Television career Hanna-Barbera years MacFarlane was recruited during the senior film festival by development executive Ellen Cockrill and President
Fred Seibert. He went to work at Hanna-Barbera (then Hanna-Barbera Cartoons) based on the writing content of
The Life of Larry, rather than on his drawing abilities. He was one of only a few people hired by the company solely based on writing talent. Working as both a writer and
storyboard artist, MacFarlane spent the most time on
Johnny Bravo. He found it easier to develop his own style at
Johnny Bravo through the show's process of scriptwriting, which ''Dexter's Laboratory
and Cow and Chicken
did not use. Executives at the Fox Broadcasting Company saw both Larry'' shorts and negotiations soon began for a prime-time animated series.
Family Guy Although MacFarlane enjoyed working at Hanna-Barbera, he felt his real calling was for prime-time animation, which would allow a much edgier style of humor. Recalling the experience in an interview with
The New York Times, MacFarlane said: "I spent about six months with no sleep and no life, just drawing like crazy in my kitchen and doing this pilot." After six months, MacFarlane returned to Fox with a "very, very simply, crudely animated film—with just enough to get the tone of the show across" to present to the executives, who loved the pilot and immediately ordered the series.
Family Guy was originally intended to be a series of shorts on
MADtv, much in the same way
The Simpsons had begun on
The Tracey Ullman Show a decade earlier. Negotiations for the show's
MADtv connection fell through early on as a result of budgetary concerns. MacFarlane's work in animating
Family Guy was influenced by
Jackie Gleason and Hanna-Barbera along with examples from
The Simpsons and
All in the Family. In addition to writing three episodes, "
Death Has a Shadow", "
Family Guy Viewer Mail 1", and "
North by North Quahog", MacFarlane voices
Family Guys main male characters of
Peter Griffin,
Stewie Griffin,
Brian Griffin, and
Glenn Quagmire, as well as Tom Tucker, his son Jake Tucker, and other characters. Bolstered by high DVD sales and fan loyalty,
Family Guy developed into a $1-billion franchise. MacFarlane's success with
Family Guy opened doors to other ventures relating to the show. On April 26, 2005, he and composer
Walter Murphy created
Family Guy: Live in Vegas. The soundtrack features a Broadway show tune theme, and MacFarlane voiced Stewie in the track "Stewie's Sexy Party". A fan of Broadway musicals, Two years later, in August 2007, MacFarlane closed a digital content production deal with AdSense. He takes cast members on the road to voice characters in front of live audiences.
Family Guy Live provides fans with the opportunity to hear future scripts. In mid-2007, Chicago fans had the opportunity to hear the then upcoming sixth-season premiere "
Blue Harvest". Shows have played in
Montreal, New York City, Chicago, and Los Angeles. reception on June 1, 2007 On July 22, 2007, in an interview with
The Hollywood Reporter, MacFarlane announced that he might start work on a feature film, although "nothing's official". In September 2007,
Ricky Blitt gave
TV.com an interview confirming that he had already started working on the script. Then in
TV Week on July 18, 2008, MacFarlane confirmed plans to produce a theatrically released
Family Guy feature film sometime "within the next year". He came up with an idea for the story, "something that you could not do on the show, which [to him] is the only reason to do a movie". He later went on to say he imagines the film to be "an old-style musical with dialogue" similar to
The Sound of Music, saying that he would "really be trying to capture, musically, that feel". On October 13, 2011, MacFarlane confirmed that a deal for a
Family Guy film had been made, and that he would write it with series co-producer Ricky Blitt. On November 30, 2012, he confirmed plans for the project. The project was put on hold while MacFarlane worked on
Ted 2. In 2018, Fox announced that a live-action/animated film based on the series is in development. MacFarlane stepped away from the series in 2011 to work on
Ted and other projects, and has only been associated with the show as a voice actor since then. Despite its popularity,
Family Guy has often been
criticized. The
Parents Television Council has been a frequent critic. It organized a letter-writing campaign to remove it from Fox's lineup, and filed complaints with the
Federal Communications Commission alleging that some of its episodes contained indecent content. MacFarlane has responded to the PTC's criticism by saying, among other things: "That's like getting hate mail from
Hitler. They're literally terrible human beings."
