It seems like just yesterday that Fox rescued Seth MacFarlane's 'Family Guy' from cancellation (it was, in fact, 2002). Now, the network is ready to put him in front of the camera.

Variety is reporting that Fox will air a variety special on November 8 at 8:30PM called 'Family Guy Presents: Seth and Alex's Almost Live Comedy Show.' The show will feature Seth MacFarlane and 'Family Guy' actor Alex Borstein, who provides Lois' whiny voice of reason each week on the show.It seems like just yesterday that Fox rescued Seth MacFarlane's 'Family Guy' from cancellation (it was, in fact, 2002). Now, the network is ready to put him in front of the camera.

Variety is reporting that Fox will air a variety special on November 8 at 8:30PM called 'Family Guy Presents: Seth and Alex's Almost Live Comedy Show.' The show will feature Seth MacFarlane and 'Family Guy' actor Alex Borstein, who provides Lois' whiny voice of reason each week on the show.

Fox is billing this special as a part of a larger, one-off "MacFarlane night." It'll be sandwiched between two episodes of 'Family Guy,' and the network will air episodes of Mac Farlane's 'American Dad' and 'The Cleveland Show' at 7:30PM and 9:30PM.

But what's more interesting is that 'Family Guy Presents' will run for a straight 30 minutes without commercials, instead integrating plugs for Microsoft's upcoming platform, Windows 7, into the show.


Over the last few years, product integration within content has risen dramatically, but it'll be interesting to see how MacFarlane works it in. According to the same article, the mega-computer brand is working closely with the writer regarding "their messaging," which means MacFarlane and Borstein will take a few moments to talk about computer operation systems -- not exactly a ripe source for comedic material.

But if MacFarlane does know one thing, it's his audience. And we can't see him alienating his fan base (at least not entirely) by pandering to a corporation, so most likely the show will give us self-aware bits about the nature of advertising during a TV show, how poorly networks are these days and how this style of advertising is much better than commercial breaks.

That, or he'll just talk about Windows 7 in Stewie's voice.