Seth MacFarlane

Summary

Podcast Summary: "Where Everybody Knows Your Name with Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson (sometimes)"
Episode: Seth MacFarlane
Release Date: August 6, 2025

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Introduction to Seth MacFarlane

In this engaging episode, Ted Danson welcomes longtime friend and creative powerhouse Seth MacFarlane to discuss his multifaceted career and personal insights. From animation and music to philanthropy, the conversation delves deep into Seth's journey and the forces that shape his work.

Notable Quote:

Seth MacFarlane (00:32): "Nobody gives a fuck what celebrities think. What we do well is tell stories. And we're not doing the best job right now of telling those stories in a way that gives people hope."

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Exploring "Lush Life"

Ted Danson passionately introduces Seth's latest studio album, "Lush: The Lost Sinatra Arrangements," highlighting Seth's exceptional talent as a singer and musician. Ted shares personal anecdotes about how Seth's music has impacted him and others around him, emphasizing the album's tribute to Frank Sinatra.

Notable Quote:

Ted Danson (02:25): "Somebody who worshiped Frank Sinatra loved you singing Frank Sinatra. Not just that you were bringing it back to life, but that how well you did it."

Clip from "Lush Life" [01:49]:

Seth MacFarlane: "I used to visit all the very gay places, those come what may, places where one relaxes on the axis of the wheel of life to get the feel of life from jazz and cocktails."

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Early Life and Education

Seth shares anecdotes from his formative years, recounting his time at Kent School and his experiences with early acting and budgeting life as a day student. The conversation touches on the challenges and memories from his school days, providing a glimpse into his foundational years.

Notable Quote:

Ted Danson (09:12): "It was like 1955. And scary."

Conversation Highlight: Seth discusses his early passion for drawing and animation, starting a comic strip at the age of nine, and the humor influenced by his uncensored family environment.

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Career Beginnings in Animation

The discussion transitions to Seth's introduction to the world of animation through his work with Frank Sinatra Jr. and the Sinatra family. Seth explains how he discovered rare Sinatra arrangements and the process of turning these into his musical projects.

Notable Quote:

Seth MacFarlane (04:26): "Frank Jr. Used to do Family Guy periodically. And when he became a friend of the show and when he passed away, the stewardship of all of these charts that his father had collected over the years, over the course of his career, fell to Tina Sinatra."

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Creation of Family Guy and American Dad

Seth delves into the genesis of "Family Guy" and "American Dad," detailing the creative processes, challenges, and successes. He shares insights into pitching the pilot, assembling the writer's room, and the eventual revival of "Family Guy" due to strong DVD sales. The conversation also touches on the formation of "American Dad" as a more politically charged counterpart.

Notable Quote:

Seth MacFarlane (32:10): "It's a pipeline to this particular company. And RISD was very much like, here's everything you might need to know because we have no idea what you're going to want to do with your life."

Behind-the-Scenes Insight: Seth explains the animation process, from scriptwriting and storyboarding to animating to recorded voice performances, highlighting the collaborative effort with orchestras and production teams.

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Directing and Acting Mentors

Ted Danson and Seth discuss Seth's foray into directing and acting, emphasizing the mentorship he received from industry veterans like Albert Brooks. Seth recounts how these relationships helped him navigate the complexities of directing films and honing his craft.

Notable Quote:

Seth MacFarlane (47:02): "I gotta give thanks to Albert Brooks, because I was a huge fan of his. Remain a huge fan."

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Philanthropy and Environmental Concerns

A significant portion of the episode is dedicated to Seth and Ted's philanthropic efforts, particularly their commitment to environmental causes through organizations like Oceana. They discuss the importance of addressing climate change, the challenges of maintaining altruism without becoming overwhelmed, and the impact of their contributions.

Notable Quote:

Ted Danson (57:10): "And it's a game changer for literally everybody on the planet. And if you think you're wealthy enough to dodge that bullet, you're certainly wrong."

Discussion Highlight: Seth examines the role of storytelling in inspiring hope and positive change, critiquing the current state of Hollywood's focus on dystopian narratives and advocating for more optimistic and constructive storytelling.

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Personal Reflections and Philosophies

Towards the end of the episode, Seth and Ted engage in a heartfelt discussion about personal struggles, balancing activism with personal well-being, and the philosophical considerations of stewardship for future generations. They explore the moral responsibilities tied to environmental conservation and the importance of maintaining hope through creative expression.

Notable Quote:

Seth MacFarlane (73:03): "We're not doing the best job right now of telling those stories in a way that gives people hope. And I think that's part of the problem."

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Conclusion

The episode wraps up with Ted and Seth expressing mutual gratitude and emphasizing the importance of spreading optimism and creativity. Ted encourages listeners to explore Seth's "Lush Life" album, reinforcing the episode's themes of hope and artistic contribution.

Notable Quote:

Ted Danson (75:24): "Putting that out is, if that's all you did in life, you can't discount that as moving the needle in the right direction."

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Final Thoughts:

This episode of "Where Everybody Knows Your Name" offers an in-depth look into Seth MacFarlane's artistic journey, his dedication to environmental causes, and his commitment to creating meaningful, hopeful narratives. Through candid conversations and shared experiences, Ted Danson and Seth MacFarlane provide listeners with both inspiration and a deeper understanding of the creative and philanthropic endeavors that drive them.

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Additional Information:

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• Listen: Available on Apple Podcasts and via siriusxm.com/podcastsplus.

Transcript

[Ted Danson]

Where everybody knows your name with Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson sometimes is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever find yourself playing the budgeting game? Well, with the name your price tool from Progressive, you can find options that fit your budget and potentially lower your bills. Try [e-mail] Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and and affiliates price and coverage match limited by state law. Not available in all states.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Nobody gives a fuck what celebrities think. What we do do well is tell stories. And we're not doing the best job right now of telling those stories in a way that gives people hope.

[Ted Danson]

Welcome back to where Everybody knows your. Where do you begin with Seth MacFarlane? First, I have to say he's a friend for many years, somebody I respect so much, so many talents. He's always been creative, whether it's acting, animating, writing, producing or directing. He created Family Guy and Orville, co created American dad and the Cleveland Show. He also co, wrote, co produced, directed and starred in the Ted movies. And if you can believe it, Seth is also a gifted singer who's been on the world's most prestigious stages, including the Royal Albert Hall. His latest studio album, his ninth, is called Lush. The Lost Sinatra arrangements. They are delicious. I can't wait for you to hear them. As a matter of fact, here's a clip from Lush Life.

[Seth MacFarlane]

I used to visit all the very gay places, those come what may, places where one relaxes on the axis of the wheel of life to get the feel of life from jazz and cocktails.

[Ted Danson]

This is a love fest because this is my opportunity to thank you for so many things and an ooh and ah at your talent. And I just spent the last week listening to Lush Life.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Oh, good.

[Ted Danson]

So I think we should start there.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Sure.

[Ted Danson]

It's been out for a couple weeks.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Couple weeks? Yeah, yeah, about three weeks.

[Ted Danson]

Anyway, you can download it, you can buy the vinyl. You can do it any way you want. I think people should buy the vinyl.

[Seth MacFarlane]

That's the way to. That's the purest way to listen to this kind of music. Yeah.

[Ted Danson]

But just how I got introduced to Lush Life is Victor, who has become a family friend. But he's drove Mary and me to work. Yeah, To Paramount for the last two and a half months. And I've known him for years and he knew, I think, that I just found out that we were going to sit down together. So he downloaded it on his own and listened to it. And then on the way home the next night, it was saying, you've got to listen to this. He's A huge Frank Sinatra fan.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Yeah. A purist and a singer himself, obviously. You talking about Victor Garber?

[Ted Danson]

No, no, sorry, my driver.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Oh, your driver.

[Ted Danson]

Victor Gonzalez, who is the most astounding man I've ever met recently. But he grew up listening to Frank Sinatra when he was 7 or 8, and his father would come in and go, don't you want to listen to Pop? He went, nope, I want to listen to. Anyway, listen to it. And I'm just saying, somebody who worshiped Frank Sinatra loved you singing Frank Sinatra. Not just that you were bringing it back to life, but that how well you did it. Then Mary, the next night, going home. Listen to it. And I've been listening to it the last week or so, and it really is spectacular.

