Welcome back to the Deep Dive. This is where
we take, well, a monumental figure, stack up
all the source material we can find, really boil
it down and deliver the most fascinating bits
straight to you. Yeah. Today, we're looking at
someone who's just a force of nature. His career,
honestly, it feels like a contradiction in terms.
It really does. We are deep diving into Seth
MacFarlane, a creative powerhouse who somehow...
Bridges the gap between, let's say, the absolute
crassest adult animation out there. Right. Incredibly
successful animation. And then pivots to recording
these sophisticated Grammy nominated big band
albums like straight out of the classic Hollywood
era. All while being, you know, a really serious
advocate for science, for space exploration.
It's quite the mix. It truly is a career that.
Well, it demands this kind of deeper look. When
you dig into the biographical sources like the
ones you shared, they don't just paint a picture
of success. They show an artist who's defined
by his ability to operate and succeed. in fields
that seem completely opposite so our mission
today really is to trace that path how did this
young animator kind of obsessed with that mid
-century vibe right how did he become this multi
-billion dollar franchise guy host the oscars
get acclaim as a singer and become a patron of
science yeah that's the journey i mean a quick
snapshot alone it feels like you're reading the
resumes of five different people crammed into
one totally you've got actor animator right writer,
producer, director, comedian and singer. And
the scale is just huge. Family Guy, American
Dad, the Ted movies, the Orville. Yeah. It seems
almost impossible to juggle all that at once.
And what's really fascinating digging into the
background is that the seeds for all this diversity,
they were planted way back. Decades ago. This
isn't someone who just, you know, picked up a
new hobby late in life. It's built on this really
intense, almost academic interest in very specific
art forms from early on. OK, so let's start there
at the foundation, because the source is definitely
paying a clear picture of a very early, very
focused, creative spark. McFarlane got interested
in illustration at what, age two? which is incredible
yeah two years old and it wasn't just like random
drawing he was already trying to nail the likenesses
of characters like fred flintstone woody woodpecker
icons that's serious focus for a toddler absolutely
and Clearly more than just a passing phase. By
the time he was five, he'd already decided he
wanted to do animation for a living. Wow. And
there's this great family story, and the source
is his parents apparently scoured two whole towns
in Connecticut just trying to find him a book
on how to make flip books. Just so he could practice.
Yeah, so he could grasp the basic mechanics of
motion, that kind of parental support for such
a specific, intense childhood goal. You have
to think that was pretty significant. You really
do. Lucas started paying off, like, financially,
surprisingly early. By nine years old, he had
a real paid gig. Right, a weekly comic strip.
Through the local paper, the Kent Good Times
Dispatch. It was called Walter Cruden, and he
was earning five bucks a week. Five dollars,
which for a nine -year -old back in the 80s,
that was probably pretty decent money. Oh, yes,
serious pocket money. And even then, even in
that early work, you could see he was already
kind of honing that mix of satire and provocation.
Controversy. Yeah. He talked about doing this
strip about a communion ceremony. The character's
kneeling at the altar and asks, can I have fries
with that? Oh, boy. The paper actually published
it. And he immediately got this angry letter
from the local priest, sparked what he called,
you know, a little mini controversy in their
small town. That is that's a perfect little preview,
isn't it? Right. Religious satire mixed with
lowbrow fast food humor. That's basically the
formula for a billion dollar future. Pretty much
sums it up. So he graduates from Kent School,
where he'd been messing around with an 8mm camera,
and goes straight to RISD Rhode Island School
of Design, majoring in animation. A top school.
And initially, the plan was the classic route,
right? Aiming for Disney. That was the goal.