Family Guy has been canceled twice, although strong fan support and DVD sales have caused Fox to reconsider. MacFarlane mentioned how these cancellations affected the lineup of writers: "One of the positive aspects of
Family Guy constantly being pulled off [the air] is that we were always having to restaff writers." and the series resumed airing regularly, beginning with "
Back to the Woods".
American Dad! MacFarlane has a second long-running, successful
adult animated series in
American Dad!, which has been in production since early 2005. To date, it is his only animated series that has never been canceled, though it has undergone two network relocations: from Fox to
TBS following its
11th season, and from TBS back to Fox following its
21st. MacFarlane provides the voices of protagonist
Stan Smith and prominent secondary character
Roger. Additionally, he co-wrote the show's
first episode. Aside from his voice acting work, MacFarlane has left much of
American Dad!'s
creative direction to the show's other co-creators,
Matt Weitzman and
Mike Barker (though the latter departed after ten seasons), feeling it helps give the series its own voice and identity. MacFarlane has stated that his inspiration to create
American Dad! derived from his and Weitzman's exasperation with the
George W. Bush administration. MacFarlane has described the initial seasons of
American Dad! as being similar to
All in the Family, likening Stan's originally
bigoted persona to
Archie Bunker. After the early couple of seasons however, the series discontinued using these elements of
political satire and began to serve up its own brand of entertainment and humor.
The Cleveland Show MacFarlane developed a
Family Guy spin-off called
The Cleveland Show, which focuses on the character of
Cleveland Brown and his family. The idea for the show originated from a suggestion by
Family Guy writer and voice of Cleveland, Mike Henry. Fox ordered 22 episodes and the series first aired on September 27, 2009. The show, which was picked up to air a first season consisting of 22 episodes, was picked up by Fox for a second season, consisting of 13 episodes, bringing the total number to 35 episodes. The announcement was made on May 3, 2009, before the first season even premiered. Due to strong ratings, Fox picked up the back nine episodes of season 2, making a 22-episode season and bringing the total episode count of the show to 44. The series ended on May 19, 2013, with a total of 4 seasons and 88 episodes. The character of Cleveland and his family returned to
Family Guy in the episode "
He's Bla-ack!". This is the only animated series created by MacFarlane that does not have him voicing the main character. MacFarlane did, however, play the character Tim the Bear until season 3 episode 10.
Jess Harnell voiced Tim from season 3 episode 11 onwards.
Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy In 2008, MacFarlane released a series of
webisodes known as ''Seth MacFarlane's Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy'' with its animated shorts sponsored by
Burger King and released weekly.
The Orville In 2016, MacFarlane began producing the sci-fi comedy-drama series
The Orville, in which he also stars as
Captain Edward "Ed" Mercer. MacFarlane originally wrote
The Orville as a
spec script, which was given a 13-episode order by Fox in May 2016, making it the first live-action television series created by MacFarlane. The series premiered on September 10, 2017. Despite the first season receiving negative reviews, it was renewed for a second season. The second season premiered on December 30, 2018, and received better reviews. The series was renewed for a third season by Fox, however the series would move over to
Hulu. This season is the show's first on Hulu, after airing its previous two seasons on Fox, as well as the first to premiere since The Walt Disney Company's March 2019
acquisition of 20th Century Fox. The season was originally scheduled to premiere in 2020 but was delayed due to the
COVID-19 pandemic. The third season titled as
The Orville: New Horizons premiered on June 2, 2022. Due to the pandemic, an episode of third season was scrapped, which MacFarlane subsequently turned into a novel, titled
The Orville: Sympathy for the Devil.
