An Interview with Brian Scully, Family Guy Writer and Co-Executive Producer

Brian Scully: Ordering lunch, waiting for lunch, eating lunch, thinking about tomorrow's lunch. Actually, most days you are just in a room with other writers breaking new stories, re-writing scripts, screening episodes in different stages of development, trying to come up with better and better jokes. But really, it's all about lunch.

Q:Family Guy seems to push the envelope for network TV with some of its jokes. Has the show gotten away with anything that has shocked you?

Brian Scully: I guess I'm not easily shocked, so my answer would be "no". And the truth is, the show's goal is never to "shock" anyway... the goal is just to come up with great jokes. Yes, we have done jokes on things like AIDS, 9/11, Farts, the Iraq War, etc. but we don't live in a bubble here. Every one of us has been touched by one or several of those things, just like our audience has. In fact, I was just touched by a fart moments before I started this interview. I guess my point is that sometimes we can find humor in very sad things and personally, I think that's a very good thing to be able to do.

Q: Besides the obvious, what are the differences between writing for filmed television shows vs. animated shows?

Brian Scully: There isn't a great deal of difference in the actual script writing. In animated or live-action, you always want to start with a solid story that has a good beginning, middle and end. Animated series have the advantage of being able to have as many different settings and locations as we want... where a conventional sitcom has to pretty much stay with their 3 main sets and maybe one or two swing sets. That said though, because we can do so much more, I think that more is expected of an animated show and we all try to deliver on those expectations. "Family Guy's" animators are the very best in the business and they add so much to every script. I don't think it's possible to give them enough credit for bringing to life what we come up with in the scripts.

Q: Family Guy seems like the Rodney Dangerfield of animated shows, receiving scripted jabs from both the Simpsons and South Park, as well as criticisms from the creator of Ren and Stimpy. Any thoughts on why the show seems to get such little respect in the animation community?

Brian Scully: Well first off, I worked on "The Simpsons" and I can't tell you how many Simpsons writers have said nice things to me about our show . And I certainly still love "The Simpsons" and everyone I know on "Family Guy" totally respects "The Simpsons" for being one of the best and funniest sitcoms of all time. The truth is, I think that most people in animation sort of like us, with the possible exception of two disgruntled millionaires on "South Park"... and maybe one disgruntled half-milliionaire on "Ren and Stimpy".

Q: What is the schedule like for a typical episode of Family Guy? How long does it take from finished script until the episode is ready to air?

Brian Scully: You start by working with all the writers on breaking a story, under the direction of the showrunners. It is then assigned to one writer who will go off and do an outline, usually taking about 3 days or so. The writer will then get notes from the showrunners and then a gag room, consisiting of 4 writers or so will take a "joke pass" on the outline, pitching lots of potential jokes and joke areas for the writer to have when he goes off to write the script. You get two weeks to write the first draft, then the entire staff gets together and does a complete re-write, punching it up, making story changes, etc. That becomes the Table Draft, which is read by the actors for the writers, animators, studio and network execs. After the table read, we fix jokes and story points that didn't work and the then the actors record that script. Then the animators create storyboards for the episode. They get notes on that and create what is called an "animatic" which is a black and white, rough animated version of the script. We screen that for the writers and animators and guests and see what works and what doesn't and make fixes. Then that new version goes back to the animators who create a less-rough color version... still not the final version, but pretty close. We again screen that and make final fixes and cuts and then it goes out for the final animation. From beginning to end, I think it may take 9 months to create an episode... about the same time it takes to create a baby, but creating a baby can be more fun, depending on who you are married to, of course.

Q: What is it like to work with Seth MacFarlane?

Brian Scully: Seth is the heart and soul of this show and the funniest writer I have ever known. Working with Seth is the best part of this job, other than lunch. I really like lunch.

Q: I recently rewatched the Star Wars spoof episode, "Blue Harvest". George Lucas has tended to be overly protective of his creation, and Family Guy's jokes can be brutal. What persuaded him to give his blessing (and sound cues) to the show?

Brian Scully: Apparently he is a fan of the show and he gave Seth an enormous amount of trust, putting "Star Wars" in his hands. And everyone on "Family Guy" tried very hard not to betray that trust by treating our "Blue Harvest" with the same respect for quality that George Lucas puts into all of his work. I'm told that when Seth and Alec Sulkin, the writer of "Blue Harvest", screened the episode for Mr. Lucas at Skywalker Ranch, he laughed just like any other fan. Pretty cool. "The Empire Strikes Back" is already in production now, and "Return Of The Jedi" is scheduled to be written sometime during this season.

Q: How did the WGA strike impact you personally?

Brian Scully: Walking the picket line at 20th Century Fox for 3 hours a day, I discovered that area needs more public restrooms... or bigger bushes.

Q: How did the WGA strike impact the production of Family Guy?

Brian Scully: Like every other show, all writing work stopped. A lot of good people were laid off for awhile and that weighed on us writers greatly. We did not want to hurt anyone else by going on strike, but we hoped they would understand and they could not have been more supportive to us. The people that work on "Family Guy", in every department and every part of production are the best I've ever known.

Q: Was the outcome of the strike worth it?

Brian Scully: Ask me in 10 years. The fact is, I may not personally see some of the benefits we gained in getting a foothold in new media, but we had to take a stand and strike for the future... just like previous generations of writers went on strike in the 1960's and 1970's to get people like me medical insurance, residuals and a retirement plan. It was just our turn to do something for the writers that follow us.

Q: Is there rivalry between you and your brother Mike? How does he feel about you working on Family Guy?

Brian Scully: The only rivalry that ever existed between me and Mike was for our father's attention when we were kids... He wanted our dad to spend more time with me, and I wanted our dad to spend more time with Mike. Ultimately we found some common ground and stuck our brother Neil with our dad. And Mike is a fan of the show and just happy I'm working at all.

Q: What is your favorite sitcom of all time?

Brian Scully: That's a tough one... but I hate those lowlifes who hedge their bets by choosing two or three favorites, so I'm not going to do that. I'm just going to say "Taxi". That is my favorite sitcom of all time. "Taxi". And "The Dick Van Dyke Show" and "The Odd Couple". Okay, so I'm one of those lowlifes too. I also loved "F-Troop".

Q: What advice would you give someone who would like to break into television and/or sitcoms?

Brian Scully: The obvious answer is to learn the craft of how to tell a story in a funny way... learn how to create characters that are multi-dimensional and different. The less obvious answer is how you do that... for me, it was to live a pretty fun, full life way before I entered show business. By living a life that had nothing to do with comedy or TV, I think you gain life experiences that you can draw on for the rest of your career. Get drunk, get laid, do smart things, do stupid things, get fired from jobs, spend your rent money on something crazy, love someone who doesn't love you back... do all of those things, and a zillion more just like them, and if you end up becoming a writer, you will have something that a 22 year old with a degree from Emerson or Northwestern won't have... something original to write about.