But then came the big shift. The sources point
to one specific influence that completely changed
his trajectory. The Simpsons. Exactly. Seeing
The Simpsons showed him that primetime animation
didn't have to be, you know, the sanitized Saturday
morning stuff or the big epic Disney feature
film model. Right. It could be edgier, aimed
at adults, character driven. Precisely. And that
became his new target. This whole period kind
of culminates in his senior thesis film at RISD,
The Life of Larry. And this is Ground Zero, The
Life of Larry, middle -aged guy Larry, his smart
dog Steve. That is the direct, like the absolute
blueprint for Family Guy. 100%. His professor
thought it was so good, they sent it off to Hanna
-Barbera. And here's a really key detail, something
noted in the sources that kind of set him apart
early on. When Hanna -Barbera recruited him out
to Hollywood, they hired him based on the writing
in the life of Larry, not mainly his drawing
skills. Ah, interesting. Yeah, the sources say
he was actually one of the few people they hired
back then specifically for writing talent. So
he lands at Hanna -Barbera, basically the engine.
Right. He described it as this kind of old -fashioned
Hollywood structure. You know, constantly shifting
writing on one show, then storyboarding on another.
Fast -paced. And the sources mentioned his time
on Johnny Bravo was particularly important for
his writing development. Why was that? Well...
It seems Johnny Bravo, unlike some of the other
shows he worked on there, used a more formal
script writing process. As opposed to just storyboarding?
Exactly. Some shows relied really heavily on
the storyboard artist to drive the gags, but
Johnny Bravo used actual scripts. For someone
like McFarlane, whose whole style would eventually
depend on rapid -fire dialogue, punchlines, cutaways,
mastering formal scripting was absolutely crucial.
Okay, that makes sense. Because the Family Guy
style, it's so dialogue heavy. Formal scripts
force you to focus. on plot, on sharp lines.
Whereas storyboard driven shows might lean more
towards visual gags, right? Like Dexter's Lab
has a lot of that. Precisely. He needed to nail
the art of the written joke. The joke that lands
quick. And Johnny Bravo gave him that the rigorous
training. And during that Hanna -Barbera time,
he also developed the sequel to his thesis film,
right? Larry and Steve. Yeah. For Cartoon Network's
world premiere tunes showcase. I think it was
called What a Cartoon. Back then. And that short
with those, you know, proto Peter and proto Brian
characters. It really sets up the dynamic we
know so well now. It really lays the groundwork.
Perfect through line. And we should probably
also mention his freelance gigs during that time,
too, for Disney television animation on Jungle
Cubs. Right. And for Nelvana on Ace Ventura,
Pet Detective. He actually credits that kind
of work where he was just focused on observing
the writing, the story structure, plot points
is really valuable preparation. So he wasn't
just drawing. He was actively dissecting. intersecting
how stories were built. Exactly. Mastering the
craft of narrative while simultaneously developing
his own much edgier comedic voice. It was all
happening at once. Okay. So the craft is honed.
The unique voice is there. And McFarlane's got
this ambition for, as you said, edgier primetime
animation. So while he's still at Hanna -Barbera,
he pitches Family Guy to Fox. Which brings us
to, well, the legendary story. The birth and
battle of Family Guy. Yeah, and that origin story
is so important because it really explains the
show's initial kind of scrappy feel. Fox gave
him this, honestly, an almost unbelievably tiny
budget for the pilot, just $50 ,000. $50 ,000?
I mean, even adjusted for inflation today, what's
that, like under $100 ,000? It's basically nothing
for a network pilot. Exactly. It shows Fox was
taking a really minimal risk on this young guy.
The expectations must have been rock bottom.
McFarlane described making that pilot as, what,
six months with no sleep and no life, just drawing
like crazy in my kitchen. Yeah. He had to come
back with something very, very simply crudely
animated, basically relying entirely on the script's
strength to sell it. But it worked. Fox liked
the tone. They ordered the series. And boom,
July 1998, McFarlane becomes TV's youngest executive
producer. He's just 24. And that cemented his
multiple roles. Writing, EP, and voicing Peter
Stewie, Brian Quagmire. Plus others like Tom
Tucker, Jake Tucker. But that initial success,
it was actually kind of misleading, wasn't it?
