Animation by Tomasz Czajka / For The Times; photographs by Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times and Fox
âLucky thereâs a family guy,â a chorus of friends, neighbors and relatives sing about the lunkhead Peter Griffin in the razzle-dazzle opening of each episode of âFamily Guyâ â more than 400 and counting.
This animated sitcom produced for Fox by 20th Television Animation about a none-too-typical household in suburban Rhode Island â father, mother, son, daughter, talking baby and talking dog â has recently celebrated an astonishing 25 years on the air. And from the moment it debuted in 1999, following Super Bowl XXXIII, âFamily Guyâ has endured with the help of a uniquely subversive sense of humor and, yes, a bit of luck.
âFamily Guyâ began as the brainchild of Seth MacFarlane, now 50, who imbued the show with its pop-cultural bona fides, iconic musical numbers and a desire to satirize every social convention that Americans hold sacred. MacFarlane, who performed many of the characters (including the hapless Peter, the maniacal baby Stewie and the erudite dog Brian), was joined by Alex Borstein (as faithful wife Lois), Seth Green (socially maladroit son Chris) and Mila Kunis (perpetually scapegoated daughter Meg).
The 1999 Project
All year weâll be marking the 25th anniversary of pop culture milestones that remade the world as we knew it then and created the world we live in now. Welcome to The 1999 Project, from the Los Angeles Times.
Having survived not one but two cancellations in its earliest seasons â âFamily Guyâ was revived thanks to its success in reruns on Cartoon Networkâs Adult Swim block and strong DVD sales that bolstered its cult following â the Fox series has become an institution of both animation and comedy. Under its showrunners, Rich Appel and Alec Sulkin, âFamily Guyâ continues to carve out its own indelicate but undeniably funny path on Fox, FXX and Hulu. (To quote one representative bit: While visiting an internet company in Silicon Valley, Peter asks its chief executive, âWhereâs your nearest bathroom?â âGender fluid?â says the executive. âYes,â Peter replies, âthere will be a lot of that.â)
After a quarter-century, the stars of âFamily Guyâ are now just as famous for their extracurricular activities: MacFarlane is a prolific producer, actor and singer, and Borstein is a two-time Emmy winner for âThe Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.â Green and Kunis have their own thriving film and TV careers and children of their own. Yet they and their âFamily Guyâ collaborators remain intensely loyal to this show, which they still consider the best job they ever had.
âFamily Guyâ is celebrating its 25 years with a live table read as part of PaleyFest L.A. on Friday, and its season finale airs on Wednesday. Earlier this month, MacFarlane, Borstein, Kunis, Green, Appel and Sulkin gathered at the Fox Studio Lot to reflect on their history with âFamily Guy,â and to affectionately tease and taunt one another as only family members can. This conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.
Seth MacFarlane, you were not even 25 years old when you created what would become âFamily Guy,â and that irreverent, rebellious sensibility continues to permeate the show. Do you still feel connected to your 25-year-old self?
Seth MacFarlane: For somebody who hasnât worked directly on the show in 15 years, absolutely. A lot of that credit has to go to Alec and Rich. When you build a show, you build the tone and you establish what it is, and you leave, oftentimes it can go so far south. That has not happened with this show. These folks have maintained its integrity.
Mila Kunis: Oh, look at that, you got a compliment!
Alec Sulkin: First Iâve heard of it.
Rich Appel: To be clear, I only hitched my wagon to this once it was a runaway success. I canât speak of the early years when they were figuring things out, when they were getting canceled. We have a really talented group of writers and they all just really know what theyâre doing now.
The line, always, between something that you think is stupid or unfunny or something that might even be offensive, versus something that is edgy and original is so thin that if you trust the people youâre around, you go there. There are writers in that room who have been there for 15 years, even more, so thereâs no embarrassment and itâs a very free-for-all environment.
For the other members of the cast, what do you remember about when you were approached to work on âFamily Guyâ? Did it feel like a show that would last 25 years?