[Seth MacFarlane]

You're so kind. Yeah, I mean that. It's sort of like fishing for the last. And they're good scraps, but fishing for the last scraps of, you know, these great talents that. That Nelson Riddle and Don Costa and Billy May and these guys. This is. These are undiscovered gems.

[Ted Danson]

So for people who don't know the history of this, you found by working with Frank Sinatra Jr. And the Sinatra family.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Yeah, yeah.

[Ted Danson]

Found these arrangements.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Yeah. Frank Jr. Used to do Family Guy periodically. And when he became a friend of the show and when he passed away, the stewardship of all of these charts that his father had collected over the years, over the course of his career, fell to Tina Sinatra, and she has subsequently become a great friend as well. And she said, look, would you want to buy these things?

[Ted Danson]

Did they come to you?

[Seth MacFarlane]

Yeah.

[Ted Danson]

Oh, wow.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Yeah. And I said, absolutely, having no idea, really what was in there. It was about 1,200 boxes worth of material. And luckily they had their curator, Charlie Pinon, who has been with Sinatra Enterprises forever, and he kind of gave us sort of a Cliff Notes of exactly what was in these boxes. But really, the only way to know is to play the music. And so we hired an orchestra, same folks that play on the TV shows, and went over to the Fox lot to the Newman stage and just brought what was recommended to us as the most likely candidates from these boxes by the curator and just played them. And from the first few notes of that first chart, it's like it's something that's so familiar and so comfortable and so second nature musically, but yet is brand new. It's like hearing. Like never having heard I've Got yout Under My Skin and hearing it for the first time in 2023 or whenever it was we did that first session. So it was kind of amazing because.

[Ted Danson]

You have an orchestra on. I don't know if it's on standby or what, that you can assemble for all of the background music.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Yeah, well, it's. I mean, there's studio players that play on everything from, you know, Jurassic park to, you know, to Family Guy.

[Ted Danson]

I mean, it's all freelance. And you put them together periodically.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Yeah, I mean, they're studio players that play scores for television and film and. And those are the people we call.

[Ted Danson]

And is it the same people that you would then tour with? Because I know you've toured all over the country.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Yeah, as much as we can. I mean, the LA players that, when we can get them the best of the best are just fantastic. They're just some of the best around. And when we tour, we'll, you know, if we play with the Boston Symphony or the Philadelphia Symphony or Houston or wherever, we'll bring a rhythm section. So we'll bring maybe a pianist, bassist, drummer, guitarist, and then maybe a lead trumpet player, a lead violinist, and then the rest will be that local symphony and there's some great symphonies. So it's, you know, you singing with a 80, 90 piece ensemble. It's not too bad.

[Ted Danson]

We went to the. You grew up in Kent, Connecticut?

[Seth MacFarlane]

Yes.

[Ted Danson]

You went to Kent School? Not just for boys. Back when you got there, it was for boys and girls?

[Seth MacFarlane]

Yeah. There were two separate campuses, but. But yeah, the dean of students was. When I was there was your roommate, Don Gowen?

[Ted Danson]

Yeah.

[Seth MacFarlane]

He was a wonderful guy.

[Ted Danson]

Yeah. Were you there second form through sixth form?

[Seth MacFarlane]

I was there all four years?

[Ted Danson]

Yeah, I was there five years.

[Seth MacFarlane]

You were there five years? What'd you do?

[Ted Danson]

Oh, man, it was scary when I was there.

[Seth MacFarlane]

You were there five years?

[Ted Danson]

Yeah. You went there?

[Seth MacFarlane]

Yeah. It was third form through sixth form.

[Ted Danson]

Second when I got.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Oh, so there was an extra form.

[Ted Danson]

When you were there five years.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Wow.

[Ted Danson]

And you were not a joint school, boys and girls? No, girls schools.

[Seth MacFarlane]

They bust us back and forth.

[Ted Danson]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Seth MacFarlane]

But I also, I was a day student because I, I lived in that town, I grew up in that town. And so I was. I had the, you know, luxury of avoiding kind of the, the Lord of the Flies side of boarding school, which I'm sure was just.

[Ted Danson]

Hell, man, it was scarier than crap. I was 13.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Yeah.

[Ted Danson]

And they were 18 year old hulking giants, you know, the six formers. And it was very scary.

[Seth MacFarlane]

It's like, it's. And they just kind of leave you to your own devices. I mean, after, I think now it's probably better.

[Ted Danson]

Oh, much.

[Seth MacFarlane]

But when I was a kid and when you were a kid, it was like, no, it's your. You're on your own.

[Ted Danson]

Yeah.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Like, it'll toughen you up.

[Ted Danson]

Yeah.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Toughen you up.

[Ted Danson]

It'll do something to you. I'm not sure.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Twice your size.

[Ted Danson]

It's like, yeah, School for boys makes men.

[Seth MacFarlane]

And it's like, it's gentlemanly at a dance. Invaluable in a shipwreck.

[Ted Danson]

Yeah. My friend and I, Duane Retta, I went on to Stanford with him and he's this great friend. But anyway, he was an athlete, an amazing athlete, but we both realized it was not worth trying to date somebody up in the girls school. Once a week at a movie or a dance, it was just like.

[Seth MacFarlane]

It was like 1955.

[Ted Danson]

Yeah.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Yeah.

[Ted Danson]

Yes, it was. It was 1955. And scary.

[Seth MacFarlane]

It's like dancing with the balloon between you that. The chaperone. Yeah. It was just. It was just.

[Ted Danson]

But let me go back a step further.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Yeah.

[Ted Danson]

Because I. Because we're going to talk about Family Guy and American dad, which I've been on thanks to you and all of that side of your life. But how I, I. You started drawing family lore at two, but at least at five you were like, hired. No, you did your first flip book at 5, but at 9, you were hired to do a comic strip by a local newspaper.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Yeah, yeah, it was our local newspaper, which tells you how small the town is. The Kent Good Times Dispatch, that was the Banner. And yeah, they hired me to do like a one panel comic like once a week. And it was like, they paid me five bucks, which later went up to ten. And I was doing that from age nine all the way up through. I think when I went off to college was when I stopped.

[Ted Danson]

Okay, so how did you get there at nine? How do you.

[Seth MacFarlane]

It was a very huge.

[Ted Danson]

How do you have a sense of humor at all? I mean, what is that? That you could know what was funny or interesting enough to put it in on paper?

[Seth MacFarlane]

I mean, it's. You know, my family was very uncensored in a lot of ways.

[Ted Danson]

More. What does that mean?

[Seth MacFarlane]

Yeah, I mean, you know, my mother. There wasn't really any kind of humor that was off limits. I mean, like, even I remember from the age of four, her stubbing her toe and like. God fucking damn it. Son of a. Fucking. You know, just, just. It was just. There was no editing mechanism. And that extended into, you know, the, the, the comedy that, that wafted throughout the house. And so, So I Had some sense of. I mean, it was very undeveloped, but I had some sense of maybe what was funny and what was not. And I liked it, you know, the Far side. And there were comic strips that I liked. So I had. I was sort of aping certain things that at the time before, I kind of found my own voice. But it was, you know, it was such a small town.

[Ted Danson]

Yes.

[Seth MacFarlane]

I mean, there could have been more than 600 people at the time. And so everyone knew everybody else, and it was a very supportive town. And so it was very in character for Kent for them to say, yeah, let's give this kid a shot.

[Ted Danson]

And did people find it funny? Did you get feedback?

[Seth MacFarlane]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Ted Danson]

Was it ever too far, Seth, or.

[Seth MacFarlane]

There was one week I got a letter from the local priest because I had done a comic.

[Ted Danson]

Oh, I know.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Yes. Yeah. This is sort of a. I've told this story before where the comic. It was a guy at taking communion because when I was a kid and I was in a church choir and I went to. You know, I didn't. It wasn't like a. Our family wasn't a religious family, but I was. They felt that music was important. I was in the church choir, and I would watch communion at the Episcopal Church. And it was just so oddly fascinating to me. I couldn't figure it out. Like, is that really. They're eating him. Like, this is really the body of Christ. Like, they're eating. That's like, what? What? And I just couldn't get it through my head what exactly was going on up there. And I did this one panel comic strip at like, 9 or 10 that said, there's a guy taking communion and he says, can I have fries with that? And I got a letter from the local priest saying, shame on you for insulting the Almighty God. Yeah.

