February 20th, 2025 
Jackson Murphy 
New episodes of FOX Animation Domination icon Family Guy air Sundays at 8pm through March 23rd. It moves to 8:30pm on March 30th. Three-time Emmy winner Rich Appel and three-time Emmy nominee Alec Sulkin are the showrunners and executive producers, who work closely with creator and star Seth MacFarlane on continuing to deliver quality comedy over a quarter century after the series premiered. But what about a movie? We discuss that and much more. (This Animation Scoop Q&A was edited for length and clarity.)
Jackson Murphy: Rich, [it’s the] 23rd season. You’ve been on the air 26 years. You kicked it off with a Top Gun themed episode the other night. How did it feel getting the new season going with a jam packed action and comedy packed episode?
Rich Appel: Well, after I finished the “SNL 50th” celebration and the new episode of “White Lotus”, I happily turned to our season… No, I’m just kidding. It felt great. And it feels great because “Family Guy” is kind of this unicorn. “The Simpsons”, of course. “South Park”. But to be a show that’s been on the air that long, what that actually means is you get to work with the same people year in and year out. And in television that’s rare. And Alec and I really do like and respect the writers we work for and the artists. I’ve been here for 13 years, Alec has probably been here for 20 with a little gap. People have been here a long time, and it’s nice to have that kind of old school work life that doesn’t exist, really, in the entertainment world. It exists if you work in a bank or a school. It doesn’t really exist in TV. And we get that. And that’s a luxury we appreciate.
JM: Sunday night is one of the busiest nights of television. It’s been forever and ever — and Animation Domination is one of the reasons why. Alec, an episode like this, “Fat Gun”, the “Top Gun” parody, does the genesis of it come from you guys going to “Top Gun: Maverick” and thinking, “Oh, I can do a lot with this”, or is it different?
Alec Sulkin: Well, Rich may have to correct me on this. We had one of our great writers, Artie Johann, write it, who always cranks out amazing scripts. So we knew it would be in good hands. I seem to recall it just, yeah, coming out of the fact that “Top Gun: Maverick” was so huge and that was during COVID and we were all just kind of coming out of our homes again when that was coming out. It just seemed like it was so ripe for parody with us.
RA: And the show pretty much before I came — I think I overlapped on — did all those “Star Wars” parodies, which were so great and fans loved. So we’re always keeping in mind, “Is there something that’s that iconic?” And there’s not a lot. And by the time “Top Gun: Maverick” came out… it really did seem to attain that status and Artie did a great job with the script. But I do remember another one of our writers, Pat Meighan, as soon as he had the idea of how to combine part one and part two, basically into one 22-minute [episode], that just made it seem like… it was such an inspired idea. And we realized, “Oh, we can use either one as fodder for this episode in 22 minutes.” And it is fun to do, but you have to pick your targets carefully because you want it to be something that is like a shared, cultural touchstone for your viewers.
JM: And a lot goes into the visual details too, Rich, right? When you see this episode, you can go to the bar scene, and you can go to so many moments and go, “Wow, your animators got it so right.”
RA: They did, and they did a great job. And we can’t do that many of those kinds of episodes because already our typical episode has X number of backgrounds and new characters and a dance number. They’re already a challenge. But when you do an episode that basically has not one background, not one character design that’s the same, it’s an enormous big swing for production, and they really killed it. And I think, to their credit, the directing team on that episode also sees it as “This is a fun opportunity to really soar.” No pun intended.
JM: Alec, there is a famous exchange that Seth MacFarlane and Tom Cruise had on “The Graham Norton Show” back in 2014, where Seth did a Kermit the Frog impression and Tom did his Donald Duck impression. And so I wondered as I was watching this episode, because of that history, is there ever a worry for you guys that maybe you go too far because you know all these celebrities, you’ve met with many of them, they’ve come in as voice actors. Or do you just go, “You know what? We’re going to make fun of a lot of the roles that Tom Cruise has had in many movies”?
