Variety is reporting that Fox Broadcasting has ordered a half-hour animated series pilot from Seth MacFarlane, creator of the Family Guy animated series.  Family Guy was cancelled by Fox, but has proven to be a big success on the Cartoon Network's Adult Swim and a huge hit on DVD.  MacFarlane and veteran Family Guy writers Mike Barker and Matt Weitzman have come up with what Variety describes as a twenty-first century take on All In the Family.  American Dad, as the series is now known, features a family headed by a CIA agent (with a right wing political viewpoint), who is in semi-constant conflict with his liberal daughter.  Conflicts also abound with an effeminate alien named Roger, who is not allowed to leave the house, and a French-speaking goldfish--the result of a CIA experiment to put the brain of a Frenchman in a fish.

 

If Fox likes the pilot, American Dad will likely be part of the Network's fall 2004 schedule.  Meanwhile Family Guy's success on DVD could result in the creation of a direct-to-video extension of the series (see 'A New Family Guy Movie?').