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  • -Seth MacFarlane. There he is. Oh, my gosh.

  • -How's it going? -Oh, it's going good, buddy.

  • It's so good to see your face. I want to see you in person.

  • Welcome to the family, right? Are we on NBC together now?

  • -That is correct. Yeah, yeah. I'm now with NBC Universal.

  • So we work for the same folks. -I'm so psyched.

  • I saw that thing come in, I go "Oh, this gonna be fun, man."

  • -We can go to the same cocktail parties and not feel weird.

  • -[ Laughs ] Exactly. How are you in the quarantine?

  • Are you getting anything done? Are you -- How are you feeling?

  • -I am. It's like I'm getting -- I'm getting a lot done.

  • I find that like, you know, we set up all these crazy systems

  • where I can edit the show from home.

  • I can record "Family Guy" and "American Dad" from home.

  • It's -- The technical part of our culture,

  • the way people have stepped up to kind of close these gaps

  • for us is kind of amazing.

  • -It is crazy, right? -Yeah.

  • -'Cause you do "Orville."

  • You were in the middle of shooting season three.

  • -Yes.

  • -Which -- By the way, congrats on season two.

  • I saw it was like 100% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.

  • -Yeah. -That's always good.

  • But, dude, so, you're in the middle of doing season three,

  • and they go, "Sorry. We're shutting everything down."

  • -We were right in the middle

  • of shooting an episode of "The Orville."

  • So it's like -- When this thing airs at long last,

  • whenever that is, you're gonna --

  • One episode is going to be such that you're going have,

  • between one scene to the next, people are suddenly

  • going to gain 20 pounds and have, like, long white beards.

  • -[ Laughs ] Inexplicable. Yeah. No one can say why.

  • No -- No plans on when that's going to come out yet?

  • -Not -- It depends on when we get back to work.

  • It depends on... -Right.

  • -...in what conditions we get back to work.

  • So it's -- Yeah, it's all -- I mean, it's -- what --

  • We've shot about half the season. It's looking amazing.

  • I mean, it's -- We're basically going to be delivering people

  • a little movie every week, so...

  • -I mean, do you find -- Is that a lot of pressure on you?

  • Because, I mean, we're all kind of looking for

  • new "Family Guys" and new "American Dads."

  • And, man, it was like, "Seth, we need stuff.

  • We need content, dude."

  • Like -- Is it like --

  • Again, thank you so much for coming on the show, by the way.

  • I really appreciate it. -Oh, anytime. I love it.

  • -So many people watch, and they're big fans of yours.

  • But, I mean, like, I don't know.

  • It's like -- You're like, "I'm only one man.

  • I can do this. I can do that."

  • -I mean, I-I like to stay -- I like to stay busy.

  • I mean, and I -- And there's enough for me to do

  • from a writing standpoint and from a producing standpoint

  • that I can -- I can find ways to fill this time.

  • One of my writing partners on "Family Guy" said to me --

  • said to me, "I'm coming to the realization

  • that this is what I've always wanted --

  • an excuse to never leave my house."

  • -[ Laughs ]

  • -And -- Yeah, you know, I try to keep --

  • The biggest issue for me is, you know, as I look ahead

  • to what's next and as I start writing projects --

  • And I'm sure you've heard this before.

  • When you're writing characters,

  • it's hard to predict how people are going to behave.

  • Like, you know, "Jim shakes hands with Bob."

  • Like, is that ever going to happen again?

  • -Yeah, you're right.

  • -What is the world going to look like?

  • And how much a part of day-to-day interaction

  • between people is this going to be?

  • And you just can't predict that.

  • So you're just writing the world that we know now.

  • And so that's the biggest challenge to me.

  • -You can probably get away with it a little bit

  • with "Family Guy," right? -Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

  • -'Cause you kind of live in your own reality.

  • -I'm with two shows that don't really have to address it.

  • "Family Guy" is a cartoon,

  • and "The Orville" is 500 years in the future.

  • So I kind of lucked out.

  • -Yeah, you can make up whatever rules.

  • "Yeah, we never shook hands." Exactly.

  • I saw somewhere -- I was looking on your Instagram or something.

  • You've been drawing ever since you were a kid,

  • like, different comics and drawings.

  • And I thought that was awesome.

  • Like, how old were you when you started doing that?

