According to the LA Times Seth MacFarlane will be hosting the 2010 Writers Guild Awards (WGA) West Coast ceremony on February 20th. Speaking in a statement Seth said, “I’m honored and humbled to be chosen as host of the WGAW awards. I look forward to catching up with my strike buddies from 2007, and making some new strike buddies for 2011.”
Seth MacFarlane to host 2010 WGA Awards
Posted Jan 30, 08:07 AM by Rob
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Kyle Dwan on Sunday January 31, 2010 at 12:06:15 AM said:
I was searching all over the internet to see if there were anyone who agrees with me about Family Guy today, and this post happens to be well liked by many fans.
Look, I’ll be the first to say that I absolutely love Family Guy. Its in-your-face humor and not-caring-what-you-think attitude helped it become one of the first shows I really got addicted to. But as many have noticed lately, it seems to be on a downward spiral. Fortunately, not all is lost. There are three main reasons why Family Guy is starting to grow stale; fortunately, they can be easily fixed.
1. When the message is more important than the humor. This is the biggest trend lately, with Seth MacFarlane and the writers trying to get their audience to “learn” something. Unfortunately, it often results in those writers not being true to their characters and ruining the show with long, humorless storytelling. I thought I’d love the “Family Gay” episode, because I’d really liked the one they did before, with Brian’s cousin Jasper. With that one they did a fine job of balancing the humor and story, because let’s be honest, even when you’re standing on a soapbox for gay marriage, gay jokes are still funny. Unfortunately, I hated “Family Gay”, and there’s a simple reason: Because none of the characters would have acted the way they did. Brian would never put anyone in a “straight camp”, no matter how unhappy he thought Lois was. Stewie would never quote the Bible at anyone, because he’s not religious. And Peter absolutely adores Lois, and even if it was made scientifically impossible for him to physically love her, he would never leave her for some random guy named Scott. The episode made it seem like gay people found their partners easily replaceable and were concerned with nothing but sex, something that goes against what the writers were trying to do. And Lois’s speech at the end (“I can’t change your orientation, and it’d be wrong for me to try”) made absolutely no sense, because Peter’s orientation had been changed. This is the kind of stuff that happens when the writers try to use their characters as a vehicle for their own opinions.
How to fix it: Easy. Stop trying to interject a message into every episode, or if you do, make it come second to the humor. “Not All Dogs Go to Heaven” would have been much better if the “Star Trek” cast had been the A story, not the B story. If a lesson can come out of all these jokes, fine. If it can’t, don’t try to force it. Family Guy was built on being stupid but witty, and being nothing but serious does not work for it.
2. Lack of character development. This one ties in somewhat to #1, but is harder to fix, because it’s been a problem for most of the show’s length. It’s only now, as the show is beginning to run its course and storylines are starting to be recycled, that the audience is noticing it. Most of the characters on “Family Guy” are one-dimensional and flat, because the show was built that way. Joe is funny because he’s handicapped and loud. Quagmire is funny because he’s a perv. Meg is funny because no one likes her. Chris and Peter are funny because they’re morons. Lois is funny because she’s the only rational person in all of this, and only sometimes. It seems (to me, anyway) like the only two richly-developed characters are Stewie and Brian, because the dynamic between them allows the writers to do a lot with their personalities. Unfortunately, even the two of them are starting to show their age, if you will, and it’s a big problem. Brian’s becoming a self-centered douchebag, with episodes like “We Love You Conrad” and “Not All Dogs Go to Heaven” showing how shallow and hypocritical he really is (and since Brian is basically Seth MacFarlane in a dog’s body, this is a problem on more than one level). The writers are focusing too much on Gay Stewie, and not enough on Evil Stewie. I submit an episode of the show that was an exception to these problems: “The Man With Two Brians”. That episode was so good because it was character-driven, with all of the family reacting to New Brian. It also brought back Evil Stewie.
