Seth MacFarlane, Matt Groening, Mike Judge talk to critics
David
Live-Blogging the Fox Animation TCA Panel
We're getting set for the last panel of the day here at Fox, the
animation panel. We've got all the usual suspects, including cutaway
joke guru Seth MacFarlane, "Simpsons" creator Matt Groening, and "King
of the Hill's" Mike Judge.
5:52 p.m.: Right out of the gate from Mr. MacFarlane: "Is there where
Karl Rove sat? Cause I don't want to get AIDS."
5:54 p.m.: A critic just zinged the nine man panel by asking a
question for the women and minorities on the panel (there are none).
Refuting that, 40% of the writing staff on "King of the Hill" are
women and members of "The Cleveland Show" writing staff are
African-American. But, Mr. MacFarlane did say that animation just
happens to be dominated by white men.
5:57 p.m.: Mr. Groening says that the Emmys should be split between
adult animation and children's animation.
5:59 p.m.: Mr. MacFarlane agrees with Fox's strategy of putting
animation all night on Sunday, as opposed to spreading it out across
the week. He said if you were to put on an episode of "Seinfeld" after
"The Simpsons," it would feel slow and sluggish.
6:03 p.m.: How will "American Dad" change if Obama is elected
president? To see him deal with the other side, it's going to be an
opportunity, "American Dad's" Mike Barker says. "We're looking forward
to it for more reasons than one."
6:07 p.m.: When "The Simpsons" is finally finished, what will the DVD
box set look like? Mr. Groening says he received a current bootleg
complete set of "The Simpsons," and it was 99 DVDs.
6:10 p.m.: Mr. MacFarlane on overlap between other Fox animation
shows: "We're telling stories that they've told on 'The Cosby Show' or
'Family Ties.'"
6:12 p.m.: "The Empire Strikes Back" episode of "Family Guy" is
essentially done, Mr. MacFarlane. It just needs to be shipped overseas
to be animated. Seth Rogen is writing an episode of "The Simpsons"
that has Comic Book Guy creating a superhero that becomes a movie, and
Homer plays the lead. Mr. Rogen plays a personal trainer of Homer.
6:15 p.m.: Mr. MacFarlane says that nobody on the panel would be there
without "The Simpsons."
6:18 p.m.: "The Cleveland Show's" Richard Appel says it's a lot easier
to make an animated show funnier because you get more stabs at the
script, and can make changes right up until show date.
6:21 p.m.: "Star Wars" is a huge franchise to parody, but is there
anything else "Family Guy" could devote a full double episode to? Mr.
MacFarlane says "If Paramount would let us do 'Wrath of Khan,' that
would be the coolest thing." He adds that "Star Wars" works because a
majority of the show's fans know the movie line for line, but
Lucasfilm is pretty generous with the license, too.
6:26 p.m.: Mike Judge said previously that he had created a series
finale for "King of the Hill," but once the series was renewed several
times, he was retooled and aired. He didn't give specifics as to which
episode it was.
6:32 p.m.: There will be zero crossover between "The Cleveland Show"
and "Family Guy," Mike Henry says.
6:33 p.m.: Matt Groening says he's happy about the recent negotiations
between the cast of "The Simpsons." "I want to them to be as rich and
unhappy as anyone else in Hollywood," he says.
All through. We're back tomorrow with FX.
—Andrew Krukowski
allema...@gmail.com
I'd love to see a "Wrath of Khan" Family Guy episode!
Also looking forward to the Empire Strikes Back ep!