EXCLUSIVE: Seth MacFarlane Discusses Designing The Future On 'The Orville'

In its premiere airing, The Orville reached 8.6 million viewers for a 2.8 rating among adults 18-49, a demo rating that tied the dramedy series with the highest-rated launches this time a year ago: the September premiere of NBC's This Is Us (itself aided by a lead-in from hit singing competition The Voice) and Fox's own comedy The Mick.

Heading into its second week -- the show that star Mark Jackson called ideal for "disgruntled Star Trek fans" -- still has to prove it has staying power.

In an exclusive to ComicBook.com clip, creator Seth MacFarlane said that the set build has as much to do with the success of the show as the dialogue and acting. Check out the full thing above!

"I missed the spaceship that you wanted to be on," MacFarlane said. "The place that is clean and comfortable and looks like a world that you want to live in."

"This set, to me, is very aspirational," MacFarlane continued. "This is definitely the version of the future that you would want to have happen."

Inspired by Star Trek with a comedic twist and set 400 years in the future, the series follows the cosmic adventures of the USS Orville, a mid-level exploratory spaceship. The ships' crew consists of both humans and aliens and together they will encounter new life, new adventures, and new threats in the uncharted regions of outer space.

According to MacFarlane, The Orville isn't a Star Trek parody, and instead fills a space "that has been relatively unoccupied for a while in the genre."

"For me, it's a space that's kind of waiting to be filled in this day and age when we're getting a lot of dystopian science fiction," MacFarlane said during the summer TCA press tour. "This is sort of an attempt to fill that void in that genre."

The Orville is also the highest-rated broadcast hour-long series debut in men 18-34 since Fox's Gotham on September 22, 2014, with the exclusion of post Super Bowl lead-outs.

The Orville will air the second part of its two-night premiere on Sunday, Sept. 17 (8:00-9:00 PM ET LIVE to All Time Zones), immediately following NFL ON FOX doubleheaders and The O.T. The Orville will then move to its regular time slot, airing Thursday nights at 9 p.m. ET/8 p.m. CT on Fox, following Gotham in its new time slot.

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