Seth MacFarlane has long lived at the intersection of irreverence and reverence. As the creator of Family Guy, he built an empire of absurdist animation, but his latest creative projects deepens his musical streak. He caught up with Kyle Meredith to talk about his new album Lush Life: The Lost Sinatra Arrangements, a collection of unearthed and previously unrecorded Frank Sinatra charts. From there, the conversation swings through his revival of The Naked Gun, a reimagining of The ’Burbs, and the success of Ted’s leap to television. Listen now.
When Tina Sinatra called to offer MacFarlane access to her father’s archived arrangements, he jumped at the chance to revive what had been sitting in boxes for decades. “There were a good hundred charts or so in there that Frank had never recorded,” he says, citing a Nelson Riddle arrangement of “How Did She Look” and the infamous abandoned 1958 session for “Lush Life.” MacFarlane and his team not only finished the track, but aimed to deliver each song with the fidelity and flair of the original era.
On the film and television side, MacFarlane stays just as busy. He’s producing a new Naked Gun movie starring Liam Neeson, who he calls “the last of a breed” of actors who can play it completely straight while delivering massive laughs. He’s also helping adapt The ’Burbs, calling Tom Hanks’ original turn “one of the most brilliant comedic performances ever.” And then there’s Ted, now a breakout hit on Peacock: “It was the most-watched comedy across all platforms for two months straight,” he says. “People loved it. They were all over it.”
For someone straddling high art and high chaos, MacFarlane seems right at home on both sides of the spectrum. Listen to Seth MacFarlane chat about all this and more or watch it on YouTube. Please take the time to like, review, and subscribe to KMW wherever you get your podcasts, and keep up to date with all our series by following the Consequence Podcast Network.