Topic: TV Comedies

Cut Your Cable: Hulu's Top 10 TV Shows

1 Family Guy You can get the five most recent episodes and more than 300 clips of Seth MacFarlane's crude cartoon. Hulu's most-watched episode as of September: "Stew-roids." 2 The Office The show is also among NBC's ...READ»

• The Unlikely Mogul
• The Wild World of Web TV

'Family Guy's MacFarlane Not PC Enough for Microsoft, Windows 7 Deal Pulled

Showing just how unhip being a PC can be, Microsoft has pulled out of a prime time Windows 7 sponsorship of a special by Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane. According to Microsoft, MacFarlane's style didn't "fit with the Windows ...READ»

Viacom Could Embrace YouTube and Create New Ad Revenue

Viacom is treating YouTube like a copyright infringer, but there's an easy win-win scenario: advertising barter and a per-subscriber fee. All Viacom needs to do is to think of YouTube as just another ad-supported distribution ...READ»

Windows-Backed Family Guy Adds to Unemployment Rolls

We'll address the gigantic sell-out that is Family Guy Presents: Seth & Alex's Almost Live Comedy Show (brought to you buy Windows 7) in a moment. But the more immediate news is that the Windows 7 party-people are going to have to ...READ»

FG Now

Last night, Fox aired the first new episode of Family Guy since February 2002. For the first time ever, a show that was canceled has come back years later due to home video (and cable reruns). This is a clear display how a new ...READ»

Fake Wall Street Journal Hits the Stands

A parody of the Wall Street Journal hit news stands early today, creating enough of a stir to get the real WSJ snapping up copies in at attempt to get them off the streets. Published every 26 years, this time the parody has ...READ»

Even Gazillionaires Get Stuck Behind the Velvet Rope

Family Guy creator and our November cover subject Seth MacFarlane is denied entrance to a Hollywood bar, but he brushes it off and decides to turn the tables on the doorman. Looks like creating a $2 billion media empire hasn't changed the easy-going writer/producer.READ»

• Seth MacFarlane’s $2 Billion Family Guy Empire
• Breaking Down Family Guy's Billions

Funny Business

How comedians clarify brain-fuzzing statsREAD»

• The Gripping Statistic: How to Make Your Data Matter

Seth MacFarlane’s $2 Billion Family Guy Empire

Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane has built an empire of staggering proportions that nabbed him a record $100 million deal with Fox. And, with an innovative new series of animated shorts distributed by Google -- "Seth MacFarlane’s Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy" -- he’s even teaching the search giant new ways to exploit the Web. Could this crude frat-boy cartoonist really be a model for business in the postmodern age?READ»

• Breaking Down Family Guy's Billions
• The 6 Most Bizarre Family Guy Moments
• The 10 Most Controversial Family Guy Moments

Can We Laugh at Obama?

As the nation transitions from the erratic, divisive Bush-era into the historically momentous presidency of Obama the rhetoritician, some journalists are declaring crisis mode on a flourishing art form: the political satire.READ»

Seth MacFarlane’s Stirs Up New Trouble -- and Racks Up Another Hit

Did Family Guy go too far in its recent episode that suggested Nazis would have supported the McCain-Palin ticket? Does Seth MacFarlane care? Not likely, if his continuing string of hits is any indication.READ»

• Seth MacFarlane’s $2 Billion Family Guy Empire
• Breaking Down Family Guy's Billions

The Untrammeled Power of General Knowledge

One of the magic keys to any successful career is knowledge. Knowledge about your industry is a given. I mean general knowledge. An idea of what is happening in the world. No matter who you are or what you do, you have to keep ...READ»

Stephen Colbert, Obama iPhone App, and Other Election Variables

On the afternoon before the VP debate, I find my attention occupied by the election. Here are a few things on my mind: Last night on The Colbert Report, they did a wonderful thing. After a humorous commercial about "Voter ...READ»

Hollywood vs. Bentonville?

Report just in: A dark tide appears to be looming over digital movie downloads, as word came today that retailer colossus Wal-Mart has issued warnings of retaliation to some of Hollywood's key players, should they elect to sell ...READ»

Viacom and Joost Succeed with Deal

Viacom has reached a deal with Joost, which will allow content from its networks including MTV, BET and Paramount pictures to be shown on Joost for free, according to Reuters. This marriage with Joost, a site that allows viewers to ...READ»

McDreamy's Sweater

Have you ever been distracted from the melodramatic interactions between the attractive doctors on Grey's Anatomy with the thought "I wonder where I could buy that sweater?" If so, than you are the target audience for a new ...READ»

Seven Curious Things Online this Week

The future is scary: hadron colliders, HD-video iPhones and nanotube lightbulbs are as bizarre as they are promising. Thankfully, this week on the Web shows us that not all that much has changed; we're still the same gawkers we were ...READ»

Telly Visionary

With 15 Emmys and a superstar client list, set designer Jim Fenhagen is the hottest thing on TV.READ»

Universal Merchant Services

Universal Merchant Services, Jason Moore Merchant Services, National Payment Processing, Jason Moore, Merchant ServicesREAD»

Can NBC Brand Itself as the Green Network?

Would you watch a TV network just because it is somehow "greener" than the others? NBC Universal is betting on it. The company claims that polls show that its reputation as a green network is recognized among 82% of ...READ»

60 Seconds with Greg Daniels

Greg Daniels, who's in charge of the U.S. version of The Office, (sadly) finds inspiration for his sitcom in office parks everywhere.READ»

The Agonies of Lewis Black

Our customer-service curmudgeon suffers for all of us--but not in silence.READ»

Update

Fast Deals Some of the 50 Most Innovative Companies we cited in March have found one another as intriguing as we did. We named Pure Digital Technologies, maker of the supersimple Flip digital video recorders, No. 7; that month, ...READ»

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Fast Talk: Stuffing the Channel

Robert Greenblatt President of Entertainment, Showtime Networks Los Angeles, California Robert Greenblatt, 47, has reinvigorated Showtime with distinctive programming such as Weeds, eclectic talents such as Mary-Louise Parker ...READ»

Reading List: Desperate Networks

Desperate Networks shows how network TV got stuck on "smoking hot hits.READ»