AS: It’s one of those things where… and I’ve seen that clip and it is very funny and… Listen, we love Tom Cruise. He’s the greatest movie star, maybe of our lifetime. Certainly of this generation. He’s really the last guy left, and he is phenomenal at what he does. I don’t know that there’s ever been a better movie star than Tom Cruise. And we all respect [and] love his movies. But the fact is there’s some stuff there that’s a little silly with Tom Cruise sometimes, and we’re happy to point that out. And I think to Tom Cruise’s credit, Tom Cruise does not give two sh*ts about what we say about him because he’s busy being Tom Cruise. I think Seth is also aware that Seth would never deny us because of one 10-minute interview that he did 10 years ago.
RA: And you’re on something Jackson, but it’s not us. It’s Seth, for obvious reasons, [who] meets and knows these people. And I’ve had the experience when he records occasionally, and he is reading the script, you’ll hear him going through a scene and then you’ll hear, “Ugh! I’m going to see him at a party — at a dinner in a week.” And he never then says, “Don’t do it.” It’s just like, “Ah, alright.”
AS: We usually say, “Okay, we’ll change it.”
RA: Yeah, sometimes we say that. There’s an understanding that if the size lasts more than four seconds, we should change it. Those often get memed a lot, but by and large the bread and butter of the show is in celebrity parodies or impersonations. But by definition, if we’re using them, they’re at a level where I think they can take it. And to Seth’s credit, you know, “South Park” has poked fun at “Family Guy”, and Seth shrugs it off and it’s just like, “Yes, what’s good for the goose.”
JM: Yes, it’s part of the biz. It’s part of what you guys have done so well. And the impact of “Family Guy” on social media for my generation [and] a little bit older [and] a little bit younger… If you scroll through Instagram, there are so many “Family Guy” clips. Rich, do you see that impact firsthand? You’re in the writer’s room. You’re working with all these talented people. “Wow. Some of these clips from 15, 20 years ago are coming to a new generation, making them laugh out loud”… or things getting rediscovered in certain ways?
RA: Well, I’m of a different generation, so you’ll have to tell me what social media is. (laughs) No, I think that plays a huge part in keeping the show in the zeitgeist because the show, as you know watching it, has so many cutaways or TV gags that are ready made, tailor made for social media. And that’s just Seth being prescient and may be a little lucky. But yeah, people discover the show that way and come back to it, and our audience builds. And the thing that’s so great is they don’t just have to see it in syndication, they can go to Hulu. Last year, “Family Guy” was the second or third most streamed show with 42 billion minutes of viewing. It’s clearly not just the audience who grew up with it. It’s new audience.
JM: Definitely. Alec, a couple of new episodes from the past year debuted on Hulu, which was new for “Family Guy”. New episodes of “The Simpsons” became Disney+ exclusives. How did it feel kind of tailor making these episodes for Hulu? You brought Glen Powell into the equation, and clearly people are watching on Hulu.
AS: Hulu’s been an amazing partner for us and obviously, the 42 billion minutes, they’re clearly the right platform for us. People are finding us there, which is great. So, when they wanted two exclusive episodes from us, we were thrilled. It’s nice to think your parent company knows you and wants stuff from you. So I think we were all excited to do that. The way that Hulu promoted those shows was great. There was a ton of promotion and really smart, slick promotion, because we’ve seen our share of all kinds of good and bad promotion over the years. And this is very, very good promotion, but. You mentioned Glen Powell. Rich happens to be an acquaintance of Glen Powell. He couldn’t have been nicer.
