by RAF KATIGBAK

Right now, Seth McFarlane is popping Dom Perignon in the hot tub of a golden stretch Hummer on his way to a celebrity supermodel swingers orgy. At least, he should be. After all, he has reason to celebrate, and so do the fans of his brash and unreasonably hilarious animated show Family Guy. In 2001 the critically acclaimed half-hour show survived near cancellation - thanks to a petition/letter-writing/sending-diapers-and-baby-food-to-the-network campaign - only to be axed the following season.

Now, two years and $90-million (U.S.) in DVD sales later (the only television show in history to do better after it was cancelled), McFarlane has been asked to bring his edgy, no-holds-barred comedy back to the tube. But not before he brings it to Montreal. This Friday and Saturday McFarlane (who voices three of the shows main characters, Peter, Brian and Stewie, plus others) and company will be offering a rare behind-the-scenes glimpse into the Family Guy experience with a live script reading. The Mirror recently got on the horn with McFarlane at his L.A. office.

Mirror: First off, everyone in Montreal is impressed that you're doing all the Family Guy readings in French.

Seth McFarlane: (Silence)

M: Just kidding.

SM: (Laughter) That's really fucking funny - you scared the shit out of me!

M: Has Family Guy ever been translated to another language? We have The Simpsons dubbed in Québécois here and lemme tell you, it's pretty weird.

SM: Yeah, on the DVD there's French and Spanish translation, but I have no idea what that sounds like. The tricky thing with Family Guy is that a lot of the writers do voices on the show, and there's a fair amount of jokes contingent on performance.

M: I'd ask you to do a Spanish Stewie for me but I got a note from the publicist asking me not to have you answer things in character, is that because you're tired of doing it?

SM: No, the real truth is I'm a real shitty improv guy.

M: I love the show's sort of improv feel, that element of randomness, like in the middle of a courtroom drama, the Kool Aid Guy will just burst in and go, "Oh yeah!"

SM: Comedy is always best when it's unpredictable. Even in slapstick, if you don't see the fall coming, you laugh. That's why so many traditional sitcoms are just so flat, you see the jokes coming a mile away. What we try to do is surprise people on a regular basis. Have them tune in and really have no idea of what they're going to see.

Star strikes

M: You guys are pretty relentless with celebrity slamming. It must be weird to tell your celebrity guests, "Could you read this self-deprecating line a little more the way we want you to."

SM: Yeah, the living guy from Milli Vanilli was a good sport. It is uncomfortable though, 'cause you're like, "Okay, so we know why you're here, and you know why you're here…" There's a measure of guilt, like, oh boy, we're actually sitting here in the room and putting a face to it. Let's just get this over as quickly as possible.

M: I want to ask you about next season - I don't know how this will look in print - but I really hope Herbert the molester is coming back.

SM: Yeah he is, he's actually one of the characters people ask about most. One of our writers, Mike Henry, who also does the voice of Cleveland, used to do that character in the writing room - this wee-voiced creepy old man - and it just made us all laugh. We said, "Jesus let's put that in the show!"

M: I heard that's how the Evil Monkey in Chris's closet got written into the show - he was a character one of the writers kept doing in the room.

SM: I guess that's sort of the difference between our show and other shows - it's all that weird stuff that you do in the writers' room. Maybe in other shows they'd go, "Well, alright now, let's get serious and write what we can actually use." Well, we actually use that stuff.

Seth Mcfarlane in Family Guy Live, July 23–24, 7 & 9:30pm at the Imperial Theatre (1432 Bleury), $29.50–$39.50

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