Family Guy Creator Seth MacFarlane's Favorite Movie Is An Oscar-Winning Classic
Seth MacFarlane is most famous for creating (and voice acting in) crass comedy cartoons like "Family Guy" and "American Dad." His love for animation was sparked by primetime TV's first cartoon sitcom, "The Flintstones," but animation is not MacFarlane's only passion — he also loves show tunes and musicals.
Indeed, MacFarlane's all-time favorite movie is "The Sound of Music," Robert Wise's 1965 musical epic starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer. As he put it to Wired when revealing his favorite film, "Can you believe that? Who would've thought? 'The Sound of motherf***ing Music.'"
"The Sound of Music" adapted the 1959 stage musical of the same name, which itself was based on the true story of the Austrian Von Trapp family, a family of singers who escaped their Nazi-conquered homeland in 1938. Andrews plays the future Mrs. Von Trapp, Maria. Initially a free-spirited nun sent to be a governess to Captain Georg Von Trapp's (Plummer) seven children, she and the Captain eventually fall in love and marry. The film was a major success in its day, grossing $286 million worldwide against an eight million dollar budget. It also won five Oscars: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Film Editing, Best Sound, and Best Scoring of Music – Adaptation or Treatment.
"Family Guy" is never shy about blatant pop culture references, and unsurprisingly, there are lots of homages to "The Sound of Music" in the show. All the way back in the pilot, "Death Has A Shadow," Peter Griffin loses a talent show to the Von Trapp family. Later, in the "Family Guy" season 3 episode "Mr. Saturday Knight," the Griffin children perform "So Long, Farewell," complete with appropriate Austrian costumes. In season 4's "You May Now Kiss The... Uh... Guy Who Receives," Stewie and Brian watch "The Sound of Music" — but in this version, the nuns don't just sabotage the Nazis' cars at the film's climax, they cut off the head of Rolf, the Nazi boy who betrays the Von Trapp family to the Third Reich. ("I didn't start this war, but it's on!")
The list goes on, as do the musical moments in "Family Guy."
Family Guy often shows off Seth MacFarlane's love of musicals
Say what you will about the writing of "Family Guy," but Seth MacFarlane is a gifted voice actor and singer. From Stewie Griffin on "Family Guy" to Roger the alien on "American Dad" to Johann Krauss (a ghost in a helmeted suit) in "Hellboy II," he's got a wide vocal range. It's especially impressive how he can reach and keep his vocal timbre at high, Paul Lynde-esque tones when his natural voice (used for talking dog Brian Griffin) is pretty deep.
On top of being a musical lover, he's also a Trekkie. MacFarlane is the man who created "The Orville" to fulfill his dream of being a "Star Trek" captain. Surprising no one, he managed to make a musical episode of that show, and his animated series often also contrive reasons for his characters to sing. It's amusing that "Family Guy," which has always been popular with edgy teenage boys, has such bright theater kid energy. Even the title sequence is staged as the Griffin family performing a song together. And "American Dad" theme song "Good Morning U.S.A." is also diegetically sung by series lead Stan Smith (voiced by, of course, MacFarlane).
My personal favorite "Family Guy" song is from season 4's "PTV," one of the show's most classic episodes. Peter creates his own TV network full of raunchy programming, but Lois notifies the Federal Communications Commission. In a bit that feels inspired by the run-ins "Family Guy" has had with censorious oversight, Peter, Brian, and Stewie tell them off with "The Freakin' FCC" — a trio song where all three voices belong to MacFarlane.
But instead of creating new music, sometimes "Family Guy" will just recreate moments from classical musicals. The Season 2 episode "The King Is Dead" follows Lois trying to stage a local production of Broadway classic "The King and I." At the climax of season 4 episode "Patriot Games," Peter performs "Shipoopi" from "The Music Man." In season 9's "Friends of Peter G," the Quahog Alcoholics Anonymous group performs a cover of "Mr. Booze" from "Robin and the 7 Hoods," a film starring mid-20th century America's most famous singers: Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Dean Martin, and Sammy Davis Jr. And bringing it all the way back to "The Sound of Music," in the direct-to-DVD movie "Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story," a cutaway gag cuts to Stewie dressed as Maria as she heads to the Von Trapp family home for the first time and features Stewie singing a portion of the song "I Have Confidence."
On the surface, "Family Guy" does not suggest a creator who's in love with musical theater, but pay attention and you'll notice the show has a loud song in its heart.