Seth MacFarlane life and biography

Seth MacFarlane is an American animator, writer, comedian, producer, actor, singer, voice actor, and director best known for creating the animated sitcoms Family Guy, American Dad! and The Cleveland Show, for which he also voices many of the shows' various characters.

Animation pioneer Seth MacFarlane followed in the footsteps of Matt Groening, Trey Parker, and Matt Stone, and others by creating (at age 25!) one of the top-tiered animated series on national television. Family Guy, which debuted in 1999, preserved the sitcom-family premise of The Simpsons but upped the irreverence quotient tenfold (defying many who regarded such an accomplishment as impossible), meanwhile tossing in dozens upon dozens of off-the-cuff (and frequently risqué) references to pop culture -- citing everything from Oz to The Wizard of Oz, The $25,000 Pyramid to songs by a-ha, and thus seizing upon instant identification with Gen-X and Gen-Y viewers. Episodes, which began mundanely enough, could immediately segue, without advance notice, into music video-style montages, game-show sequences, multi-character musical production numbers, mock historical sequences, etc. The basic premise revolved around the nutty Griffin clan of Quahog, Rhode Island: obese toy manufacturer dad Peter; neurotic housewife Lois; ne'er-do-well, dim-bulb 13-year-old son Chris; the angst-ridden 16-year-old daughter Meg, and -- what really made the series bizarre and original -- Stewie, a one-year-old infant with a massive head, a genius IQ, and the verbal erudition of Rex Harrison.

Family Guy found a sizeable audience and lasted for many seasons, yet reportedly suffered from a tumultuous history at Fox, where it endured repeat cancellations, numerous rerun episodes, and reemergence on different networks and in different time slots, meanwhile becoming a cult hit on DVD. In the interim, MacFarlane branched out into another animated sitcom, American Dad (2005), which essentially amounted to a reimagined version of the Family Guy (irreverence intact) with a political twist: the patriarch in this cartoon carried a secret identity as a CIA agent; he also boasted a tentacled, acid-mouthed alien for a sidekick with a voice that bore a startling resemblance to that of the late Paul Lynde.

Films:

1995 The Life of Larry
2006 Life is Short
2008 Hellboy II: The Golden Army
2009 Futurama: Into the Wild Green Yonder
2010 The Drawn Together Movie: The Movie!
2010 Tooth Fairy
2011 Gnomeo and Juliet
2012 Ted

Television:

1995 The Shnookums and Meat Funny Cartoon Show
1996 Larry & Steve
1999– Family Guy
2002–2003 Gilmore Girls
2003 Aqua Teen Hunger Force ; The Pitts
2003–2005 Crank Yankers
2004 Complete Savages
2004–2005 Star Trek: Enterprise
2005–2009 Robot Chicken
2005– American Dad!
2006 The War at Home
2007 Help Me Help You ; Robot Chicken: Star Wars ; 59th Primetime Emmy Awards
2008 Robot Chicken: Star Wars Episode II
2008–2010 Seth MacFarlane's Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy
2009 Bones
2009–2010 FlashForward
2009– The Cleveland Show
2010 Phineas and Ferb ; Roast of David Hasselhoff

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