For years, primetime animated series have been vying for a chance to compete with live-action fare in the Comedy category at the Emmys, rather than being limited to the animation contest. Now, Daily Variety reports that the producers of FOX’s Family Guy have cooked up a scheme to have it both ways. The half-hour series will reportedly be entered as a comedy for the first time, while the hour-long installment Family Guy: Blue Harvest is submitted as an animated special.
While Family Guy writers will have the satisfaction of going up agaisnt scribes from hit live-action, half-hour comedies, the animators won’t get to share in the reward if the program wins. That may be a moot point since Emmy voters have yet to nominate an animated program in the highly competitive Comedy category.
Family Guy airs Sunday nights on FOX and is one of the highest-rated half-hour scripted shows on television. Series creator Seth MacFarlane and his team will revisit George Lucas’ universe with a spoof of The Empire Strikes Back, which is now in development.
