Seth MacFarlane on Why He Doesn’t “See a Good Reason to Stop” Making ‘Family Guy’

Family Guy is 22 seasons in and it doesn’t look like Seth MacFarlane has any plans to end the beloved animated series anytime soon.

The creator and star of the popular show recently told the Los Angeles Times in a new profile celebrating 25 years since the show initially aired, “At this point, I don’t see a good reason to stop.”

“People still love it,” he said. “It makes people happy and it funds some good causes. It’s a lot of extraneous cash that you can donate to Rainforest Trust and you can still go out to dinner that night.”

MacFarlane continued, “There was a time when I thought, it’s time to wrap it up. At this point, we’ve reached escape velocity. I don’t know that there’s any reason to stop at this point unless people get sick of it. Unless the numbers show that people just are, ‘Eh, we don’t care about Family Guy anymore.’ But that hasn’t happened yet.”

Family Guy premiered in 1999 on Fox, but was initially canceled after just two seasons, and then scored a third season before being nixed for good — or so viewers thought. Thanks to reruns on Cartoon Network and DVD sales, the series was revived and became a massive success.

Season four of Family Guy debuted in 2005 on Fox, where it has continued to air every year until its current 22nd season.

MacFarlane voices the characters Peter Griffin, Brian Griffin, Stewie Griffin and Glenn Quagmire; with Seth Green as Chris Griffin and Neil Godman; Alex Borstein voicing Lois Griffin, Tricia Takanawa, Loretta Brown and Barbara Pewterschmidt; and Mila Kunis as Meg Griffin.

In November 2022, as the animated show reached its 400-episode milestone, MacFarlane revealed his all-time favorite episode to The Hollywood Reporter.

“The Agatha Christie episode [season nine’s “And Then There Were Fewer”] is one that sticks out in my mind,” he said at the time. That was certainly fun to make.”