By Jessica Burstein
Contributing Writer
A "Family Guy" producer gave students an inside look at the show's next season Thursday night in the Rutgers Student Center on the College Avenue campus.
Mike Henry, a supervising producer, writer and regular voice actor on the show, spoke to an audience of more than 100 in an event hosted by the Rutgers College Program Council.
This year's lineup, Henry said, will be an episode in which Peter finds out he's part Mexican after he finally decides to become patriotic toward America, he said.
"We have some drama coming up," Henry said. One episode that will air is entitled "Lois Kills Stewie."
Henry also said they are doing a parody of "Star Wars: A New Hope," which will be a one-hour special. Family Guy will also be writing parodies of episodes five and six of "Star Wars."
Henry also said Loretta Brown, Cleveland's wife, might return at some point.
"Our attitude toward the show is simply to be as funny as we can," Henry said.
Henry also told students about how he got started in the industry.
He met the creator of "Family Guy," Seth MacFarlane, while visiting his brother, Patrick Henry, at the Rhode Island School of Design, he said. MacFarlane was already working on the show back then, Henry said.
After college, Henry said he didn't know what he wanted to do. His friends were pursuing more traditional careers in finance and law. At that point in his life, Henry said he was trying to do standup comedy.
"I was doing whatever I could to get my comedy out into the world," Henry said.
Henry said he didn't know how to accomplish this. He took an advertising job and began to write funny ads. The job, he said, was too serious for him.
"If you've got instinct or talent and it's not fleshed out, then you have to go for it," Henry said.
Eventually, Henry met up with MacFarlane again, who was preparing to present "Family Guy" to Fox. Once Fox bought the show, MacFarlane invited Henry to help create characters for the it.
Although Henry had no traditional television writing background, he began to write for "Family Guy." He has been working on the show since its premier in January 1999.
"We don't care if everybody gets a joke or not because those who do are going to laugh hard," Henry said.
Henry does the voices for Cleveland Brown, Cleveland Brown Jr., Herbert the old man and the Greased-Up Deaf Guy on the show. Throughout the evening, Henry switched between his regular voice and the voice he uses for Cleveland.
"It was really awesome that he showed clips from future seasons," said Susan Wechtler, human-interest chair for the Rutgers College Program Council. "I also liked that he kept changing his voice."
Each season of "Family Guy," Henry said, has 22 episodes. Each episode takes 10 months to make. Once the writers come up with an idea, they outline it, pitch jokes and then write the script.
"When you're on script it's a nightmare," Henry said. Each script, he said, gets completely rewritten.
After rewriting the script, the voice actors have a table reading. Then, the show gets animated, which takes four or five months, he said.
"We wanted to bring him because of 'Family Guy' being such a hit TV show," said Reva Grover, marketing chair for RCPC. "We thought a lot of students would appreciate him coming and getting a behind the scenes look at the show."
Henry said he kept pursuing comedy and putting his material out there because he knew it was the career for him.
"If you've got some kind of passion, just go with it and be true to it," Henry said.
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