Seth MacFarlane Made The Worst Sitcom Ever, According To Metacritic

Seth MacFarlane is undeniably a force to be reckoned with in Hollywood, especially in the television space. As the creator of long-running shows such as “Family Guy” and “American Dad,” his creations are now fixtures on the pop culture landscape. But even heavy hitters miss from time to time. For MacFarlane, his biggest miss to date came in 2013 when Fox took his live-action multi-camera itcom “Dads.” Riding high on arguably the greatest moment of his career, the network seemed to think it couldn’t lose. What he ended up with was an unparalleled critical misfire.

How bad has the response been to “dads,” exactly? Surprisingly, it ranks as the least reviewed sitcom Metacritic with a terrible “metastory”. It’s worth noting that the site only has titles with seven or more reviews. Putting the technicalities aside, “Dads” is a widely brought back failure that only lasted one season spanning 19 episodes before getting the ax. The cancellation order came before the final episode aired in July 2014.

Co-created by Alec Sulkin and Wellesley Wild, “Dads” was a comedy about two successful gaming entrepreneurs/best friends (played by Seth Green and Giovanni Ribisi) whose lives are turned upside down when their dads have to move in with them. An attempt at comedy ensues. The dads were played by Martin Mull (“Clue”) and Peter Riegert (“The Mask”).

The series was initially given a six-episode order by the network before being picked up for a full season. Fox was, understandably, bullish on its prospects. It had Macfarlane as one of the key producers and a promising cast. Additionally, Macfarlane was coming off the runaway success of his film “Ted,” which made an astonishing $549 million at the box office, spawned a sequel, and later spawned a prequel TV show on Peacock. What could go wrong?

Why were critics so vehemently opposed to “Dads” upon his release? It was labeled, largely, as funny and offensive. As an example, there is a moment where Veronica, Green’s Veronica, Eli and Ribisi Force Force Brenda, an Asian-American woman, dresses as an anime girl to arouse potential Chinese investors. Warner Crawford’s father, played by Mull, says at one point: “You can’t trust (the Chinese). There’s a reason ‘Shanghai’ is a verb.” Macfarlane is no stranger to Controversial humor as a “family guy” includes a lotbut it didn’t land in this case.

Fox was well aware of the speech and the network even released a trailer for the show (above) that includes some of the bad reviews, such as HuffPost calling it “offensive,” as well as the positive comments from fans. Before the premiere at a press event in August 2013 (by CNN), Wild acknowledged to reporters that the pilot episode of “Dads” might have had its perceived problems, but that they would aim to fix them as the show continued:

“We want to keep [‘Dads’] Insulting and irreverent, but most importantly, it’s funny. If we missed the mark in the pilot, we’re shooting to hit it better in future shows. “

To Wild’s credit, it often takes time for a show to find its footing. Macfarlane’s ‘The Orville’ Took an Entire Season to Figure Out What It Should Be. The show’s reception was just too sour, however, and audiences weren’t there for Fox to give it more rope. A second season was never going to be in the cards for this one.

In a September 2013 interview with The Hollywood ReporterWhile discussing the show’s controversies and terrible reception, executive producer Mike Scully took aim at critics, suggesting they needed to be more patient:

“I think audiences are much more willing to let a show evolve than critics are. Critics knew how to look at pilots and understand that this is just a blueprint for what a show will be. Critics seem to have forgotten the The evolution of the Show and that most get into Rocky begins.

For those who are curious, “Dads” is available to rent or purchase on Amazon Prime Video.