Alex Borstein: It was sketch comedy mixed in with a sitcom and it was so dense. Each episode had so much in it, and I just knew it was special and weird and made me laugh out loud, throughout. But I had no idea it would be 25 years. None whatsoever. [to MacFarlane] Sorry. Not that I didnât trust you.
MacFarlane: I didnât either. I prayed to God every night that it would be 10 years and out.
Seth Green: When I read the script, I had the same experience. I laughed out loud. It felt like someone had taken things that I thought were very special and funny and translated them into a show. And I couldnât believe it, that someone had written this. I couldnât believe I got to audition for it. I was like, Iâm going to try to get this job.
Kunis: Somebody else was doing the voice of Meg. So said person left the show. I was on [âThat â70s Show.â] And [Fox says], âThereâs an audition for this show that hasnât aired yet.â Unlike these professionals, I didnât read the script.
Green: She was still in school.
Kunis: I was in ninth grade. I kept getting told that I speak too fast. And I donât enunciate and I canât say half the words in the English language to this day. [Kunis, whose first language is Russian, was born in the former Soviet Union, in what is now Ukraine.]
MacFarlane: What was the word? Electricity. This went on for years because what Iâm hearing is âEH-lec-tricityâ with the accent on the first syllable.
Kunis: [demonstrating] EH-lec-tri-city.
MacFarlane: E-lec-TRI-city.
Kunis: E-lec-TRI-city.
MacFarlane: Well, thatâs different than what you said before. Itâs like the worst Abbott and Costello routine.
How did you handle its cancellation?
Green: I was devastated. I made sure I had every episode on VHS and I forced other people to watch them. We sat and watched all these episodes, and I was like, man, I got to make this. This actually existed.
Appel: I remember being [a writer] at âThe Simpsonsâ and I thought, good riddance. Thereâs only so much nipping at your heels you can really indulge.
MacFarlane: I had nothing to compare it to because it was the first show Iâd ever pitched, and it got picked up. I thought, âOh, I guess this is normal.â Which it certainly was not. When I got canceled, I was like, âOK, I guess this is normal too.â But it wasnât like theyâre kicking you to the curb. It was, we still want to be in business with you. My deal [with 20th Television Animation] never expired over those two years. It was about to expire and then they picked up the show again. So I was like Mr. Magoo driving that jalopy. Does everybody get that reference?
Green: Real luck comes when preparedness meets opportunity. There was no point where you were unprepared for the opportunities that came your way.
We live in a time where audiences have more outlets than ever when they want to express their outrage at something. How does âFamily Guyâ maintain its irreverent, damn-the-torpedoes sense of humor in the face of this?
MacFarlane: I was about to make a joke about the fact that, well, theyâve just caved to popular opinion and itâs worked great. But I really do think thatâs not what most people are thinking when they watch âFamily Guy.â Audiences can smell the difference between social media virtue signaling and real offense. If itâs real offense, you didnât get away with the comedy. One of the things that âFamily Guyâ has really tried to do every step of the way is to look at every joke and say, âOK, if we were called on the carpet, could we defend this in an intellectual way, and say, this is the point we were making?â Thereâs an earnestness to that approach that I think has created sort of a shield around the show that continues to this day.
Appel: Echoing Seth, because heâs the most important person here, I actually think that the 25 years of âFamily Guyâ is the counterargument to the perceived tenderness of sensibilities. People donât complain about our show, and they watch it more on Hulu and secondary platforms. It continues to find new audiences. I think thatâs a big argument that maybe people arenât that sensitive, and maybe people can understand satire, and to do that, you have to throw a few elbows.
For Alex and for Mila, as women, do you feel you can go to your male colleagues and ask for changes if you are presented with material that bothers you?
Borstein: I worked in the writers room for most of the show, and maybe I was the filthiest person in the room. My thing was always like, as long as itâs funny, itâs worthwhile doing it. If itâs funny, itâs a joke. If itâs not, itâs just vicious. I would never refuse to do something â I would maybe pitch: âOh, what about this? How could I do it better?â [To Sulkin] But Iâve occasionally texted you and not about me. Iâll be like, âAre we really doing that with that character?â And heâd be like, âYep, shut up.â [Laughter.]
