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jbwarner86 β Seth's Girls
Published: 2011-10-03 21:20:23 +0000 UTC; Views: 60662; Favourites: 1069; Downloads: 381
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Description
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
See, you're operating under the assumption that Seth MacFarlane is directly responsible for everything that happens on "Family Guy". Don't forget that there's over a dozen writers all working together on this show. (It does seem to be a predominantly male staff, though, which is probably why they have such a hard time writing for the girls.)
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Well I do agree with you on the fact that it's mostly really the writers fault, but dosen't Seth have to look over these scripts before they make the episode, or does FOX green light these awful scripts to terrible episodes?
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He approves the scripts, but he's not running the show like some kind of iron-fisted dictator as some folks seem to believe. He did a live Q&A session online the other night; I wish I'd known about it sooner, I could have asked him about this myself.
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So what your saying is that, while Seth Macfarlane approves the awful scripts, it's FOXs fault for green lighting them.
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No, I'm saying I don't know who's responsible for what in any given episode. The show is a group effort, with a big room of writers pitching out stuff that all goes into any given episode. It's impossible to pin any particular aspect of the show on one person.
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not really its not like their the only females on the show... francine, lois, donna...
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I'm a guy and I'm so sick of so many Peter,Brian and Stewie episodes. Lottery Fever was horrible and Peter and Stewie trapped in the bank vault was the worse episode of all. Time for Seth to realize that it's time to hear more female voices and not just men. He will lose Family Guy.
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I absolutely adore Hayley. I can relate to her a lot. Being my Dad's own hippie daughter and all, lol. I really wish these women would get more screen time. However, Meg's role in the Family Guy episode was done well. It shined a new light on Meg. Yeah she's the brunt of a lot of jokes, but her character is strong because of it and she's a whole lot less 2-dimensional than Peter and Chris.
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I'm a guy and I'm sick of seeing this guys only policy. It wouldn't kill the writers to give the women a voice.
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I know. I have no idea why the creators of Family Guy hate Meg so much! It pains me that she gets tossed around! Why the hatred??????
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hayley has always been my favorite!! 
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Hayley, Meg and Roberta!! Badass teenage girls team!!
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Family Guy suffers the most from their "guys-only" policy, which is why so many episodes turn out so boring.
Also, The Cleveland Show sorta made fun of the fact that the females have so little development. Donna mentioned that neither she, Lois, or Francine have any circle of friends like their respective husbands do.
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Those shows are terrible
But you draw them so well, unlike Seth
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I know, Seth Macfarlane and his writing staff really need to stop doing that, or at least here some writers who know how to write for teenage girls.
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In my opinion, Sunday did not disappoint. Meg totally earned some points for finally standing up to the Griffins. I think with the new season of Family Guy, it's gonna be funny. Gotta respect Hayley, too. She's holding it down with American Dad. Robertaβ¦she's getting there. But overall, Meg gets most of my praise because through all the shit the others put her through, she still finds a reason to smile. I admire Meg's resiliency greatly.
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If they met, I think Roberta would be mean to Meg.
And why is everyone blaming Seth Mcfarlane like he wrote all the episodes?
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right?! his staff does, not him. plus i like that meg is the butt of every joke. she deserves it for being creepy... >_> (and that's coming from a chick.)
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Well, that's circular logic. Meg only became creepy and clingy because everybody kept dumping on her and making her feel like garbage. It happens a lot in real life, too.
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you have a point, but "It is possible that Meg has a type of mental illness similar to Borderline Personality Disorder. Meg has exhibited behaviors that closely match the diagnostic criteria for BPD, as described by the Fourth Volume of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV):
A pervasive pattern of instability of interpersonal relationships, self-image, and affects, as well as marked impulsivity, beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts." This was all found on Family Guy Wiki, which explains why she's creepy. But then again, that could be because she is the butt of jokes. The only reason she is this way is because Seth McFarlane and everyone else on staff don't know how to write plots for a 17 year old girl, so making her a joke was all they really had. Just like Lois, Francine, and Donna don't really have friends or interesting enough plots.
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No she doesn't Starinsomniac2009.
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that's your opinion. while it might be valid, so is mine. depends on the angle of others' viewpoints. no one here is correct. it's just opinionated views.
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For some odd reason, I always had a feeling you'd draw all 3 one of these days, and I didn't think you'd watch the Cleveland show aside from that one episode.
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They just added seasons 1 and 2 to Netflix, so I thought I'd check it out. It seems to be following the "Family Guy" pattern of alternating between decently entertaining and just plain bad. (But I'm only six episodes in, so who knows.)
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I couldn't make it past one season because of how similar The Cleveland Show was to Family Guy in jokes and plot.
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Well the differences you'll start to see are that it focuses more on story rather than cuttake jokes, infact they use cuttake jokes much less compared to family guy. And considering its a spin off, its VERY refreshing.
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Meg and Roberta definitely have potential, and the looks to go with it. Hayley, though, seems stuck in a rut as a liberal activist type.
