Seth MacFarlane's Top 10 Rules For Success (@SethMacFarlane)

I'm not really content creatively unless I'm doing something that scares me a little bit. It's just the more you know about what's possible and how to do it, the more freedom you have. Whatever, if it makes you laugh, it's an honest laugh. We're going through a bit of a dark ages as far as FCC restrictions and what we can— there's a lot we can't do now that we used to be able to do when the show started.

He's an American TV producer, filmmaker, actor, and singer. He's best known as the creator of the TV series Family Guy. Family Guy. His first feature-length film, Ted, became the highest-grossing original R-rated comedy. He's Seth MacFarlane, and here's my take on his top 10 rules for success. Rule number 1 is my personal favorite. I make sure to stick around all the way to the end for a special bonus clip. And as always, as Seth is talking, if he says something that really resonates with you, please leave it in the comments below and put quotes around it so other people can be inspired as well. Enjoy.

What were you like as a child?

Um, I was a combination of reclusive and obsessed with what I wanted to do. When I was 2, I was sitting in front of the TV drawing Fred Flintstones and Woody Woodpeckers, and at age 7, I'm running around like a crazy person doing voices. But at the same time, I would try to make animated films. Films and try to figure out exactly how that art form worked.

When did you do your first cartoon? How old were you and what was it?

I was in 7th grade. It was called Space Pirates. It was terrible. I like your bustle, by the way.

Oh yeah, I really love that the most alluring fashion statement a woman can make today is to simulate a fat ass.

Is a simulation of a fat ass right there.

We don't often see you in front of the camera, so what made you think this time, all right, Here we go.

Throughout the course of my career, I've managed to continue to challenge myself and to try things that I haven't tried and to keep scaring myself. I'm not really content creatively unless I'm doing something that scares me a little bit, that's stimulating.

There's something inside you that keeps saying, no, go further, try something different.

What is that? It's a constant crippling feeling of inadequacy.

Is that what it is?

I think that might be what it is, yeah.

We spoke to your dad at the premiere. Last night, and here's what he said.

I just have such great respect for him, and he's still a very, very grounded and kind and focused human being. He's a good soul, a good person, and that's more than anything else what I'm proud of. My dad's such a dick. I'm gonna get him for that, man. Oh, man, I'm gonna get you, you son of a bitch. From start to finish, it takes about 9 months to— sometimes longer. A year, sometimes, you know, 10 months. It's roughly a year between the time that the story is pitched to the time it gets on the air. It takes roughly a year to do it. And it's, you know, no one has ever figured out a quicker way to do hand-drawn animation in prime time. And it's all still hand-drawn. It's colored with computers, but every single frame is still done by hand. You know, this season is a little smoother than last season, and last season was a little smoother than the one before. So it gets incrementally easier. It's still, in many ways a 7-day-a-week job to get this thing done. I mean, it's, it's, it's a virtually impossible thing to do a primetime animated series, yet somehow there's a bunch of people that, that do it. I, I, I, you know, I, it's, it's— I don't know how The Simpsons, you know, does it for as long as they, they've been doing it, but it's, it's a, it's a, uh, it's just a very, very intense process that just in many ways gets easier when you get canceled.

What advice can you give to someone who wants to study animation?

There's a million ways to do it. It's trial and error. With me, it was just trial and error. It's just, it was, it's learning the, it is learning the process. You do have to find a good school. I mean, that's the best thing you can do. Rhode Island School of Design was great. CalArts is great. I mean, there's a lot of art schools that now have gotten up to date with their animation programs. But it's just doing it. It's just doing as much of it as you can and sitting, you know, even if it's with one of those little cheap video camera things, just experimenting with movement and experimenting with speeds of movement and what looks funny. It's just the more you know about what's possible and how to do it, the more freedom you have to— I mean, it's the same as directing, I guess. It's the same as directing on a set.

You just gotta go out and do it.

Yeah, yeah. If you know what is possible and what you're capable of, then You know, learn the tools first. Yeah, yeah.

And how they work.

Yeah.

And at 24, he became the youngest person to ever head a network show.

Huzzah!

That led to the spinoffs The Cleveland Show.

Here, here's $10. Don't get kidnapped.

And American Dad. Stop!

Get off me! Yeah, that's what your mom said last night.

There doesn't seem to be anything off limits. I made a little list of some of the things that you discuss. Bestiality. Abortion, AIDS, Irishmen who drink, nuns, premature ejaculation, breastfeeding, and farts.

Yeah.

You think it's easy for me to say all that?

When you line it all up like that, I mean, it sounds like maybe we've made a huge mistake, doesn't it?

You know what I am back at the ranch? I'm a breeding bull. Wha—

wha—

wha— whatcha at? You gonna find out.

The trick to getting it all past the censors, according to Seth, is not to offend too many groups in any given episode.

