The creator and cast of FOX’s Family Guy are putting on another live musical show next month, this time in Chicago. According to The Hollywood Reporter, two shows will be presented at Chicago Theater on Sept. 15, just in time to help promote the series’ off-net syndication debut. Chicago-based Tribune will launch the animated sitcom next month KTLA in Los Angeles, WPIX in New York and and WGN in Chicago, as well as other affiliates.
Family Guy Live made its debut at Montreal’s Just for Laughs comedy festival in 2004. The show made its way to venues in Los Angeles and New York the following year and returned for this summer’s edition of Just for Laughs, which is producing the Chicago performance with 20th Century Fox TV.
Family Guy creator and voicer Seth MacFarlane will be joined on stage again by Alex Borstein, Mila Kunis, Seth Green and Mike Henry. In addition to performing musical numbers, the cast will do a table read of an episode, participate in a Q&A session and offer a sneek preview of the season premiere, which will feature a Star Wars theme.
At a time when very few sitcoms last a full season, affiliates are finding slim pickings beyond such syndicated staples as The Simpsons, Seinfeld, Everybody Loves Raymond and The King of Queens. Execs at 20th Century Fox TV are looking to the animated adventures of the Griffin family to revive this lucrative area of its operations and give broadcasters a fresh property to exploit for ratings.