Right. This is where we need to really unpack
it. Because the Resurrection story is maybe his
single biggest business win. The show got canceled,
not once, but twice. Twice. First after season
two, I think. Then they brought it back for a
bit, then canceled it again. So on network TV,
it was technically a failure. Initially, yeah.
But then something amazing happened in the afterlife,
basically. Yeah. Home video and cable syndication.
Adult Swim reruns. Exactly. Cartoon Network's
Adult Swim started airing the reruns, and the
ratings were huge, just enormous. Then the DVD
box sets came out. And people bought them like
crazy. Unprecedented sales. The sources say by
2004, the series had sold something like a million
DVDs. It was actually making more money for Fox
from DDD sales than the original run ever did.
Which just forced their hand. Completely. So
it wasn't just, you know, fan petitions online
that there was that too. It was hard. Undeniable
data from a totally new revenue stream DVDs that
made the network bring back a show they'd already
killed off twice. That's almost unheard of in
television history. It really is the ultimate
like counter narrative to conventional network
wisdom. And that revival, that power shift allowed
him to negotiate that massive hundred million
dollar deal with Fox in 2008. Wow. Yeah. Securing
family guy and American dad. for years and making
him, at that time, one of the highest paid TV
writers in the world. He basically made the network
pay him a fortune for a show they tried to get
rid of. Of course, when you're creating satire
on that level, pushing boundaries like that,
you invite friction. The show was constantly
targeted by watchdog groups, especially the Parents
Television Council, the PTC. Oh yeah, the PTC.
They were filing complaints with the FCC, organizing
letter writing campaigns, constantly going after
the show's content. And McFarlane's response
to them is, well, it's pure McFarlane. isn't
it just blunt no compromise absolutely he famously
called them literally terrible human beings added
something like that's like getting hate mail
from hitler they spend their entire day hating
people wow okay it really sums up his whole stance
right he sees any attempt to censor comedy to
police it morally as just fundamentally malicious
and frankly dumb okay moving on to the spinoffs
we've got american dad which is still running,
remarkably, since 2005. It even survived network
moves, Fox to TBS, and now back to Fox, right?
That's right. And the initial spark for American
Dad was definitely political. It came out of
McFarlane's pretty well -documented frustration
with the George W. Bush administration back then.
So it started as more direct political satire.
Stan Smith is a kind of Archie Bunker figure.
That was the initial idea, yeah. Sort of all
in the family dynamic. But here's where McFarlane
showed he learned something crucial. Delegation.
He largely stepped back from the day -to -day
creative side of American Dad. He left it to
the co -creators, Matt Weitzman and Mike Barker,
to really shape it, give it its own identity,
make it distinct from Family Guy's reliance on
cuddleways, for example. But he still voices
Stan Smith and Roger the Alien, the main characters.
Oh, yeah, absolutely. He's still central, but
he let it breathe and become its own thing, which
is smart. And then there's the Cleveland show,
focusing on Cleveland Brown, ran for, what, 88
episodes? Yep. And notably, that's the only one
of his big animated shows where he didn't voice
the main character, which is maybe a small sign,
but shows he's willing to let other talents take
the lead. But the animation empire, huge as it
is, was really just setting the stage for his
next big move, a really serious pivot into live
action. In 2017, he launched The Orville. His
first major live action series. Sci -fi dramedy.
And he stars in it, too, as Captain Ed Mercer.
This felt like a huge test of his range, right?
Moving from 2D satire to high concept, ongoing
storytelling with spaceships and aliens. Definitely.
And the initial critical reaction, it was pretty
rough. A lot of reviews called it derivative
or too much like a sketch comedy version of Star
Trek. But the sources say the reviews got much
better by season two. What changed? What did
they pinpoint? Well, it seems the show itself
shifted gears. It moved away from trying so hard
to be a parody of classic sci -fi and leaned
much more into serious character drama and thought
-provoking science fiction plots. More like classic
Star Trek, actually. Exactly. The kind of social
commentary Trek was known for. The episodes got
longer, more serialized. They tackled complex
ethical dilemmas. That maturation, that shift
in tone, seemed to win over a lot of the critics
and showed McFarlane could handle drama and comedy.