[Ted Danson]

Oh, dear.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Shame on you for insulting the Almighty God and those who love him.

[Ted Danson]

Wow.

[Seth MacFarlane]

And I think maybe that was just an excuse to write to me. I don't know. But it wasn't.

[Ted Danson]

When you say you were in a choir and you were looking at chapel, that wasn't at Kent.

[Seth MacFarlane]

That was pre Kent.

[Ted Danson]

Pre Kent.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Yeah. That was the local.

[Ted Danson]

An Episcopal church.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Yeah, that was St. Andrew's Episcopal Church.

[Ted Danson]

Because we went to our share of chapel.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Oh, yeah. Three times a week.

[Ted Danson]

Yeah.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Yeah.

[Ted Danson]

Oh, woof. We were every day at 6, 7.

[Seth MacFarlane]

I feel like for everything I experienced, you had, like, the, you know, the worst version.

[Ted Danson]

Yeah. It was. It was tough. It was also wonderful.

[Seth MacFarlane]

You had to go every day.

[Ted Danson]

Yeah. Sunday. Sunday was not. Not early chapel. Sunday was a. I don't know, you had like.

[Seth MacFarlane]

You had the full on Dead Poet Society version of.

[Ted Danson]

Yeah, pretty much incense on.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Yeah, we had to go Tuesday and Thursday at 10am and then on Sunday we had to go for like a full service.

[Ted Danson]

Yeah, no, we were. Every day.

[Seth MacFarlane]

God, what a. Yeah, every day.

[Ted Danson]

Yeah.

[Seth MacFarlane]

What do they even talk about? How much Bible is there?

[Ted Danson]

Oh, I don't know. I have no idea. I was just looking. I was just hoping no 5 years in your case, no hulking 18 year old would turn around and look at me. Cause he's pissed off. That's all I was worried about the whole time.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Yeah.

[Ted Danson]

Okay. Kent school.

[Seth MacFarlane]

I somehow avoided that because I was assigned, for some reason I was assigned to videotape the football games. So I was able to. The hulking seniors were like, oh, I was their little buddy. So I was the. Yes, sir, boss.

[Ted Danson]

I got a good close up of you today, big fella.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Exactly. But I asked my dad about this recently because I don't know if you ever were up in the crow's nest at the football field at Kent. There was the wrestling room in the gym, had a crow's nest up top. And that's where you taped the football games from.

[Ted Danson]

Oh, no, I didn't know that.

[Seth MacFarlane]

And so I just remember being handed this 1980s camcorder in this big heavy case. And there's just a fucking ladder. And this thing has to go up like 30ft or however high it was. And maybe not quite 30ft. I'm exactly. To my memory now it seems higher, but like. And I would walk in like all by myself and just climb this ladder.

[Ted Danson]

With your one hand?

[Seth MacFarlane]

With my one hand. And I'm like. And I said to my father recently, like, how was that allowed? What were you guys smoking? That I. Because it took me forever. I would like, you know, just climb in.

[Ted Danson]

Just acrophobic terror while you were filming. I was the guy because I hurt my knee playing basketball, which was my passion.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Basketball was my passion.

[Ted Danson]

And football, I was 6 foot and 120. So they knew that I would die. If anyone ran into me by mistake, I would die. So. But you had to do something. You know, you had to participate somehow. So I was the guy lining the fields with that chalk machine.

[Seth MacFarlane]

That was your job.

[Ted Danson]

That was my job. As my big friends would go and stomp all over the lines and you know, that's me.

[Seth MacFarlane]

So you'd be. So you'd be lining up and they'd be like kicking all the.

[Ted Danson]

Yeah. Oh, wow. I Got to.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Oh, they're not really your friends, it sounds like.

[Ted Danson]

No, well, they were, but I got to play basketball in the gym by myself. I could go practice basketball after I lined the fields.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Oh, that's cool.

[Ted Danson]

So there was a.

[Seth MacFarlane]

So you got good at it.

[Ted Danson]

It was transactional.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Yeah. Yeah, it was transactional. It's a beautiful campus.

[Ted Danson]

Are you glad you went to Kent School? Is it a plus?

[Seth MacFarlane]

I am, I am.

[Ted Danson]

Me too.

[Seth MacFarlane]

It was a phenomenal education. I mean a phenomenal. Like the teachers I had stick with me to this day. It was Bill Armstrong there.

[Ted Danson]

Bill.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Bill Armstrong, yeah.

[Ted Danson]

Bill who scared the crap out of all of us.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Oh, all of us, yeah.

[Ted Danson]

And yet wrote one of the most sensitive books.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Wrote Sounder. Sounder, yeah. Yeah. I recently went online and looked for some of his old books that I hadn't read. Cause I felt like there was some. What is that? Through Troubled Waters, the book that he wrote about his wife's death.

[Ted Danson]

Yeah. Oh, right, right.

[Seth MacFarlane]

But yeah, he was a pretty amazing guy. There was a guy. Tim Scott was the English teacher when I was there. He's probably came on later, but he was fantastic. Was Jake. No. Jay Kohler wouldn't have been there.

[Ted Danson]

No. Yeah.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Trying to think who would have been. Was O.B. davis there?

[Ted Danson]

Yes, O.B.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Davis. English department.

[Ted Danson]

English. And sometimes did the plays.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Yep.

[Ted Danson]

Directed the plays.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Was Charles Gould there?

[Ted Danson]

Don't know.

[Seth MacFarlane]

No, probably not.

[Ted Danson]

No.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Yeah. Obie Davis was. He was one that sticks in my head. That's just a great teacher. It was a great, great, great bunch of teachers.

[Ted Danson]

Pit Armstrong was his nickname. Pit.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Oh, is that right?

[Ted Danson]

Yeah. And he. At age 13, he. The second formers had this how to study kind of class.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Yeah.

[Ted Danson]

Which was invaluable. Unless you were me.

[Seth MacFarlane]

We had the same thing. Yeah, yeah.

[Ted Danson]

Right. But was he. He had this partition between his little office and the classroom that came. It was a halfway petition so that there was a door jam that he could reach up. And when we came in day one, he was doing one arm chin ups. Was he one arm chin up, Just looking at us, just staring at us. It's like, oh fuck, we're in trouble.

[Seth MacFarlane]

It was kind of like the real life, you know, John Wayne sort of like he was like. Yeah, he just. I mean to well into his 80s, like was still probably unbelievably like it probably beat any student there in an arm wrestling match.

[Ted Danson]

So just quickly, big lesson Learned at age 13. We would take these little pop quizzes and you'd pass your paper back and forth to the person behind you. So they would correct it and then read off your scores. They were quizzes, not exams or tests. Well, it was clear. And then you just throw them away. He wasn't interested then. So we thought, my friend and I, who was behind me, went, well, this is silly. We could just put anything and I'll scratch your back, you scratch mine. And so we would give ourselves, each other, good grades, earned or not. And then one day. And then we got cocky and tried to make the other person laugh. So the tyrant of Rhodes was Pit Armstrong.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Ha ha ha.

[Ted Danson]

Pass in your papers that day. And for the next six months, he would hand out, here's the chest for the. For everyone. And here's the test for Mr. Dance and the Cheater. I was Mr. Dance and the Cheater. Wow. For six months, it was like, okay, I learned a big lesson.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Oh, my God. Yeah, that's. That's. Yeah, that. That's. That hurts from that. Coming from that voice.

[Ted Danson]

Yeah. In the one arm.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Did he. Did he do the thing where he and I. And this. The whole point was to get us to remember who. Who the famous Greek was. And now, of course, I can't remember where he was talking about some famous naval battle. And he said, I still don't think you're gonna remember who this is or what his name is. So we'll have him taking a piss off the side of the boat and he just draws the guy taking a leak. And it's like, I remember that. I just can't remember what the hell the guy's name was.

[Ted Danson]

That's so funny.

[Seth MacFarlane]

But, yeah, he was pretty. Was a pretty amazing guy.

[Ted Danson]

It was pretty much my formal education, Kent. Because then I went to Stanford and learned nothing. Because I chose to. Not because of the school, but I found acting. And off I went. So. Yeah. Were you.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Were you an actor at Kent? Like, were you.

[Ted Danson]

The. After basketball season was over, our final year, my friend and I went, we'll try. Try out for a play. And we got into Mo Martin Duberman's in White America.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Really?

