'Family Guy' Creator Makes New Cartoons for Google

Family Guy and American Dad creator Seth McFarlane's new cartoon show, Seth MacFarlane's Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy, which consists of two-minute cartoon shorts and will be aired through Google's AdSense network, will debut this September.

The cartoons will probably be a bit edgier and will be able to go a little farther than McFarlane's other popular shows because they won't be bound by television's broadcasting standards. The series sounds like it's probably going to be composed of cartoon shorts that aren't connected in any way, so they'll be able to go anywhere. I personally can't wait to see what McFarlane can come up with when he's not being put in a straightjacket by the FOX network.

This new business venture may seem silly to some and many think it might fail, but I think it was a brilliant move. Family Guy is an incredibly popular television series, and if enough buzz can get created around these cartoons, they're going to make Google a lot of money. Some of the websites that are AdSense publishers will show the cartoons and advertisers will pay for whatever way they want to advertise on the site: a banner, an ad before the cartoon, or a "brought to you by" at the beginning. Then they sit back and watch the money roll in.

I think this venture is going to make a lot of money for Google, McFarlane, and the advertisers, but the sites that feature these cartoons may benefit the most. If they have anything else remotely interesting on them, they are going to get a lot of traffic.

Since the writer's strike, the show Family Guy has suffered a bit, in my opinion. Most of the recent episodes were not written by McFarlane, although he still did his usual voices on the show. Without McFarlane's input on the scripts, the other writers involved have kind of ruined some of the subtleties that make the show great, like always implying that Stewie might be gay. These other writers pretty much just threw it in your face, and it just wasn't very funny anymore. Some of Peter's flashbacks and the pop culture references just haven't been as funny, either. It sounds like with this new series that McFarlane is going to have full creative control, so, although the cartoons are only going to be two minutes long each, they should be very refreshing and very funny.

If this venture is successful, be prepared for the onslaught of websites trying to integrate advertising into the creations of other big names out there. Perhaps the American Idol creators could do an online talent show composed of two-minute tryouts or the creator of Sex in the City could do a few shorts with some snarky women talking about sex. There's just no telling if this move is going to create a new trend, but one thing is for certain: television could be in a little bit of trouble.

SOURCES: techradar.com article by Marc Chacksfield of July 1, 2008: Family Guy creator coming to the web