Seth MacFarlane has become a TV mogul, much like Matt Groening (The Simpsons) before him. MacFarlane was born in 1973 in Connecticut. He attended the Rhode Island School of Design, where he created the animated short film The Life of Larry. Executives at Hanna-Barbera (now Cartoon Network) were impressed, and encouraged Seth MacFarlane to go to Los Angeles in 1995 to create and direct a short film for them.

After moving to L.A., he worked on a variety of animated shows, including Ace Ventura, Jungle Cubs and Johnny Bravo.

Career

The producers of MADtv discovered The Life of Larry and approached him to air it as four short segments. Although that deal fell apart, executives at Fox recognized his talent and gave him a shot to create a primetime animated series of his own. Over the next six months, Seth MacFarlane created, animated, wrote, directed and provided all the main male characters' voices for what became Family Guy. Utilizing all his contacts, friends and resources to produce the seven-minute short, he delivered it in May 1998 and just weeks later it was picked up.

Family Guy premiered on January 31, 1999. Like Futurama, Family Guy orignally aired on Fox. After Fox moved the show around timeslots, the show drew low ratings and was canceled in 2002. Later, Adult Swim began airing re-runs. With high ratings on Adult Swim, and brisk sales of the DVDs, Fox brought Family Guy back onto the Sunday night schedule in 2005.

In 2009, MacFarlane put out a DVD called Seth MacFarlane's Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy, which is a collection of animated shorts he created, including parodies of Jesus Christ, Bob Dylan, Ted Nugent, Quentin Tarantino, Super Mario and Jeff Goldblum.

In 2011, Seth MacFarlane released a CD, Music is Better than Words. He sings  standards and classic pop songs (think 1940s). The CD was no doubt inspired by his musical tour of Family Guy Live!.

Seth MacFarlane starred in Ted in 2012. Well, his voice did. He played a foul-mouthed teddy bear named Ted who lives with Mark Wahlberg until the latter gets a girlfriend. Ted was a critical and box office success. A sequel is in development.

In 2014, MacFarlane starred in a movie he also wrote and directed. A Million Ways to Die in the West was a big musical set in the old frontier. Although the movie boasted big star power, like Charlize Theron and Neil Patrick Harris, it bombed at the box office. Plus, critics hated it.

Awards

Seth MacFarlane received an Emmy Award for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance for his role as Stewie Griffin, and Family Guy has garnered three nominations for Outstanding Animated Series. In 2002, he also received an Emmy for Outstanding Music and Lyrics for Family Guy. He has been nominated for Emmy awards every year since he won.

See also: Full list of Family Guy awards

In 2013, MacFarlane was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Achievement in Music, Original Song for "Everybody Needs A Best Friend," from his movie, Ted. He also hosted the Oscars that year, receiving mixed reviews. One song especially offended thousands of women; "We Saw Your Boobs" listed dozens of actresses who have bared their chests in movies. Many of those actresses were in the audience.

Seth MacFarlane's Other TV Credits

Seth MacFarlane also serves as co-creator/executive producer/voice actor on American Dad. His additional television credits include serving as executive producer on The Cleveland Show, Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, Dads, The Winner (very short-lived) and Blunt Talk. He attempted to reboot The Flintstones for FOX, but the show never made it off the ground. His next cartoon for FOX is Bordertown, which is set to premiere in 2016.

He has had guest-starring roles on The War at Home, Gilmore Girls, Aqua Teen Hunger Force and Robot Chicken. 

Seth MacFarlane was also the first person to serve as Comedy Central Roast Master in back-to-back network Roasts, first for David Hasselhoff then for Donald Trump.

My Two Cents

I caught Seth MacFarlane, once, on Real Time with Bill Maher on HBO. I wasn't terribly interested in seeing the show, as I'm not a big fan of Bill Maher, but I was curious to see Seth MacFarlane, and hear what he had to say.

I'm glad I tuned in. Seth MacFarlane reminded me why he's become his own brand and franchise. He was well-spoken (even when he was using profanity) and intelligent in his answers. I nodded fervently when he said Dick Cheney would have been tried for war crimes under Ronald Reagan. I applauded when he said it took a special kind of a-hole to sleep safe knowing soldiers were defending his country, but then slam those same soldiers if they were gay. I smiled when he modestly defended the Family Guy episode "Extra Large Medium" that Sarah Palin attacked for its portrayal of a girl with Down Syndrome. Even more impressive was an impromptu performance of Captain Kirk from the Star Trek episode "A Taste of Armageddon."

I'll have to keep Seth MacFarlane's talents and intelligence in mind the next time I read about Family Guy's stunt casting or turns on The David Letterman Show or some other shameless publicity ruse. After all, the man has been to cancellation and back. He deserves credit for every success he has.