And then came the network move. After Disney
bought Fox, the Orville jumped to Hulu for season
three, New Horizons. That feels significant,
like a move for more creative freedom. It absolutely
suggests that. Streaming platforms often allow
for longer episodes, maybe fewer content restrictions.
It sort of cemented the show's seriousness, putting
it alongside other big streaming dramas. And
then there was that weird COVID side effect.
A scrapped episode turned into a novel. Yeah,
the Orville. Sympathy for the devil. An episode
planned for season three got shelved due to production
delays, so he adapted it and published it as
a novella. Just shows he's always looking for
an outlet, right? If he can't film it, he'll
write it. Doesn't matter the medium. Beyond the
shows he stars in, his producer credits show
just... Staggering range. Yeah. He produced the
Cosmos reboot with Neil deGrasse Tyson. That's
serious science communication. A huge non -comedy
achievement. Really shows him using his Hollywood
clout for something deeply educational, carrying
on Carl Sagan's legacy. And yeah, some of his
live action sitcom tries, like The Winner, Dads,
they didn't last long. True. But he also produced
Glunt Talk, that star series with Patrick Stewart,
critically acclaimed, ran for two seasons. Right,
about the British journalist in L .A. And he
even used animation for direct social commentary
with Bordertown. Only 13 episodes, but it took
on immigration, cultural change, through this
Border Patrol agent, and a Mexican immigrant
family. He really does use every tool in the
box to talk about what's happening now. Okay,
let's shift gears again to the big screen. McFarlane's
live -action directing debut, TED 2012. He co
-wrote it, produced it, and voiced the title
character, that foul -mouthed teddy bear. And
the success wasn't just big. It was kind of historic,
wasn't it? Yeah, Ted had the highest opening
weekend gross ever for an original R -rated comedy
at the time. And internationally, it did even
better, becoming the highest -grossing original
R -rated comedy worldwide, beating The Hangover.
It proved his brand of humor worked globally.
And it spawned a sequel. Ted 2 in 2015 and now
there's that Peacock prequel series coming out.
The franchise just keeps going. It really does.
His next film, A Million Ways to Die in the West
from 2014, the Western comedy he wrote and starred
in, that got a much more mixed reaction. Critics
weren't as kind. Yeah, it didn't hit the same
way. But there's that amazing little detail about
it. Apparently, he got so restless or bored during
the filming that he spent his weekends writing
a novel based on the script. Just because. It's
just proof, right? The creative engine is always
running. If he's not directing, he's writing.
And his interest in reviving classic comedy formats
continues. He's developing a Naked Gun reboot.
Yeah, with Liam Neeson potentially playing Frank
Trebin Jr. how wild is that it's wild but it
fits his career arc goes from reviving hannah
barbara tropes to potentially reviving zucker
abraham's and zucker style parody he loves those
classic forms okay now for maybe the biggest
disconnect for people the thing that makes you
go wait that guy The crooner career. Yeah. The
same man who voices Stewie Griffin, possibly
the most evil baby in cartoon history, is also
this acclaimed Grammy -nominated singer of standards.
It is truly the most unexpected part of his profile,
but it's also maybe the most deeply traditional.
His musical passion comes from this really serious
study of, as he puts it, the lush orchestration
and old -fashioned melody writing of the great
American songbook. Sinatra, Dean Martin, Mel
Torme. Those are his guys. He genuinely feels
that kind of music, that sense of fun, as he
calls it, is missing from a lot of modern pop.
And he took it seriously. This wasn't just some
celebrity vanity project. He got proper, rigorous
vocal training. From Lee and Sally Sweetland,
yeah. Coaches who actually worked with legends
like Streisand and Sinatra himself. Wow. And
they taught him the old -style way of singing.
The sources mentioned this fascinating technical
detail. His coaches apparently drilled him day
in and day out on the technique of showing his
teeth while singing. Showing his teeth. Why?
