Family Guy Tackles Abortion; Will Fox Play Along?

Emmy-nominated show mastermind Seth MacFarlane fears network will balk at controversial topic and ep will be DVD-only

By Josh Grossberg Jul 27, 2009 6:16 PMTags
Family GuyFox

It's official: Family Guy has now taken on every taboo.

At a weekend Comic-Con panel, show ringmaster and freshly minted Emmy nominee Seth MacFarlane says Stewie, Peter and the crew will tackle abortion—but he's not sure whether the episode will even make it to air.

"Twentieth Century Fox, as always, allowed us to produce the episode and then said, 'You know what? We're scared to f--king death of this.' "

While MacFarlane skimped on plot details and Fox remains mum on the episode, the Family Guy guy did suggest that the network will likely balk and only release the episode on DVD, similar to what happened with the show's infamous 2000 installment "When You Wish Upon a Weinstein," in which family patriarch Peter Griffin sets out to convert Christ to Judaism because he thinks it'll make him rich.

We're not sure about conversion, but controversy has paid off for big Mac, so we doubt he's sweating the fate of his abortion episode.

MacFarlane just inked a whopping $100 million deal with Fox that will keep Family Guy and its cousin, American Dad, on the air until 2012, making him the highest-paid writer-producer in tube history.

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Can't get enough of Comic-Con 2009? E! Online has all the scoop.