Seth MacFarlane Calls on Hollywood to "Give People Hope"

The last five years in the world have been pretty rough. We went through a pandemic and recovery, and in Hollywood, we went through dual strikes and horrific wildfires as well.

Add that to mass layoffs and corporate consolidation, and we've been suffering.

Take a look at headlines around the world, and you can see people everywhere who could use a good laugh, or maybe even a hug.

It's safe to say that people are still trying to recover from everything.

So, when it comes time to turn to some entertainment, what happened to those good, old-fashioned values, on which we used to rely?

That's what writer, director, producer, and keeper of many other talents Seth MacFarlane has said about what's being greenlit in Hollywood.

MacFarlane is the mind behind Family Guy, Ted, and a lot of other hilarious and happy projects.

And he wants to see more happy and welcoming ideas hitting the big and small screen. And things that "give people hope."

As reported in Variety, MacFarlane said, “That’s why I did ‘The Orville’… because when I was a kid, Hollywood was providing that voice in various forms.”

MacFarlane continued, “There was a lot of hope, and some of the blame lies right here in this town. The dishes that we are serving up are so dystopian and so pessimistic. And yeah, there’s a lot to be pessimistic about, but it’s so one-sided. There’s nothing we’re doing that’s providing anyone an image of hope.”

I can see in the past why he may have felt that way. His show came out in 2017, and the world was a very different place back then. We had shows like Better Call Saul, The Handmaid's Tale, and a bleak Game of Thrones ending, but since then, the world has changed a ton.

So, how does MacFarlane feel today?

The multi-hyphenate finished with, “[Telling hopeful stories is] the only thing really that Hollywood can do that’s worthwhile because as we all learned from this election, nobody gives a fuck what celebrities think,” he continued, “We can tweet, we can talk. Like, people don’t care. They don’t care. What we do do well is tell stories. And we’re not doing the best job right now of telling those stories in a way that gives people hope.”

I think this is pretty interesting to dissect. Because I often find that it's actually hard to get a green light on anything sad, and I find that Marvel and Star Wars movies, or even the most recent Superman, all have hope instilled in their cores.

It actually feels like this is going on, we're just not getting enough of them that feel new and refreshing, and that can make audiences feel cynical.

What MacFarlane is talking about could be more of a niche comedy movie or a hopeful original that brings people together. Those are extremely hard to make and finance independently.

The days of the antihero, I think, have been numbered. If you look at shows that are greenlit, it does feel like we're getting reboots of happy shows like The Office.

Now, I'm not advocating for more sad shows, but I think the best way to find hope in storytelling is from stories where we don't automatically know what's coming next.

That means getting original ideas on the screen and crafting characters we can believe in again.

Let me know what you think in the comments.