Family Guy Creator Reveals How He Felt About Show's Cancellation
Family Guy's Seth MacFarlane reflects on the show's cancellation years ago
It might seem wild to think that Family Guy has survived the brink of cancellation as it celebrates its 25th anniversary, but the animated series was originally cancelled by FOX after a couple of seasons and the creator behind it all revealed how he felt about that truncated end. Family Guy had a prime debut with FOX as it debuted its pilot episode after the Super Bowl, but was unceremoniously cancelled after its first two seasons. The animated series then found new life through successful home video sales and reruns with Adult Swim, and FOX then renewed the series and has been keeping it going ever since.
As Family Guy celebrates its 25th Anniversary, it's likely a wild experience for all those involved considering that the series has flourished in such a way following its initial cancellation. Speaking with the LA Times, Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane was asked how he reacted to the series' cancellation. Noting that he had no point of comparison for it as it was his first real show pitch that got picked up, and ended up being revived before his overall deal with 20th Television Animation was up, it made for a strange reaction.
Family Guy Creator Reflects on Cancellation
"I had nothing to compare it to because it was the first show I'd ever pitched, and it got picked up," MacFarlane explained. "I thought, 'Oh, I guess this is normal.' Which it certainly was not. When I got canceled, I was like, 'OK, I guess this is normal too.' But it wasn't like they're kicking you to the curb. It was, we still want to be in business with you. My deal [with 20th Television Animation] never expired over those two years. It was about to expire and then they picked up the show again. So I was like Mr. Magoo driving that jalopy. Does everybody get that reference?"
Although the series has been running ever since, MacFarlane also sees no reason to stop anytime soon, "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."
How are you feeling about Family Guy now years after it was first cancelled? Let us know all of your thoughts about it in the comments! You can even reach out to me directly about all things animation and other cool stuff @Valdezology on X (formerly known as Twitter)!