I am Seth MacFarlane. AMA.

Are we going to talk about Rampart though?

Yep.

Looks like Seth mistook ama as a typical movie marketing interview.

"for the next thirty minutes, i'm answering all the questions i can.

about 'orville'.

ask me anything.

about orville."

Starting a new thread. Hang on, they're sending me the link and we'll start from scratch.

Right? The similarities are uncanny... Notice how he hasn't answered any questions not about his show.

And only allotting 30 minutes to the AMA... Hell, an hour's AMA seems too short, let alone a 30 minute one.

Edit: I'm not blaming the mods for this. You all are just volunteers running the biggest outward facing subreddit. There is only so much you can do without being credentialed employees of reddit.

We did try guys. Some people aren't good at listening. get confused by the AMA format.

EDIT: We got in contact with his team. He's coming back to chat with us some more. Think there was some miscommunication as to what an AMA was all about. He has now heard the story of Rampart...

Okay walk me though this -- my team is scratching their heads so I need all the help I can get.

Okay I'm back. Let's see if this works.

Might be better to just start a new AMA

Let's do that.

How the hell do I do that

What was the worst reaction by a celebrity whom you had referenced in Family Guy?

Great question, I would love this to be answered. Unfortunately it's not regarding his new show so...

I see a lot of people here shitting on Seth and I really don't need to defend him, but here's a point I'd like to raise up. A lot of the AMA stars probably have no idea how it's supposed to work. They might not really know how Reddit works, or even what it is, let alone an AMA. Someone in their PR team will explain that it's like doing Jimmy Fallon show, but for internet neckbeards. They'll sit him down for 10 minutes to answer 5-10 questions and their typist will only pick ones related to the show. This has happened too many times for me to be disappointed, I don't expect anything from these AmAs anymore. But I wouldn't blame the celebrities, this is pretty much what /r/IAmA has turned into over the years, especially since Victoria was fired. /r/IAmA has essentially become a tool for stars to give a quick pitch about their latest project, in the form of a shitty Q&A. I suggest we'd add a new tag for AMA's like this, something like "MiniAmA" or "PromotionalAmA" or "AvoidThisAmA".

Sometimes, rarely, but sometimes you seen an AMA done right. Off the top of my head I'm thinking Snoop Dogg, Nick Offerman, Zach Braff and Jessica Biel. The PR cocktards should realize it's supposed to be more like Rogans Podcast, 3 hours of shooting the shit, rather than appearance on Conan, 5 minute interview of rehearsed anecdotes.

/I wanna add that I'm sure the current modteam is doing their best, it's not your fault how the nature of advertising and social media has changed (I feel like we're only a few years away from Black Mirror style Wraith Babe ads that set off an increasingly loud alarm as soon as you avert your eyes from the ad). When I say we miss Victoria, I'm not trying to saying you guys suck. I don't wanna sound ungrateful, I'm sure your job is thankless as it is. If the AMA turns out to be shit, people will complain. If you cancel an AMA for not meeting the requirements you've set, people will still complain. So I wish you all the best and we still appreciate you and the work you do.

//Seth's response

In the spirit of that, let's try this again. Bear with me, I'm learning how to use this site.

That's a nice thought, but he did an ama in 2014 and actually answered questions, so there's no excuse. https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/20ug08/seth_macfarlanes_ama/

Had a walk-through that time - this is just me on my own - been awhile.

Adrian Brody. Met him at a party afterward as he was not amused.

Hes not answering non Orville related questions

Makes me wonder if it's even really him or just some PR guy. You'd think Seth would know how an AMA works and how not doing it right just pisses people off.

I know now ha - my crack team handed me an iPad and said "answer questions about The Orville. Hung out to dry here but let's try and make up for it.

Thanks for your questions! Next time I'm gonna figure out how the hell to use this site before I come on. More to come!

Hey Seth! Huge fan of your work and love what I've seen from The Orville so far!

In the pilot, we see the crew use a shuttle craft to get down to the surface of the planet. Is transporter technology not around in the Orville universe? Or, is it something that'll possibly be explored more later on?

We decided to go without it for this show -- we like seeing the shuttle fly around, and we decided it'd be more challenging in a good way to have to write ourselves out of predicaments without it.

Hi Seth,

The pilot made a lot of fun and I can't wait to see more.

Professional critics seem to mostly dislike The Orville, but viewers (at least here in reddit) seem to mostly like the show. Whats your take on this disparity?

Always seems to be some odd axe to grind with critics, but honestly all I care about is what the audience thinks. I was so happy to read all your enthusiastic responses and feedback.

Hey Seth! Loving The Orville so far. It's like a new Star Trek series that I can actually get excited about.

My brother and I have had this question since the show was first announced- is the ship named after Orville Wright, or Orville Redenbacher? I was pretty sure it was going to be Redenbacher up until I saw the tone of the show in the first episode. Now I'm not so sure. Can you clear this up for us?