[Ted Danson]

And, yeah, my friend is black. And we both kind of went, it's not basketball, but it's okay. Yeah, that's kind of how I held acting. It's not basketball, which is. It's okay.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Iffyon. And then you later found your passion for it.

[Ted Danson]

Yeah.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Yeah.

[Ted Danson]

Okay. So off you go. Where'd you go? Risd.

[Seth MacFarlane]

I went to risd. Yeah. Yeah. Which was also a fantastic place. That's just.

[Ted Danson]

All right. Sorry. I'm trying to put the pieces together, so. And I'M interrupting you like crazy.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Oh no, it's all good.

[Ted Danson]

I haven't done this for a while. You have music beginning because this is.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Already more coherent than any podcast I've ever listened to. So you're good.

[Ted Danson]

It'll go downhill in a minute. I've just heard about a serious but rare heart condition called attr Cardiac Amyloidosis or attrcm. If you have attrcm, you may experience symptoms related to heart failure like breathlessness and swelling of the legs, but also have issues that seem unrelated like carpal tunnel. There's a treatment option that may help called Atrube or Acharamidis. Atruby is a prescription medicine used to treat adults with ATTRCM to reduce death and hospitalization due to heart issues. In a study, people taking a truby saw an impact on their health related quality of life and 50% fewer hospitalizations due to heart issues than people who didn't take a truby, giving you more chances to do what you love with who you love. Tell your doctor if you're pregnant, plan to become pregnant, or are breastfeeding and about the medications you take. The most common side effects were mild and included diarrhea and and abdominal pain. If you have ATTR CM, talk to your cardiologist about a Truby or visit attribi.com that's a T T R U B Y.com to learn more. Nature's Bounty is the life hack we've all been needing. And being rather lazy myself, I enjoy a good shortcut and I just said that because I want you to know that I know what hack actually means needs in this case. So Nature's Bounty has a bounty of solutions to supplement your health and wellness. New Superfoods Plus Energy packs nutrients from a powdered blend of 23 fruits and veggies in just one capsule per day. I love that. I take a lot of pills and I love adding just one and not a fistful help reduce the appearance of wrinkles. You just got my attention. And improve skin elasticity in just 12 weeks with new ultra collagen booster. All right, I'm 77. I'm going to make this a test. I'm loving the thought of it. And new Probiotic gummies contain prebiotic and postbiotics for gut health, regularity and immune health in just one gummy per day. Nature's Bounty. It's in your nature. Learn [e-mail] these statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. What better time to get Green Chef the number one meal kit for clean eating. Pick from Mediterranean. Gluten free, plant based and protein heavy. Even gut and brain health and calorie. Smart choices too. And with week to week flexibility, you can adjust your plan to match your mood and your schedule. I confess that Mary and I had planned to cook together and make Moroccan spiced shrimp and pistachio rice, but I was working and so I didn't get home until after she had prepared it. She really enjoyed it. And then I came home and, you know, reaped the benefits. It was delicious. So we'll definitely do it again. Make this summer your healthiest yet with Green chef. Head to greenchef.com 50ted and woody and use code 50ted and woody at. To get 50% off your first month. Then 20% off for two months with free shipping. That's code 50ted and [e-mail] 50td and woody. So you have music, you have drawing, you have drawing characters and being funny. You haven't done stand up yet. So you really. Music and drawing.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Yeah, yeah.

[Ted Danson]

That's your creative output at the moment.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Yeah. I had done as much theater as I could when I was at Kent, so I had a little bit of that. You know, I tried everything to not play a sport if I could avoid it. But yeah, when I got to.

[Ted Danson]

And choir.

[Seth MacFarlane]

And choir. Yeah, yeah. And singing. But yeah, RISD was where. I mean, my first love was animation was visual art. And so I applied to risd, got in, and that was where I. I really started figuring out what the hell my voice was. I did start doing standup when I was in college and, you know, local stuff and in Providence. In Providence, yeah.

[Ted Danson]

Wow.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Yeah.

[Ted Danson]

Which has got to be a tough gig.

[Seth MacFarlane]

I remember it being okay. It was really. It was. Yeah. It was like, because, you know, I was from New England and so there was sort of a shorthand that was like, you know, you're kind of talking to the. It's such a small part of the country that, that you're talking to people who all have grown up with the same sort of frame of references that you have.

[Ted Danson]

Very working.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Yeah.

[Ted Danson]

Very bright. Very working class.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Yeah.

[Ted Danson]

Tough.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Yeah. It's a weird dichotomy because you have like the, you know, the educated sort of professorial intellectuals and then you have, you know, you can't park your car over there. You have those guys and it's like. And I was kind of, you know, dialed into both Those worlds when I was there. So it was. But it was a great place to kind of find your voice. Great school. I mean, just phenomenal school.

[Ted Danson]

How did you know that? Very first time there's an open mic or there's a something, or I saw somebody and, oh, I got to do that. What was that? Because that's a big transition from drawing, being funny and standing up.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Yeah. I mean, the theater that I had done in school and kind of the hunger that I had had for that at the time helps to kind of grease the wheels. So it wasn't like I was unfamiliar with being on a stage. I just hadn't tried anything that was so solo and exposed. But, you know, it's like you're in your 20s. It's like, who gives a shit? You don't care. It's like, what if I fail? I fail. Who cares?

[Ted Danson]

Okay, see, that's different. I didn't have that. That's very ballsy. That is. Stand up is ballsy.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Well, it was just like the worst that happens is that you have a bad night and no one laughs and you go home and people forget about it the next day.

[Ted Danson]

Yeah.

[Seth MacFarlane]

But I mean, nowadays I would be much more reluctant to. I think about it at times because at this point, the expectations would probably be because of Family Guy, because of everything.

[Ted Danson]

People be coming.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Show us you're funny, asshole.

[Ted Danson]

So did you develop something that you can point to later in life? Go. Yeah, I kind of got that from my standup at risd.

[Seth MacFarlane]

No, I mean, there were a lot of impressions. It was a lot of very kind of diet, rich little sort of routine that I did. But there are certainly elements of. Yeah, my college years were very, in different ways influential in what became Family Guy. I mean, I discovered film musicals. You know, I'd seen them when I was a kid. My parents had showed us all the.

[Ted Danson]

Oklahoma.

[Seth MacFarlane]

My Fair lady sound amusing. I didn't really care that much. And then I got into college and I started to kind of pay attention to music a little bit more and. And realize, oh, there's actually some great craftsmanship here. And just thought Rex Harrison was hilarious in My Fair Lady. Just like this guy is just like just this comical person who by all accounts was very much as he appeared on screen. And that became Stewie. Stewie is essentially Rex Harrison as Henry Higgins. There were a group of security guards that I was friends with when I was at risd, and they were all full on Rhode island to the core. And Peter Griffin is very much derived from one of those guys. But that was. Yeah, I think there was. God, there was one year we made like, I got all the security guards together. We made like a fake a team episode for film class. It was, it was, it was a fun place.

[Ted Danson]

A fake age.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was like, like starring RISD security.

[Ted Danson]

Yeah.

[Seth MacFarlane]

And that was like, it was for like some film project and they were like, yeah, sure, yeah, why not, we'll do it. But it was, it was just a, a place that was just kind of pumped gas in the creative tank in every way. And, and it, it, you know, I, I've heard that there are certain schools that you know, at the time were teaching you how to, you know, they're kind of training you for Warner Brothers or for Disney or like, here's how to work in this style. So it's a, it's a pipeline to this particular company. And RISD was very much like, here's everything you might need to know because we have no idea what you're going to want to do with your life and you have no idea what you're going to want to do with your life in a lot of cases. And so they just kind of kept it very open ended and if you were kind of leaning in a certain direction, it was nurtured.

[Ted Danson]

Right. So you graduate from RISD and what happens?

[Seth MacFarlane]

And then. Well, my senior year I had applied to the Boston Conservatory of Music for musical theater.

[Ted Danson]

I just love this about you. You interwoven everything that you cared about creatively from a very early age. The person we are talking to right now, you were there.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Yeah, yeah.

[Ted Danson]

30, 40 years, whatever it is to go.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Yeah, I mean it's. And the beautiful thing about animation is that it does encompass, I mean something like Family Guy. You work with an orchestra every week.

[Ted Danson]

You do, do you not? Does everybody do that?

