The Big Picture
- Seth MacFarlane’s college film The Life of Larry served as a pilot for his later show Family Guy, featuring similar fast-paced comedy and iconic characters.
- The characters in The Life of Larry have different designs and voices compared to their final versions in Family Guy, but the humor and vocal archetypes are present.
- MacFarlane’s sequel to The Life of Larry, titled Larry and Steve, had a more kid-friendly vibe and was developed for a Cartoon Network show, showcasing MacFarlane’s evolution as a creator.
Seth MacFarlane‘s series, Family Guy, is one of the longest-running animated programs in TV history, but if it weren’t for his two Larry shorts then we never would have had the Griffin family in the first place! Now what are the Larry shorts, you ask? In short, these shorts are essentially just proto-Family Guy — sort of a proof of concept for his eventual series. But they didn’t start that way, with the first Larry short being an academic labor of love from MacFarlane. Watching these shorts is like looking into an alternate reality… it’s strange. That being said, if Family Guy is your jam, then you’ll find a lot to love with these two obscure cartoons, and can thank them for eventually introducing us to the gang over in Quahog!
If you grew up in the 2000s, then you know the name Seth MacFarlane like the back of your hand. His shows like Family Guy, American Dad, and The Cleveland Show, as well as his Ted movies, have made him an omnipresent force in our lives for some time now. His characters like Peter Brian, and most importantly, Stewie Griffin (all voiced by MacFarlane) are just a handful of his long-lasting creations. His particular brand of comedy has deeply embedded itself into multiple generations at this point, moving beyond the initial viewers who stayed up late to catch an episode on Fox or Adult Swim, whether they were allowed to or not. These shows were fast-paced, had a mile-a-minute joke rate, and were crasser than other adult animated programs like The Simpsons and King of the Hill, but that was also part of the fun of them.
The Animated Short That Led to ‘Family Guy’
Before MacFarlane was the industry-dominating titan that he is today, or even was in the early 2000s, he was just a college kid at the Rhode Island School of Design where he would study film, video, and most importantly, animation. There, MacFarlane came up with the idea for a student film, The Life of Larry, an animated short that was intended to be the pilot for a future show and act as his ticket to Hollywood. Little did MacFarlane know that his little 1995 college assignment would take him much farther than just Hollywood.
If you’re a fan of Family Guy or any of MacFarlane’s other works, then watching The Life of Larry will be a very familiar, fun exercise for you. This animated short film follows a dim-witted middle-aged man named Larry, his monotone dog Steve, his loving wife Lois, and their teenage son Milt, all of which are voiced by MacFarlane, except for Milt, who is silent. MacFarlane even used Peter’s voice for Larry and Brian’s voice for Steve — seriously, this is where that alternate timeline feeling really kicks in. That said, their designs are all different from the characters to come. Larry is seemingly a few years older than Peter Griffin, has a slimmer build, and is given just a little bit of white hair left surrounding his bald head. Steve is a brown dog, as opposed to Brian’s white fur. Lois would keep her name in the eventual series but has a bulkier look than her character’s final design. Larry’s son Milt, on the other hand, looks like Chris if he was a linebacker. Seriously, he’s a mountain.
The Life of Larry bears an uncanny resemblance to MacFarlane’s other works in more ways than its characters. It’s fast-paced (not quite as much as his shows would later become, though), loaded with cutaway gags, features a lot of the same vocal archetypes that would be used in future shows, and is even sprinkled with a little bit of jazz here and there. There are even two jokes present that would eventually be sprinkled into some early Family Guy episodes (one involving the Tom Hanks film Philadelphia, and another in which two British men perform “drive-by insults”). There isn’t much of a plot, they kind of just sit around their apartment and talk about a new topic every other minute, but given the guy who created Larry, that tracks. It’s rough around the edges, but by and large, it works wonderfully and feels at home with everything else that its creator would go on to do. Simply put, it’s MacFarlane 101.
The Differences Between ‘The Life of Larry’ and ‘Family Guy’
There are a few interesting differences here and there though, besides the obvious alternate character designs. For one, Seth MacFarlane himself introduces the short in live action, dressed to the nines in a nice suit, enjoying a cigar and book, and sitting by a roaring fire. He actually pops in a few times throughout the runtime, throwing us little tidbits on Larry’s life, all tinged with a smarmy elitist demeanor. There is an oddly uncomfortable running gag surrounding his servant, Wang (Chang S. Han), who pops in occasionally to try and take care of MacFarlane, but only ends up annoying him. It’s a strange, problematic touch and one that didn’t even make it to his subsequent proto-short.
The Life of Larry was such a strong animated short that it found its way to being seen by those at Hanna-Barbera. There, MacFarlane would work on shows like Johnny Bravo, Dexter’s Laboratory, and even the incredibly underrated Cow and Chicken! Most importantly, he developed a sequel to The Life of Larry titled Larry and Steve for Hanna-Barbera’s anthology program What a Cartoon! Larry and Steve is definitely Life of Larry adjacent, but feels like it’s been injected with a ridiculous amount of Cartoon Network-isms. It’s very, very kid-friendly. To be fair, it is a version of Larry developed for a Cartoon Network show, being made after MacFarlane’s indie days, and before he was an animation juggernaut, so his particular voice doesn’t necessarily come through unfiltered.
The short’s plot is simple. Larry adopts Steve from an animal shelter, and the two drive around town, shopping for things to put in their apartment. Neither Lois nor Milt appear, there aren’t any live-action or animated cutaways, and aside from Larry and Steve themselves, the animation style and character designs feel a lot more like stock Hanna-Barbera. Still, Larry sounds like Peter, Steve sounds like Brian, and the two characters act like their future counterparts, just way less adult-joke-oriented. Hey, don’t forget the airline pilot who sounds exactly like Quagmire, and the name-drop of a store named Stewie’s! Little seeds were planted with Larry and Steve, making it an interesting watch, but not nearly as funny as its predecessor.
While working at Hanna-Barbera, MacFarlane began developing Family Guy even further and eventually found a home for the series at Fox. One pitch, a $40,000 budget, and a six-month deadline from the studio were all he needed to get his groundbreaking show off the ground, and the rest is history. 24 years after its premiere, it’s easy to think of Family Guy as the beginning of MacFarlane’s long, successful career, but let’s not lose track of the artist’s humble beginnings. The Life of Larry and Larry and Steve aren’t just fun animated shorts, they’re the perfect representation of an artist chasing after their dreams, being true to their vision, and hitting the jackpot. Thank you for bringing us to where we are today, Larry and Steve!
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Khushi Patel is a science fiction author who lives in Austin, Texas. She has published three novels, and her work has been praised for its originality and imagination. Khushi is a graduate of Rice University, and she has worked as a software engineer. She is a member of the Science Fiction Writers of America, and her books have been nominated for several awards.