Orville Wright, yes. I was reading the David McCullough biography of the Wright brothers while I was writing the pilot, and early on there seemed to be some depiction of Orville as the "beta" brother. Seemed like a good fit for our midlevel craft.

Orville Wright, yes. I was reading the David McCullough biography of the Wright brothers while I was writing the pilot, and early on there seemed to be some depiction of Orville as the "beta" brother. Seemed like a good fit for our midlevel craft.

Seth, I love the sets on the show. Is there an engine room set on "Orville"?

There will be yep - episode 5

Hi Seth, thanks for doing this AMA.

What's the budget like for special effects in the show? No need to quote actual numbers, but how does it compare relatively speaking to other similar shows?

If that's too commercially sensitive, what was your inspiration for Lt. Cmdr. Bortus? I personally love serious, deadpan characters that come off as unintentionally hilarious!

We have the same budget as any other hourlong network show, but doing Cosmos taught us how to really stretch it to achieve movie-level effects each week in significant quantities.

Hi Seth! I'm loving that you're taking such an interest in creating a scifi franchise that looks once again at the "what can we become for good" side of the future, instead of the "Look how bad we made it" side.

I wonder, how far do you want to take that vision? Do you hope to inspire a new generation of people to look to the future and dream "How do I make it better?"?

I don't know how much a tv show can really do, but I've noticed that that kind of show hasn't existed for awhile. Hopefully The Orville can get people fired up about space travel again.

Will we get to see some more locations on the ship like Engineering or the Mess Hall?

You'll get to see the Mess Hall this Sunday

You'll get to see the Mess Hall this Sunday

How deep is the mythology of this show going to go? Trek obviously has a whole world. Is that the eventual plan for The Orville?

That is our plan. To that end, some episodes will dig a little deeper than others. We're experimenting with tone.

My estimate is that if the characters seemed to take the world they inhabit a little more seriously, that it would be easier for the viewer to be invested in what is happening on screen. Your show has a lot of potential, so I'm looking forward to see if your experiments with tone reach a great balance.

It's the biggest challenge of doing a drama-comedy hybrid. You want to mix it up with some comedy here and there, but at the same time if the characters are too glib during a crisis, the stakes become diminished. It's a constant balancing act to determine where it's permissible. We're hoping the viewers will go along with us as far as a little tonal variance week to week. If you treat each episode like it'ss a little movie, then it does work.

Hi Seth, I got through the first 30 minutes of Orville but I felt like it was a bit more serious than I thought it would be, not as much comedy. Had to stop watching due to Hurricane Irma taking everything out, but I'm hearing I need to finish the last 30 because it was definitely pretty good. Still really liked it, but just wasn't what I expected, is it going to be a mix like this moving forward?

The show is attempting something a little totally new, yes. We are an hour, so we're really making an effort to take seriously the science fiction and character aspects of our storytelling.

Why go for the contemporary style of speech that's not at home in that sci-fi setting?

To me, there's no reason the people on a spaceship shouldn't talk like everyone else. I haven't seen it before in this kind of show, which made the idea interesting and potentially fun to write.

Will the story continue with each episode or will they have little ti no correlation with each other? How long do you plan to keep the story running?

The show will be episodic, so each week will be its own story. Within a certain timeframe, you can watch them out of order and you won't be confused.

Seth, never heard of Orville until just now. Can you give me one sentence to put it in a nut shell that will pursued me to watch it? Thanks!

PS..you're hilarious.

At the moment, I'd venture to say there's nothing else like it on TV. We're working hard to bring you all something that feels like a movie each week.

How seriously will the show take itself in terms of the lore and tech of the show? Put it another way, are the writers going to make rules for how things work that they'll hold themselves to in the future? I see that some solid Star Trek talent has been brought in behind the scenes (episode directors and the like) that could make some solid Trek adjacent comedy sci-fi.

We're really making an effort to play by a rule book that we follow week to week, yes

Commander Grayson mentioned a ship called the Chanute at the end of the first episode. May we also expect ships named the Bleriot, the Curtiss, the Lillienthal, and the Beachey?

(But not the Langley. That one crashed on takeoff. Twice.)

The Bleriot appears in this Sunday's episode, yep

Hi Seth! Are we going to have a more in depth look at the cultures of aliens on the crew? Loving the optimistic tone of the show.

Yes - when we move to Thursday nights after this Sunday's airing, the first episode will explore Bortus' culture in-depth.

Hi Seth, loved The Orville pilot. Are we going to find out more about the command structure of the fleet, like do they have something similar to the Prime Directive?

We will. There's no Prime Directive per se, more of a case-by-case analysis among the Admiralty when those situations arise in the show.

Hi Seth! How much of the playful dialogue is improvised as opposed to scripted? Some of my favorite character interactions feel so natural. Just curious.

Depends on the scene. In this Sunday's episode there is indeed some improvised material.

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Hopefully for all ages - we actually do want this to be a show people can watch with their families