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I can't remember how the conversation went word for word, but I remember someone asking Seth at a comic con Q/A in either one of the american dad or family guy dvd extras why Meg/Haley are always cast to the sidelines as the character everyone loves to hate, and Seths responce was that him and his writing staff have no idea how to write interesting storylines for a 16 year old girl as none of the staff have any experience in that department, and it just fustrated them to no end, so they eventually thought it would be funny to write them in being the punchbag character of the family for everyone else to vent their anger on. Im actually pretty sure this was family guy now cus I remember Alex Borstein responce was that she was kinda envious of Mila Kunis looks so she was all for the idea of the pretty little rich girl getting the short end of the stick, or something like that.
Again, I can't remember the conversation word for word.
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But...isn't Hayley like...in community college?
That's older than 16.
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Meh, only a small age gap
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That's probably why Hayley has been a more interesting character overall - being a college student opens up a lot more ideas for her.
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and you know what i like about Hyley and Roberta, i think if they ever met Meg they would be nice to them. of course i am only speculating.
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Roberta would propably do a little makeover to Meg.
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Yeah! the 3 cutest girls of FOX's animation domination!
Like always, I like your Meg fanart (you draw her closer to her original design this time, no?) And I like the way you did Roberta (for the first time). I hope those 3 will have good screen times this season, and it could be great to see a Meg/Roberta crossover in one show (a Meg/Hayley too, but Meg and Roberta are more related since Roberta is the step daughter of Peter's best black friend).
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Of all of them, I like Meg the best. Hayley and Roberta have the snarky thing going on, but deep down Meg's just awkward and cute, and I like that.
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I find it interest that you mention how modern comedies seem to be neglecting female roles in stories. I've been watching a lot of female-centric shows, from Golden Girls to even My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, and the truth is that even if the cast is all female they manage to be hilarious and with excellent character development. I think the problem might be that the writers are aware that they are male and are writing a show for a male audience. The solution, I think, to this is that they should write stories without thinking about genders first.
Yes, there are some life situations that are better experienced through the eyes of a male and such, but many conflicts and problems are experienced by everyone, females included. The stories can still be compelling regardless of who is experiencing them. The other solution is that the characters should be treated as their own individual beings rather than a cliche or trope. For example, Meg should be more than just the awkward teenage daughter, Hayley should be more than the liberal activist and Roberta the sexy young African American. They should have their own problems, their own voice and, for the love of GOD, NOT THE BUTT OF THE JOKE. These shows have a million characters (exaggeration I know), why do they have to be the butt of the joke? Even the greased up deaf guy gets more respect.
Ugh, sorry for ranting, but you bring up a good point about why I tend to dislike McFarlane's shows so much. The character development is so uneven it hurts me at times.
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You........BLEW.MY.MIND!!! I totally agree, about 95%
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Yeah, I see what you mean. Sometimes I get the impression that Seth MacFarlene doesn't respect women very much and he is strongly prejudiced towards them. On the other hand, if he is not so involved with the writing and such as people may have assumed, then I think the writers for the episodes have serious problems.
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It's what I said: the writers are too gender focused. They realize that the show appeals to a male demographic (18-25), so they write stories around them. Why do you think Louis has gone from a decent homemaker to a sexy if bitchy woman? They just assume that males only see them as bitchy, unworthy things or as objects of sexual desire. Which is sad since The Simpsons during its prime had great female characters that were treated seriously (Marge, Lisa, Edna and hell, even Aunt Patty and Selma got great stories).
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I know! That's the one thing I hate about women being portrayed on television; they're just propagating the whole stereotype and then men go around in life thinking that women should be treated like that, and that's how it actually happens in real life too! Nothing boils my blood more than women treated in this manner.
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I will say this, Meg and Hayley both started off with pretty decent characterizations (Roberta began kinda flat, like they didn't know what to do with her yet). Hayley in particular has an extremely strong and well-developed personality, and that still shines through on the rare occasions when she gets the spotlight. But more often than not, she's only present in an episode for less than a minute, if she appears at all. The problem isn't that she's not a decent character, the problem is that the writers never use her anymore.
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I understand what you are saying. I think the "not appearing enough" problem does ties to what I said: the writers are more interested in the male characters than in the female characters, regardless if they are strong characters. Again, it goes back to being too gender focused (which is slightly understandable considering how tough the economy is, but still...).
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i was really disapointed with the "crossover" their was no actual cross over apart from 30 seconds at the end of american dad it was super lame!!
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The reason Meg gets punished by her family is because Seth doesn't know how to write for women. Thi9s is why I hate Family Guy!! But American Dad, there's a show worth watching!! 
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It seems unfair to blame Seth MacFarlane for every single thing that happens on the shows he created. Lord knows he's not responsible for everything you see onscreen - hell, he's written exactly three episodes of "Family Guy", the most recent one airing in 2005, and he's got next to no influence on the writers of "American Dad" or "The Cleveland Show". Pretty much all he does there is give the go-ahead to the scripts and provide a couple of voices.
Some people talk about Seth like he should be drawn and quartered every time one of his shows does something they don't like. I don't know about you, but from what I've gathered from interviews and the like, he seems like a pretty decent guy.
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You have a valid point there amigo
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Family Guy isn't funny, it's somewhat racist.
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