Criticism of Seth MacFarlane

Anyway, you can't really criticize MacFarlane for using the formula of a suburban dad, his wife, their kids and a handful of kooky pets and wacky neighbors. Lots of family shows do that, both animated and live-action.
 
I guess I should speak up about this, even though I'm not particularly in the mood.

Seth MacFarlane has some good qualities and bad qualities in his work. His writing is great when it wants to be, and he has proven himself to be a great actor, and not just on his own projects. But as we're seeing with The Cleveland Show and the Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy, his projects have no artistic variety, and that's putting himself in danger of confusing and turning off potential viewers. Then there's the stubbornly inconsistent writing on recent Family Guy. There is a lot more to comedy than sticking it to FOX or pandering to the lowest of the lowest common denominator, but apparently, the FG staff refuses to acknowledge that.

The problem I've had with Family Guy is that I can neither critique it or defend it without some idiots from either side of the fence telling me I'm wrong for liking/not-liking something.
I defend FG, because on its good days, it really is a funny show. A lot of people in the animation field will never realize it, yet some of those extremists will go out of their way to attack those who are a little more broad-minded than the next guy.
I critique FG, because the show today can, if not equal its glory days, at least do BETTER than what it regularly does. What I hate is when someone falsely assumes that I hate something, and then uses such copout statements like "If you don't like it, don't watch it". Which is incredibly awkward when you consider that many FG fans asking for improvements are the same ones who only 6-7 years ago fought tooth and nail to save this show. For fanboys to go nuts at ANY critique at all, and for the writers to appeal only to wild fanboys while also confusing critiques with those who hate the show altogether is a great disservice to those who helped save their show in the first place. (I still recall one writer from earlier this year began posting at another FG community about the WGA strike, trying to educate fans about the seriousness of the strike, but also, throwing himself to the same fans who are being ignored.)

It is because of all of these factors that it has gotten harder to watch Family Guy with the wide-minded perspective as before, and why I have increasingly less faith in Seth MacFarlane's future projects. He seems to be making a lot of the same mistakes that his crew have dogged networks about before; ignoring fans and caring only about how much money a certain show makes.

I'm just ashamed to be a Family Guy fan anymore. :sad:
 
I think the most annoying thing is that he uses the same voices over and over again. A lot of his characters all sound alike. As big a vocal range as Seth has he could as least try to use some variety.
 
It gets boring when they recycle he same types of material over and over again also. I think the older FG episodes were better cause they had structure-the episodes they have now seem sporatic.
 
Here's my stance on this:

I have no shame in being a Family Guy fan. The only people I come across who vehemently hate FG - and make a point of letting everyone know - are those on the internet, people I'll never meet. They're opinions don't really matter to me. Most of my friends enjoy Family Guy and the ones that don't at least tolerate it without feeling the need to remind me that they don't like.

No one on the internet should be able to make you feel ashamed of being a fan of something.
 
I don't see how this answers John's question.

And no one is asking for the Griffins to be normal ordinary people. Don't really see where you've gotten that idea.

Anyway this is my last post in this thread until some actual discussion starts up again, if it ever does.
 
OF COURSE its gonna be the same! Anyone who knows what Seth is about knows he has no diversity in his work...Maybe if that showbiz loser took a drawing class for once in his life, his work would actually be WORTH discussing in some sort of actual artistic context.

I will admit though, even I miss the days when Seth's projects actually show signs of wit, timing and artistic skill (i.e. Larry and Steve for the What A Cartoon Show). But then again, I think everybody misses THOSE days. I know I'm not alone in this hatred of modern mediocrity from people that used to be really clever...
 
I'm going to take a sec to try and see if I can steer this in a different direction. Maybe we can find a way to get back on track here.

I think Cleveland is an awesome character. One of the most realistic and down to earth characters on the entire show. The first time I saw "Lois Kills Stewie" I was actually very shocked when Stewie killed him and I don't know if I would have felt that way if that had happened to Quagmire or Joe. Honestly (and Seth has said this himself) Cleveland as a character really is best suited for a spin-off. The trick is that he needs to be surrounded with interesting characters to play off of...and so far I'm very iffy on what I've seen and heard of this new show.
 
