Seth MacFarlane calls for more 'hope' in TV dramas
Seth MacFarlane has called for less "negative" stories on TV and more drama that offers "hope".
Seth MacFarlane has called for less "negative" stories on TV.
The Family Guy creator explained he signed up for sci-fi comedy drama The Orville because he liked the fact it offers "hope", unlike so many other fictional dramas in the modern age.
Speaking on the Where Everybody Knows Your Name podcast, he said: “That’s why I did The Orville … because when I was a kid, Hollywood was providing that voice in various forms.
"There was a lot of hope, and some of the blame lies right here in this town. The dishes that we are serving up are so dystopian and so pessimistic.
“And yeah, there’s a lot to be pessimistic about, but it’s so one-sided. There’s nothing we’re doing that’s providing anyone an image of hope.”
Seth noted there are far more dystopian projects similar to The Handmaid's Tale than programmes like Star Trek, and he insisted the world "needs" uplifting tales.
He said: “They’re certainly giving us a lot of cautionary tales, but where are the blueprints that they once gave us for how to do things correctly?
“It can’t all be just, ‘Here’s what’s going to happen to you if you f*** up.'
“You do need, ‘Here’s what you can achieve if you change your ways and do things right.'”
The 51-year-old star believes that the popularity of The Sopranos - which aired from 1999 to 2007 - has convinced Hollywood "it's all about the antihero", and he thinks that needs to change because the industry should inspire people to want to be better.
He said: “That’s the only thing really that Hollywood can do that’s worthwhile because as we all learned from this election, nobody gives a f*** what celebrities think.
“We can tweet, we can talk. Like, people don’t care. They don’t care. What we do do well is tell stories. And we’re not doing the best job right now of telling those stories in a way that gives people hope.”
