seth macfarlane, comedy mastermind. >> if you don't know who i am just pretend i'm donny osmond. >> the guy behind "family guy." artist, voiceover artist. >> i don't care. >> writer, director and now movie star. >> that went so fast. his journey from small town boy to hollywood powerhouse. >> he is breaking the mold. >> a comedic genius. >> there's something inside you that keeps saying, no, go further. >> it's a constant crippling feeling of inadequacy.

>> tonight -- is that what it is? >> that might be what it is. >> "cnn spotlight," seth macfarlane. what's with this bear? >> every year people die. >> really? >> everybody hold still. >> people die at the fair. >> people die at the fair. >> the scene, arizona, 1882. >> the american west is a terrible place in time. everything out here that's not you wants to kill you. angry drunk people, hungry animals, outlaws. >> oh. >> the doctor. >> i couldn't save her. >> she had a splinter. >> doc. >> "a million ways to die in the west," the new film from seth macfarlane, "family guy" creator. >> that would sound so fast. >> he is a master of outrageous comedy from animation -- >> oh, geez. well, one of us is going to have to change. >> to live action plus computer animation. >> oh. ♪ how do you like me now how do you like me now ♪

>> to his latest live action minus animation. ♪ the story of the guy behind a million ways to die in the west begins back east. in small town new england, quiet kept, connecticut. he's the eldest of two kids. who's this guy? >> that is jonathan winters. no, this is me as a child. what was i, like less than a year old. >> what do have you on. >> like overalls and pulled the straps down to be sexy. >> adorable. the hair is still the same. >> it's exactly the same. >> like a lot of tots, baby seth loves cartoons. >> i would watch woody woodpecker and fred flintstone. >> yabba-dabba do. >> unlike a lot of tots, baby seth can draw them. >> it's -- yeah, the

flintstones. these were from when i was 2. for some reason fred is waving the american flag. >> i'm blown away by this but barney is spelled wrong. >> i'm embarrassed. >> if this isn't the ultimate sign you were born to do this, i don't know what it is. >> i had a desire to copy other people's work. ♪ >> original work started pouring out too. young seth creates his own animated movies as his dad recalls. >> he used an old 8 millimeter camera and set on a tripod and came up with a seven-minute video. >> soon seth's working for the local newspaper. the kent good times dispatch. >> my first job was doing a cartoon when i was about 9 years old and they paid me 5 bucks a week. >> his cartoons are maintained at the kept historical society where marge smith is executive

direct. >>er anything that caught his fancy, he figured out a way to make it funny. a little bit of irreverence but also just innocent fun. >> after high school, he heads to a press teejs art school. >> i was an animation major in college so i had very, very good training from the rhode island school of design. >> part that have training complete a student film. seth draws and voices the characters. >> hey, about that? another state that's going to abolish the death penalty. >> oh, is that right. >> instead they make you share a popsicle with tom waite. >> when did you discover you could do voices as well. >> i was pretty young. began with impressions. >> you guys have any cheese-its? >> honey, i think we should move. >> fine, let's have this conversation -- >> his student project at the wild school of design, a professor sakes enough of an interest in and recommends they takes it out to hollywood. >> with his student film as a calling card seth quickly lands a job. >> he was hired by hanna-barbera

which was a pretty extraordinary first job. >> you are? >> johnny -- >> i wrote for a show called "johnny bravo" that aired for a few years a cult hit in its own right. >> he gains some on camera experience. these are outtakes of him spoofing captain kirk on cartoon network's "adult swim." >> i'm a -- >> then in 1998, his big break. fox home to the simpsons gets a look at animated short. >> i'm steve. i'm a dog in case you're, well, stupid. >> fox invites him to shoot a pilot so long as he does it on the cheap. >> they weren't going to give me a million dollars to make a pilot so they said, listen, if you can do this for 50 grand