Appel: Then heâll text me, âYou know whoâs being a real pain in the ass today? Are you recording her or am I?â
Kunis: I think I find most things funny. I would say Iâm very hard to offend. So Iâm the wrong person to ask. I find all of this funny. I read the script for the first time during my recordings.
Appel: [in mock surprise] What?
Kunis: Shocker.
MacFarlane: By the way, that does make two of us.
Appel: Mila gets into the booth and sheâs on her phone. Sheâs like [pretending to scroll], âYeah. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. Thatâs about the kids. OK, here it is. Script. How I make money. OK, let me read this.â
âFamily Guyâ has been making more of an effort in recent years to cast actors whose races and ethnicities match the characters that theyâre playing. Was that a hard lesson for the show to learn?
Green: When youâre making a show for a budget, every single character costs money. And sometimes you have a specific allowance for your whole cast. And oftentimes âŚ
MacFarlane: Well, this is going to go over well on social media.
Green: In a lot of cases, each actor that gets brought on the show is offered the opportunity to play three different roles. We were all in the habit of being able to fill in those spots. We all became increasingly aware of the importance of actual, authentic representation and never some kind of implied appropriation of anything in someone elseâs performance. Thatâs something that has evolved as everything does when you learn something new.
Appel: A smart actor?
Green: Itâs industrywide, though, and I think thatâs a positive thing. You only know what you know when you know it. You can look back and say, âHow did we not know this before?â But itâs too easy to do that. Right now, we are all becoming aware of things and trying to evolve.
Appel: [pointing to anniversary logo] And thatâs because the showâs been on for 25 years. And if you look âŚ
MacFarlane: I thought you were pointing to God.
Appel: No, I know who pays me. Iâm not pointing to God. The 25 years of social assumptions and cultural movement, we live in those times. You canât necessarily look at anything 18 years ago, or 15 years ago, and think thatâs what would fly today. The show also evolves as the decades move on.
The internet has wholly embraced âFamily Guyâ and its jokes are perpetuated through memes, GIFs and TikTok videos. Does that have any impact on how you make the show now?
MacFarlane: I donât know that it influences the structure. The show is the show and that has not changed over 25 years, but it almost seems as if the show was made for TikTok. The cutaways that were, in some cases, maligned, but are the hardest things to write, to go in and essentially write a Gary Larson âFar Sideâ panel how many times a day â
Green: [narratorâs voice] Gary Larson was an American artist who popularized a single-panel cartoon that could be visually absorbed in a tableau.
Appel: Bookstores were often brick structures where such books were for sale.
MacFarlane: â that had to have a beginning, middle and end, in the space of anywhere from three seconds to 15 or 20 seconds. And that was something that we were doing in 1999 and the early 2000s. Now, they just fit right in like a glove. I donât think itâs changed the show. I think in many ways itâs validated the structure.
Green: When I was growing up, all the Warner Bros. cartoons, [like] Bugs Bunny, they all used classic movie references in their design, they used classical concertos in their score. I learned all of these very sophisticated, intelligent concepts through the cartoons.
If I so much as find myself in a Target, I canât help but think of Stewie working in the pizza area while a Muzak version of the song âThunder Islandâ plays in the background.
MacFarlane: Whatâs the pizza area?
Sulkin: [stage whisper, to MacFarlane] We did a joke about it on the show.
MacFarlane: I have no idea what you guys are talking about.
Sulkin: We used it in an episode where Stewie and Brian go to that garbage island.
MacFarlane: Has that aired?
Appel: Six years ago.
Kunis: Quick question: How come no one corrected him on Muzak? Why was that allowed to happen?
Borstein: Muzak is different than music.
Kunis: What? [Laughter.]
MacFarlane: Are you serious?
