Seth MacFarlane Thinks Hollywood Needs More Hopeful Stories: “That’s the Only Thing That Hollywood Can Do That is Worthwhile”

Seth MacFarlane believes Hollywood has tilted too far toward grim, pessimistic storytelling, and it’s time to bring back hope. Speaking with Cheers legend Ted Danson on the Where Everybody Knows Your Name podcast, the Family Guy creator said his own work, like The Orville, was born from a desire to create something optimistic.

“That’s why I did The Orville. When I was a kid, Hollywood was providing that voice in various forms. There was a lot of hope, and some of the blame lies right here in this town.

“The dishes that we are serving up are so dystopian and so pessimistic. And yeah, there’s a lot to be pessimistic about, but it’s so one-sided. There’s nothing we’re doing that’s providing anyone an image of hope.”

While he’s a fan of acclaimed dramas like The Handmaid’s Tale and The Sopranos, MacFarlane thinks Hollywood has overcorrected.

“There’s a lot more of that than there is what we used to get from Captain Picard. They’re certainly giving us a lot of cautionary tales, but where are the blueprints that they once gave us for how to do things correctly?

“It can’t all be just, ‘Here’s what’s going to happen to you if you f*** up.’ You do need, ‘Here’s what you can achieve if you change your ways and do things right.’”

MacFarlane also sees a cultural fixation with antiheroes. Using Tony Soprano as an example, he said the trend leans heavily toward “the complicated, f*cked-up, drug-addled person.”

Even when discussing a series he admires, like The White Lotus, he noted that “out of the main characters, no one is someone you’d wanna be.”

For MacFarlane, this points to a deeper problem in Hollywood storytelling: a lack of aspirational characters and uplifting narratives.

“That’s the only thing really that Hollywood can do that’s worthwhile because as we all learned from this election, nobody gives a f*** what celebrities think.

“We can tweet, we can talk. Like, people don’t care. They don’t care. What we do do well is tell stories. And we’re not doing the best job right now of telling those stories in a way that gives people hope.”

He believes that while darkness and cynicism have their place, stories that offer visions of a better future are just as essential.

As for whether we’ll see more of The Orville, MacFarlane says there are plans for a fourth season, but nothing is confirmed. Still, if it does return, fans can expect it to keep carrying the hopeful tone he feels Hollywood needs now more than ever.

I think he makes some good points. While I love a good dark story from time to time, my favorite movies tell uplifting, heartfelt, optomistic stories. So, I would love to see more of that!