Seth MacFarlane is a busy man… but you know what they say about all work and no play. The day I meet him at the Family Guy Studios in Los Angeles, he seems slightly disoriented. Being the creator/ writer/ producer/ director/ voice actor of a couple of wildly successful animated shows on prime-time television comes with its fair share of pressure. His stress-eliminating weapon of choice is a night out on the town with a glass (or two?) of Jack Daniel’s. So although this afternoon he has every right to be annoyed with a pesky writer, he is completely gracious in taking a break from his whirlwind schedule to sit down with me.

Seth explains how his attraction to cartoons started early on while growing up in Kent, Connecticut: “I did a lot of drawing as a kid. I was always sort of fascinated by the animation medium and the fact that it sort of married so many forms of art all in one.” His creative talent was discovered in a big way when he made a student film while he was in college at the Rhode Island School of Design that got the attention of Hanna-Barbera, a major American cartoon animation production company at the time. He was then hired to do a cartoon short for a TV program that gave fresh out of college animators a chance to produce their own original ideas.

Fox gave him the start for the animated pilot and at 23 years young, Seth had a show on TV. That started the career of a man who now has multiple Emmy awards under his belt. Today, Family Guy is a ratings monster with ardent fans all over the world. I first heard about the show when I saw some Youtube clips that my friend sent me saying, “ohmygosh you have to see this.” The irreverently smart humor immediately had me hooked. It seems like nothing is off limits, and the show’s complete disregard of political correctness is refreshing in the midst of censorship-happy network television. “Television animation was very specifically what I wanted to do because you can get away with a little bit more and be a little racier.” Racy indeed!

It hasn’t always been an easy road for Family Guy. The show premiered on Fox after the Super Bowl in January 31, 1999 and was cancelled once in 2000 and again in 2002. However, with exceptional DVD sales (over 2.2 million copies in one year) and high cable ratings, Family Guy was brought the show back in 2005. It is the first show in television history to be brought back due to DVD sales, which shows just how popular it is with viewers although it isn’t always a favorite of certain critics. While Family Guy was off air, Macfarlane worked with writers from Family Guy to create another hugely popular animated show, American Dad!, which premiered on Feb. 6, 2005. This tenacity and ability to keep doing what he loves in spite of obstacles is without a doubt what has contributed to Seth’s success.

I ask Seth what’s to be expected next, and the future of Family Guy sounds exciting – there’s a highly anticipated Star Wars episode coming out for the hour-long season premier on September 23, and he tells me that there are more surprises in store for the new season. I hope that this includes more musical numbers -- my favorite aspect of Family Guy is that the characters will suddenly break out into song and dance. Seth is not only a fan of musicals but has also had voice training by the same vocal coaches as Frank Sinatra. His passion for musical numbers won Family Guy the Emmy for Outstanding Music and Lyrics in 2002.

As for the future of Seth’s personal career? He’ll be speaking on more college campuses (he has already given speeches at Harvard and Stanford), and “As far as animation, I do sort of feel like this is what I set out to do, so now it’s sort of figuring out what other types of media to explore… we’ll see.”

For a person who’s birthed this pop culture phenomenon, there’s not a hint of pretentiousness in his demeanor. Our photographer asks him to do some silly poses with the huge cardboard cutouts of the characters in the studio and he gamely obliges. He even signs a set of Family Guy DVDs that I brought along, drawing a quick picture of Stewie besides his autograph. He says it’s always very pleasant meeting fans of the show, even though at times they can be a little odd - “A fan at one point walked up to me and offered me a corned beef sandwich, which I did not take.”

It’s not hard to see where the random off the wall humor that has made his shows such a hit comes from - after answering a few standard questions I ask him what his favorite part of going to Korea to oversee some production was and he says, “Everyone you meet on the street walks up to you and gives you a handjob, which I think is really not appropriate, but it was a nice surprise.” (The best part about it is that his voice reminds me of Brian, the wisecracking dog that is one of the many voices Seth does for the show.) After a hearty laugh, he says with a more serious tone, “There’re some amazingly talented animators over there – it’s just really impressive because they’re doing it all the time. That’s where all the seasoned, trained animators are now.”

By this time in the interview I feel we’ve built some sort of rapport, and I get brave enough to ask him “Are you single? Do you see yourself becoming a family guy or an American dad someday?” To which he laughs and answers, “What a delightfully cheeky question! Yes, I’m single and possibly – I’m not gonna get married for the sake of getting married – but you know, if it’s in the cards then absolutely. If it’s not, I’ll just do the Clooney thing.”

I have about a billion more questions I want to ask, but unfortunately Seth needs to get back to work. I’m not too bummed though because I get to go on a tour of the Family Guy studio. There’s a Surf Board nonchalantly leaning on the wall and upon closer inspection I realize that it’s a Teen Choice award. I meet a couple of the Emmy winning writers and directors, take a peek in some of the many offices and rows of cubicles, and even get to see a short clip from an upcoming episode. Everyone is super friendly, and it’s apparent that they all seem to genuinely enjoy working together. There’s a lot of playful banter being exchanged, enticing snacks everywhere, and all in all it comes across as an ideal working environment. It was pretty amazing to think that all this was the result of one man with a great idea. There’s a picture that catches my attention tacked on one of the walls. It is Peter Griffin, the Dad in Family Guy, with his pants down and the scribbled message “Note to animators in Korea – Peter’s balls are missing.” How appropriate