Every TV Show Created By Seth MacFarlane, Ranked Worst To Best

Seth MacFarlane has quietly been one of the busiest men in Hollywood for a while now, and his efforts have resulted in him being responsible for the creation of five TV shows over the course of his career. Although MacFarlane has also had several cameo appearances in other movies and TV shows, those projects often had very little to do with him other than casting him as an actor. However, MacFarlane’s talents extend beyond his impressive voice and live-action roles, as he’s also heavily involved when it comes to keeping things going behind the scenes.

Seth MacFarlane has created shows of various genres, and some have even made the list of longest-running sitcoms of all time. Although he specializes in animated projects, he has also stepped outside the medium and into the world of live-action. MacFarlane is quite often the figure the rest of the show is built around, although there are different degrees of how prominently he is featured. Although he didn’t invent the concept of adult animation, MacFarlane’s body of work has gone on to spawn other adult-focused animated shows like Family Guy.

5 The Cleveland Show (2009-2013)

Seth MacFarlane’s Family Guy spinoff was canceled after four seasons

The Cleveland Show remains Seth MacFarlane’s only spinoff, spawning from Family Guy in 2009. Just like its parent program, Fox canceled it due to poor viewing figures. Unlike Family Guy, The Cleveland Show never resurfaced, and the spinoff’s title character and his family were reintegrated as residents of Spooner Street in MacFarlane’s flagship show after Fox pulled the plug after The Cleveland Show season 4.

MacFarlane arguably got pretty lucky with The Cleveland Show‘s cancelation, as spinoffs don’t always have the advantage of running alongside the main show with the potential to salvage most of the main characters should the new project fail. The Cleveland Show wasn’t particularly bad, but it wasn’t great either. It also didn’t stand apart enough from Family Guy, making it feel like a poor imitation rather than existing as its own entity.

Despite being the show’s creator, MacFarlane’s workload as a voice actor on The Cleveland Show was very light in comparison to his other animated projects. His main responsibility was bringing Tim the Bear to life – although he also voiced Family Guy characters like Stewie Griffin and Glenn Quagmire whenever they popped up on The Cleveland Show. The very fact that Family Guy cameos were often some of the spinoff’s best moments is very telling when it comes to why The Cleveland Show was MacFarlane’s least successful TV creation.

4 American Dad! (2005-Present)

The Smith family was created when Family Guy was axed

Created in the wake of Family Guy‘s cancelation, American Dad! has enjoyed an unbroken run since it premiered in 2005. When Family Guy was brought back due to popular demand, MacFarlane found himself with the beginnings of his TV empire. MacFarlane’s hallmarks established in Family Guy can be found throughout American Dad! The Smiths, just like the Griffins, were a pretty typical nuclear family with two other unconventional housemates. Whereas Family Guy had a talking dog and a supervillain baby, American Dad! took things further by including a sentient fish and a chaotic alien.

Family Guy‘s cancelation must have had an impact on MacFarlane’s formula, as American Dad! has one massive difference. While Family Guy relied heavily on its now-iconic cutaway gags that are often irrelevant to the plot, American Dad! completely avoided this Seth MacFarlane trope. Even after Family Guy was resurrected, American Dad! continued to focus on story-heavy episodes that were rarely as silly as those of its predecessor. That being said, MacFarlane’s second show has made and continues to churn out some bizarre installments as well as fairly grounded ones.

Every season of American Dad! comes with at least a handful of brilliant episodes, but there are also quite often a number of duds. The show’s best episodes prove why it has been on the air for so long, but the harsh truth of the matter is that the sitcom’s premise seems less original due to the existence of Family Guy. Although Family Guy itself was essentially a more adult-focused version of The Simpsons, narrowing the appeal to a more mature audience transformed what MacFarlane’s first show could achieve. American Dad! did that too, but it wasn’t groundbreaking anymore.