How to fix it: Make more episodes like “Two Brians”. Focus on developing the characters and letting the audience see sides of them that they haven’t seen before (or for a long time) and let the humor come out of that. We haven’t heard from Lois much lately; how would it be if she went crazy somehow, like in “Breaking Out is Hard to Do”? Or what if Chris discovered something he was really, really good at? The possibilities are endless.And Peter, Brian and Stewie should take a break. We need to see more of Lois,Meg and Chris.
3. Reusing old jokes and dragging them on too long. “Cool Hwip” was hilarious when it first aired; no one at my school could stop quoting it. Unfortunately, once they discovered how popular it was, the writers felt the need to beat it to death. Now we have “rueened” vs. “ruined”, “Hwil Hweaton” vs. “Wil Wheaton”, and Stewie’s deliberately trying to provoke New Brian with the same “Cool Hwip”. But it’s not just this; there have been reused “Rocky and Bullwinkle” gags (“And now, here’s something we hope you’ll really like”), revisiting Peter’s “Ssss … Aaah” with Lois, and of course the god-awful Conway Twitty stuff. “Ssss … Aaah” was very funny the first time it was on, because it was timed so well. Just when you thought Peter had run his fill and it’d cut to something else, he’d start going on again. But now, things like this just seem like time filler (especially the Twitty thing). It feels like the writers are getting lazy, and their thought process is something like “Just throw in something we know is funny, better to get a laugh from half the audience than to risk a new joke falling flat.” Or, failing that, it’s “Just get the episode up to 21 minutes already.” This more than anything is what’s causing Family Guy to feel stale.
How to fix it: Simple. Stop reusing the damn jokes. Go through all the rough drafts of the new episodes and replace anything that even mentions the “Cool Hwip” thing. Referencing the same pop culture element more than twice (“How I Met Your Mother”, for example) is cheating. And for the love of God, no more Conway Twitty. Yes, an integral part of Family Guy is the cutaway gags, but there are plenty of other references to make without the writers having to repeat themselves. (Idea balls for manatees, anyone?)
There are some other, minor things also contributing to the show’s slide. For example, I’ve noticed that there is at least one “f” word in every new episode (bleeped, of course), undoubtedly to appeal to the DVD audience and make the “COMPLETELY UNCENSORED!” aspect more of a selling point. Those f words don’t need to be there, is the only problem; it feels forced. There’s also the tendency to drag out long musical numbers (The family singing “The Rose” in the car, or “A Bag of Weed” going on for over three minutes) at the sacrifice of humor, undoubtedly as more time filler. But overall, these are the three main elements that are slowly killing “Family Guy”. I speak from the heart, as someone who absolutely adores the show and at one point wanted to work on the writing staff someday — please, for the love of God, FG writers, at least try to bring the show back to its former glory. Otherwise we fans will continue to be disappointed all the way through 2012. Maybe even longer, if the show’s contract is renewed again.
Kyle Dwan on Sunday January 31, 2010 at 12:17:23 AM said:
I’m sorry, its just that,well,after being a big fan of family guy i just makes me sad that the show is starting to go downhill. It seems as if every single new episode starting with season 7 has focused on Peter, Brian and Stewie and that gags from way back whenare reused. I was dissapointed when I bought Something Darkside because at the beginning, that Phoney Guy was used. I mean, can’t we not reuse jokes and focus more on Lois Meg and Chris? Please? I’m not trying to be a douche here, but it makes me sad that Family Guy is turning into something it wasnt.
hamzah on Sunday January 31, 2010 at 11:51:52 AM said:
i think you are right kyle the y do use alot of the same stuff but it is like a classicle version i know what you are talking about but it been like forever it kind of ok to do that but you right if they do it more than twice then yes it would get so boring yea i they need to get new material into this serious cause i will be so upset if it gets canceled without all the mail characters in family guy dieing forever and brain finally gets a chick he like s and keep s it and passes collages then i Will be oik if they canceled it but if they did not then yea i gonna be realy mad and like protest to get it back in or something like till they do . I do think they take suggestion cause i would like them to make a episode where the family finds out the stew kill new brain and that he is gay