[Seth MacFarlane]

The Simpsons does it. We do it on American dad as well. I mean any show that I work on, the Orville, we used about a 80, 90 piece orchestra every week.

[Ted Danson]

See, that's amazing.

[Seth MacFarlane]

But I think it's a important part of the. That used to be pretty standard on maybe not that size, but every television show you used to watch. I mean the little play ons from Cheers are like, those are acoustic, you know, musicians. But you know, it's performance art, it's visual art, it's musical art, it's writing. I mean it's so many disciplines in that one medium. But yeah, I had a plan.

[Ted Danson]

What I'm saying is you're designing the perfect Seth to go off and be the creator of all these things you've created. To be the head of all these things you've created. Cause you have your fingers in everything.

[Seth MacFarlane]

It worked out that way. It worked out that way. Yeah. I also didn't really know which way I wanted to go. My sister had gone to the Boston Conservatory of Music and Musical Theater, and she spent four years there and she had a beautiful singing voice. And I applied to their grad program, got in, and before I could go, my student film, which was a really rough version of what would become Family Guy, had fallen into the hands of Hanna Barbera, which was at the time still at the tail end of their existence. Now they've kind of, you know, they've kind of gone. They've been folded into Cartoon Network.

[Ted Danson]

They're here in la. Yeah. Or they were.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Yeah, yeah. At the time they were still working under that banner and. And, you know, and they were legendaries. The Flintstones, it's Scooby Doos. The Jetsons, it's. And they had gotten a hold of my student film and RISD had entered it in some competition that they were sponsoring. And I won something called the Freddie Award, which is like a bunch of rocks with Fred Flintstone sitting on the top and your name on a little plaque. And that was my introduction to Hanna Barbera. And so before I graduated risd, I got a call saying, listen, would you want to come out and do a cartoon short for us based on your student film? I said, yeah, absolutely. And there's a little bit of a shit. Do I ditch the grad program at Boston Conservatory. And the opportunity was just too good to pass up. So I took the California job, came out here, had no idea. I stayed at the Beverly Garland Holiday Inn for like. I think initially it was like, this was like the 1990s. It was like 600 bucks a week.

[Ted Danson]

Oh, wow.

[Seth MacFarlane]

I think that was like. At the time that was just coming out of college. That was great. Yeah, but. But I, you know, learned the Hollywood style of animation through, you know, one of the best studios, through the people that invented it.

[Ted Danson]

Wait, how? Because you're. You've been hired to. So did you start working with other people? Other.

[Seth MacFarlane]

There was a program called called what a Cartoon that was created by Fred Seibert, who has since gone on to be a pretty major force in the animation world. And the idea was basically to give green animators with no credits a shot at making their own seven minute pilot with an eye towards putting control of animation back into the hands of the artists and taking it away from the writers, which I think there's a place for both, that, when it gels, is the best case scenario. But they were very kind of like, look, the writers have taken over for years. Let's give things back to the artists. And so I did this short called Larry and Steve that was based literally, on my student film. And when that was done, they put me on a show called Johnny Bravo, which was a show that was on the air at the time, and Dexter's Lab and all these shows that the Millennials and Gen Z will. I'm shocked at how much they remember. So I worked there for three years, and there was a fellow named Adam Shapiro who took over development at Hanna Barbera and wanted to get them back into the primetime business and said, listen, your film is sort of the closest. Your short is sort of the closest thing.

[Ted Danson]

The Larry and Steed.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Yeah, yeah, that might be of interest to these people. So he took me to the Fox lot at this. You know, at the time, I'm like, 22, 23. Introduced me to these executives, and I had no clue, really. I was learning it all as I was going, and they said, we like this short that you did. Would you want to do a pilot for us? You're an animator. And I said, yeah, sure. And generally, a pilot gets a pilot budget of even back then, 500, 700 grand. They gave me, like, 40 grand. Spend it however you want. So I spent about six months in my apartment animating this pilot. The Family Guy pilot.

[Ted Danson]

Right.

[Seth MacFarlane]

And all the money went to having the drawings filmed and colored at a local production house. And by the time it was over.

[Ted Danson]

But each frame you. You drew.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Yeah. Now, keep in mind, this was. This was like, very like, you know, the Flintstones was the model. So it's like you have heads that are nodding and mouths that are moving. You know, they're economical ways to make sure that you're not doing full on Don Bluth.

[Ted Danson]

Right.

[Seth MacFarlane]

But at the end of that six months, I submitted the pilot, and by that time, I was 24. And they said, yeah, we want to buy this. Animation was really hot at the time. The Simpsons was at its peak. King of the Hill was a big hit. It was more and more and more animation. And so they picked up my show. And so at 24, I was kind of thrust into this world of. It was a writer's room that I was partially in charge of, and I had to kind of learn on the fly.

[Ted Danson]

So one more process question, because it fascinates me. Your writer's room is a bunch of writers.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Yeah.

[Ted Danson]

And then. So when you. What started first for you when you did your pilot, did you do the drawings first and then figure out or did you script it with dialogue and then draw around that?

[Seth MacFarlane]

Yeah, I had a script that. I mean, with animation, it's, you know, it's analogous to like a live action sitcom where it's like they're just steps that are similar, but because it's a different medium, they're different. You write the script, you do a storyboard, which is effectively blocking.

[Ted Danson]

Right. You then do the animation and everything's not really refined. You're just sketching it out.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Yeah, with animation, generally you sketch it out with a blue pencil and then you kind of clean it up, you ink it, or you use a pencil line or whatever your style is, and then it gets filmed. But you're animating to the voice because.

[Ted Danson]

If an actor comes in and does something, you go, oh, wait, shit, you gotta do that.

[Seth MacFarlane]

There's a scene in Mrs. Doubtfire where Robin Williams obviously play as a voice actor, and he goes into the studio and he's speaking to completed animation on the screen and everything's magically syncing up. And of course, that's not how it works at all. It's like you have to let the actor do their thing and then you animate to their performance. So that always works in that order.

[Ted Danson]

So there you are, a writer's room. Of how many people at the time?

[Seth MacFarlane]

There were about probably 15 people maybe.

[Ted Danson]

Were you assigned them or did you go find them?

[Seth MacFarlane]

No, I was, I was. I had chosen. They had me meet with a few seasoned showrunners. I picked David Zuckerman, who had worked on King of the Hill, who had had animation experience. And so he helped me kind of develop the show into something that was going to be sustainable week after week. And so he was kind of the adult in the room. And I was there to. And it was an interesting process at the beginning. Like, we are friends to this day, but we did have our, you know, he was working with like a young 24 year old guy who was, you know, had no experience and a whole lot of ideas and it was his job to kind of corral it. But we made something that endured. Really?

[Ted Danson]

Yeah.

[Seth MacFarlane]

You know, for, for 25 years. And, and. But it was an experience like to be in that room. Everyone in that room was more experienced than I was. I really shouldn't have been where I was for another 10 years. When I arrived in that writer's room, running a room at 24 was just I just had to learn on the fly.

[Ted Danson]

Right.

[Seth MacFarlane]

And, you know, that'll sink a lot of people. And that's where I credit my parents. It's like, they. They put enough of the, you know, stick up for what you want, but don't be an asshole. Like, find that Goldilocks zone. And so they did their jobs well. And that kind of got me through that period more than anything else. But. And then the show. I do remember, actually, I think it was like, day three, we were in the writers room, and, like, one of the first things we did was go on strike because animation at that time was not included in. It wasn't a WGA covered medium. And so you didn't have any of those benefits. And King of the Hill and the Simpsons and the shows that were on the air were like, hey, we're done with this. We want this.

[Ted Danson]

We're bringing in a lot of money.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Yeah, exactly. So they said, do you want to. Do you want to stand with us? And so we got to, like, three days later, we were like, sure, yeah.

[Ted Danson]

So for how long?

[Seth MacFarlane]

It lasted 24 hours.

[Ted Danson]

Oh, good.

[Seth MacFarlane]

That was good. That was how much the studios knew. Like, well, we just. Yeah, we were waiting for you guys to bring it up. We weren't going to bring it up, but, yeah, of course, you should be killed.

[Ted Danson]

One last thing on this, the process. I mean, so you sit down and you write. You start the writing room, and you start writing your first episode. When is it on the air? And I get to watch it. How much longer?

[Seth MacFarlane]

About 10 months.

[Ted Danson]

That's amazing.