Honestly, I think Seth is overdoing the domestic animated sitcom premise somewhat, but nonetheless, I've never had anything against Cleveland as a character, although I've also never thought of his as a main character either. But it makes more sense spinning Cleveland off into his own series than say, Quagmire, who really is just a wacky neighbor. I'm going to wait until after I've seen The Cleveland Show before passing judgment on it.
 
I'll share my opinion on Family Guy.

I loved the first three seasons. Everything from there on is... Well, aside from a handful of episodes, I honestly can't associate any joke with an episode because of how interchangeable they've become. The odd episode that I really like - off the top of my head, PTV, Peter's Got Woods, Joe's Walking on Air, Airport 08 (I believe) were some of the newer ones that I loved - make it worth watching.

I was sort of compiling my opinions mentally throughout this thread and I can't seem to remember any of them >.> I'll try. I think the biggest problem with Family Guy is that it's at too much of a risk of stretching itself thin. There's only so much they can do until the show becomes Cartoon Cavalcade Special Guest Appearance From Peter Griffin. Some of Seth's older cartoons, like the Johnny Bravo episodes he wrote or Larry & Steve I really enjoy watching even now. A Family Guy episode is harder to get into if I've already seen it or if the jokes fall flat. I've also tried to watch American Dad, but it doesn't seem to click with me.

In regards to Cleveland, I'm not expecting much out of it. I do think if it's pulled off well it could be funny, but it all sort of depends on what direction Seth decides to go with it. I agree that Cleveland is the best choice to use as a main character because he's so boring in Family Guy compared to the rest of the cast, and he'll probably be the same in his show, meaning that the writers may actually have to rack their brains for this one.

One minor quirk I have with FG now: the characters that Seth voices. In the older episodes you can't really tell it's the same guy doing Peter, Stewie, Brian, Quagmire, etc. but now there's something about the tone that makes it extremely obvious, especially when the character is annoyed.
 
I've noticed that too. Peter's voice used to have more of that Archie Bunker feel to it. Brian's voice was significantly deeper and drier. Stewie had more of a "Bond villain" tone to his voice with a stronger accent. As Seth continues to make the show's dialog more conversational (i.e. to reflect real, meandering human conversational patterns) Seth has developed a default voice which - once you notice it - makes it's easy to notice where the individual voices are derived from. Roger tries to be Paul Lynde but the more he talks to more his voice just sounds like a modified Stewie or Peter. I wish they'd do more with Klaus, just for vocal variety.

And sadly the more they overuse Mike Henry's characters the more they start to sound alike.
 
I don't know who "they" are, but for once I agree with you (Wait! Did that really happen?? I think it did!:eek:). However, I wouldn't get my hopes up with that last sentence. I'd be willing to be money that The Cleveland Show is going to be stereotypical, because it's created by Seth MacFarlane, the king of Political Incorrectness. ;)

But there lies the problem; it's so rare when TV gets a series with African-American protagonists, that when we actually get one, that show has impossibly high standards attached to it. That shows' cast is expected to carry the weight of it's entire race on it's shoulders. It doesn't help that the general public (African-Americans included) tends to write off every show starring African-Americans as a "black show" rather than merely a show about black people. It really isn't fair to expect every African American fictional character to represent their entire race and to portray them in a positive manner. Anyone expecting The Cleveland Show to be The Cosby Show is setting themselves up for disappointment. Everyone can't be Martin Luther King. It's not the responsibility of every African-American series to represent it's race in a positive manner, especially not in the case of comedies. A positive depiction of African-Americans (or any other race, for that matter) would be nice, of course, but it's not fair to expect that from every ethnic TV show that comes down the pike. It just isn't. And it's certainly not the responsibility of Seth MacFarlane (who is himself Caucasian). If Cleveland fails, Seth is going to hear from me for making me actually agree with Mavericker about something! :shrug:
 
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