© 2010 Fox Alex Borstein atat "An Evening With The Cast and Creators of Family Guy"

Television:

Exclusive Interview: 'FAMILY GUY'S' ALEX BORSTEIN GIVES iF THE SCOOP ABOUT HER NEW SETH MACFARLANE ANIMATED SHOW IN DEVELOPMENT

The star of FAMILY GUY also talks about life without Mike Henry and the controversies surrounding her live variety show with MacFarlane

By CARLOS DELGADO, Associate Editor
Published 2/24/2010

Alex Borstein is perhaps best known for her role as Lois on FAMILY GUY, but that soon may change. iF Magazine had a chance to speak with her recently and Borstein has exciting plans for the future, including an all new animated series starring, you guessed it, her that she's developing with FAMILY GUY's Seth MacFarlane. Here’s what else she had to say about FAMILY GUY, her career, and her new endeavor.


(C) 2009 Fox

iF MAGAZINE: Rumor has it you and Seth are developing a new animated show for Fox.

ALEX BORSTEIN: I can tell you the one for Fox is animated. And it’s in development with Seth, actually. Seth’s got many things in the cookie bag.

iF: What can you tell us about this new show?

BORSTEIN: Well the one that I’m developing with Seth is a female lead character, so it’s a little different, which is kind of cool. Fox has never done that. I would be playing that character.

iF: Is it the same vein of humor and style as FAMILY GUY?

BORSTEIN: You know, it’s a little more my flavor and it’s also being developed with another gentleman, Gary Janetti. It has certainly a reverence of FAMILY GUY, but it’s going to be a different flavor, a different feel. It’s not a spin off of FAMILY GUY. It’s its own thing. Because Seth is the hand behind the animation and the original look of it, it’ll probably have some similarities visually. Just in style. The same way you’d recognize a famous painter’s work, you’d recognize Seth’s.

iF: Are you going to be Executive Producer?

BORSTEIN: Yeah. It’s something me and Gary Janetti are developing together. It’s very early, but it’s been so much fun working on, so even that’s been fantastic.

iF: Can you tell us a little bit about the setup of the show? Are we talking about a show about a family like FAMILY GUY?

BORSTEIN: There is a family. I’ll say that. That’s all I can say. There is a family and there are some pets.

iF: FAMILY GUY has been known to controversial from time to time. Would you say your show is as edgy?

BORSTEIN: You know it’s hard for me to say because I know when things are edgy until after they’ve aired and there’s an uproar. After years of working in sketch comedy and standup, I have no barometer anymore for the real world, like ‘oh, you can’t say that on the street.’

But I’m nuts yeah. I think there will be things in this show that push things, but I don’t think it’s anything... I don’t know. We’ll see, maybe I’m wrong.

iF: You’ve been playing Lois on FAMILY GUY for quite some time now. Do you feel like people identify you mostly as Lois or do you get recognized from your days on MAD TV?

BORSTEIN: It’s still a mix. Through the magic of syndication, some of the MAD TV stuff and Miss Swan is on all the time. So people still think I’m on it. They even think I’m still on it. They don’t even know that the show’s not on anymore, or I haven’t been on it in ages. But I would say Lois is creeping up there. Lois, Tricia Takanawa, and all the FAMILY GUY stuff, it’s kind of taken on a life of its own.  

iF: How do you think FAMILY GUY is holding up now that Mike Henry is gone doing THE CLEVELAND SHOW? Do you think there’s a void that needs to be filled or is FAMILY GUY moving on just fine without him? 

BORSTEIN: I think so. I think it’s actually been a really interesting. It’s been good for the show in terms of exploring new story lines and finding new things. Having a new shot of life kind of injected into the show. So in a way I think it’s a good way to mix it up. We miss Mike. We miss having him in the room and we miss his particular brand. But he still comes back to do Herbert the Pervert and The Greased Up Deaf Guy and all kinds of stuff. We still get him back.

iF: Can you talk a little about shooting THE LIVE VARIETY SHOW?

BORSTEIN: It was fantastic. We had so much fun. Seth and I love working together. It grew out of these live shows that we did on stage. We did a Carnegie Hall and in LA at the Ahmanson Theater. It turned into this, ‘You want to do this for TV?’ And we were like, “Really?’ We felt like a couple of kids putting a show in the basement or something.

iF: How nervous were you poking fun at Marlee Matlin by doing a rendition of Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face” in her voice?

BORSTEIN: You know I really wasn’t very nervous. Marlee Matlin is a friend, now, working together on that. She’s such a good sport. She got it. She gets that it’s just funny. Honestly, when I think something hilarious, then I think it’s worth doing. When Seth and I are both laughing our asses off, then it’s like, we can’t go wrong. This is going to be fun.

iF: Do you think you were pushing some buttons by singing that song as a deaf person?

BORSTEIN: It’s ludicrous. It is interesting to me how people are taking offense to it. It’s very funny to me when the person doing it is the person we’re making fun of and clearly thinks it’s funny.

iF: Do you think her presence, being in on the joke, made it okay to laugh?

BORSTEIN: Yeah. I think so. Marlee Matlin is one of the only faces of the deaf community. She’s really one of the only people out there that people can go, ‘oh yeah, that deaf actress, Marlee Matlin.’ I think if you’re anybody in the media, if your face is out there, you’re going to get made fun of. You’re a big target. And I she thinks she’s absolutely right, like, ‘I’m no different. If I’m saying no one can make fun of me, then I’m saying that deaf people are different, and we’re not’

Reader Comments

Sandor from London sez....
Erm, sorry but do we really need more Seth MacFarlane shows? Considering how bad is comedy cavalcade, variety show and the Cleveland show all were/are, I think he needs to be reeling it in and trying to improve the quality of the projects he's already involved in.
4/24/2010 11:22:13 AM

Jenna from SoCal sez....
That's really great but, she's actually got 2 shows in development. Maybe next time you could cover both...
2/24/2010 4:19:20 PM

Your Comments are always welcomed here

Your name?	Your location?
Tell us what you think?
Enter Security Code: Load New Code