hoping that all will be revealed about the dark secret side of seth macfarlane this evening. welcome. >> oh, we're starting. i thought you were doing -- let's do it. >> no we're off and running. how do you feel about being called a genius? >> i'm a pretty docile individual. evil is my primary goal in television but i'll take it. >> you were how old when you did these draws? >> it's funny, i have no recollection of doing that so probably 2 or 3 years old. >> barney, fred, wilma -- >> barney is misspelled. >> but you were 3 years old. clearly a cartoon genius. >> i'm not sure why fred is waving an american flag -- >> but it could be an ax. at what point did you become this twisted -- >> wilma looks like she's ready to -- i'm not going to go there. >> what is she doing? >> she's ready to make shaquille o'neal's day, it looks like. >> at what point did you go from gentle cartoonist to an evil person. >> probably about 4, i guess. >> and where the dog stuff come from? it's hilarious but it's so -- >> yeah. a lot of that is my family. my cousins, my mother. a lot of people in my family have a very dark, twisted sense of humor that i was exposed to at a very young age and -- >> do you see the really -- dark is not the right word. you you see the absurd and slightly sinister in everything? >> the absurd, absolutely. the sinister is something that i think people get from stewie? >> fox is a company that is schizophrenic in a lot of ways. the news division is very conservative and entertainment division is very aggressive. they kind of keep their hands out of our business within reason. >> is this great comic value for you? are you thrilled because it gives you great material? >> michele bachmann would be the best ticket to comedy. it would be wall to wall laughs for possibly four to eight years. for me is constantly reminds myself to see the absurd and try to look at it from a comedic standpoint and that's really what people want from me. they don't want to hear me giving my personal views on politics. it's hard not to get really, really frustrated. you saw when obama was elected, it was to fix things within a few years and i thought, that's going to go south pretty fast. you figure eight years of damage has to take 16 years to fix, logically, i would think. it's much easier to -- somebody, mr. spoc, said it's far easier to destroy than to create. you have to allow a lot more time. there seems to be this revisionist history that somehow this all started after obama got elected. >> isn't the problem -- >> it was horrible many years before that and you can't expect -- >> but obama came along as the political messiah and everything is going to change the next day. >> yeah. >> and if you didn't agree with what george bush did, that didn't matter. because hope, change, audacity was alive. and the reality is, it doesn't work like that. >> no. >> you tweeted quite extensively the credentials. a governor from texas, that might be worth trying. >> i don't fundamentally dislike conservatives. i have a lot of conservative friends and i think that at one time -- >> do you fundamentally like their policies? >> if this was 1955, i would probably say, republican right here. but we had a middle class then and now everything is going here and here and we have the very rich and the very poor and fewer and fewer people in between and conservative policies don't work that well in that environment. it just doesn't work. it's not that i dislike conservatives. i occasionally find myself agreeing with them. it's really, really angry fantastic sex. but when you take a position as insane as denying evolution, it's not a theory. it happened. it happened. there's a great -- give me a pen and paper. i've never been able to do this on tv. but here's my -- you can zoom in on this if you want. can you tell me who that is? >> stewie. >> how do you know that is stewie? there's pieces missing. >> because there's a resemblance. >> exactly. you don't have to be a genius -- that, to me, is evolution. >> it's the basic math adds up, it adds up, right? >> i just sped up your -- >> climate change is a position for me to take a position of denial with regard to climate change and if were being relatively new, we know about gravity and it's not uncomfortable. >> when you see tea party candidates and they are against evolution, they think gay marriage is a sin and so on and so on, when you see all of this and the attraction that they are getting, and it's quite clear, probably and i'm not -- everybody is angry and that's what we do. and they can't all be crazy. it can't be a mob of crazy people. all i can think of is, well, they are getting a lot of really bad information. it's strange that we all vote against our interests. that the conservative members of the tea party vote against their pocketbooks and i vote against my pocketbook. why is that? why do i vote against politicians who are going to tax me