Television producing MacFarlane was the executive producer of a live-action sitcom starring
Rob Corddry called
The Winner. The plot has a man named Glen discussing the time he matured at 32 and has him pursuing his only love after she moves in next door. Glen meets her son and both become good friends. The show ran on Fox for six episodes in Spring 2007. In August 2011, Fox ordered a 13-part updated series of
Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey. MacFarlane co-produced the series with
Ann Druyan and
Steven Soter. The new series is hosted by
Neil deGrasse Tyson and began airing on the channel in March 2014, with repeats airing on the
National Geographic Channel on the next night. In addition to serving as one of the executive producers, MacFarlane provided voices for characters during the animated portions of the series. MacFarlane returned to executive produce and provide voices to its sequel series,
Cosmos: Possible Worlds, which aired in 2020. In 2013 and 2014, MacFarlane produced one season of a live-action sitcom called
Dads. The series, revolves around Eli, played by
Seth Green, and Warner, played by
Giovanni Ribisi, two successful guys in their 30s whose world is turned upside down when their dads move in with them. MacFarlane,
Alec Sulkin and
Wellesley Wild executive-produced the series, with Sulkin and Wild writing. In 2014, MacFarlane executive produced a two-season, 20-episode series called
Blunt Talk for
Starz. The series followed an English newscaster who moves to Los Angeles with his alcoholic manservant and the baggage of several failed marriages to host a sanctimonious talk show. In 2009, MacFarlane began work on the animated series
Bordertown. The series is set in Texas and follows a border patrol agent and a Mexican immigrant, satirizing America's changing cultural landscape. It ran for 13 episodes in the first half of 2016, on Fox.
Television hosting MacFarlane has participated in the
Comedy Central Roasts. MacFarlane is the only person to serve as roastmaster for more than one roast. In 2010, he filled this role for the roast of
David Hasselhoff. The following year he was roastmaster at the roasts of
Donald Trump and
Charlie Sheen. On October 1, 2012, it was announced that MacFarlane would host the
85th Academy Awards on February 24, 2013. He also presented the nominees with actress
Emma Stone, on January 10, 2013. In addition to hosting, MacFarlane was also nominated in the
Academy Award for Best Original Song category for co-writing the theme song "
Everybody Needs a Best Friend" for his film
Ted with Walter Murphy. Critical response to MacFarlane's performance was mixed. Columnist
Owen Gleiberman of
Entertainment Weekly commented "By calling constant attention to the naughty factor," MacFarlane created "an echo chamber of outrage, working a little too hard to top himself with faux-scandalous gags about race, Jews in Hollywood, and the killing of Abraham Lincoln." Tim Goodman of
The Hollywood Reporter praised MacFarlane's performance saying that he did "impressively better than one would have wagered". He also noted that he added "plenty of niceties with a little bit of the
Ricky Gervais bite-the-hand-that-feeds-you thing and worked the juxtaposition rather nicely". He stirred up controversy in the form of a musical number titled "We Saw Your Boobs". On October 29, 2014, it was announced that MacFarlane would host the
Breakthrough Prize ceremony. The event was held in
Silicon Valley and televised on November 15, 2014, on
Discovery Channel and
Science, and globally on November 22, 2014, on
BBC World News. He returned to host the following year.
Film career Ted MacFarlane made his directorial live-action film debut with the release of
Ted in 2012. He announced that he was directing it on an episode of
Conan that aired on February 10, 2011. Along with directing the film, he also wrote the screenplay, served as producer, and starred as the title character.
Ted tells the story of John Bennett (
Mark Wahlberg) and his talking teddy bear (MacFarlane) who keeps John and his girlfriend Lori Collins (
Mila Kunis) from moving on with their lives. The film received generally favorable reviews from both critics and audiences, and was a box office success, opening with the highest weekend gross of all time for an original R-rated comedy. Internationally, the movie is currently the highest-grossing original R-rated comedy of all time, beating
The Hangover. A sequel,
Ted 2, was released on June 26, 2015. It was announced in June 2021 that
Peacock had given a straight to series order for a prequel series. In addition to serving as executive producer for the series, MacFarlane reprises his role as Ted. Due to its prequel nature, Wahlberg and Kunis do not reprise their roles. In August 2024, it was announced that an animated series based on the franchise was in development.
A Million Ways to Die in the West MacFarlane co-wrote and starred in his second film,
A Million Ways to Die in the West. Alec Sulkin and Wellesley Wild were also co-writers for the film. The film follows a cowardly sheep farmer (MacFarlane) who loses a gunfight and sees his girlfriend leave him for another man. When a mysterious woman rides into town, she helps him find his courage. But when her outlaw husband arrives seeking revenge, the farmer must put his newfound courage to the test. The film was met with mixed to negative reviews from critics. On January 27, 2014, MacFarlane announced that he wrote a
companion novel based on the film's script, which was released on March 4, 2014. An audio-book version was also made available, narrated by
Jonathan Frakes. MacFarlane wrote the book on weekends during shooting for the film, partially due to boredom.
