Can Seth MacFarlane and crew really not write for girls?

No he hasn't. Ignoring for a moment how much I despise the term Mary Sue (which is actually a fan fiction term that's not really consistantly defined), characters like that when used in this context tend to be considered too perfect and to always have everything work out for them and never called out on when they do things that are stupid, wrong, or despicable.


Brian has been shown to be far from being perfect, and in this episode alone he gets called out by Bill Maher himself. Not to mention when he was lectured by Quagmire. Therefore, he does not really fit into that type.
 
I don't buy the idea that the girl characters in Seth McFarlane shows are inherently uninteresting. That's the way they're often written, but their personalities could be developed in interesting ways, they could be given new bits to do, and the like. Remember the early American Dad! episodes where Roger had to stay in the house all the time until they hit on the idea of giving him a disguise? Now assuming dozens/hundreds of different personas is a key part of Roger's character. Or think about how the dynamic between Brian and Stewie has changed since the early episodes of Family Guy, or the added development to Cleveland once he got his own show.
 
Of course the female characters on the Seth shows aren't inherently uninteresting. No character is. A character is only as interesting as their creators make them.

The female characters on MacFarlane's shows could be just as dynamic, funny and interesting as Peter, Stewie, Brian, Quagmire, Stan, Steve and Roger, and command the same level of fandom and notoriety if the writers wanted them to, but the thing is that they simply don't want to take the time and effort to work with them the same way that they do with the male characters. It's more a lack of desire on the writers' part than stark inability.
 
That's exactly what I wanted to say in my initial post.

I'm not a "Meg fanboy", I'm indifferent towards her (and her suffering) and I don't watch Family Guy because it's not interesting to me. I didn't feel any inclination to respond to this thread until DarthGonzo claimed that Meg shouldn't be allowed to be an interesting character simply because she's not a star attraction like Peter or Stewie... no, of course she isn't -- but she's still billed as a regular cast member and thus she should be handled like one. Either that, or just kill her off in the most brutally spectacular way imaginable since "nobody cares about her except internet fanboys". The fact they don't do either represents a fundamental failure in how McFarlane's crew functions as artists/writers.

You can lob all your justifications about what "my friends" think or what "the mainstream" wants, but somehow, I don't think Family Guy's megaton popularity would magically vanish if Meg was defined by something, anything more than being a living doormat.
 
To be honest, it seems like most american adult animation can't or refuses to create some well-written female characters.

I see the same problem on the Adult Swim comedies, the Comedy Central shows, and the rest of the Fox line-up. I guess producers just assume since the audiences don't have a significant female audience, nobody is really going to care about them.
 
I agree, fleshing-out Meg isn't going to kill the franchise. Making her the butt-monkey is just taking the easy-way out.

Anywhoo, I think it's high-time the AD! writers gave Hayley her own stand-alone episode like Steve ala Escape from Pearl Bailey. Even though the family doesn't abuse her like Meg, she's been getting less and less lines now. She had a romance arc with Reginald and Jeff, which is nice. But the AD! staff can do much more with her. I'm not saying she needs to have more episodes than Stan, but include her in the plot.
Hayley and Stan were the first two characters created for AD! so it's kind of a shame that she's not having many plots for her.
 
I think the reason Hayley has floundered on "American Dad" recently is because the Bush administration is a thing of the past now. She was much more interesting when she was depicted as a lone angry liberal in a country of conservatives, and they came up with a vast array of episode ideas for her ("Stannie Get Your Gun", in my opinion, is still the definitive Hayley episode). These days, she comes across as a little anachronistic.
 
Exactly! The "mainstream" didn't seem to care when Stewie became increasingly ambiguous about his orientation, or when Peter became "technically" retarded, or really, any character changes made since it returned.

Unfortunately, like The Simpsons, "mainstream" has become a convenient excuse for lazy storytelling.
 
I'm not so sure about that. Remember when Ralph Bighead decided to make Wacky Delly more plot-driven and add more character development to the Cheese? It only took four seconds for the mainstream to decide the show sucked and it got cancelled right away.

Lol, just kidding. I actually agree with you guys. :p
 
Seth should take a look at the stories at fanfiction and take a hint. They are fantastic and are better at developing Meg. He should ask the actresses for advice because they were teen girls themselves.
 
Hah I love this thread.

I think it's kinda true - even the Simpsons has Lisa-heavy episodes.. there really isn't much Meg/Hayley action on the shows - so maybe they can't write for the YOUNG girls on the shows.

But do we really want that?

Usually ANY one-character-heavy episode kinda gets dragged down, to me.
 
But he doesn't WANT TO. Seth is on record as saying you're supposed to hate Meg... because (I think he was a little more specific in the interview I read, but it pretty much boils down to that). Which is pretty telling for his character-development skills.
 
I couldn't agree more! Family Guy's writing used to be clever, now it's just stale.

As for Meg, I laugh at some of the jokes but sometimes they take them too far. I don't think they should make the show more about her per-se, but she shouldn't always be a doormat.

Matt Groening's staff writes for women far better than Seth's does.
 
Seeing as it is a comedy...maybe simple is better?

Family Guy never concerned itself with overarching plots like say...King of the Hill.
 
Isn't it? "Nerd" usually just means a person who actually has an invested interest in plot and characters, and are usually the more interesting fan to talk to, especially online. But you don't need to have a green-skinned alien dating a Chinese intern to have a personality; you have to have some sort of substance to your work. Family Guy used to have substance to a degree, but now it just seems to be yelling out for attention.
 
When the people working on a show create a complicated math theory in order to logically explain a cliched body switching storyline then, yes, it's being written by hardcore nerds. And who are most likely going to be appreciating the effort put into something so unnecessary? More nerds. That's what I mean by that comment.
 
He wasn't trying to be derogatory in that post. He was just explaining that Futurama has it fair share of nerd jokes in it, and going as far to explain how a cliched plot as body swapping, is being explained by a math equation, is something that mostly a math nerd would get a kick out of, while everyone else would be like "Oh, OK! I have no idea what this mean, but it sounds complicated enough."
 
You're surprised as a female I've given up on cartoons being worth my time unless they are an adult comedy one . (this also stems from most current cartoons being crap sans the female problem )Today there really aren't many truly positive female characters in cartoons. Family Guy is satire so it does not bother me that women aren't well written for the men are all stereotypes anyway so I don't take it seriously like all the adult cartoons I watch As for cartoons as a whole the days of girl power dead are mostly dead and have been replaced with girls being side kicks or stereotypes if they aren't just there to be arm candy later. If I want to see something where a female is the lead and not a side kick or stereotype I read books or untranslated manga.
 
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