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Seth MacFarlane has long lived at the intersection of irreverence and reverence. As the creator of Family Guy, he built an empire of absurdist animation, but his latest creative projects deepens his musical streak. He caught up with Kyle Meredith to talk about his new album Lush Life: The Lost Sinatra Arrangements, a collection of unearthed and previously unrecorded Frank Sinatra charts. From there, the conversation swings through his revival of The Naked Gun, a reimagining of The ’Burbs, and the success of Ted’s leap to television. Listen to the episode above or wherever you get your podcasts.
When Tina Sinatra called to offer MacFarlane access to her father’s archived arrangements, he jumped at the chance to revive what had been sitting in boxes for decades. “There were a good hundred charts or so in there that Frank had never recorded,” he says, citing a Nelson Riddle arrangement of “How Did She Look” and the infamous abandoned 1958 session for “Lush Life.” MacFarlane and his team not only finished the track, but aimed to deliver each song with the fidelity and flair of the original era. “There were a couple lines that were so hilariously and absurdly quaint… even in 1910 you might not get away with it,” he laughs, “but we tried to keep the changes invisible.”
On the film and television side, MacFarlane stays just as busy. He’s producing a new Naked Gun movie starring Liam Neeson, who he calls “the last of a breed” of actors who can play it completely straight while delivering massive laughs. He’s also helping adapt The ’Burbs, calling Tom Hanks’ original turn “one of the most brilliant comedic performances ever.” And then there’s Ted, now a breakout hit on Peacock: “It was the most-watched comedy across all platforms for two months straight,” he says. “People loved it. They were all over it.”
For someone straddling high art and high chaos, MacFarlane seems right at home on both sides of the spectrum. Listen to Seth MacFarlane talk about Lush Life: The Lost Sinatra Arrangements, Ted, The Naked Gun, and more in the new episode above or by watching the video below. Keep up on all the latest episodes by following Kyle Meredith With… on your favorite podcast platform; plus, check out all the series on the Consequence Podcast Network.
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