[Seth MacFarlane]

10 months per episode? Yeah. Yeah.

[Ted Danson]

Wow.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Yeah.

[Ted Danson]

And how long before, after you write the script, do you start getting roughs of the animation itself? So, you know, oh, this is working.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Probably a couple months. I mean, it's been a minute for me. I mean, I ran that show for 10 years, and it's now been a while. But as I recall, it's. You finish the script, you do your record, and then maybe about a few weeks later, maybe three weeks later, you start seeing storyboards. And then you see an animatic maybe a month and a half, month and a half into the process, and then full animation you don't see for a while because that goes over to Korea, and then it comes back, and that's like months and months later.

[Ted Danson]

And then you do the home essay stuff. And then American Dad.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Yeah, yeah, American Dad. Family Guy got canceled because nobody was watching.

[Ted Danson]

I don't remember that.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Yeah, that was in about 2000-2002-2001-2002.

[Ted Danson]

After how many episodes?

[Seth MacFarlane]

After two seasons.

[Ted Danson]

Oh, so it came back, obviously.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. After two seasons. And I think it was two seasons and. Because that third season, I believe. No, it was three seasons. Sorry. It was three seasons. Jesus Christ. So we got canceled after three seasons because no one was watching. I was still under a deal with 20th. And so we created American dad, which was sort of a, you know, it was more political show, but it was very much in line with Family Guy. And then Family Guy got picked up again because the DVD sales were doing well. That's how long ago that was that DVD sales can bring back a fallen show. Syndication, DVD sales were doing great. So Family Guy gets picked up again. I didn't intend to have two shows. I didn't want to have two shows. I wanted to focus on one thing. This Family Guy was still very new, but I now had two shows by accident. And I made the decision to focus on keeping Family Guy running at that point. And we'd had this brush with death and American Dad. I essentially turned over to my co showrunners, Mike Barker and Matt Weitzman. And it was a good move because you had two shows that were. That didn't feel like. One felt maybe more like me and the other one felt like something different. And that was a good lesson in the value of delegation at a young age. And that's kind of how I operate now. I'm either kind of fully invested in something 247 or I'm delegating it completely. And whoever the showrunner is, their voice is very much the voice of that show.

[Ted Danson]

When did Ted come along?

[Seth MacFarlane]

Ted came along about 2000. God, 2010. 2009. 2010. First pitched that and it was roundly rejected by most of the studios that saw was just too expensive. An R rated comedy starring a teddy bear that talked was not really on anybody's most wanted list. And I think at one point they asked us to do it. Can you do it with a hand puppet? It'll be a lot cheaper. And then Universal said, yeah, okay, we'll roll the dice on this. And Mark Wahlberg and the rest is sort of history there.

[Ted Danson]

That's when I slowly start to enter.

[Seth MacFarlane]

That's right.

[Ted Danson]

The periphery of your life.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Yeah. You were in Ted.

[Ted Danson]

Yeah, it brought me great joy. It was Ted dancing on cocaine.

[Seth MacFarlane]

That's right.

[Ted Danson]

Being bitter or something. Reminiscing of it was like the D.

[Seth MacFarlane]

It was like they bought the Cheers DVD and it was like the interview with you.

[Ted Danson]

Right.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Like. And I think you even improv. You Even improv, the line that we ended up using in the film.

[Ted Danson]

Oh. Brought me great joy, too.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Woody Harrelson, smallest dick in show business.

[Ted Danson]

Right. It was my getting back at him for innumerable things he did to me.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Wait, listen, we were happy to help.

[Ted Danson]

But that was huge. Became a huge hit. And that gave you kind of, I'm assuming, license to pretty much start making whatever film you felt at the time.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Yeah, yeah. At the time, that was. I mean, I. No one would have greenlit a comedy western from anybody, really. I think if it weren't for. If it weren't at that time, it weren't for Ted.

[Ted Danson]

But wrote, directed and acted.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Yeah, yeah.

[Ted Danson]

How did you like that actor directed part?

[Seth MacFarlane]

It was, again, completely new. It scared the shit out of me, I gotta say. This is where I gotta give thanks to Albert Brooks, because I was a huge fan of his. Remain a huge fan. His defending your life remains just one of the greatest movies ever made to me. And I just called him and said, listen, I haven't done this before. You've done it out of the blue or did you have a relationship out of the blue? No, I reached out to somebody who connected me with him and I can't remember, might have been my agent, but called him and said, can I just pick your brain about this stuff? And he was so kind and so cool, and he said, not only can you. He said, you call me as often as you want. And so I called him probably once a week while I was working on that movie. And every time he picked up the call and he answered all my questions and was just so generous with his time. And I will never forget to this day, because it really did make a big difference because I was learning as I went. And to talk to someone who's done it really as well as anyone in show business ever has.

[Ted Danson]

I love hearing this story because I have so much respect for him, but I didn't know the mentor part. Just like pre production and shooting.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Stand up guy to end all stand up guys. Pre production and shooting. Yeah.

[Ted Danson]

Wow.

[Seth MacFarlane]

I mean, literally right down to questions like, how many of your dailies do you watch? Like, it's piles of dailies and it's like, you got to watch all your dailies. Watch all your dailies. You know? You know, how do you. At what point do you go and you look at playback? At what point do you know, you know, when you're directing? How do. How do you separate your directing brain from your.

[Ted Danson]

Who watches me while I. Yeah, looking through the lens, in essence, While I'm acting.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Exactly. Yeah.

[Ted Danson]

Who did.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Yeah.

[Ted Danson]

Did you have something.

[Seth MacFarlane]

I hired an acting coach to kind of be my conscience. This guy. This guy, Aaron McPherson, who was wonderful and I mean, he's been doing it for me in every project that I've.

[Ted Danson]

Acted in since to see whether or not. Wait a minute, you. Yeah, you did it. You hit your marks, but you weren't really present.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Exactly. Exactly. You were cheating. Yeah. Yeah. And that's kind of. It's invaluable and it's essential because it really is. I mean, unless you're someone who has been acting for so long that it's just second nature, I will still say.

[Ted Danson]

That I claim it's about 50 50. Whether you truly show up in the moment and film is literally about. I'm giving you the impression of what I did last night or I'm trying to repeat what I did day today.

[Seth MacFarlane]

As opposed to how you get there, though, right?

[Ted Danson]

No, but you are truly either there in that moment, surprising yourself and the person you're with, or you're not.

[Seth MacFarlane]

How much of it do you find is. How often is it. I nailed exactly what I prepared for and how much of it is that was an accident? And that's the best thing I've ever done because for me, most of the time, it's an accident.

[Ted Danson]

Well, that's wonderful because.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Well, it's not. Because it means I. It's like I. It's like wrangling a horse that I.

[Ted Danson]

Just find if you. I mean, if you do everything right, all the preparation on and all that stuff, it's still, for me, 50, 50. Whether I truly am like, I have no idea what's happening next. And isn't this astounding.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Yeah.

[Ted Danson]

Kind of thing that downhill skiing kind of thing with acting where you just.

[Seth MacFarlane]

But can you access certain. Like, you know, I've talked to actors who. And this sounds so fundamental and probably just the most basic way to ask the question, but I've talked to actors who are like, yeah, no, I'm drawing from something in my own life, or, no, I'm really believing what's on the page. Is it kind of 50, 50 for you, or do you have, like, I.

[Ted Danson]

Hope to get closer and closer to. It's on the page and that this is not. So you're drawing on something from your life. Yeah, but you're putting yourself so fully under the imaginary circumstances that you can just use that. And I still find it fascinating. I love acting so much. It's so cool.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, you Never stop either. Like, I mean, you're, you should talk. But it's like you always, there's a show, there's a film. Like you're always, there's always, I do.

[Ted Danson]

Love, I do love driving through the studio gate. I do love cruise. I love writers, directors.

[Seth MacFarlane]

There's always plenty of Ted Danson for America.

[Ted Danson]

Are a smidge too much.

[Seth MacFarlane]

No, no, no.

[Ted Danson]

Well, well, no, no, no, no.

[Seth MacFarlane]

People, people, people like it. People like it.

[Ted Danson]

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[Seth MacFarlane]

You have other clients. I get it. Yeah.

