Family Guy Back to the Pilot - H 2011
FOXFox is keeping the back half of its Animation Domination intact.
The network has picked up Family Guy and American Dad for additional episodes, keeping both Seth MacFarlane series on the air through the 2013-14 television season, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed.
The network picked up Family Guy for its 10th season in May 2011, while American Dad was picked up for its seventh frame in February 2011; Thursday’s news will bring the Sunday night staples into their respective 11th and eighth seasons.
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Both 20th Television-produced half-hours continue to be stellar performers for the network, airing back-to-back starting at 9 p.m. as part of Fox’s Sunday Animation Domination block, which also includes Family Guy spinoff The Cleveland Show, which has already been renewed for a fourth season. The fate of Cleveland, which also hails from MacFarlane and 20th, beyond next year’s fourth season has yet to be determined.
The Family Guy pickup comes six months after MacFarlane told THR that part of him wanted the series to end. “Part of me thinks that Family Guy should have already ended,” he said at the time. “I think seven seasons is about the right life span for a TV series. I talk to the fans, and in a way I’m kind of secretly hoping for them to say we’re done with it. There are plenty of people who say the show is kind of over the hill … but still the vast majority go pale in the face when I mention the possibility.”
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Meanwhile, Sunday staple The Simpsons — following tense negotiations with its voice cast — already has been renewed for two additional seasons, while midseason entry Bob’s Burgers was picked up for a third season earlier this year. Freshman animated entries Allen Gregory has already been canceled, while ratings underperformer Napoleon Dynamite is not expected to return and is not currently in production.
MacFarlane’s planned reboot of The Flintstones is “on life support,” sources say, after the studio and network brass who read the script in early April were not thrilled with the finished product.
Email: Lesley.Goldberg@thr.com; Twitter: @Snoodit
