Sometime soon I'd like to do a post on the genius of early Simpsons (particularly ~ seasons 3 - 10) and its eventual decline, but for now let's talk about this guy called Seth McFarlane.
Seth McFarlane saw the Simpsons and thought they weren't wacky enough. So he made his own version of them after being fired by Matt Groening for taking too long with his coffee.
Thankfully, our good friend McFarlane managed to successfully raid the bins in the Writers' Room before being ejected from the studio. He took with him the comedy gold that was simply too off-the-wall for the Simpsons. He also took with him many of the precious first-drafts of such episodes, allowing him to make several suspiciously familiar plots that may remind us of the Simpsons, except these versions are untouched by snarling, uncreative executives and therefore funnier.
Somewhere down the line, Seth decided one episode of Family Guy where Peter Griffin starts off hating illegal immigrants and ends up accepting them upon seeing their culture just wasn't enough. He had to make another series so he could use that golden script twice, before it lost its flavour.
Quite possibly the wackiest white nuclear family to hit American screens since the Simpsons, or dare I say, the Griffins themselves, the Smiths (how original! McFarlane must have poured through the phonebooks for that one) are not just your average animated TV family. They're, um... American. Very American indeed.
Seeing as how he is a boundary pusher of the most dynamic variety, Seth McFarlane realised he needed something new. A whole new show to capture the hearts of viewers worldwide. It had to be something different; a new concept, new issues, a totally new platform for dealing with them.
And so he made history with quite possibly the bravest move in Animation History.
This time they're black. Whoah, there!!
This post is totally not sarcastic.
ReplyDelete>:3
Of course not, lol.
ReplyDeleteIt did prompt a lasting argument with one of my friends who is a fan of Family Guy and American Dad (can't vouch for the Cleveland Show yet) so I will discuss the differences between the McFarlane stuff with the Simpsons (or Matt Groening in general) in the future Simpsons' post.
But yeah suffice it to say I'm not Seth McFarlane's number one fan. |D
I always wonder, what the heck happened to Loretta and Cleveland Jr.? 8(
ReplyDelete...well after Wiki'ing Jr. is apparently the obese one. wut. Anywho, I'll admit to liking Family Guy but I'm not fond of any o the spin-offs.
Family Guy, I could put up with. American Dad was pushing it, but sometimes dad and I actually found ourselves in the mood to watch it (which made it all the more obvious when that night Family Guy and American Dad used the same plot, lol?).
ReplyDeleteBut the Cleveland Show is just plain boring. Why Cleveland? Why the family model? I couldn't sit through the pilot, and that's bad, because at least Seth's first two shows are watchable.
It's been said before, but I'll say it again. McFarlane should have put all his energies into making one good show, instead of two (or as it now turns out, three) mediocre ones.
ReplyDeleteSometimes it seems like he doesn't actually know what funny is, and on the odd occasion where he does strike gold, it's a completely random and accidental occurance.
I saw this and was reminded of this post. XD
ReplyDeletehttp://www.collegehumor.com/video:1924513