we'll give you a shot at a prime time show. >> he titles his program "family guy." >> don't touch the thermostat. >> man. >> it's a twisted take on the nuclear family complete with mattress idol talking baby. >> stuie, i said no toys at the table. >> is this a grape or a cherry? >> seth voices several characters from stuie to dad peter griffin. >> alcohol is trouble. i feel kind of guilty i ever gave chris his first taste of beer. yeah, but you turned out okay, didn't you, pal? >> i'm going to go get wasted. >> look both ways. >> the voice came from a security guard where i went to college and had this just impossibly thick loud boisterous wild a rhode island accent. >> fox green-lights the show. >> put it behind the super bowl which that is the biggest piece of real estate on television.

♪ he's a family guy >> the date, january 31st, 1999. the world gets its first look at "family guy." >> we're officially on welfare. come on, kids. help me with car parts on the front lawn. >> pushes the boundary of tastes. >> is that the blood of christ. >> yes. >> man, that guy must have been wasted 24 hours a day, huh. >> the human was crazy. >> america is great, except for the south. >> it was just a very new kind of show. sometimes it made you cringe it was just that darn funny. you couldn't help but laugh at it. >> at the end of the day that's all it's trying to do, it's not trying to change the world. >> the debut makes him at age 24 the youngest executive producer in network television. seth macfarlane is on his way. coming up -- seth's career advances but on 9/11, it almost comes to a

horrifying end. >> the guy next to me and said, my god, that was the flight i was supposed to be on. latte or au lait?

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♪ and you're not exactly mr. cold turkey either. remember when you tried to give up candy. >> i'll ask you one more time. are you sure you didn't eat anything in my factory. >> "family guy" moving from time slot to time slot the creator gets an invitation to speak at his own alma mater. the timing will have profound implications for seth. the date, september 10th, 2001. the next morning, september 11th, he heads to boston's logan airport to fly back to l.a. >> i got to the counter and i said, yeah, i'm booked on flight 11 and the woman behind the counter, i'm sorry, too late. they just closed the gate. i'll take the 11:00. went into the lounge, fell asleep, woke up about 45 minutes later to a commotion and the

first plane had hit. >> unconfirmed report that a plane has crashed into one of the towers there. >> sat there and watched the second plane hit. >> another passenger plane hitting the world trade center. >> and i turned to the guy next to me and said, my god, that was the flight i was supposed to be on. >> the close call does not prompt seth, an avowed atheist to re-examine his world view. >> i'm not a fatalist. i was not shaken to the core. >> he keeps his focus on "family guy" but there trouble is brewing. >> whoops. >> ratings keep sliding as the show is bounced around the schedule by fox executives. >> they did not know their audience. they didn't know what they had. >> when the network announces its 2002 lineup, the word is out. >> we've been cancelled. >> how could they do that? >> fox tosses the show on to the ash heap of syndication. >> they basically gave it to

cartoon network in exchange for promotional plugs for the dvd. >> that could be all she wrote for "family guy" and seth macfarlane, but then something remarkable happens. it starts airing on cartoon network in reruns and it's doing really well. >> is there no hope. >> then the dvds go on sale and everybody wants it. everybody was a fan of the show wants it. >> the stupid remote is not doing anything. >> fox execs begin to think. hmm, maybe we made a mistake. >> then to fox's credit they did something that never happens in television which is bring a show back from the dead. >> back by popular demand fox proudly retuannounces the retur "family guy." >> that began in 2005. >> 3:00, time for "the view." >> no, not again. >> and seth becomes an ever more powerful producer.

♪ good morning usa >> eventually creates a couple more shows, first "american dad" and then "the cleveland show." "american dad" wildly successful. >> in 2008, fox rewards him with a $100 million contract. >> wow. you're in a good mood today. >> you bet i am. >> reportedly making him tv's highest paid writer/producer. >> that's what my lawyers tell me. >> in his spare time he records an album of big band music. ♪ music is better than words ♪ >> and now please welcome your roast master, seth macfarlane. [ cheers and applause ] >> and he headlines some of comedy central's roasts like the epic one of charlie sheen. >> yes, we're here tonight to honor and hopefully arrest a man who was great in two things 25 years ago, charlie sheen.