[Ted Danson]

But let me. All right. No, we're going to go there. So, Ted, you know, but then that's just. That was just a fun moment that I didn't see you again for a while. And then I think it was Family Guy. For some reason, somebody reached out to see if I would do something. I think this was the order of things. And I said, yes, but can you just do me a favor and pay whatever you're going to pay me and give it to Oceana, which is something that I care about and I do when I'm not acting? And you said, I won't get into numbers, but you said instead. How about instead of that, I multiply it by this amazing number that you did and give it directly to Oceana? You proceeded to do that.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Oh, that was Orville. That was for the. Orville, I think.

[Ted Danson]

Was it Orville?

[Seth MacFarlane]

Yeah, I think it was Orville. Yeah.

[Ted Danson]

Okay. One of your many projects. And it was almost 10 years ago or something like that. And you have. And you'll have to tell me, and we can edit this, because I don't want to put a target on your philanthropic back.

[Seth MacFarlane]

No, that's such a great organization.

[Ted Danson]

It is, but your generosity is beyond belief because you've been doing that for the last 10 years, which means a huge amount to me, because raising money for something you care about, that makes a difference in the world and changes things dramatically. And then somebody like you comes along and is that generous? It is. You know, you're changing people's lives. You are.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Well, it's funny, like, I was introduced to Oceana. I was on a date years ago, and she took me to the Oceana event. I had no idea what Oceana was. I wasn't. And it was this incredible event that was just, know, really educational and in so many ways. And so luckily, when you, you know, when I found out you were involved, I was like, oh, yeah, that's that organ. That's a phenomenal organization. I mean, phenomenal. And. And, you know. Yeah, I mean, that's. That's. That's. Win, win. You get.

[Ted Danson]

Well, it's the reason why you can ask me to do anywhere, and I will go anywhere. And you don't have to send me a script. I just want to come play with you because of who you are and how you. Your generosity makes a difference out there in the world. And I know you do this in many other areas and not just the environment. But I have huge respect for you.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Well, that's the one that I mean, and I know you feel the same way. It's like that's the one that you just can't afford to screw up. I mean, you can recover from a lot of screw ups, but if you screw up the environment beyond a certain point, you're really in trouble.

[Ted Danson]

And it's a game changer for literally everybody on the planet. And if you think you're wealthy enough to dodge that bullet, you're. You're certainly wrong. You're fooling yourself or powerful enough to.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Dodge the bullet, you're wrong kidding yourself.

[Ted Danson]

Yeah, it's true. Can I just ask a bunch of who the fuck are you? Random questions?

[Seth MacFarlane]

Sure.

[Ted Danson]

If you had to go, oh, this is kind of my North Star, or this is my mentor. If it's somebody, or this is somebody who. Or some thought that keeps me on purpose knowing that, you know. Yeah, just that.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Yeah. I mean, I mean, look, it sounds so cliche but like, you know, if, if any decision that you make.

[Ted Danson]

You.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Know, is this, is this something my parents would approve of? It's kind of.

[Ted Danson]

I mean, both your mom and dad come to mind when you say that.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Yeah, yeah. I mean, they were ex hippies, they were very altruistic, they were very much, you know, very socially conscious. And so that still remains sort of a lingering part of my conscience that's very much active that is this something. But as far as people who.

[Ted Danson]

You.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Know, certainly my father aside, I'll still call my father to get his take on certain things. But Andrew, who was married to Carl Sagan before he passed away and who wrote Cosmos for us, is very much a mentor, is very much somebody who.

[Ted Danson]

Why, what do you get from that relationship? I don't mean get, but draw from.

[Seth MacFarlane]

I mean, it's, you know, there are very few people you, you can say this person is truly, is a legitimate genius, like a legitimate genius like whatever her. And I mean intellectually and I mean culturally and socially in every sense. This is somebody who sees the world in a way that is pretty extraordinary. And so she's become somebody who I see as kind of a North Star, as you call it, somebody who I can call. And even with the most fundamental career question, hey, should I do this or this or what's your take on this? And you're always going to get something that's both incredibly astute and incredibly humble. And she remains a model of the kind of person I will never be as smart as she is, but remains a Model the kind of person that I would like.

[Ted Danson]

Sure.

[Seth MacFarlane]

To look in the mirror and see.

[Ted Danson]

Is there a rhyme or reason behind. I'm sure there is. Behind your philanthropy, there are things that.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Are really, that are fundamental. Things like Rainforest Trust and things like Oceania that are just kind of no brainers. It's like, well, we can't survive without the ocean, we can't survive without the rainforest. We're going to be in trouble if we trash either one of those two things. And so that's just. Those are kind of no brainers. And then when you get into the cultural stuff and you're funding music, you're funding the arts, you're funding medical research, it's then it's discussions with my team, the people that I work with. This is discussions with doctor Your team.

[Ted Danson]

What does that mean?

[Seth MacFarlane]

My manager, who I've become very good friends with and with doctors that I know who are involved with various types of, say, cancer research. And my doctor will say, yeah, there's a friend of mine, runs a lab at USC that's working on this and this and this. And they're looking for funding. So it's just about having conversations and finding out what people are working on and what sounds interesting and who needs what and everything is a crapshoot when it comes to things like medical philanthropy. I sort of go into it thinking like, this is money. I'm never expecting to. I'm throwing it into a potential void because science is. You have to be willing to just experiment and throw things at the wall and see what works. But still never a bad investment. It's like if you've moved the needle in some way, even microscopically, that maybe you're never even aware of, it's still worthwhile.

[Ted Danson]

Yeah, that's kind of the definition of philanthropy, I think, not knowing what the end result will be. So it's not this transactional thing.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Right? Right.

[Ted Danson]

Okay, so this part is. I don't. These are my questions for myself. You can either help me or express your own. And we can edit the shit out of this. So it's really up to you. How's your heart nowadays? My heart is aching a little bit with the world, especially here in la. I have an ache that I haven't figured out. I know that I'll just do my thing for two seconds. I know that fighting dark with dark does not work. I know that for me, in my makeup, anger, in my body, rage is not a good thing. And I couldn't live with it like that. But it's popping up Right now. So I need to figure that out, and I need to know, is there a line in the sand that is for me, that I will then have to go, well, sorry, all bets off. I now have to become, I don't know, Jane Fonda once more onto the ramparts kind of thing. I don't know. I would love to know if you want to talk, and if you don't, I totally get it.

[Seth MacFarlane]

I'm happy to talk about anything. No.

[Ted Danson]

How's your heart?

[Seth MacFarlane]

It's. What did. Somebody online said, boy, I'm tired of living in interesting times.

[Ted Danson]

That's great. I heard somebody else say, no, no. Let my enemies live in interesting times. Yeah.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Yeah. It's a really good question. I went back and looked at old texts of how I was feeling in the past few elections, and it's like every four years, it's like, this is the only thing that kind of put me on a little bit of a rational track is that they're always existential.

[Ted Danson]

The threats we face.

[Seth MacFarlane]

The way that I'm talking about it, but the way that I talked about it in 2024 was the same way I talked about it in 2020 and 2016. Existential. Existential. Existently. And is this time different? I don't know. But I do know that my language didn't seem to change, and so that gave me a little bit of optimism that maybe this isn't the first time. This is just kind of the way people like us are, that we give a shit and we should give a shit, but it's also something that can get the best of us and can consume us. So it's like, what is that Goldilocks Zone? What is that balance of caring enough to stay active and stay involved, but not letting it drive you to the point where it's just wrecking your life? And I get. Because I know exactly what you're feeling, and that's the struggle is that how do you balance altruism and philanthropy and caring about the world that you live in and caring about the world that is inherited by the people who come after you? Who's that philosopher that says, if you heard that somebody 3,000 miles away in Europe, or if you heard that a large group of people, we're gonna die, and you could prevent it, would you? It's like, of course you would. Well, if you heard that people 3,000 years from now, as opposed to 3,000 miles away, that's great. Were gonna die and you could prevent it, would you? And the whole question is, why do we have this feeling of moral responsibility when it comes to distance, but not when it comes to time. And look, this is the kind of shit we fuck around with on the Orville and why. I love writing that show, but it's a great question. It's like, what do we owe the future? And I think we owe. I would say we owe the future as much as we owe the present.

[Ted Danson]

My father, who was a scientist, an archeologist, the thought that came out of that for me as a kid was, a lot has come before you and hopefully a lot will come after you. And this time is not about you. It's about your stewardship of what you've been given. Which is similar to what you're saying.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Yeah.