more and why do i vote for politicians that are going to tax me less. >> do you think that obama can win the next election? >> no idea. no idea. i think ultimately if the republicans -- if the republicans put up a michele bachmann, then, yes, you can win. if they put up mitt romney, who knows. that's a guy who, by today standards, is down the middle conservative. it's kind of scary but it is. rick perry falls somewhere in between. he's fairly extreme in his views but he's a little more articulate about it. >> people tweet me and say, what's extreme to you millions and millions of americans. >> what's the left-wing equivalent of the tea party, would you say? >> i struggle to find one. but that doesn't necessarily mean that they are out of kilter with the release of many millions of americans. >> but you can disagree with obama's economic policies, you can disagree with his position on health care. you know, these are gray areas and he's never done anything as crazy as question evolution. why question something that is so thorough -- so thoroughly backed up by science. >> let's take a break and have a glass of water. when we come back, let's talk about the birth of the "family guy" and you're going to meet the newest member of the "family guy cast." >> really? 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[♪...] >> male announcer: now, for a limited time, your companion flies free, plus save up to 65%. call 1-800-sandals. conditions apply. hey, how about that? another state that is going to abolish the death penalty. >> is that right? >> what state is that? >> i don't know. i've got toothpaste on the article. looks like ocka-chussetts. >> that's how it all started, right? the life of larry. >> yes. >> when you watch that, what do you think? >> not very proper. i have yet to make any profit off of it. i look at it and i -- ironically it doesn't look that much different than what i would do now. >> it's your style. >> the life of larry, which was my degree film from college and most of those gags has been pilaged for the "family guy." >> when you have this kind of vision, what was the always going to be? has it always contained a consistency? have you always had an absolutely clear idea of what you were going to do in animated form? >> no when i was in college disney was having "beauty and the beast" that just came out and they were doing amazing movies and that's what i wanted to do. and then i got out here and found -- you start hearing these stories, make it seem like -- and so i said, maybe that's not for me. and sensibilitywise i had veered to a different point. i had done stand-up in college and enjoyed the adult humor that that allowed me to do and at the same time "the simpsons" had gotten a lot of attention and there was a whole new genre to produce. i thought, that's what i want to do. >> what do you think you are like, "the simpsons" but tens times more vile. >> not really. just things that made me laugh. when i look at the show, i don't -- well, i guess it is -- >> it is ten times -- >> yeah, i guess you are right. >> it's made the most highest paid producer in the world. >> really? >> your contract is believed to be more than $100 million. >> wow. >> are any of these allegations true? >> i guess it's believed to be so that makes it true in america. >> yeah, that's what my lawyers tell me. are you motivated by it? >> i'm a republican president, will just keep getting richer. >> it will help if you were aesthetically displeasing to women, but you are not, unfortunately. >> i'm not everybody's type, man. >> you must believe in the life of riley. >> nobody believes me. i have the same problems as anyone else. >> you have a problem getting a girl? >> look, if i was, you know, taylor lautner, i would have -- >> how many times have you been turned down? >> absolutely. >> the lines you're using? >> maybe. i'm just as awkward as i was in high school. that might be the problem. >> is that true? >> yes. maybe that's the down side. you're still -- you don't gain the confidence. can i say that on cnn? >> you just did. we expected that from you. >> maybe that's the problem. >> extraordinary. >> just one theory. >> let's take another little break as i real from that confession and i'm going to talk to you about you as the "family guy." you found out that it was being picked up from your mother who read it and it's an extraordinary story. your mother, i know you're extremely close to. [ kristy ] my mom is well...weird. she won't eat eggs without hot sauce. she has kind of funny looking toes. she's always touching my hair. and she does this dancing finger thing. [ male announcer ] with advanced technology from ge, now doctors can diagnose diseases like breast cancer on a cellular level. so that women, like kristy's mom, can get personalized treatment that's as unique as she is. [ kristy ] she's definitely not like other moms. yeah, my mom is pretty