It all just can't be in the same place. There's something called tonnage, and we try to keep those jokes spread apart. It is a balance, but my view is that whatever, if it makes you laugh, it's an honest laugh. You push the envelope a lot. Yes. Obviously, you do. Um, has there ever been something that's like, "Oh, God, it's a little too much"? It's even for us, we can't do that. Yeah, yeah, I mean, there's the occasional, uh, god, joke about— that's too racist or too, you know, offensive to people with a particular disease, or, you know, there's too much abortion-centric comedy that we say, you know, probably that shouldn't go. You know, those are just three examples that come to mind. Probably that maybe shouldn't go in the show. Maybe just for the DVD. But we do— there are things that we do now that we do strictly for— You know, we do a few versions of the show. There's one for television and then there's one for the DVD because it's a very— You know, it's a— We're going through a bit of a dark age as far as FCC restrictions and what we can— There's a lot we can't do now that we used to be able to do when the show started. And so to kind of fight that, we do DVD versions in which, you know, you can kind of see the show untouched.

Okay, here's one. If you were gay and you had to have sex with either John Forsythe or Sean Connery, who would it be? Eh, it's so funny, I would also say John Forsythe. I was just curious.

You know, there are great things about television and there are great things about film. Television has the advantage of speed. You can conceive an idea and see it through to fruition all in the time frame that you're just getting a movie off the ground. You can tell different types of stories every week, um, and if one of them is, you know, you can experiment a little more. If one of them goes wrong, well, there's always next week. With a movie, you know, the flip side of that is you can— the one story that you tell, you can to really get it right, right? Um, so I— it depends on the project. I generally— the idea comes first. If I have an idea, then I sort of think to myself, well, is this better as a series or as a feature? And I think that's, you know, I think that's a good way to do it.

You, you're slaving away 6 months, slaving away because you're actually pursuing a dream, and, and it's, it's incredibly hard work, but it also, I'm guessing, kind of feels like, Jesus, this is kind of it, and I've really gotta I do have to pour everything I have into this.

Yeah, I mean, you know, they had given me, you know, you're talking about The Life of Larry, or you're talking about the— Well, the pilot for Fox. For Fox, yeah. Yeah, that one, they gave me something like $40,000 to do this animated pilot. Usually, you know, it's about anywhere from $800,000 to $1 million to do an animated pilot, so.

Right.

And I just said, yes, I can do it, and I'll figure out how to do it after the fact.

And you did.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's, it's, it's kind of thing where it's, it's, it's such— it was, it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, right, where they're basically saying, you know, we'll give you a small amount of money, you're basically going to have to kill yourself for half a year, but if you— if it works, then you're set and, you know, you've gotten in, right? And so it was a gamble, but it, it I managed to do it.

Do you try to stay timely?

Let's write the Paris Hilton thing today. Would you ever move into that area? Yeah, you know, it's possible. It's tough with things that are very, very immediate because of the fact that it does take us a year to do these things. You know, if we do— you know, we did a joke about when Ashlee Simpson had the lip-syncing business on Saturday Night Live. We did a joke on that, and we were— by the time it aired, we were just on the tail end of relevance because it had already— many months had passed. And, you know, I think that's a good thing, though, because I think it's a good thing for longevity. I think it's a good thing for reruns. If you look at— excuse me— if you look at All in the Family, you know, that's a show that was very, very topical and very much of its time, but it was general enough that you can watch it now and not have to know what was going on that specific week with Richard Nixon. And you can still enjoy it. And that's sort of the balance that we like to go for.

All right, guys, the best thing you can do for your body after a massage is hot coffee, alcohol, and Slim Jims.

You could be an impressionist. I mean, you could— if you wanted to make your living as, uh, you know— Rich Trevolina?

Rich— There are many times at a table read that we write a piece for somebody and want to get a guest star, and Seth will fill in and do it, or— Seth Green will, or I will, and 9 times out of 10, MacFarlane's read for whoever is way funnier than when we actually book the person to do it. And many times he'll end up re-recording.

What else can he do that we would be very amused to hear? Really bad—

Who?

Kermit the Frog. Kermit the Frog. Do that "take 'em" thing. We have a gag in the show coming up with Jim Henson. Lessons taken.

Yeah. I don't have any money. But what I do have are a certain set of skills. Skills that could be a nightmare for someone like you. If you don't let the girl go, I will track you down. I will find you. And I will kill you. Yay!

Thank you guys so much for watching. I made this video because Gerardo asked me to. So if there's a famous entrepreneur that you want me to profile next, leave it in the comments below and I'll see what I can do. I'd also love to know what did Seth say say that really resonated with you, leave in the comments, really curious to find out. Finally, want to give a quick shout out to Shah Rukh. Thank you so much for picking up a copy of my book and posting that tweet about it. I really, really, really appreciate it, and I hope you enjoy. So thank you guys again for watching. I believe in you. I hope you continue to believe in yourself and whatever your one word is. Much love. I'll see you soon.

All right, well, we have got work to do, so let's roll up our sleeves and get right to it. There's a lot to do, so we can't be afraid to just roll up our sleeves and get the job done. We can't be hands-off managers. We gotta roll up our sleeves and just dig in.

Peter, your arms are turning purple.

Purple with success. That's the color of money. You gotta do the work of two men and pay yourself for one. Just roll up those sleeves and address the task at hand, whatever it may be. Not shying away from the dirty work, but just rolling up our sleeves and having at it. Success is not given, it is taken. It's time to get in the game and get dirty. All right, I'm going to lunch.