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jbwarner86 — Seth's Girls
Published: 2011-10-03 21:20:23 +0000 UTC; Views: 60669; Favourites: 1069; Downloads: 381
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The hurricane crossover event that occurred as part of FOX's Animation Domination this past Sunday night really rejiggered my interest in the world of "Family Guy", "American Dad", and "The Cleveland Show". Call it the MacFarlaneverse, if you will. I've been watching a lot of all three shows lately (thank you, Netflix), and despite the clamoring I hear from most detractors of Seth MacFarlane's work, I can say with certainty that they are not all just the same show dolled up three different ways. However, I'll concede there is one striking similarity - the Griffins, the Smiths, and the Tubbs-Browns all have teenage daughters who get little to no screen time per episode.Meg shows up sparingly and just to be the butt of somebody's joke. Hayley goes entire episodes without even appearing. And Roberta's lucky if anybody even remembers she exists. As a champion of strong female characters in contemporary animation, it bugs me to see girls with so much potential get tossed to the corner of their respective writers' rooms. I think if these gals ever hung out together, they'd have quite a bit to say about their lots in life.
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Comments: 166
Roberta looks like the oldest, but she is the youngest...
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Yes. Haley is much more older than the two.
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What bugs me so much about how they treat Meg is that they didn't always do this to her! There were at least 2 or 3 episodes where she was the central character that were good and she had real development. I wish they'd just send her to college because I'd rather not have her around then have her be the butt of the jokes.
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i don't watch 'family guy' or 'the cleveland show' but i do watch 'american dad!' with a devout passion and i'm going to have to disagree on your statement that hayley gets little to no airtime at all. in fact, she gets quite a bit because she and stan are so opposite (stan being conservative and hayley being a liberal).
there are numerous episodes that are focused entirely on hayley. yes, there are some episodes where she doesn't show up but there aren't many at all. she's almost always included in the episodes and usually, she has something pretty important to say.
anyways, i've put in my two cents.
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Its fun how seth increased the hottnes and social state of the daughter to each show
Meg: Social Outcast, no boyfriend at all, chubby...at best somewhat for special taste
Hayley: Kind of hippie/liberal type, has a boyfriend/husband, not the body of a supermodel...but there is something in her attitude...
Roberta: Sterotpye popular girl, has a boyfriend probably more, good lord that is not a body of a 15 year old girl! darling you need a weapons license for that!
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Nice take on these gals, Jesse- Hayley's definitely my favorite.
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"...So, she looks over to her husband, then sets it back down in her lap and says, 'Honey, this one's eating my popcorn.'"- Agent K ("Men in Black", 1997)
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I would feel sorry for Hayley and Meg (and Lisa from the Simpson) 'cause their dads hated them
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Indeed, I think that these three would hit things off rather nicely. At the very least, they'd have a few things about which they could talk about that relates well to each other.
I missed such a crossover, but I definitely like the goodness that you share here; keep up the great work, and thanks for sharing!
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I agree with you. Although I do not know the right, I would like to give Hayley and Meg this opportunity. If you would just let it.
Beautiful picture. I like that.
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And a huge shame too because, next to the visually obvious, each of them still has potential to grow into their own and become properly developed. Ah well, suppose one can dream...
Still amazin' work from your good self nonetheless.
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I agree with you and also love the work you put into this!
I hate seeing potential wasted or could of beens. Of the three I feel for Meg the most as she gets abused the most! Fantastic work!
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I understand but do we need Peter,Brian and Stewie every week? This show is call Family Guy not the show starring just Seth minus the other voice actors. This show needs to put the family back in the show. It gets insufferable seeing an adult idiot, a douche bag dog and a annoying gay baby be the focus all the time and all voice by Seth.
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Then you might as well not watch the show, because the writers are fine with things the way they are and the show is one of the most successful things on FOX right now. They're not going to fix what they don't see as broken.
Yeah, I get that you're a Meg fan; I am too. But I also realize that she's the least popular character on the show, and has been pretty much since the beginning, and the chances of her getting her character fleshed out again, let alone getting her own spin-off, are quite literally nil. I've dealt with it and moved on. Doesn't mean I can't draw the occasional fan art, but that's all it is: fan art. Expecting the writers to suddenly put her back in the spotlight and heap praise and apologies upon her is just deluding yourself.
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Seth sucks at family sitcoms. Why does he create shows with teen girls and wives if he doesn't know how to use them. He is sexist.
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You can't blame Seth for creating Meg and then not knowing what to do with her - clearly, the "Family Guy" writers intended her to be a main character initially, then found that they were struggling with her storylines. Like I said before, nobody creates a character with the express purpose of not using them. They tried something and it didn't work out. (It may even be as a result of the staffing change between the show's cancellation and renewal. The first three seasons' writers seemed to "get" Meg more than the current staff does.)
Hayley was created with a purpose; to act as a foil for Stan (heck, "American Dad" was originally conceived as just Stan and Hayley). And she's done that quite well, though her relevancy has waned now that the Bush administration is over. So I wouldn't put her in the same category as Meg, necessarily - she's underused, but not because the writers can't figure her out.
And it seems unfair to blame Seth for Roberta's lack of screen time. Seth didn't come up with the idea for "The Cleveland Show", Mike Henry did. Seth just got it into production for him.
There's a lot of reasons why the teen girl characters on these three shows are underused, but I don't think it's because Seth MacFarlane is sexist. I think Meg fans are just quick to jump to any conclusion that'll make Meg seem even more unjustly persecuted so they can continue to stick up for her.
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For those of you who are campaigning for Meg to get her show, perhaps you could aim for an Internet show instead. I think a TV show is probably a lost cause at this point, but if you can demonstrate to Seth that she has an underground cult following, I'm pretty sure a Net show would be cheaper to produce. Surely you can find a few people with writing talent to write the shows to portray Meg the way you like. Just throwing my two pennies to help you get the ball rolling.