  • 12? 13? -I was about --

  • My parents have Fred Flintstones

  • and Woody Woodpeckers and Bugs Bunnys

  • from when I was about 2, trying to like, you know --

  • With my stubby baby-carrot fingers,

  • trying to copy them off the TV, holding my pencil wrong.

  • But, yeah, I started --

  • You know, I experimented with animation for the first time

  • I think when I was about 12. -Yeah.

  • -Just making short films

  • that were very crude and very, very, you know, loxy.

  • -Were you doing, like, video tape, like, pausing it,

  • and then changing the drawing then unpausing it?

  • -Yeah.

  • You know, it was a Super 8 camera, if you remember those.

  • -Yeah, it's 'cause they go -- [Imitates camera whirring]

  • -Yep, yep. -That one?

  • -There was a setting on it

  • where you could take one frame at a time,

  • and so that was what I was using.

  • And, you know, just coming out,

  • you literally wait like eight weeks

  • for the film to get developed 'cause it's got to go

  • to, like, Danbury, Connecticut, or someplace.

  • And then it comes back,

  • you see what you did wrong, and you do it again,

  • And then you wait another eight weeks,

  • and it was a very slow process. -That's right.

  • It had to come back to that -- We used to have Fotomats.

  • -Yes. So did we.

  • -It was, like, a weird little booth

  • in the middle of a parking lot.

  • And that's all they did, was give you your developed --

  • It was so odd.

  • -It's like a toll booth for film.

  • -I can't even imagine now like --

  • What's the real-estate deal on that?

  • -I have no idea.

  • And, yeah, 'cause it was never its own space.

  • It was always a part of a larger parking lot.

  • -It's just -- And I feel like you can kind of just lift it

  • right off the ground if you really wanted to rip them off.

  • It was a dangerous place. -Not good in bad weather. No.

  • -Yeah, it was a toll booth. All right.

  • Talk to me about "The At-Home Variety Show"

  • and what's happening.

  • Where can we see this thing?

  • -Well, basically, this is --

  • This is a show on Peacock,

  • which is a new streaming service.

  • -[ Laughs ] Oh, is that right?

  • -With a great name. Peacock. -Oh, what a name.

  • [ Laughter ]

  • -None of us were in that board meeting

  • when we probably should have been.

  • -No comedians were in that board meeting, no.

  • -There were no comedians...

  • "Excuse me. If I'm -- Sorry. Yes, back here!"

  • Is there -- Is there..."

  • -"Just sit back down. We got it. We're good, we're good.

  • We don't want any other suggestions. We're good."

  • [ Laughter ]

  • -But, yeah, it's a weekly -- Or, nightly, rather.

  • A nightly "At-Home Variety Show" that I'm hosting,

  • and each -- each installment features a different celebrity

  • who comes in and does their own act of some kind or other.

  • The array of installments is pretty diverse.

  • -How fun. -Everybody's doing it different.

  • Yeah, it's very experimental. It's very avant-garde.

  • -And it's all helping people during the pandemic.

  • -Yes. It's all for charity.

  • All for essential workers and communities in need.

  • -Is it sort of like a "Circus of the Stars" type of thing?

  • Do you remember that?

  • -I do remember "Circus of the Stars," yeah.

  • I think this is more voluntary.

  • I think these people are happy to be there doing this.

  • -[ Laughs ]

  • Are you saying they were against their will?

  • -I remember reading that, like, "Circus of the Stars"

  • was something that, like, the actors were kind of forced to do

  • if they wanted to keep working.

  • -I loved it. What was the Olympics?

  • -Like, "Gabe Kaplan, get on that trapeze."

  • -It'd say, "Brooke Shields

  • is going to walk on broken glass when we come back."

  • And you go -- So you're saying

  • she didn't really want to do that?

  • -"Charlotte Rae is going to swallow a sword."

  • [ Laughter ]

  • -From "Facts of Life"? Mrs. Garrett?

  • -Yes.

  • -[ Laughs ] Oh, my -- Holy moly. That's unbelievable.

  • Well, we're going to put --

  • We put the website up on the screen right now.

  • You go to peacocktv.com/forgood.

  • And how are you on that variety show?

  • Will you be hosting it? Will you be appearing on it?

  • -You know, I'm literally, at the moment, just hosting.

  • I'm standing in my --

  • standing in my house and rolling out the acts.

  • -I think it's awesome. Thank you for doing that.

-Seth MacFarlane. There he is. Oh, my gosh.

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