Music career Record deal and albums In 2010, MacFarlane signed a record deal with
Universal Republic Records. He released his debut album,
Music Is Better Than Words, in 2011. The album is a
big band/
standards album drawing on his training in and attraction to "the
Great American Songbook and particularly the early- to late-'50s era of orchestration". The album featured duets with
Norah Jones and
Sara Bareilles. It was nominated in the
Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album and the
Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical categories at the
54th Grammy Awards. It received a score of 52 out of 100 on
Metacritic's compilation of music critic reviews. In 2014, he released his second studio album and first Christmas album
Holiday for Swing. It received mostly positive reviews. In 2015, his third studio album
No One Ever Tells You was nominated for a
Grammy Award for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album. In 2016, he was honored by
Barbara Sinatra at the 28th annual Frank Sinatra Celebrity Invitational. He released his fourth studio album,
In Full Swing, in 2017, again featuring songs composed by
Joel McNeely. Three singles were released from it: "That Face", "
Almost Like Being in Love", and "
Have You Met Miss Jones?" The album was nominated for two Grammy Awards for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album and
Best Arrangement, Instrumental and Vocals. In 2019, for his fifth studio album
Once in a While, MacFarlane worked with composer Andrew Cottee. In 2020, MacFarlane released his sixth studio album,
Great Songs from Stage & Screen, with composer
Bruce Broughton, who he works with on
The Orville, to compose the album. Like his previous four albums, he recorded a majority of the songs at
Abbey Road Studios. However, much of the album's post-production work was done at home due to the
COVID-19 pandemic. In 2022, he released his seventh studio album,
Blue Skies. In November 2023, MacFarlane released a collaborative Christmas album with Gillies titled
We Wish You the Merriest. The lead single of the same name was dropped on the day of the announcement. In June 2025, MacFarlane released his ninth album,
Lush Life: The Lost Sinatra Arrangements. The album, conducted by
John Wilson, features music originally arranged by
Nelson Riddle,
Billy May, and
Don Costa for
Frank Sinatra, but were never produced, and were discovered by MacFarlane in Sinatra's library of music material.
Collaborations He was featured on Calabria Foti's 2013 single "
Let's Fall in Love". In 2016, he recorded the song "
Pure Imagination" as a duet with
Barbra Streisand for her album
Encore: Movie Partners Sing Broadway. MacFarlane sang numerous
show tunes with
Ariana Grande on an episode of
Carpool Karaoke: The Series in 2017. During the
COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, MacFarlane and
Elizabeth Gillies collaborated on a series of songs, eight in total, on a playlist entitled
Songs from Home on
Spotify. MacFarlane was featured in
Meghan Trainor's Christmas album,
A Very Trainor Christmas, and did a cover of "
White Christmas". The single debuted at number 24 on the
Adult Contemporary chart issued dated November 14, 2020, the third holiday entry for both, and it later peaked at number 1 on the chart. In 2023, MacFarlane was co-featured alongside
Redman and
Statik Selektah on the album track "Self Medication", from
Logic's eighth studio album
College Park.
Other projects MacFarlane was executive producer of a 2020 feature film adapting
Clive Barker's novel
Books of Blood for Hulu, directed by
Brannon Braga. In 2020, he signed a $200 million deal with
NBCUniversal to develop television projects for both internal and external networks, including the company's then-developing streaming service Peacock. Among these projects is
The End is Nye, hosted by
Bill Nye, a six-episode series exploring and explaining six apocalyptic scenarios. MacFarlane is executive producer and will make small appearances in each episode. It premiered on the service on August 25, 2022. In January 2021, it was announced that MacFarlane had been hired to develop a reboot of
The Naked Gun. After MacFarlane had previously expressed interest in casting
Liam Neeson as Frank Drebin Jr. in 2015, the filmmaker was hired by the studio. Neeson revealed that the filmmaker alongside
Paramount Pictures had approached him with a pitch to star in the movie. In June of the same year, Neeson stated that MacFarlane was working on a new draft of the script, with the studio additionally negotiating the filmmaker's potential role as director. He expressed excitement for the project and the opportunity to explore a more comedic role, should he decide to star in the movie; while stating that development on the project is ongoing. In October 2022, the film was officially greenlit with Neeson in the lead role. The film was directed by
Akiva Schaffer, Dan Gregor and Doug Mand were hired to write a new draft of the script, from a previous draft with contributions from
Mark Hentemann, Alec Sulkin and MacFarlane himself. MacFarlane and Erica Huggins served as producers.