[Ted Danson]

You're linking a chain for some reason. I have, because I've always let science lead the way. If I get into an argument about partisanship or politics, I get very emotional, lose my way, and I'm not. That's not my happy place. If I. I'm happy to go and I have gone to Congress and testified and about oil and offshore oil and the oceans and all of that, and I'm happy. If a Republican throws a brick at me, I don't care. Because my job is say, hey, this is the science.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Yeah.

[Ted Danson]

This is what we know. Do with it what you will, but there will be a consequence.

[Seth MacFarlane]

It's interesting because Republicans were once. I mean, you look at the. They were once champions of science.

[Ted Danson]

Oh, totally. My father was a Republican.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Yeah. I mean, it was something that they took pride in.

[Ted Danson]

Yeah.

[Seth MacFarlane]

And I do think that if there can be a separation. I mean, look, it's when things like climate change are lumped in with other issues as if it's like, if it's a woke issue, that's where you kind of lose me. It's like, look, we all have our feelings about how to apply how to tax the country or how to structure healthcare and the public and private of it all and how to allocate these funds or these funds and reproductive care. What is ethical? And it's like all of these. We all have our opinions and what we believe, but they are, in many cases, opinions. Your opinion on how to best allocate healthcare may be different than mine. When it gets into things like science. That's where it's like, God, we should all be agreeing on this. This should be something that we've all done as a society together, Republicans and Democrats, liberal. We've all reached this point where we can, you know, you have a cell phone in your pocket that can give you any information you ask for with the tap of a button. And there should be no reason for any of us to be abdicating that like that. To be abdicating that. So I think that's something that if. And you do read about these conservative groups that are concerned about climate change and you start to see kind of sparks of that. And I think it's a great place to start. It's a great place to begin because it's not.

[Ted Danson]

It's not partisan.

[Seth MacFarlane]

We can disagree about pronouns until the cows come home, but when you have something that is. You can start with something that's so irrefutable. I do think there's a conversation to be had if we can just dial down. If we just dial down the red in our faces, right?

[Ted Danson]

And I almost feel like I'm not going to talk about climate change anymore. I won't. Let's not talk about that. Let's agree, don't agree, whatever. Beside the point, at this time, at this point in our lives, it's beside the point. Let's talk about. How can I help you develop a system that saves lives in parts of the world and country that are flooding so badly? Because when people drag other people out of the water, odds are they'll be on different political sides of the fence, but they could give a shit because it's a human being reaching and saving another human being. So let's find out how we can help save human lives together. Forest fires, drought. Let's do that. Let's talk about. Because it's here. We don't have to talk about.

[Seth MacFarlane]

There was, I tell you, you know, even as a kid watching, and boy, they knew how to teach us this lesson in a way that we don't really. We're not as good at nowadays. I remember watching he man when I came home from school in the afternoon. There was always the moment where, like, Skeletor is hanging off the cliff and they've been battling and it looks like Skeletor is gonna die. And he man reaches down and pulls him up at the end of the day, and Skeletor says, you did not have to save me. Why did you say? You know. And that's always the kind of person.

[Ted Danson]

You want to be in wrapping up this whole thing. First off, thank you so much. Thank you for all of the little interchanges and creative things we've gotten to do together, your generosity and all of it. But thank you for being here today. I really, really have had fun talking to you. But just to end this you in some quote or something talk about optimistic and fun or maybe it was looking back at the things that you enjoy. But you use those two words, optimistic and fun, and that is putting that out into the world, which you do through your work and your music is a contribution to this thing. We're talking about why our hearts ache at this point. Putting that out is, if that's all you did in life, you can't discount that as moving the needle in the right direction.

[Seth MacFarlane]

That's why I did the Orville and that's why we still have yet to do a season four. That's why I did that show. Because when I was a kid, Hollywood was providing that voice through in various forms. There was a lot of hope. And we're doing a really, you know, some of the blame lies right here in this town. Like we are. The dishes that we are serving up are so dystopian and so pessimistic. And yeah, there's a lot to be pessimistic about, but it's so one sided. There's nothing we're doing that's providing anyone an image of hope. I mean, look, I love the Handmaid's Tale. It's a great fucking show. Beautifully written, beautifully directed. But there's a lot more of that than there is of what we used to get from Captain Picard. It's like, where is Hollywood's? They're certainly giving us a lot of cautionary tales, but where are the blueprints that they once gave us for how to do things correctly? It can't all be just, here's what's going to happen to you if you fuck up. You do need. Here's what you can achieve if you change your ways and do things right.

[Ted Danson]

Look at the joy and happiness and laughter you can come get if you go this direction.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Exactly, exactly. We're doing none of that. We're doing none of that. I see it every day. I drive down like driving down Beverly Boulevard today and looking at the billboards of what's to come and it's like, yep, dystopian, dystopian, horror, negative, pessimistic. There's nothing that's, that's giving anybody kind of. Now as an adult, it's like, all right, I can see past that. But when I was a kid, I had the opposite. I had a lot of templates and characters who were kind of the Gary Cooper in High Noon of when I grew up, who would do the right thing, who would. I remember that movie. He would on his honeymoon and he's pulling away and he's like, well, shit, I'm on my honeymoon and I gotta turn around and fight this bad guy. But you know, it's the right thing to do because I'm an altruistic guy and I just gotta do what's right. And television and film were full of those kinds of people. And now it's all about the. Ever since Tony Soprano and again, great fucking show. But it's all about the anti hero. It's all about the complicated, fucked up, drug addled person who's like, isn't this person a mess? And you know, and you know, I mean, everyone on the White Lotus is brilliant, but everyone. No one is someone you'd want to be. There's nobody who you'd look at and say, boy, I want to be like that guy. If the shit hit the fan, I'd want to do what Gary Cooper did. We don't do that anymore. And I think if we did a little bit of that in this town, even just a little bit, we actually, that's the only thing really that Hollywood can do that's worthwhile. Because as we all learned from this election, nobody gives a fuck what celebrities think. Like, we can tweet, we can talk like people don't care. They don't care. What we do do well is tell stories. And we're not doing the best job right now of telling those stories in a way that gives people hope. And I think that's part of the problem. That may be like a way oversimplification of things, but I do think that that's. It's incumbent upon us to take a good fucking hard look at that and see what we can do to change it.

[Ted Danson]

And let me say, while you have those thoughts, listen to the lush life. And I'm not just bringing this around in a circle. What a pleasure.

[Seth MacFarlane]

Always.

[Ted Danson]

Yeah. Thank you.

[Seth MacFarlane]

My pleasure.

[Ted Danson]

Thank you so much. Yeah.

[Seth MacFarlane]

I don't believe in fretting and grieving why mess around with strife I never was Cut out two step and strut.

[Ted Danson]

Out Give me the simple life the fantastic Mr. McCarthy. Check out his Sinatra album lush life and you heard the man. Consider getting the vinyl if you have a record player. That's all for our show this week. Special thanks to team Coco. If you like this episode, review and subscribe on Apple podcasts. If you like watching your podcasts, these full length episodes are also on YouTube. Visit YouTube.comteamcoco More for you next time. Where everybody knows your name.

[Seth MacFarlane]

You've been listening to where everybody knows your name with Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson Sometimes. The show is produced by me, Nick Leow. Our executive producers are Adam Sachs, Jeff Ross, and myself. Sara Fedorovich is our supervising producer. Engineering and mixing by Joanna Samuel with support from Eduardo Perez research by Alyssa Grohl talent booking by Paula Davis and Gina Bautista. Our theme music is by Woody Harrelson, Antony Gen, Mary Steenbergen and John Osborne.

[C]

Hey there, it's Kelly Ripa. And if you've been listening to my podcast, we are knee deep in season three. And if you haven't heard it, it's time to get on board. After years of interviewing celebs on camera, I finally get to bring you the real conversations that take place when the cameras aren't rolling. Where else are you going to hear Michelle Obama talk about keeping her girls out of Page 6? Hilaria Baldwin's hilarious reaction to Alec running for office, or Jeremy Renner's lucid hallucinations about Jamie Foxx? Nowhere else. It's raw, it's honest, and best of all, it's off camera. And believe me, that's where you get the good stuff. So download. Let's talk off Camera with Kelly Rippa now. Wherever you get your podcasts.

[Seth MacFarlane]

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