[ applause ] >> in 2012 he makes another bold move. >> i'm going to name you teddy. >> directing his first feature. ♪ people let me tell you about my best friend ♪ >> "ted," the story of a stuffed animal come to life and his lifelong pal. >> in a perfect world we wanted to do like an r-rated "e.t." >> i want to do a dirty fozzie. >> the concept is so out there mark wahlberg initially balm l >> i don't want to do the teddy bear thing. >> let's hear the thunder song. ♪ when you hear the sound of thunder don't you get too scared ♪ >> he helps animate ted through motion capture technology. >> i am a former celebrity in a minimum wage job. >> the film opens in june of 2012 and becomes an unexpected and gigantic hit. >> let him in. >> let him in, exactly.

>> good, okay. >> all of the success with "ted" were you kind of like how did this happen? >> i had no idea what to expect. >> i love you. >> i love you too. >> i wasn't thinking in terms of commercial viability in terms of, you know, what was going to sell. >> but sell, it does. on top of that, seth earns an oscar nomination for co-writing a song in the film. ♪ everybody needs a best friend ♪ ♪ >> he'll be playing a much bigger role at these academy awards than just nominee. >> good morning. i'm seth macfarlane, the host of the oscars. >> i think it's pretty clear why the academy wanted him this. is the guy who created "family guy." that's why they want him and the young eyeballs. >> it was a challenge rated risk they took. >> the first time you're hosting. >> days before the ceremony seth tells me he doesn't expect to win over critics. >> i go in at about minus-10 with the press so, got to get myself to at least a level where they can tolerate me and then

maybe from there i have a shot at actually getting a positive review. >> ladies and gentlemen, please welcome your host, seth macfarlane. [ cheers and applause ] ♪ >> thank you. >> the curtain rises february 24th, 2013. >> good evening, ladies and gentlemen. welcome to the oscars. and the quest to make tommy lee jones laugh begins now. [ laughter ] >> one comedy number becomes controversial where seth sings about actresses who aapeered nude. >> we saw you in monster we saw charlize theron ♪ >> the actresses are in on the joke having pretaped their reaction shots. >> they were playing along and of course that mattered. >> some academy members brand the bit sexist but macfarlane finds plenty of defenders. >> i don't think he is remotely sexist. i don't think what he did was sexist. >> with seth as host the oscars

see a ratings jump but when the prospect comes up of hosting the next year he says, sorry. i'm going to be busy. coming up, seth gets super busy. exploring the cosmos. >> we've compressed all of cof cosmic time in a single year at a glance calendar. >> can i introduce you folks to a miracle cure? ♪ sweet, sweet, st. thomas nice ♪ ♪ so nice, so nice ♪ st. croix full of pure vibes ♪ so nice, so nice ♪ st. john a real paradise ♪ so nice, so nice ♪ proud to be from the virgin islands ♪ ♪ and the whole place nice [ female announcer ] to experience your virgin islands nice, book one of our summer packages today.

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♪ okay, all right, get ready. i'm about to shoot a full load at your cans. all right. >> current focus, filmmaking as the writer, producer, director and star of "a million ways to die in the west." >> this is a weak -- >> what was it about the old west that made you say this is what i'm going to do? >> i've been a fan of westerns, both in film and television and it had been a while since anyone had really done a western comedy. >> the setting may be the old west but the script is full of seth's contemporary humor. >> the american west is a disgusting awful dirty, dangerous place. look around you. everything out here that's not you wants to kill you. outlaw, angry drunk people, scorned hookers, hungry animals. diseases. you can get killed just going to

