Seth MacFarlane made a triumphant return to San Diego Comic Con this year where he sat on panels for all three of his Fox animated series: Family Guy, American Dad, and his new show Bordertown. Let’s dive in. Giggidy.
First off, let’s get this fresh piece of intel out of the day. When prompted by the moderator, MacFarlane revealed that he is “optimistic” about a second season of Cosmos. For fans of the Spacetime Odyssey, this should get you going. “There’s nothing official yet, but the talks are happening,” he added. As Peter Griffin would say, freakin’ sweet.
Speaking of Family Guy, that panel brought on executive producers Steve Callaghan and Rich Appel, as well as voice actors Alex Borstein (Lois), Seth Green (Chris), and Mike Henry (Cleveland). MacFarlane introduced a clip featuring scenes from upcoming episodes, and you can watch it after the break. What can you expect? The gang finds out that Quagmire was once a Korean soap opera actor and they travel to Korea to find an episode of his show…Chris becomes a registered sex offender…Brian and Stewie get addicted to Aderall “with interesting results”…Stewie encounters his first nightmare and Brian enters his mind to explore his demons hidden inside. Guest stars include Ed O’Neil, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Glenn Close, Kyle Chandler, Joe Buck, and Kate McKinnon (she’ll play Peter’s sister and she’s a pro wrester with the name Heavy Flow). Also, John Mellencamp will pop up and sing in an episode playing a self-depreciating character. Following these announcements, the cast did a live script reading, pulling from classic Family Guy sequences fans quickly recognized.
Next up was American Dad and to the stage came executive producers Matt Weitzman and Brian Boyle, as well as voice actors Scott Grimes (Steve) and Wendy Schaal (Francine). Again a clip was shown previewing scenes from the new season, but unfortunately Fox did not upload this one to the ‘Net. My descriptions will have to do: Steve and Snot’s future selves travel back in time to stop their present selves from throwing a party (if they peak in high school, they’ll become losers as adults is the argument)…Francine practices to be a widow when she learns that the family doesn’t have life insurance…A two-part episode features Stan having a “crisis of faith” and he feels compelled to become “the next Noah”…Steve joins the water polo team and Klouse uses his pubic hairs to control him, Ratatouille-style…With R. Kelly’s permission, there will be an episode where Steve belts out his own version of “Trapped in the Closet” (Grimes previewed a tune for the crowd and as we already know he can sing). Also confirmed: Hayley’s boyfriend Jeff will be featured in half the episode next season; his alien-hood won’t be a major point of discussion anytime soon.
The final panel promoted the next animated series that MacFarlane is executive producing and that’s the politically bent Bordertown. Creator and EP Mark Hentemann was joined by voice actors Alex Borstein, Missi Pyle, and Nick Gonzalez and they screened nearly half of the pilot episode for the Con crowd. The animation style certainly is different from Seth’s previous works, and the material at hand addresses the border situation across America and Mexico head-on. What they showed proved to be entertaining fair, but it will take time for MacFarlane’s following to jump aboard this wise-cracking political romp.
Check out the gallery below for a few pictures from panel. Family Guy, American Dad, and Bordertown premiere this fall on Fox.
