"Family Guy" creator seals megadeal

By Nellie Andreeva

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - From wunderkind to TV mogul: After 2 1/2 years of negotiations, "Family Guy" creator Seth MacFarlane has inked a new overall deal with 20th Century Fox TV that would make him the highest-paid writer-producer working in television.

The pact, which could be worth more than $100 million, will keep MacFarlane at 20th TV through 2012. It covers his services on "Guy" and his other two animated series for 20th TV and Fox -- "American Dad!" and the upcoming "Guy" spinoff "The Cleveland Show" -- as well as his series development, which includes a multicamera comedy with "Guy" writer Gary Janetti. It also encompasses new-media projects related to MacFarlane's TV series as well as DVD and merchandising revenue from them. ("Guy" alone has grown into a $1 billion franchise with red-hot DVD and merchandise sales.)

"I get a lot of pleasure out of making shows," MacFarlane said. "It's a bonus to be getting paid well for it, and it's a double bonus to be getting paid exorbitantly for it."

Neither side would comment on the size of the deal, with 20th TV chairman Dana Walden noting only that "no one will ever have to offer Seth a handout of any kind."

MacFarlane's deal is expected to eclipse the $60 million five-year feature/TV pact J.J. Abrams ("Lost") inked with Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros. TV in 2006.

The deal is retroactive, as MacFarlane's previous pact with 20th TV expired more than a year ago.

"It's a relief to have it done," 20th TV chairman Gary Newman said.

Added Walden, "Today marks the first time in a long time (20th TV top business affairs execs) Howard Kurtzman and Neal Baseman did not have their shoulders up to their ears with anxiety."

PROTRACTED TALKS

Just as "Guy's" winding path to success was full of roadblocks -- Fox canceled the show twice before it triumphantly returned to become the network's top-rated comedy -- the road to MacFarlane's new deal was a long and bumpy one.

At one point in October 2006, when the negotiations had stalled, 20th TV delayed the start of production on the sixth season of "Guy" by two and a half months.

Still, throughout the process, 20th TV brass never considered letting MacFarlane go.

"I'd rather lose a limb," 20th TV chairman Newman quipped.

MacFarlane, who also voices most of the characters on "Guy," admits that the thought of going to another studio crossed his mind during the drawn-out negotiations.

"But it didn't seem like anything was worth leaving 'Family Guy,'" he said. "And despite all the statements to the contrary, with the lawyers getting at each other's throats, deep down I knew it would eventually be resolved in a positive way."