Even though people say that Family Guy’s golden years are far behind them, after two cancellations, they have some adoring fans who kept winning the battle to bring them back.
Anytime a character dies or is knocked unconscious, they are always lying with one hand on his back and the other on the ground. The animators have a favorite position, and just keep going with it.
MacFarlane first pitched Family Guy to Fox as Mike Judge was signing a deal for King of the Hill. Fox as hesitant to add another animated comedy and they passed on Family Guy.
One year later, MacFarlane followed up with Fox and because King of the Hill became so successful, they gave MacFarlane $50,000 to create a pilot.
MacFarlane said that Peter's voice is based on a security guard who worked at the college he attended. Him and his friends would laugh at the way he spoke, as it was hard to take with a straight face.
The school nerd Neil Goldman is named after one of the writers. The real Neil Goldman didn’t name the character after himself, but the other writers, who apparently think he’s a complete nerd-burger, just went for it.
The Simpsons thought South Park was doing “God’s work”.
MTV Entertainment Studios & Comedy Partners
The enemy of my enemy is my friend.
According to Trey Parker, the writing staff at The Simpsons “hate” Family Guy so much that they sent the South Park crew flowers after they harshly criticized MacFarlane’s show.
When South Park ran an episode making fun of Family Guy, they received flowers from The Simpsonswith a message that read, ‘You’re doing God’s work by ripping on Family Guy.”
Family Guy was originally supposed to be a series of shorts for MADtv.
“Family Guy was supposed to be a series of shorts on MADtv, in the way that The Simpsons began on Tracey Ullman,” MacFarlane told IGN in 2003. “It just came down to a budgetary thing. They didn't really have the budget to do any kind of animation at that point.”
Seth Green said that when he auditioned for the role, he did an imitation of Ted Levine's character, Buffalo Bill, from The Silence of the Lambs, and tweaked his impression to make it sound as if it was coming out of a PA system.
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Originally he was dared by a friend to do the “Buffalo Bill” voice at the audition, after they fooled around with the voice one night. Fortunately, the casting directors liked it.