weird. ♪ now, don't touch the thermostat, meg, your father gets upset. >> now, come on. this thing goes up to 90. >> every father has been, tells you when the children messes with the dial. >> is your thermostat okay? is my kid over here? >> forget it. >> that was a pilot of "family guy" on fox. you made it for an extraordinary $50,000. >> yeah. >> how did do you that? >> well, i was animation major in college. so i had very good training from the rhode island school of design. so i was able to sit at home and, you know, have a stack of papers and stack of magic markers. >> so 50,000 and -- >> i had -- i was completely green. hi no credits to my name, really, and they were not going to give me a million dollars to make a pilot. they said, listen, if you can do this for $50,000, you can have a show. >> and you played it for them and you didn't hear anything and your phone goes early one morning and it's your mother who says -- >> hey, your show got picked up. and i think a lot of people and parents start to read variety and hollywood reporter and it's hilarious because they use terms that you don't really know and my mother would call and say, now, is that a go? i think the show is a go. the tyro alpha net -- >> you didn't know? >> no. >> this is how you found out? your mother broke it to you? >> yes. >> how did you react? >> my mother was always the first person to know gossip. i was cautiously excited and, of course, i double-checked it with the network. >> your mother -- you were very close to and she died, very sadly -- >> yes. >> -- a year or so ago with cancer. how important was she to your career? >> really, really -- certainly from a comedy standpoint, you know, just invaluable. you know, she was -- had a wickedly vicious sense of humor. there was nothing on family guy or anything on the show that could offend her. >> i was going to ask you that very question. let's cut to the quick here. "family guy," you have ripped into parapalegics and mentally retarded and there is not a mother in the world that would not be offended by something that you have done and you're sitting here telling me that your mother went along with all of this? >> yeah, she was unflappable. there was nothing that phased her. and, to my knowledge, she in fact told me some jokes and some stories from her past, none of which i can repeat on the air that shocked the hell out of me. i never was able to do the reverse. never able to shock her. and, you know, for that reason, you know, even over 60 she was really a valuable resource as any colleague or friend of mine would be. >> is there anything off limits for you personally? do you have any lines? >> yeah, there are some things off limits. >> what? >> well, we wouldn't make a -- we wouldn't make a 9/11 joke for at least two weeks after 9/11. and now we feel within reason, comfortable treading on that as many other comics. >> and how far do you tread? >> that is just your gut. that is just sitting in a room with -- in the case of our writers, 15 very smart, very conscientious people who are aware of what is funny is what is going to be over the line, at least we try to be. if we're wrong about something, we have a table read where we read the script allowed for the network, for the studio, for each other, for the an mate fors and we get a lot of groans if something is over the line at that point. and if we make it past that point, there are standards who in fox's case, they are reasonable people who genuinely care about the comedy as much as they care about not getting the network fined. >> is religion a particularly sensitive issue? >> yes. only in america. >> in britain it wouldn't be an issue at all. >> yeah. you see monty pythons start flying as a kid and -- >> sacrilegious. >> yeah. >> start to finish. >> yeah. that's something that america really ought to get over. because religion is an institution that, for better or worse, is here to stay for a while and -- >> most people from most religions have a huge core humor about their religion. there are books and books and books written by jews, catholics, muslims, and so on. >> i can think of two extremely, extremely christian people who are very, very close friends of mine who have a great sense of humor about christianity. absolutely. and sometimes the networks bow down to the most angry and -- >> rick perry -- >> yeah. these are the two folks that i'm thinking of are two people that are very comfortable in their -- they are at ease and have no reason to be offended. >> we're going to come back and talk about charlie sheen and also your bizarre connection to 9/11. you, actually, because of a hangover, avoided crashing into one of the towers. it's quite extraordinary. let's ring you up. mary? what are you doing here? it's megan. i'm getting new insurance. marjorie, you've had a policy with us for three years. it's been five years. five years. well, progressive gives megan discounts