last. I sat through Karl Rove and Chris Wallace getting contentious with the critics near the end of the FOX News panel (more on that later), Jerry O'Connell and the cast of
Do Not Disturb strain to answer questions about a show whose clip reel wasn't all that funny, and the millionaires from
Secret Millionaire talk about being poor for a week. All of it was made worth it (and, really, seeing Rove start to get annoyed near the end was fun to watch) so we could see the final panel: all the producers of all FOX's Sunday animated shows.
The first person who spoke up, not surprisingly, was Seth MacFarlane. "Is this where Karl Rove sat? Because I don't want to get AIDS." Wow. Unfortunately, no line that was said after that was as shocking or funny. But it was all still pretty good.
Continue reading FOX Sunday animation panel: The Simpsons is still the king - TCA Report
Posted Jul 9th 2008 11:22AM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Industry, Programming, Family Guy, Celebrities, Reality-Free
Along with running three shows on Fox (
Family Guy,
American Dad and
The Cleveland Show), Seth McFarlane is also getting into online content development. Even worse,
he's doing it for a Fox competitor.
McFarlane will be developing fifty two-minute animated vignettes for
Seth McFarlane's Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy which will be distributed via Google's AdSense network (a competitor for Fox's Myspace).
The article goes into the corporate issues behind this strange move and asks a few good questions: why didn't Fox get a first-look offer at this idea? If they did, why did they pass on it? It seems inexpensive enough to produce and given the popularity of the creator, it seems a no-brainer.
Continue reading As if Seth McFarlane didn't have enough to do...
Posted Jun 2nd 2008 2:41PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, The Simpsons, Family Guy, Animation, Adult Swim, Children, South Park, Awards, Emmys, Reality-Free
Due to the complicated and apparently outdated Emmy Awards nomination rules, prime-time animated shows like
Family Guy, The Simpsons, American Dad,
South Park and others have had to choose which Emmy category they want to compete in, animated or comedy series. Then, that decision impacts eligibility for writers and animators on those shows in other categories. Well,
Family Guy is in a unique position this year, as their "Blue Harvest"
Star Wars parody was classified as a special. And as the animated category looks at single episodes,
Family Guy can submit "Blue Harvest" to the animated category, and the show itself, to comedy series.
I'd say it's a tremendous long shot that an animated show can be nominated over the live-action comedy series it will be facing. But there's always a first time for everything; when Disney's animated
Beauty and the Beast picked up an Oscar nod for "Best Picture" it was groundbreaking in the same way. It's a tough debate. These shows compete with prime-time comedies every week and yet get put up against the likes of
Spongebob Squarepants come awards time. How do you compare
The Venture Brothers and
Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends?
Continue reading Family Guy to vie for comedy series Emmy nod
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