'Family Guy's' Seth MacFarlane was attacked by this conservative TV watchdog. Now they're friends
LOS ANGELES - Seth MacFarlane, creator of the irreverent animated show "Family Guy," once likened the barrage of blistering attacks on the program - and him - from the Parents Television Council to "getting hate mail from Hitler."
"They're literally terrible human beings ... rotten to the core," MacFarlane told a magazine.
The conservative nonprofit railed against MacFarlane and his Fox network cartoon for more than a decade. It petitioned the Federal Communications Commission to proclaim episodes indecent and pressured advertisers to steer clear.
"Whatever would America's sex-crazed, adolescent potheads do without Seth MacFarlane to amuse them?" the group once fumed. It channeled the outrage to boost membership and fundraising: "To help the PTC fight Seth MacFarlane's filth, click here."
In a vitriolic blog post four years ago, a PTC analyst predicted, "Until MacFarlane steps away from his sycophantic audience of frat boys and perverts, and actually stops treating rape and child molestation as jokes, no one will ever respect him."
Yet, this spring, MacFarlane welcomed an unlikely guest to his stylish offices in Beverly Hills: PTC President Tim Winter. On a Friday evening, the former combatants cracked jokes and engaged in a thoughtful discussion about their
