Throng

8:00pm - Sunday, August 2 on TV 3

This week animation fans will have to say goodbye to the Griffins when All New Family Guy concludes it eighth season on Sunday, August 2nd at 8pm on 3.

But even though the current Family Guy season is coming to an end, series fans need not worry as series creator Seth MacFarlane will be invading our television screens for at least another couple of years.

Last month MacFarlane became the highest paid television writer/producer after he signed a deal worth over $100 million to work his magic for 20th Century Fox Television until 2012.

Aside from the historical signing, MacFarlane has also recently created a spin-off to his hugely popular Family Guy. The Cleveland Show starring Cleveland Brown, Peter Griffin's neighbour on Family Guy, is all set to debut on our screens during the 2010 season.

Finally, in yet another display of MacFarlane's pure genius, he and his Family Guy team have also managed to work around a sticky little Emmy loophole, to finally enter the race in both the animated and comedy series categories.

So just what is it that makes this creative genius tick? The Boston Herald recently spoke to the Family Guy man about his high rating animated series.

"The thing that I try to do with Family Guy is to have this balance between the classic and the edgy," he says. "We do a lot of poop jokes, but at the same time, we use a 45-piece orchestra every week with a full string section."

As for what some may call "the offensive aspects" of the series, MacFarlane says that there is more to this then simply shock value.

"We don't try to shock for shock's sake," he explains. "If something is just shocking and not funny, then we'll cut it out."

Speaking of editing things out, MacFarlane went on to discuss the series' famous cutaway sequences, saying; "We see them as, in a weird way, these animated versions of one-frame Far Side cartoons that are something you can only do really, I think, effectively in the animation medium."

"And they're just laughs for laughs' sake. You don't have to know what's going on with the plot. You don't have to know what's going on with character drive. It's just pure comedy."

Make sure not to miss the last of this when All New Family Guy screens its season eight final on Sunday, August 2nd at 8pm on 3.