the btroom. >> you're this cerebral urbane guy that's buffered into the middle of the wild west. where did that come from. >> the part of the grounding process to show this world through a modern lens. you know, we row month size this period but the fact is if you lived there it would have just been a horrible, miserable, terrible, depressing, dangerous place to be and, you know, particularly if you were not an alpha. >> dude, you really shouldn't drink. >> the character seemed like a good fit. you know, if i was doing a holocaust drama i probably would not cast myself. >> seth plays albert a fearful sheep farmer who toughens up with the help of his sure-shotgun slinging love interest played by charlize therrin. >> i'm going to teach you how to shoot.

>> on set with seth macfarlane, what's that like? >> it's like christmas coming a month early and then continuing for ten years. that's really how special it is. >> giovanni ribisi joins as sidekick. >> look, it's the ice. oh. oh. that was so fast. >> he knows exactly what works and what doesn't. it is like working with a genius in that regard. by the same token you're invited to just bring everything you have and contribute as much as you can. >> sheep butter? >> a chance to contribute to seth's unique brand of comedy is apparently worth pleading for. >> i came a-begging, man. i really did. the idea of working in a genre that i haven't really explored fully with someone who is at the top of his game, seth macfarlane, and him in a situation where he's kind of throwing himself out of his comfort zone by deciding to star

in it and be in front of the camera, as well. all of those things to me felt really exciting. >> i like your bustle, by the way. >> oh, yeah, i really love that the most alluring fashion statement a woman could make today is to simulate a bleep grandpare. >> simulation of a [ bleep ] right there. >> throughout the course of my career i've managed to continue to challenge myself and to try things that i haven't tried and to keep scaring myself. i'm not really content creatively unless i'm doing something that scares me a little bit, that is stimulating? >> seth's creative thrill seeking has a track record of paying off. so much so he can get hollywood to green light a seemingly unsexy science project. >> the cosmos is all that is or ever was or ever will be. >> the 1980 pbs science series

"cosmos" is back with a reboot. courtesy of seth. >> see that glowing fog out there. it's radiation left over from the big bang. >> you are a big proponent of science and furthering science education. why? why are you so passionate about it. >> we all benefit from it and yet there's a lot of fear. you take the insane anti-vaccination trend. it's the prime example right now of why cosmos is necessary. there's no more reliable, more self-policing mechanism than science. science is going to tell science when science is wrong. >> he knows about bringing shows back from the dead. television is better for having that show on. >> beyond his tv project seth has "ted 2" in the works. >> bring it in, you bastard. >> i love you. >> sorry. the -- >> the old. >> yeah. >> more music coming with a new album of holiday classics. ♪ just forget about words and

sing her a song ♪ >> there's something inside you that keeps saying, no, go further. try something different. >> it's a constant crippling feeling of inadequacy. >> is that what it is. >> yeah. >> whatever his motivation, any project seth takes on, his fans follow. >> he's doing the kind of comedy that very few people are doing and that there is an audience for and there is a devoted audience for. >> devoted fans and family. we spoke to your dad at the premiere last night and here's what he said. >> have such great respect for him and he's still a very, very grounded and kind and focused human being. he's a good soul. a good person and that's more than anything else what i'm proud of. >> my dad is such a [ bleep ]. i'm going to get him for that, man. oh, man, i'm -- son off of a

[ bleep ]. >> i didn't expect that. for seth macfarlane, always expect the unexpected. ♪ tonight, on "unguarded with rachel nichols" -- unparalleled. lebron james reveals the man behind the player. >> when i was younger i was excited. out of my mind. you would lose and i was the worst person in the world. >> unrelenting. nascar star kurt busch pushes the limbs of what one man can do in a day. >> now kurt busch up in the ninth spot. >> do 1100 miles in one day, there will be the mental challenge, the physical challenge. >> unmatched. one of the nfl's best players makes the catch of the year. >> this is my buddy tre and all those who don