Animated stars record a CD

The cast of Family Guy are to release a CD of songs inspired by the show.

The album is expected to be out by Christmas, and will also serve as a taster for the first new series after the show was resurrected by the Fox network.

It also follows in the footsteps of The Simpsons, who recorded a couple of successful CDs and had a hit with Do The Bartman.

Creator Seth Macfarlane said: “There will be fast-paced songs with edgy lyrics as well as shower ones. It should be good.”

He was speaking at Montreal’s Just For Laughs comedy festival, where the cast are performing live script readings. Macfarlane, who is also the voice of Peter Griffin, baby Stewie and others, performed a romantic ballad from the album with Alex Borstein, who plays his wife Louis.

The audience was also treated to a sneak preview of Macfarlane’s next cartoon, American Dad, which will premiere in the States on Super Bowl night.

Described as “Family Guy meets All In The Family”, the show revolves around a paranoid Right-wing CIA agent who lives with his wife Francine, pre-pubescent son Steve, liberal peacenik daughter Hayley, a space alien rescued from Area 51 and a seedy German goldfish who lusts after Francine.

Macfarlane thanked the fans whose dedication to Family Guy brought it back from the dead – believed to be the first time a network has ever recommissioned a show it cancelled.

He said: “You brought the DVDs, you watched it [in syndication] on Cartoon Network, so now it’s coming back.”

In a press conference, Borstein added: “We’re only here because of the fans… not that I’m going to share my salary with them, or anything like that.”

In Montreal, the cast are performing the controversial episode When You Wish Upon A Weinstein, once banned from transmission because of fears it was anti-Semitic.

Macfarlane said: “When we first read it around the table, people were just horrified – there was no laughter at all.

“But you’ve got to hand it to Fox, they were scared to death but they still let us make it.”

Published: 24 Jul 2004