Reddit AMA Recap: Family Guy writer Steve Callaghan

Last week, Family Guy producer and writer stopped by Reddit to do an AMA right before the 250th episode aired on FOX. The session was short, but Steve DID offer some insight into the show’s past. Check out some of the highlights of the Reddit AMA below:

Changes to the show since Family Guy first premiered in 1999

Great question. The show actually first aired in January of 1999. However, we are in the process of writing and producing our 13th season right now (and airing our 12th), because — as you mentioned — the show was cancelled and off the network for a few years. I think the thing that’s changed the most is both the depth and breadth of the characters. For instance, in Season One, Stewie was mostly just about killing his mother, which was funny for a while, but as we wrote more and more episodes, it was exciting to discover what other layers of him existed (how he was still figuring out his sexual identity, his friendship/rivalry with Brian, etc.). And the same is true for all the other Griffins. But in addition to that, we also have tried to populate the town of Quahog with lots of other fun characters (Mayor West, Dr. Hartman, Tom Tucker, etc.) to fill out the community.

When The Simpsons or other shows rag on Family Guy.

Any time someone makes a joke about FG, we usually laugh along with them and take it in stride (we certainly make lots of jokes about other people and shows, so we’d be hypocrites to be offended!). Fact is, our whole staff are actually big fans of The Simpsons, and our relationship with them is great. They were extremely kind and gracious in allowing us to borrow their characters and their voice talent when we produced our season premiere this past fall, an episode titled, “The Simpsons Guy.”

How did the infamous chicken fights come about.

The chicken fights started in Season Two. I don’t recall exactly who pitched the idea first (I want to say it was a writer named Garrett Donovan, but my memory could be failing me), but I do recall that the idea of making the fight such a long, extended, and complicated piece of animation came from Seth. It was such fun to do, we decided later to revisit it, but always felt it was important to wait at least a few seasons between each chicken fight so that the audience wouldn’t see it coming.

Why only Brian can understand Stewie.

It seemed to make sense from the beginning that since Stewie is a baby, most of the other family members would deal with him like you would a baby. So, for example, in the pilot episode when Stewie says all sorts of horrible things to Lois about how he wants her dead, she gets his general vibe (that he’s crabby), but she doesn’t understand his actual words. And that’s why her response is, “Oh, you want your toy back.”

Check out our review of the 250th episode of Family Guy and it’s too bad because there’s no new episode airing this weekend on FOX.  Here’s more of Steve Callaghan’s Reddit AMA session.