'Family' man looks to spread the wealth

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - Talk about inflation. Seth MacFarlane is Hollywood's hundred-million dollar man - and he's not even bionic.

MacFarlane, 35, is creator and executive producer of "Family Guy," Fox's top-rated prime-time 'toon, one of the all-time best-selling TV-on-DVD titles, and a show that led the digital-download video phenomenon.

So it's no wonder the studio recently served up a $100 million production deal to keep their "Family" man happy. MacFarlane also is at the helm of the Fox cartoon "American Dad" and is working on a "Family Guy" spin-off series, "Cleveland."

"In all honesty, my representative said I could get that much money and I didn't stop him," MacFarlane said. "Can I spend a hundred-million dollars? No. I'll spread it around a much as I can."

In an interview MacFarlane talked about money, politics, and the future of "Family Guy."

Q. What's new for the seventh season?

A. In one episode, Stewie kidnaps the cast of "Star Trek: The Next Generation." [The original cast members] all came back, reunited to do their voices for us. Brian tries to legalize pot in Quahog [Rhode Island, where the show is set]. Peter tells the story of his ancestry. Down the line, we have our "Family Guy" abortion episode, believe it or not. Hats off to Fox for letting us take some risks.

Q. More than one of your writers has said that seven seasons in, you're running out of pop-culture things to reference.

A. At this point, we hope the characters have gotten to the point that we don't have to lean on that quite as much.

Q. Cleveland (a "Family Guy" neighbor) is getting his own series. What does it say about the state of television that Entertainment Weekly picks him - an animated character - as the cover boy for a story on African-American characters in prime-time?

A. This is a guy who's played like a real three-dimensional guy. . . . I actually would stack that show up against other shows about black characters in recent years because I think a lot of them are - they dumb them down for some reason. They talk down to their audience. We're just treating this like "Family Guy."

Q. Say, 20 years from now, what are you hoping people will think about Seth MacFarlane and "Family Guy"?

A. If the FCC continues to put the crunch on everything and things become more conservative, "Family Guy" may be viewed like "All in the Family," which would be like the greatest thing in the world for me. It's just about the greatest show there was.