RA: Friend, not acquaintance, but the point I’d like to add… (laughs)… I’ve known him a little bit for years, and I remember he had shot “Top Gun: Maverick”, and then it was supposed to come out, then COVID hit. He knew he was in a movie that was great, and then he had to wait another 18 months for it to come out. And I knew he liked “Family Guy”, and I actually bumped into him in a restaurant. I was like, “Oh my God, if ever there’s a guy tailor made to do our parody, it’s the guy who just starred in the movie itself.” But he then played, if you saw the episode, basically the coolest guy around who’s Joe’s rival at a pumpkin contest — and brings that same “Top Gun” intensity to pretty small stakes. And he was great.
AS: We’re in a great position. We have a lot of very funny writers who have been here for a very long time, certainly by Hollywood standards, an incredibly long time. So they’re all really good at writing for “Family Guy”, which is something they’ve now been doing for 10, 15, 20 years. So when it comes to planning ahead, we’re all old hat at it now. We understand the process.
JM: Rich, what else can fans expect in this new season? I think this Sunday’s [episode] is called “Live, Laugh, Love”.
RA: Yes. That’s Lois and Principal Shepard. We have Peter meeting Brett Kavanaugh and discovering they each love beer and that bonds them. And then they swap spots and Kavanaugh becomes a very happy guy who hangs out at the bar with his buddies while Peter heads to Washington. We do our “White Lotus”. And Stewie may or may not be a very good stand in for Jennifer Coolidge in many, many ways. And we’re doing an episode where we parody three Hulu hit shows. And we’re on Hulu, and they were very liberating with us about, “Take your best shot.” So we’re doing “Only Murders in the Building”, “The Dropout” and “The Bear”.
JM: Wow. I’ve been into “The Bear”. That’s going to be fun.
AS: Yeah, it’s a fun show.
JM: Good. I think a lot of people initially, when the whole Disney-Fox thing happened, were like, “Oh, What’s The Mouse going to do to ‘The Simpsons’? What’s The Mouse going to do to ‘Family Guy’?” But Alec, clearly it seems firsthand from your experience that they’re letting you still do what you do best, and that is awesome.
AS: Absolutely. Yeah, Disney and Hulu have been great partners with the show. And it’s natural to feel that way when there’s some kind of a big change like that. “Oh boy, is it gonna be different? What’s gonna change? What now can we not do?” But it’s really just been business as usual, and you have to give the Disney Hulu executives a lot of credit there for understanding “‘Family Guy’ is popular for a reason, so let’s just let ‘Family Guy’ be ‘Family Guy'”.
RA: The other not insignificant factor is, not to get into the weeds of the merger, Disney basically took over the entire television studio that had been owned by Fox, and with it went their creative team. So we’ve been lucky the people who are still in charge of this show were in charge of this show when we were part of the News Corp. family. Of course, Bob Iger at Disney clearly has allowed the show to remain what it is, but we are blessed because the executives who oversee our show, the ones they report to, those are the same people who helped get “Family Guy” on the air 25 years ago.
JM: Amazing — and have allowed it to continue to be one of the most popular shows. So that leads to my final question for both of you. What are the current thoughts of a theatrical film? Is a “Family Guy” film something in the cards?
RA: I think it’s in the cards, but Seth has been consistent. He says he wants to do it when he has the time to be a part of it. He has been spectacularly supportive of me and Alex saying, “You guys run the show.” He comes in, of course, to record every episode. But he needed the freedom to do his other projects. But I think the movie is unique enough that he’s always said… I’ve seen him say this in public…. He wants to be a part of that and right now his schedule I don’t think would really permit it.
JM: Okay. Alright. But Alec, what do you think about the possibilities? Have wheels been turning in your head of what it could look like?
AS: Well, luckily for me, when the subject comes up with Seth, he always says right away, “I know what the story is. I have the idea for the ‘Family Guy’ movie.”
JM: Wow.
AS: So as a writer who is pretty lazy, when I hear that, I’m like, “Okay, great! Tell me what we’re doing!” As Rich said, he always does say as well he can’t do it until he has the time to be fully involved with it. But I’m comforted to know that the guy who thought up all these funny characters in this whole world has the idea for what he wants the movie to be.
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