Guest appearances MacFarlane has appeared in sitcoms, comedy and news programs, independent films, and other animated shows. In 2002, MacFarlane appeared in the
Gilmore Girls episode "
Lorelai's Graduation Day". On November 5, 2006, MacFarlane guest starred on Fox's
The War at Home as "Hillary's Date", an unnamed 33-year-old man who secretly dates teenaged Hillary in the episode "I Wash My Hands of You". MacFarlane also appeared as the engineer Ensign Rivers on
Star Trek: Enterprise in the third-season episode "
The Forgotten" and the fourth-season episode "
Affliction". During 2006, MacFarlane had a role in the independent film
Life is Short. He has been a frequent guest on the radio talkshow
Loveline, hosted by Dr.
Drew Pinsky. MacFarlane appeared on the November 11, 2006, episode of Fox's comedy show
MADtv. MacFarlane has also appeared on news shows and late night television shows such as
Jimmy Kimmel Live! and
Late Show with David Letterman. Three months later on March 24, 2007, MacFarlane was interviewed on Fox's
Talkshow with Spike Feresten, and closed the show by singing the Frank Sinatra song "
You Make Me Feel So Young". He also provided Stewie's voice when he appeared as a
brain tumor-induced hallucination to
Seeley Booth in an episode of
Bones, writing his own dialogue for the episode. On May 8, 2009, MacFarlane was a guest on
Real Time with Bill Maher. Other than
Family Guy and
American Dad!, MacFarlane voices characters in other cartoon shows and films. He voiced Wayne "The Brain" McClain in an episode of
Aqua Teen Hunger Force. He has also voiced various characters on
Adult Swim's
Robot Chicken, including a parody of
Lion-O and
Emperor Palpatine as well as Peter Griffin in the Season 2 premiere – he even parodied himself in the Season 4 premiere, in which he renewed the show simply by mentioning it in a
Family Guy-like cutaway after its fictitious cancellation at the end of Season 3. He also played the villain "The Manotaur" in
Bob Boyle's animated kids series
Yin Yang Yo!. In addition, MacFarlane voiced Johann Kraus in the 2008 film
Hellboy II: The Golden Army. He also had a guest appearance in the animated film
Futurama: Into the Wild Green Yonder where he sings "That Was Then (And This is Too)", the opening theme. He had also starred in a commercial for Hulu in which he plays an alien presenting Hulu as an "evil plot to destroy the world", progressively as his famous
Family Guy and
American Dad! characters. He also lent his voice to the series finale movie of the Comedy Central series,
Drawn Together. MacFarlane played Ziggy in the 2010 film
Tooth Fairy. In August 2010, he appeared as a guest voice-over in a sci-fi themed episode of Disney's
Phineas and Ferb entitled "Nerds of a Feather". On September 15, 2012, MacFarlane hosted the season premiere of
Saturday Night Live, with musical guest
Frank Ocean. The episode was MacFarlane's first appearance on the show. MacFarlane had a cameo in the 2013 film
Movie 43. MacFarlane collaborated with
Matt Groening on an episode of
The Simpsons and
Futurama. In 2016, he had a voice role in the animated film
Sing, as well as serving as a major performer on the film's soundtrack. In 2017, he appeared in
Steven Soderbergh's heist comedy
Logan Lucky, alongside
Channing Tatum and
Adam Driver. In 2019, MacFarlane appeared in the
Showtime limited series
The Loudest Voice. ==Artistry==