BTW, I've always wondered why people blast Seth and the crew for writing Meg's character the way they do, but nobody calls out Mila Kunis? Doesn't the voice actress have any say? I thought Lacey Chabert left the show because she didn't like the direction it went. Do "hot chicks" not get held to the same moral standards as everyone else?
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You bring up a good idea, but don't most web shows flop?
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The Simpsons appeals to both men AND women. Lisa,Marge and all the other female characters are developed. It still wouldn't kill Seth to hire someone to help and even ask Mila,Alex and other female cast members for help. They were teen girls themselves.
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I think it's just a demographic they've chosen not to pursue. The show is still insanely successful with the 18-34 male crowd, so I guess they figure they don't need to branch out if the show's already a huge hit.
Some people think the show's current audience would lose interest if Meg and Lois became more prominent, well-developed characters. I don't know how true that is, but I guess I can understand the thinking behind it - the college kids and young adults who watch the show for all the insane stuff that happens to Peter and Brian and Stewie would probably be a little put out if they suddenly started getting plots about Meg's love life and Lois' social circle.
Y'know, as much as we might like the show to turn towards strong character-based humor and solidly structured plotlines, that's just not the kind of show "Family Guy" is, nor is that what the writers want it to be. But thankfully, we've still got "American Dad" for all that.
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Supposedly when they asked Seth why he makes Meg the butt of the jokes, he said it was because he didn't understand Teenage Girls. Yeah, my butt. That's total BS.
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You know, it's entirely possible that he's telling the truth. The Family Guy writing staff is predominantly male with a frat boy sense of humor; I can't imagine many of them knowing how to write from a teenage female perspective.
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Still, it's quite possible he could hire someone to help out with that. I'm just saying, instead of making Meg, and other daughters the punching bag.
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Yeah, but if they suddenly started doing Meg and Lois episodes on a regular basis, who would really watch that? Peter, Brian, and Stewie are the characters who resonate the most with the show's primary audience, and that's not going to change no matter how many Meg episodes they write.
See, the Meg fanbase is what they call a mile wide and an inch deep - very vocal on the Internet, but they make up an extremely small part of the Family Guy fanbase as a whole. All this talk of giving Meg her own show, it may be fun to toss around as fan art, but let's face it, it's not going to happen in real life. FOX isn't going to invest all that time and money into a show that'll only be watched by a couple hundred people.
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Well I still believe in the idea of giving Meg Griffin her own show. But yes I know what your saying, what can't be done, just can't be done. Even though I'll never stop believing in the dream. And please don't reply with, "And that's all it is, a dream." It's just not you.
If Seth Macfarlane's writers were any smart, they wouldn't be making those dum jokes that go on forever (or as I always call them, Wasting Time Jokes) for viral entertainment. I swear, it's times like this I'm ashamed to be a man. I mean if this is the idea of humor for what is funny for animated shows now, then what's the point in making animated shows anymore?
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Are you well aware of the Give Meg Griffin her own show petition?
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No, I did not. Where do I sign up?
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click on my screen name, and follow the links I put out.
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Is it just me, or does Meg look really out of place lol?
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I think I know what you mean, and that's a result of evolving art styles. Meg was designed in 1998, when Seth MacFarlane's drawing style was simpler and slightly less detailed; by 2005, when "American Dad" premiered, Seth's style had been refined by professional character designers to become a little more solid, so Hayley's got more detail and more distinguishing features. Ditto for Roberta, who came along in 2009.
The same thing happened on "The Simpsons" - the intricately detailed characters created for the show now bear virtually no resemblance to the Simpson family themselves, who retain the simple bug-eyed designs they've had since 1989. It's a common thing in long-running animation, and it's part of the territory.
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Unfortunately, the MacFarlane-verse seems to think that talking animals, smart-ass babies, and crossdressing aliens are more important. Nearly every episode I've seen of those shows always seem to put the emphasis on Brian & Stewie (FG), Roger (AD), Tim, or Rallo (CS).
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If anything, I think Klaus is more underused than Hayley. Since the beginning of the show, he's been primarily a one-line wonder, showing up once an episode and then never speaking again. He gets the occasional subplot, but rarely - 'cause really, how many stories can you do about a goldfish? Once you've done the obvious plot about him getting a new human body (which they did in Season 1), that's pretty much it. He's even been the subject of some very Meg-like pointless abuse lately, and I get the sense the writers don't have many ideas for him left.
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I swear Klaus is the one character that Seth Macfarlane or the writers, really neglects on American Dad, seriously why make a character if you don't know what to do with him/her? Either kill or write them off, or come up with better stories, it's that simple to me, anyway.
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Well, when a show is created, the writers don't start off saying "Yeah, this is gonna be the character we never have any ideas for." Characters develop as the series progresses - some become deeper and more prominent, others don't go past their initial stages and drift into the background. And in their favor, the writers on American Dad certainly try to include everyone. Klaus and Hayley may be the main characters they use the least, but when they do use them, at least they're funny.
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Hayley's my favorite. Her views come into conflict with her father and that makes her a more interesting character compared to the others
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You should be an artist on the show because I love your style.
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hey Seth, hire some female writers who know how to write for teen girls!! Ask Mila, Alex and even your sister because they were teen girls themselves for advice.
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XDD so 3picly cool!! whoa, LOVE IT!! wait...whose the one in the right?! o.O
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Very well done. True, I think the girls could use some love from the fans!
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Well I really haven't watched McFarlane in a long time but this is a really well done and compelling drawing. I too advocate strong female characters and this is a rather nice work : )
I say good for you
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