Sulkin: Itâs like when you hear music in an elevator, thatâs Muzak.
MacFarlane: [to Kunis] How many years have you been in this country?
Kunis: It doesnât matter! Who here knew Muzak? [Several panelists and members of the production crew raise their hands, as Kunis then counts off.] One, two, three, four, five â
Appel: Everyone knows what Muzak is!
Kunis: Not everybody! Never heard the word Muzak. Never heard of it. Now Iâm going to use it all the time. Iâm going to walk in an elevator and be like, âBabe, check out that Muzak.â
Your individual portfolios as actors and performers have expanded well beyond the show now. What keeps you coming back to âFamily Guyâ?
Borstein: Contract. [Laughter.] I mean, itâs the greatest gift Iâve ever been given in my life.
Green: Itâs the best job ever.
Kunis: Greatest job of all time.
Green: Since they started doing the table reads on Zoom, Iâm able to attend a lot more of the table reads.
Kunis: I do too.
Sulkin: You do two. Literally, two. T-W-O. [Seth Green] was doing a table read and you were just walking around in the back at his place.
Kunis: I was playing with the baby!
Appel: Mila sent word late that she couldnât attend so we had someone play the part. As Alec describes, in the background of his square, thereâs Mila bouncing his baby, walking back and forth. Her other commitment was babysitting for Seth Green.
Kunis: True story. I was like, âItâs fine, Iâll go play with the baby.â [Laughter.]
Borstein: I like the whole culture of the show. If someone spots me on the street from it, theyâll just shout out, âDiarrhea!â Or, âWho wants chowder?â
Is there any reason why âFamily Guyâ couldnât last another 25 years?
Appel: [to MacFarlane] Why not indeed, Seth?
Kunis: It all lands on him.
Sulkin: Itâs this guyâs vocal cords. Thatâs what weâre all concerned about.
MacFarlane: Look, recording long hours in a booth is different now than it was when I was 24.
Appel: Or even the 40 minutes it takes you.
Sulkin: I was going to say 30, but youâre generous.
MacFarlane: Screaming into a mic for long stretches with the Carter Pewterschmidt voice, the Quagmire voice, the Seamus voice. Theyâre all â
Borstein: And heâs a Grammy Award-winning singer.
MacFarlane: Nominated, nominated, nominated. Never won. Hoping.
Borstein: Ooh. Why did I bring that up?
Kunis: Didnât we just record that gag? We just recorded it. Do you know this gag? Itâs funny. Oh, but itâs making fun of you. But itâs really funny.
MacFarlane: Let me be surprised. I mean, there was a time when I said, âHey, letâs wrap it up while weâre going strong,â and â
Appel: And weâre still not strong. So he canât quit.
MacFarlane: At this point, I donât see a good reason to stop. People still love it. It makes people happy and it funds some good causes. Itâs a lot of extraneous cash that you can donate to Rainforest Trust and you can still go out to dinner that night. There was a time when I thought, itâs time to wrap it up. At this point, weâve reached escape velocity. I donât know that thereâs any reason to stop at this point unless people get sick of it. Unless the numbers show that people just are, âEh, we donât care about âFamily Guyâ anymore.â But that hasnât happened yet.
Borstein: I feel like every time we have a table read or recording, Iâm laughing. For me, thatâs my litmus test, if Iâm still laughing at the scripts, if thereâs three out-loud laughs. Because weâve all been reading and doing comedy for so long. Thereâs not many guffaws left.
Green: Iâve been on so many things that got canceled, itâs really just a thing Iâve come to absorb. But I would be so sad if ever there was a reason for this to stop because it is endless amounts of fun.
Appel: And Iâve had a successful career and I would be sad too.
Borstein: [indicating Kunis] Like I said, I met her â she was 15½, she was getting a driverâs permit, talking about driving for the first time. And now we have a child the same age. Hollywood is fâ weird.
The complete guide to home viewing
Get Screen Gab for everything about the TV shows and streaming movies everyoneâs talking about.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