Apparently, they argued it helped brighten the
whole performance. That level of detailed technical
coaching, it just shows how committed he was
to getting the authenticity right. Just like
his commitment to animation structure, but in
a totally different field. And it worked. He
got a record deal with Universal Republic in
2010. started releasing albums of traditional
pop, easy listening, jazz, swing. Nine studio
albums so far, starting with Music is Better
Than Words in 2011. That one got him his first
Grammy nomination. And how many nominations total
now? Five. Five Grammy nominations for best traditional
pop vocal album for albums like No One Ever Tells
You in full swing. Getting five nominations in
that specific category, that puts him right up
there with the top contemporary singers in that
genre. He's legit. And his commitment to preserving
this music goes beyond just recording covers.
Tell us about this new album, The Lost Sinatra
Arrangements. That sounds amazing. It's incredible,
right? Lush life. The Lost Sinatra Arrangements
coming out in 2025. He's basically doing music
archaeology here. How did he find them? So these
weren't just sitting in some public archive.
McFarlane actually discovered these musical charts
arrangements written for Frank Sinatra by legends
like Nelson Riddle, Billy May, just sitting unperformed
in Sinatra's own private music library. Oh, just
filed away. Lost to time. Essentially, yeah.
Charts written, paid for, but never recorded.
McFarlane saw their value, secured the rights,
and then conducted the album himself with the
John Wilson Orchestra. It's more than just singing
standards. It's actively rescuing and preserving
pieces of musical history, filling in the gaps.
And he performs live, too, right? At serious
venues. Absolutely. Hollywood Bowl, Carnegie
Hall, Royal Albert Hall in London, the BBC proms.
He performs as a serious vocalist, not just,
you know, a celebrity guest spot. He's taken
seriously by that world. That serious artist
side, it really contrasts with his other big
side gig, hosting. He was the roastmaster for
Comedy Central a few times. Yeah, David Hasselhoff,
Donald Trump, Charlie Sheen. He's the only person
who's done it more than once, actually. Shows
he can handle that really brutal, high -energy
comedy environment. But the biggest hosting gig,
and probably the most controversial, was the
Oscars in 2013. The 85th Academy Awards. He was
actually nominated that year, too, for Best Original
Song from Ted, Everybody Needs a Best Friend.
Right, and the hosting itself got, well, mixed
reviews, is putting it mildly. Yeah, it ranged
from people finding it kind of... bland or boring
to outright outrage. The big flashpoint. Everyone
remembers it. The We Saw Your Boobs song. Oh,
yeah. That musical number listing actresses who'd
appeared topless in movies. Critics jumped all
over it. What was the main criticism? That it
was just cheap shock value. Pretty much. Owen
Gleiberman at Entertainment Weekly called it
an echo chamber of outrage, saying he tried too
hard with faux scandalous gags about sensitive
topics, basically arguing he was just importing
the lazy shock humor from Family Guy. But not
everyone hated it. No, it wasn't universal. Some
other critics thought he did impressively better
than one would have wagered. They felt he managed
to balance the sort of required Oscar politeness
with a bit of that Ricky Gervais edge, you know,
biting the hand that feeds you. So it was divisive.
Yeah. Shows how tough it is to bring that family
guy sensibility to such a mainstream global event
like the Oscars. Exactly. It's a tricky tightrope
to walk. Okay, let's shift focus completely now.
Away from the entertainment side and look at
the more serious, often very public side of Seth
MacFarlane. His activism, his philosophical views,
politically the sources make it clear. He's a
consistent, staunch supporter of the Democratic
Party. Very consistent, significant donations
over the years. The source has mentioned over
$200 ,000 to various Democratic committees and
causes. And his endorsements track the modern
party line pretty closely. Obama in 08, Bernie
Sanders in the 16 primary, then Hillary Clinton
for the general, Joe Biden in 20 and 24, and
then Kamala Harris after Biden stepped aside.