that you guys didn't. paperless, safe driver, and i get great service. meredith, what's shakin', bacon? they'll figure it out. getting you the discounts you deserve. now, that's progressive. call or click today. ground zero. so this is where the first guy got aids? >> no. >> the one lady that visited iraq that one time? >> no. it was a bunch of saudi arabia generals, egyptians and sheltered by pakistanis. >> so you're saying that we need to invade iran? >> that was the old "family guy" poking fun at 9/11. now, as you say, you aged towards that but in your case very personally because this extraordinary story. tell me about it again because there you were. you were booked on the flight, i think, from boston that hit the south tower. >> uh-huh. >> and you didn't get on it. why? >> a combination of two things. i was giving a lecture at my college and went out with faculty afterwards and had a few pints. >> so you were drunk? >> yes. and coupled with the fact that my travel agent listed the flight on my itinerary leaving ten minutes later than it did. and i was generally late for flights. you know, i had missed a lot of flights prior to that. so it wasn't like it was anything crazily out of the ordinary and i got up to the counter and she said, you're too late. they closed the gate. i said, okay, i'll take the 11:00. i went into the lounge, woke up 45 minutes late tore a commotion and the first plane had hit and sat there and watched the second flight hit and i turned to the guy next to me and said, my god, that was the flight i was supposed to be on. i was late and missed it. >> what an incredible thing to learn what had happened to the plane that you should have been on. >> yes. the wonderful unity that we've completely abandoned, i never felt more than when i was standing at the bar at 9:00 in the morning and saying to the bartender, hey, can you pour me a shot? and he's like, yeah, here you go. it's on the house. and that feeling that must have been our grandparents felt during world war ii, where this was -- in that moment, everything was -- we are all the same. but i was -- i was -- you know, i'm not a fatalist. i was not shaken to the core in the way that i changed my whole outlook on life, mainly because i had missed planes before and, you know, coincidences do happen. a day before that incident i could have been crossing the street five minutes before and got hit. >> you know, the reasons why 9/11 happened and why iraq had nothing to do with it and so forth, you are making important points through this cartoon medium. >> yeah, we try now and then. it always has to be funny. if we're ever getting preachy or soap boxy, then we are not -- [ bell tolls ] distracted driving. ♪ [ disco ] it accounts for 25% of car crashes. and it's why the best agents help safe drivers get a lower rate. - exactly. - oh! [ announcer ] we are insurance. ♪ we are farmers bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum ♪ we all know that there is a good chance that charlie will be dead soon so i wrote an obituary. charlie sheen, who became a tabloid fixture due to his problems with drugs and alcohol was found dead in his apartment. actually, you know what? i kind of copied amy winehouse's obituary. it's -- i only had to change three things, though. the sex of the deceased. the location of the body, and the talent that will be missed. >> that was "comedy central." by god, that was dark. even you were grim massing. does anybody shudder at your humor? >> at the roast, yes. at every roast a part of me says, don't do it. don't do it. but they are so oddly loose and freeing that it's like a comedy vacation in a way. >> which has been your favorite, because you've done a few now? >> this last one was pretty -- i mean, it was dark but it was definitely fun. i was more relaxed than anything. >> what do you make of charlie? >> you know, it's funny. i don't really know charlie that well. my personal reactions with him, if you took out any awareness of anything that i read in the press, my personal interaction has been small. >> what if amy winehouse's family was watching that and actually phoned you to say, why are you making jokes about amy? >> what i would say is that the joke is about amy. >> would you be uncomfortable? >> oh, absolutely. if i got that call, of course. >> have you had those calls? >> not -- no. i never personally have gotten a call from a person saying, listen, i'm bonnie frank lynn and i got really upset at that joke that you made. how do you know about that? >> you're one of the most deep digging journalists. i've never told that story because -- >> well, now we have the perfect platform. >> okay z because there's a guy that loves dishing it out. >> yeah. >> you dish it out to him. perfectly valid criticism. you poke fun of him and he rings you for an hour. >> how did you find out about this? that's amazing. you're like woodward and bernstein. my pu