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http://finance.yahoo.com/news/carl-s...170817229.htmlWASHINGTON (AP) -- Seth MacFarlane once included a gag on his animated TV comedy "Family Guy" about an "edited for rednecks" version of Carl Sagan's "Cosmos," featuring an animated Sagan dubbed over to say that the earth is "hundreds and hundreds" of years old.
Jokes aside, his admiration for Sagan runs deep.
The Library of Congress announced Wednesday that, thanks to MacFarlane's generosity, it has acquired the personal papers of the late scientist and astronomer, who spoke to mass audiences about the mysteries of the universe and the origins of life. While MacFarlane never owned Sagan's papers, he covered the undisclosed costs of donating them to the library.
"All I did was write a check, but it's something that was, to me, worth every penny," MacFarlane told The Associated Press by phone from Los Angeles. "He's a man whose life's work should be accessible to everybody."
MacFarlane — creator of Fox's "Family Guy," ''American Dad!" and "The Cleveland Show" — met Sagan's widow and collaborator, Ann Druyan, at an event a few years ago that brought together Hollywood screenwriters and directors with scientists. They agreed to collaborate on a follow-up to "Cosmos," Sagan's acclaimed 1980 miniseries, with MacFarlane serving as producer. Astrophysicst Neil deGrasse Tyson will host the series, which is scheduled to begin production this fall.
MacFarlane said he watched "Cosmos" as a child and devoured all of Sagan's books.
"He was an enormous and profound influence in my life," MacFarlane said. "He played an essential role — some would say the only role at the time — in bridging the gap between the academic community and the general public."
A planetary astronomer and passionate advocate for science, Sagan contributed to a variety of NASA projects and conducted research on the possibilities of extraterrestrial life. He also studied climate change and the "nuclear winter" that could result from a nuclear war. He died in 1996 at age 62.
The papers — contained in more than 800 filing-cabinet drawers — include correspondence with other scientists, drafts of Sagan's academic articles and screenplay drafts for the movie "Contact," which was based on Sagan's novel. Also part of the collection: his grade-school report cards and a drawing he made as a child about the future of space exploration.
Druyan said Sagan would have been thrilled to see his life's work made available to the public.
"He was a citizen scientist," Druyan said by phone from her Ithaca, N.Y., home. "He really believed that science belonged to everyone, all of us. He was a 'small-d' democrat in the truest sense of the word."
The donation is part of a busy week for MacFarlane, whose first live-action film, "Ted," hits theaters Friday. While he's known more for crude humor than his interest in science, he hopes to push for a renewed commitment to space exploration. Although he's a liberal Democrat, he was impressed by Newt Gingrich's recent comments about establishing a colony on the moon.
"In the late '60s, they just assumed that would be a given, that things would continue to progress and that the space program would continue to evolve, and it was a no-brainer that we would have a presence on the moon by 2000," MacFarlane said. "We're so far away from that, and it should be embarrassing."
Seth's great.
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I make sexist and racist jokes all the time yet,i still support the feminist movement and the rights of blacks.
July 2010
5,537 Posts
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/carl-s...170817229.html
Seth's great.
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The clip in question:
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That clip is old.
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This should be good.
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And?
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And your avatar is ancient
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I find that it's always so heart-warming seeing corporate big-wigs like Seth MacFarlane do stuff like this.
Makes me realize that they're people too.
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I wish he was still alive
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I fucking love Neil deGrasse
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He is awesome.
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Carl Sagan's still alive, I saw him on FacePunch posting not too long ago!
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I always thought he was a robot
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- snip -
Missed a bit when I read the article.
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I feel like every single Family Guy cutaway gag is available on Youtube.
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I make sexist and racist jokes all the time yet,i still support the feminist movement and the rights of blacks.
July 2010
5,537 Posts
Many of them aren't,actually.
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With good reason.
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Where's the new one?
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It's a much better way to watch it than having to sit through a whole episode.
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Why? The cutaway gags are usually the only time the show is funny
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It'll be interesting to see how MacFarlane will handle a serious science show.
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Is it me, or has he started to become more bitter and jaded lately?
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I'll just wait for mac338 to post here
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family guy used to be entertaining back then, for some reason it seems like they do every episode on some software with presets for each character or something. it feels very artificial nowadays and the jokes aren't funny anymore. and the characters back then had more personality i guess, stewie is a closet homosexual nowadays instead of an evil kid who plots evil plans against the parents etc.
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Seth McFarlane seems like a really intelligent, good-natured person with wide-ranging talents, and apparently a big heart.
It's a shame that a great deal of his programming is terrible.
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The sky calls to us. If we do not destroy ourselves, we will one day venture to the stars.
August 2008
11,798 Posts
No I'm not, you must've seen wrong.
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Call me ignorant, but I'm surprised that the creator of a show that runs on 'offensive' humour, cartoon violence and pop culture references took such an interest in seeing this Scientific research made publicly available.
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Oh God, there is two of them!?
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Fox won't let him leave, he wanted to end Family Guy in Season 7.
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That's Dr. Tyson to you.
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if your read the article it says he grew up watching Cosmos and reading Carl Sagan's books. He Idolized the man.
Hes a big fan of science of a technology, and of Science Fiction. I'm surprised hes never done a Sci-Fi series.
Edited:
Yeah Seth himself has said he thinks Family Guy should have died years ago, but the fans keep wanting more, so Fox wants him to keep making more.
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I loath Family Guy itself, but Seth himself seems like a cool guy. My Sister's friend is actually dating him, she does voices on the show occasionally.
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Family Guy sucks but Seth himself seems like a pretty cool guy.
edit: wow my post sounds exactly like the above one
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The only thing I don't like about FG is when Seth uses it as his mouth piece, that gets old fast.
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It's like the drawn together movie said. You have to make a point when being offensive.
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If you want to make an Apple Pie, you must first invent the universe.
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He's having the same problem the South Park creators have, they are being forced to continue the shows.
Some say he's being extremely offensive on purpose in his latests seasons in the hopes that people will stop wanting more episodes.
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Ive seen news posts of him saying stuff like "family guy should have ended by now"
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*from scratch
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Wow, this act has singlehandedly contributed more to science and literature than Seth McFarlane's entire produced works have ever contributed to comedy.
Winner x 119
Friendly x 8
Agree x 2
Funny x 132
Informative x 1
x 17
x 4
x 2
Zing x 8
Disagree x 1
