Family Guy creator and American Dad co-creator Seth MacFarlane is lending his talents to the new live-action sitcom The Winner. Having read the pilot script by Ricky Blitt, MacFarlane decided to use his clout with FOX to get the show on the air. Now he's hooked on live-action.
MacFarlane a Winner
"For me, in many ways, in most ways, it's much, much easier than animation," said MacFarlane. "It's a much more pleasant process. It's a much more smooth process. It doesn't take a year to do 22 minutes' worth of material. And having gone through this the first time, it's definitely something I would do again. After what is such a long, grueling process - and a fun process, but it's like taking a year to build a camel out of a million different pieces - this has been unbelievably pleasant."
His cartoons push all the boundaries the FCC can think of, and The Winner will have some edgy stuff too. But Fox is already on his side. "I will say, it really does depend on your relationship with Broadcast Standards. On Family Guy, we've always had a very good relationship. I think a lot of people think that it's a result of hard fighting and headbutting and it really is. We are on the same side as FOX Broadcast and Standards and Practices against what's going on with the FCC. And now there's sort of a common enemy because of the just insane restrictions in this post-Janet Jackson world, as they say. They do fight for us."
The Winner is the story of a middle aged loser in 1994 who will eventually become a big success. But back in the last decade, we get to laugh at his mistakes. "One of the things that struck me about it is there's an edgy comedy to it, but there's very much also extremely sophisticated, sort of classic sitcom backbone that the show has a lot of warmth behind it."
Set in the past, with the premiere set on the day of O.J. Simpson's bronco chase, don't expect too many more '90s references. "A show like That '70s Show is a good analogy. That was as how that rarely had references to the '70s. It was a character show that happened to be set in that time period."
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