He's also vocal about legalizing cannabis. And
his advocacy for gay rights is really deeply
woven into his work and public persona. Even
before the Supreme Court ruling on marriage equality,
he was speaking out very forcefully, called unequal
marriage rates infuriating and idiotic. That
outspokenness, that commitment to equality and
critical thinking, led to him being named Harvard
Humanist of the Year in 2011. Which makes sense.
But beyond specific political issues, he's been
a really powerful voice for labor within the
entertainment industry. He seems willing to risk
his own lucrative deals to stand with writers
and actors. Like during the 2007 -2008 Writers
Guild strike. That was a big one. Huge. And he
very publicly sided with the guild, fully participated
in the strike, even though it created this really
weird, tense situation with Fox. What happened
there? His contract required him to work. Technically,
yeah. His contract for Family Guy required him
to contribute. But because he was striking, he
refused. So Fox went ahead and aired three episodes
that were already finished, but without his final
OK or input. And he called them out publicly
for it. Oh, yeah. He called it a colossal dick
move by the network publicly. Wow. That must
have caused serious friction with the network
that basically housed his billion dollar franchise.
Did that damage the relationship long term? Or
did that huge hundred million dollar deal afterwards
just prove they couldn't afford to lose him regardless
of the conflict? It really seems like the latter.
The fact that the massive deal came not long
after the strike suggests that, yeah, there was
definitely tension, but the financial reality
of Family Guy and American Dad. The sheer amount
of money they generated from DVDs syndication
just made him too valuable. He had the leverage.
He had the leverage and he used it to support
the writers, knowing his product was basically
indispensable to Fox at that point. And that
support wasn't just a one off. During the big
strikes in 2023, the WGA and SAG -FTRA strikes.
He put his money where his mouth was, donated
a million dollars to the Entertainment Community
Fund. A million dollars to help industry workers
who are out of work during the strikes. That's
a massive. statement of solidarity. It really
is. Now, moving completely away from Hollywood,
his work in scientific and artistic preservation,
this might be his most impactful contribution
outside of entertainment. And it really speaks
to his core philosophy. Let's talk about the
Carl Sagan archive. That's fascinating. It really
comes back to that self -description, a critical
thinker. In 2012, he put up the money needed
to create the Seth Macarline collection of the
Carl Sagan and Ann Dreen Archive. It's housed
at the Library of Congress. Preserving Sagan's
papers, his research. Exactly. All the materials
from one of the most important science communicators
of the 20th century. And his reason for doing
it. He said it was rooted in his belief in how
crucial space exploration is, regardless of whatever
trivial stuff is happening in the news cycle.
He famously quipped he did it, in spite of whatever
Snooki did last week. Okay, that archive opened
in 2013, making sure all that scientific history
is safe. Priceless educational material, preserved,
and his love for classic art forms, it goes beyond
music. He's into film preservation, too. In 2024,
he teamed up with Martin Scorsese, of all people.
Scorsese and McFarland. That's a pairing. Right.
To fund and showcase the restoration of old animated
shorts. The project's called Back from the Ink.
Restored animated shorts working with the UCLA
Film and Television Archive. So the guy who created
Ted is working with Martin Scorsese to save cartoon
history. It just shows he sees preserving classic
art, whether it's old Sinatra charts or forgotten
animation cells, as just as vital as creating
new stuff. To really understand the guy, the
sources also give us some personal and philosophical
context. He identifies as an atheist. Yeah, calls
himself a critical thinker. And he's expressed
fascination, maybe even bewilderment, that so
many people still believe in, as he put it, the
invisible man living in the sky. That rationalist
viewpoint clearly feeds into it. comedy. But
the deepest personal context, the one that really
stops you in your tracks, is the September 11th
near miss. That's right. He was booked on American
Airlines Flight 11, the first plane to hit the
World Trade Center. How did he miss it? Two things,
according to the sources. One, he had a hangover
from partying the night before. And two, his
travel agent gave him the wrong departure time,
told him 7 .45 a .m. instead of the actual 7
.40 a .m. So we got to the airport, Logan in
Boston, about 10 minutes late, and the gate was
already closed. Missed it by minutes. And he's
quoted saying that the horrific event didn't
affect him as deeply as you might expect, which
he felt was necessary for his job as a comedy
writer, precisely because he didn't really know
that I was in any danger until after it was over.