3 The Orville (2017-Present)

Seth MacFarlane’s space opera is very different to his other shows

Seth MacFarlane’s love for sci-fi is easy to spot in all of his projects, but The Orville is the first time he had the opportunity to commit to the genre. MacFarlane’s space opera is an undeniable love letter to the Star Trek franchise’s golden era. Although the show began as something approaching a parody, the comedic elements of The Orville largely fell away, allowing it to become a straight-up science-fiction saga. The Orville borrows heavily from Star Trek, but it’s also just different enough for the uninitiated to enjoy.

One of the few downsides of The Orville is that it’s often quite unsure about what kind of show it wants to be. Some episodes, especially the earlier ones, have many of the hallmarks of a Seth MacFarlane sitcom. However, there are quite a few devastatingly sad scenes as the show progresses. Both versions of The Orville are executed brilliantly, but there’s just something about how the two types of moments are transitioned between that can feel a little jarring at times.

Another thing that hurts The Orville‘s fluidity is the long wait between seasons. Although The Orville seasons 1 and 2 arrived in back-to-back years in 2017 and 2018, The Orville season 3 didn’t arrive until 2022, and it had to be softly rebranded as The Orville: New Horizons. While the show is an understandably big undertaking, it’s tough to fall too hard for a project that’s so inconsistent with its release schedule.

2 Ted (2024-Present)

The enchanted, foul-mouthed cuddly toy returns in a prequel to the Ted movies

Ted takes place before the events of MacFarlane’s debut 2012 movie of the same name. As his second live-action TV show, Ted is much more self-assured than The Orville and doesn’t rely on anything other than the two Ted movies that preceded it for it to make sense. The show doesn’t compromise on the movies’ brilliantly crass sense of humor, and Seth MacFarlane’s performance as the franchise’s title character continues to be side-splittingly hilarious.

Because of when the Ted show is set, it wouldn’t have made sense for Mark Wahlberg to come back as John Bennett. However, Max Burkholder is the perfect replacement to play the younger version of John. The dynamic that exists between John and Ted is just as authentic and fantastic as it was in the movies where the characters debuted, which is an impressive thing to pull off when half of the duo has since been recast.

Ted also does a great job of introducing new supporting characters who still feel like they belong in the world of the movies. Not only that, but the show also delves into some pretty meta lore about Ted’s origin and the magic that quietly exists within the sitcom’s canon. It’s somewhat of a satirical take on fairy tale worldbuilding, but it finds a way to be just as genuinely compelling as it is amusing.

1 Family Guy (1999-2002, 2005-Present)

There’s a reason why Family Guy is Seth MacFarlane’s flagship show

No matter what else he does during his career, it’s tough to imagine Seth MacFarlane being remembered for any project more than Family Guy. The long-running animated sitcom has become so tightly woven into popular culture that it can be easy to miss certain jokes and references as originating in MacFarlane’s most successful show. The show being brought back two years after its initial cancelation is the biggest piece of evidence to support the argument of Family Guy being Seth MacFarlane’s best TV show.

Family Guy‘s dark sense of humor helped pave the way for its successors, giving the animated sitcom medium even greater license to push comedic boundaries. Family Guy is also a brilliant comfort show, as almost any episode can be viewed at any time without being worried about watching them out of sequence. This isn’t unique to Family Guy, but it’s also not true of all Seth MacFarlane shows. Additionally, Family Guy isn’t afraid to tug at the heartstrings occasionally, but those moments are often so embroiled in irreverent plots that they still feel true to the show’s reputation.

Everything that makes Seth MacFarlane’s TV shows so appealing can be found in Family Guy, with all his other projects lacking at least one of his signature elements. While the show’s countless spoofs and parodies of iconic franchises are part of what makes Family Guy so great, MacFarlane and company have managed to curate a vast cast of original characters and storylines that can be revisited at any moment.

Although Family Guy‘s best episodes have arguably already aired, the show’s unpredictable nature means an excellent installment can come out of nowhere. Despite the presence of some underwhelming episodes in recent years, the good still massively outweighs the bad. It’s almost impossible to be bored when watching Family Guy, as even if the storylines are weak, the show can throw a cutaway at the audience and have them laughing in no time. In short, there are almost too many reasons why Family Guy takes the top spot on the list of Seth MacFarlane‘s collection of TV shows.