Planet Family Guy

Family Guy Studios Back in Action

By Mikenomn (Monday, January 31, 2005)

When planning for a "before I head back to school" vacation to California, I didn't think I'd have to work the studios in which Family Guy is being brought back to life into my schedule. But just for the hell of it, I asked Joe, one of the founding members of our site, to throw the idea of a tour at some of our "inside sources.' Within a week of asking, I was talking to writer and producer, Steve Callaghan about when and where to meet up with him for a tour and table read.

The Table Read

We ended up deciding to visit August 10th, one of the few days in August that table reads were scheduled. A friend and I were supposed to arrive at around a quarter to 10 o'clock in the morning, but ended up getting lost in traffic. Luckily, we were only about 10 minutes late, which turned out to be perfect timing as they were running about 15 minutes late themselves. As we walked into the front of the office, we ran into Steve Callaghan. We made our introductions and were quickly ushered into the room in which the table read was to take place. The room was already filled with people, most of which were writers, voice actors and executives. We were handed the script that they were going to read and hurried to grab a seat.

Within a couple of minutes, Steve made his way over to give us a bit of insight into the purpose of a table read and what we could expect. Table reads are one of the final stages of the writing process. When a script reaches the table read stage, it is already fairly polished, though is usually a bit different from what is aired on television as a final product. The read gives executives a chance to hear the story and offer criticism, or to ask that jokes be changed for legal / censorship reasons. It's also a great way for the writers to get a feel as to which jokes hit and miss. As Steve explained this to us, Alex Borstein and Seth MacFarlane made their way into the room and took their seats near the head of the table.

After a couple minutes of chatter and an introduction to the script, the table read began. Less than a minute into it I was "holding my sides" in laughter. The script was pure hilarity. Almost all of the jokes received uproarious laughter and were read off rapid-fire just as in the episodes we've all come to know and love. The story was great on its own and a bit different from what we've seen on Family Guy thus far. I can't say much about it, but I will say that it will not disappoint.

I wish I could say that I was glued to the script throughout the entire read, but that would be a lie. I was amazed at the way Seth MacFarlane could jump from character to character as if he was having a conversation with himself. It intresting to see the same person doing the voices of three completely separate characters from the show so seamlessly.

In a quick half an hour, the read wrapped up with an enthusiastic applause. Everyone in the room seemed to be pleased with what they had just heard. It was obvious that they all enjoy what they do.

Tour of the Studio

After the table read, we got back together with Steve Callaghan and got a chance to talk with him a bit about the script. I had spoke with him on the phone and via email prior to meeting him in person, but didn't realize until I was able to shake his hand and talk to him, just how cool and down to earth he really is. You would think that someone producing a show as great and successful as Family Guy might have a sort of "Hollywood demeanor,"; but this wasn't the case with anyone we met in the studio. Everyone was extremely friendly and welcoming.

We were introduced to several of the writers including Mike and Patrick Henry, and began an informal tour of the majority of the studio. We started on one end of the office and made our way to the other as Steve explained what we were looking at. First we were shown the recording studio, an enclosed room with four microphones and a small production room from which an engineer can record and direct the voice actors. We were then led through a line of offices and introduced to more writers from the show, making our way to the writer's room.

The writer's room is just what one would imagine; it's simply a room with a bunch of comfortable chairs. The writers spend a lot of time in this room brainstorming and throwing ideas back and forth for future episodes. Its walls are covered with various print outs from the show such as drawings of characters and locations as a sort of "inspiration" or reference for them. All of the furniture faces the center of the room with one desk and computer sitting in the corner. This is reserved for the writing assistant who's role is similar to that of a stenographer. They take notes and refine the outline or script that is being worked on based on the direction of the writers. What the writer's assistant sees is easily visible by the rest of the writers on several monitors situated throughout the room.

After meeting a few more writers, we made our way to a white board with a list of the new episodes and their current status. From the looks of it, the writing of the episodes is coming along quite nicely. Almost all of the 22 episodes are at least at some stage of writing leaving only a few blank spaces on the board.

We continued on and met some of the administrative and marketing staff. Steve then led us into the visual side of the Family Guy studios. We made our way by the cubicles and offices of the story boarders and animators for the show and ended up in a fairly long hallway with a wall covered in storyboard drawings. The wall was about nine feet tall and fifteen feet wide and had storyboards pinned up everywhere. We were told that all of those drawings only covered about a third of an episode. Greg, a storyboard artist, later told us that Family Guy is notorious for it's attention to detail in the storyboarding stage. The extra time put into this stage ensures that when the animation is produced in Korea, there are fewer mistakes and mess-ups, making the whole animation process a bit easier on everyone.

We eventually reached the end of the studios for Family Guy and crossed into the American Dad studio. This was a fairly new addition and while it seemed empty when compared to the rest of the office, it had most of the same rooms that the Family Guy portion had. We made our way back to the side of the office we started from and, on the way, got a glimpse at the room where animatics are pieced together. Animatics are basically videos of the storyboards displayed in time to the recorded voices. There is no color and no real animation, just a new storyboard drawing every couple of seconds. For those of you that own Volume 2 of the Family Guy DVD set, you can find some of these from the first three seasons in the special features.

All Good Things Must End

We made our way back to Steve's office and had a bit of a Q&A session about the production process as well as a bit of a sneak peek at some of the new merchandise about to hit the market. Again, I can't say much, but I can assure you that you will be pleased with all of it. After spending a good three hours with us, Steve had to get back to work and left us with a recording of the live Montreal Comedy Festival script reading that had wrapped up just a week prior. We didn't have a chance to make it out to Montreal for the show, so this was a new experience to us. After watching the video, I'm with the crowd rooting for an American tour of the act. I've been told though, that the possibility of such a tour would be fairly slim, as the voice actors are all fairly busy at the moment so scheduling would create quite a problem. We can cross our fingers though as Family Guy was brought back from the dead after we all thought it might have been thoroughly buried before it's time.

After a good 5 hours spent at the Family Guy studios, we decided to take off so as not to get too far in the middle of things. We made our exit quietly only to realize when we got home that we had completely disregarded the cameras we brought with us. Not one photo was taken with either of the cameras. Two days later, we stopped in and made a quick 15-minute stop to get pictures of the studio. As we were doing so, we managed to get pictures with Seth MacFarlane, Mike Henry and Alex Borstein, as well as the writers that happened to be working when we arrived.

Now, looking back a week later, I feel extremely privileged to have been able to tour the studios for such a successful show as Family Guy. It is the only show to have such a strong fan base, that the sales of old episodes on DVD brought it back from it's untimely grave. We can't thank the hard working people behind the show enough, especially Steve Callaghan and Mike Henry, for their hospitality and for taking the time out of their busy schedules to show us what they do or at least to say hello.

By Pat (mikenomn) of Planet-FamilyGuy.com

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