That idea of compartmentalizing, how important
is that specific kind of distance for his brand
of humor? Oh, it's incredibly important. Think
about Family Guy. The humor is dark. It's absurd.
It tackles incredibly sensitive topics constantly.
To do that effectively as a satirist, you almost
need a certain emotional distance from tragedy.
Right. If he had been immediately profoundly
traumatized by realizing how close he came while
it was happening, it might have shut down his
ability to find humor in those dark corners.
The fact that he processed the narrow escape
after the tragedy was fully known allowed him,
perhaps, to maintain that... intellectual, and
emotional remove needed to keep writing boundary
-pushing satire. That makes a chilling kind of
sense. Okay, finally, just for completeness,
we should touch on the legal side. Creating content
that pushes boundaries like his does, it inevitably
leads to lawsuits. Oh yeah. The sources highlight
three main copyright infringement suits. The
most famous one was probably over the I Need
a Jew parody song in Family Guy. Based on When
You Wish Upon a Star. Right. But the court ruled
in his favor on that one, said it was protected
parody, fair use. That was a pretty important
ruling for satire in general. What were the others?
There was one involving Jesus performing a parody
of comedian art, Metrano's Fine and Dandy Magic
Act. That one got settled out of court. And then
there was the lawsuit against Ted. Someone claimed
he stole the idea. Yeah, from their concept called
Charlie the Abusive Teddy Bear. But the plaintiffs
eventually dropped the suit after conceding that
McFarlane had created Ted independently. So the
legal fights happened, which you'd almost expect.
His work has generally held up against those
challenges. It absolutely has. And actually,
before we wrap up and try to synthesize all this,
there's one last detail from the sources. It's
wonderfully random and shows his influence goes
way beyond Hollywood or music charts. In 2022,
scientists described a brand new species of frog
they discovered in Ecuador, a Hilo -Cerdus frog,
and they named it after him. Get out. What's
it called? Even the natural world is acknowledging
the guy's incredibly broad, unpredictable reach.
Hashtag tag outro. So when you really zoom out
and look at the whole picture of Seth MacFarlane,
the thing that keeps coming back is this incredible
split, this dichotomy. Yeah. You have the traditionalist,
the meticulous artist, the singer studying Sinatra's
coaches, the preservationist saving Sagan's papers
and old cartoons, the guy who writes a novel
just because he's bored on set. Right. That side.
And then right alongside him is the boundary
smashing, often abrasive satirist who built this
multi -billion dollar empire on, let's be honest,
crude jokes. Hilarious cutaways and that initial
$50 ,000 pilot gamble. And he seems to thrive
in the tension between those two poles. He uses
the money engine from his arguably lowest brow
comedy to fund these incredibly highbrow preservation
focused artistic and scientific projects. It's
like he completely rejects the idea that you
have to pick a lane creatively. Totally. He refuses
to fit in just one box. So considering that whole
constellation of work, you know, his dedication
to science archives, his role in literally saving
pieces of the great American songbook and that
50 grand bet that turned into a billion dollar
cartoon franchise. Here's something provocative
for you, the listener, to think about. Is Seth
MacFarlane's greatest skill? Maybe. Actually,
his willingness to invest deeply. financially,
creatively, personally, in the fields where absolutely
no one expects him to succeed? That's a great
question. Whether it's digging up lost music
charts or funding an astronomer's archive, it
definitely feels like his appetite for, I don't
know, risk and preservation is maybe just as
strong as his talent for making people laugh
or cringe or both. Or both. Well, thanks for
joining us for The Deep Dive. See you next time.