10 Shows You Didn’t Realize Were By Seth MacFarlane

The casual television viewer today likely recognizes producer, director, actor, and writer Seth MacFarlane for his popular adult animated comedies on FOX network. But there are also many other shows accredited to the comedic genius that came out well before and after his beloved crude cartoons.

Today, fans of MacFarlane will find him indulging in his childish science-fiction wonderment throughout the fairly well-received series The Orville (although it's currently on hiatus) and adapting the Books of Blood for Hulu. Still, there are many shows outside of the usual favorites that have his name fairly early in the main credits.

Along the way, there have been a handful of shows with some potential as well as a select few that, for better or worse, became rather successful during their heydays. Likewise, there were many productions MacFarlane likely wishes he could scrub out of his memory with some kind of Neuralyzer. What ensues are some of MacFarlane’s best and worst television endeavours outside of shows like Family Guy, many of which make it easy to see why he cashed in so hard on creations like the aforementioned animated series.

In the late 1990s, Jim Carrey was on fire largely due to his iconic overdramatic antics in several hit comedy films. Following his success, many television studios wanted to tap into the cash pool and proposed spinning his Hollywood hits into weekly animated programs.

Along with a cartoon version of The Mask as well as Dumb and Dumber, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective had its chance as a regular animated show on CBS from 1995 to 1997, and then again had one more season on Nickelodeon from 1999 to 2000.

During the time the namesake film was released, it was the perfect kind of material to truly launch Carrey’s movie career in fans’ eyes. For the critics, though, they felt the movie was absurd and largely filled with mostly raunchy (and sometimes cruel) content. The cartoon also experienced similar wrath in the reviews, as without Carrey to overact in a way only he can, the show was accused of being mostly forced crude humor.

The fate of the cartoon, given the performance of his similar Carrey-based toons, was not surprising. Knowing that Macfarlane was the person responsible for writing parts of the series, in hindsight, some of the humor does come off as undeveloped Family Guy skits. The cartoon may have done little to help his career, but it did give MacFarlane a chance to flex some of his infamous toilet humor muscles.