This Is How Much An Episode Of 'Family Guy' Costs To Make
On January 31, 1999, an animated comedy debuted on Fox. Family Guy, a situational comedy, introduced Peter and Lois Griffin and their three children, Chris, Meg, and Stewie as well as the talking family dog, Brian, all living in Rhode Island along with a supporting cast of zany characters. Animator and voice actor Seth MacFarlane created the series from his two earlier projects titled The Life of Larry and Larry & Steve and then developed the concept along with David Zuckerman.
MacFarlane has stated that the pilot episode took six months to create and produce. Fox executives gave MacFarlane a budget of $50,000 to produce a 15-minute short. Since the show's premiere, it has gained a fiercely loyal following of diehard fans and has become a staple of American comedy television. But what does it cost to produce this popular animated show?
Family Guy gets its laughs. But with so many shows available to watch today, like many comedy shows, the animated sitcom has the burden of making each episode funnier and funnier. The show's writers have occasionally taken to getting laughs by poking fun at random communities. To be fair, it does seem that the show has gone under fire for "picking on" several different communities, not just one or two in particular. Over the years, Family Guy has successfully managed to offend religious and LGBTQ communities as well as several races. Nevertheless, the show and its "creative liberties" have been able to stay on the air.
There are two major costs to think about when it comes to Family Guy: animations costs and the wages of the voice actors. Many of the voice actors are well-known, successful actors and actresses in their own right which only increases their worth to the show as well as the cost to have them perform. There are four main actors excluding MacFarlane himself who voices the characters, Peter, Chris, Stewie, Brian, and Quagmire, as well other various and smaller characters. These actors are Alex Borstein, Mila Kunis, Seth Green and Mike Henry. Back in 2013, they all reportedly were in negotiations to up their salary to $175,000 and $225,000 per episode. When negotiated successfully, these pay raises typically are set in stone for two seasons but may last for five seasons.
Just a few years ago, it was known that it costs approximately $2 million to create one episode of Family Guy and it's believed that the cost is still accurate today, with normal inflation not taken into account. This is largely due to the high costs of the stars of the show. Though the costs of the show are known to be kept under wraps as much as possible, it was made public that MacFarlane took a salary of just $50,000 for several years for his voice acting skills. He still may take this salary as a voice actor for the show though he has an estimated net worth of around $250 million. In 2021, he signed a deal with a new network for the show, NBC. NBC reportedly agreed to pay MacFarlane $40 million per year. He is listed for series writing credits for 383 episodes and listed as talent for 382 episodes.
While MacFarlane's "discounted" pay for voice acting may help to keep the costs of the show down somewhat, producing an animated show this popular has a high amount of costs. One such fee goes to the orchestra. The show employs a live orchestra to create custom emotion in each episode. The group of musicians perform at the Newman Soundstage on the 20th Century Fox lot in Los Angeles. Other important costs go to the script writers, directors focusing on the various aspects of the episodes and storylines, production crew, key animation supervision, editing and finishing, photography, sound and a myriad of other crucial crew members and tasks that require funds.
For all of the hard work from so many people, Family Guy has received numerous awards including eight Emmy awards and has been going strong since 1999.
While the show has had its fair share of controversy due to jokes and remarks written into the script that may seem insensitive to certain communities, there's no denying that Family Guy has made an impact on the American sitcom line-up. Paying up over $2 million per episode today may seem like a staggering amount at first glance. However, after considering that the comedy is still going strong with backing from an entire fandom from all over the world and all of the awards received, the price per episode may seem slightly more reasonable.
Sources: IMDb.com, huffpost.com, Penn State University, gamespot.com
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