‘Awards Chatter’ Pod: Seth MacFarlane on His ‘Ted’ TV Series, When to Expect a ‘Family Guy’ Movie and Why “The Emmys Are So F***ed Up”

13, 2026 9:50pm Seth MacFarlane Steve Granitz/FilmMagic Seth MacFarlane, our guest on this episode of The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast — which was recorded last Sunday in front of an audience at the Newport Beach TV Fest, where MacFarlane was honored with the fest’s Maverick Award — is one of the funniest, smartest and most multi-talented people in Hollywood. An actor, voice artist, animator, writer, director, producer, singer and songwriter, he has been a power-player in the business for nearly 30 years, dating back to when he became, at just 24, the youngest executive producer in the history of television with Family Guy. And through his Fuzzy Door Productions, MacFarlane has a whole portfolio of shows currently on the air. Family Guy is in its 24th season, and though he long ago stepped back from day-to-day oversight of the show, he continues to provide the voices of Peter, Stewie and Brian Griffin, among others. Another of the early shows that he created for Fox, with Mike Barker and Matt Weitzman, American Dad, is in its 22nd season. The ’Burbs, of which he’s an executive producer, had a well-received first season this year on Peacock. And Peacock is also the home to Ted, the TV series spinoff of his hit 2012 and 2015 films of the same name, the second season of which dropped just a few months ago. He created the show, wrote several episodes and on every episode has served as an EP, the director and provided the voice and motion capture for the titular teddy bear. Over the course of this episode, MacFarlane candidly discussed The Simpsons’ tremendous influence on him; his frustrations with the Primetime Emmys; the future of Ted and Family Guy; and more. You can full conversation via the audio player above or read excerpts of it — lightly edited for clarity and/or brevity — below. On the significance of The Simpsons… “The Simpsons was a show that made us all laugh out loud. Prior to that, there were animated shows in which you could recognize comedy that was good comedy — like The Flintstones and Looney Tunes and whatnot — but you weren’t necessarily laughing out loud. You could acknowledge it, but it wasn’t really hitting you in the gut. Then The Simpsons came along and, at least for our generation, just changed everything. Suddenly we’re all sitting there howling with laughter. It was like nothing we’d seen in our lives.