The creator of the show, Seth MacFarlane, has been as influential on my adolescent and young adult life as my boyfriends, parties, and the Violent Femmes. I owe to him much of my wittiness (yes, I’d like to think I have a little). Not only did his creation, Family Guy, teach me important life facts, such as how taking Tylenol can cancel out birth control, but also small things like maybe Death is really just a bitter sarcastic faceless man (not so scary, huh). In my mind, Macfarlane can do no wrong (minus the first season of American Dad… really?!).
MacFarlane was born on October 26, 1973. He studied animation at the Rhode Island School of Design[1]. The setting of Family Guy is in Quahog,
MacFarlane is not only the creator of Family Guy, but he also created American Dad and the Cleveland Show. MacFarlane is the animator of the show, and he is also works as a composer, producer, actor, singer, writer, comedian, voice actor, and director on his series.
Some of the elements that characterize MacFarlane’s work are his use of nonhuman characters, pop culture references, flashbacks, cut-aways, montage sequences, and how he ties all of his shows together.
MacFarlane identifies himself as a science fiction fan which would explain his use of nonhumans as characters. On all of MacFarlane‘s series, there is a nonhuman main character. In Family Guy, Brian is the
All of MacFarlane’s cartoon shows are also known to reference popular fiction in movies, television, and humor. The episode “Spies Reminiscent of Us”, the third episode of the new season, is spoofing the movie Spies Like Us. This episode starred
American Dad’s whole theme references pop culture. It is spoofing President George W. Bush’s policies. In Hogwarts American Campus (American Dad!), the show makes a pop reference to the Harry Potter series.
Family Guy’s opening song is done in an Archie Bunker, All in the Family, way, and the Cleveland Show’s opening song is done in the same manner as The Jeffersons. This is very interesting because The
Another one of MacFarlane’s signatures is his cut-away ability. An example of this would be in Back to the Woods (Family Guy) when James Woods steals Peter’s identity. Lois sneaks away to talk to Peter and talks about how James Woods can’t cut-away to random acts in history like Peter can. This is a great scene because it shows just how important this signature is to the Family Guy show.
Cutaways and flashbacks are very important to MacFarlane’s signature. All Peter (Family Guy) has to say is, “it was like this one time when I …” and you will have a cut to the time he is talking about. In the Cleveland Show, Cleveland also cuts back to past events when describing history. In The One About Friends (Cleveland Show) episode, Cleveland cuts to his past and his ability to make friends.
MacFarlane’s shows also use montage sequences. In The One About Friends (Cleveland Show), Cleveland finds the kids playing with his shoes and goes into a montage of him at the mall singing and dancing and buying new shoes. In Spies Reminiscent of Us (Family Guy), there is a Peter montage about using
MacFarlane is noted for tying his shows together. An obvious example of this is on the last episode of the seventh season of Family Guy.
The Cleveland Show and Family Guys aren’t the only shows that have intertwined. In Lois Kills Stewie (Family Guy), Stan and Avery (from American Dad!) meet Stewie. In Family Guy’s, Meet the Quagmires, Roger (alien from American Dad!) makes a cameo.
Having seen possibly every older Family Guy episode ever made, I feel as if I know what is going to happen by heart. Only seeing a few American Dad episodes and the first premier episodes of the Cleveland Show leads me to believe that MacFarlane has a formula, and he obviously sticks with it. All three of MacFarlane’s shows on the air right now are very similar. If it’s not broke, don’t fix it!
Although I have never seen any of MacFarlene's programs, I feel like I have already watched these programs because of your descriptive analysis of these shows!
ReplyDeleteI found it very interesting that in all of his programs, he uses inhuman characters to talk and offer advice to the main characters. I understand that he likes science fiction and comedy, but do you think there is another reason that he uses nonhumans as main characters? Do you think he uses animals for a deeper reason, such as because animals cannot usually talk, they offer advice that is unbiased and bonafide? Are animals supposed to be represented as being smarter than humans, and is that why it's so funny?
As for the pop references, The Simpsons also references our culture. Do you think Family Guy creates a more accurate representation of our society than Simpsons? For example, in class we watched the Simpsons episode of Lisa and Bart going to military school and Lisa trying to prove to herself and peers that she can do what boys do too. This underlying cultural reference is legitimate, and many women identify with. Does Family Guy make fun of pop stars (like Harry Potter and George Bush), or do they also incorporate cultural references? Do you think The Simpsons is more successful because they do incorporate legitimate references?
I read that MacFarlane also created The Winner, a show that was not animated. Unfortunately, this show was canceled after only six episodes. Do you think Macfarlane should only work with animated programs, which have proved most successful? Should he try to create another show with actual actors and actresses?
I love that you chose MacFarlane to study. Honesty I was not aware that he was so involved in his own show and really has made it his own. I agree with the comment above that you did an amazing job describing the shows and really made me see exactly what you were talking about.
ReplyDeleteI find it very interesting that you say the show Family Guy has been influential on you as an adolescent, because it is not typically a response I would expect when talking about the show. Just reading that made me laugh and reminded me of when I was in high school and my sister, my dad and I would sit around the TV and watch Family Guy. While my mom obsessed about how vulgar, inappropriate, and not funny the show was (as you can tell she needs a better sense of humor!), but we would sit around and watch it every night none the less.
So after reading this blog you got me thinking about what I was actually retaining while watching that show, and how a person could actually take a lesson and message from it!
Well I can't say that I watch a lot of Family Guy but the few episodes I've been forced to view by my boyfriend were pretty amusing!=) From the sound of it, all three of McFarlane's programs have noticeable similarities and seem to keep the audience returning week after week. I like how McFarlane uses cut-aways to make the audience more familiar with the references being made by the characters in the show. I also think the pop culture spoofs entangled in some of the episodes are ridiculously funny, especially because they're being acted out by a bunch of cartoon characters! The thing I find the most interesting however is the use of talking animals. The dog Brian, in Family Guy is easily one of the funniest characters on the show! In some way, animals are constantly communicating with humans and I think for everyone who owns a pet, there are times that we wish they really could talk. It's true that animals are highly intelligent creatures and McFarlane definitely hit's this mark with Brian. Notice how all of the animal characters mentioned in your analysis have human names. Perhaps this is some kind of representation that animals really are always trying to tell us something and in these programs they can!
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