LOS ANGELES — “Family Guy” creator Seth MacFarlane says being invited to host the 2013 Academy Awards “was the greatest call that I could have gotten in show business.” Oscar telecast producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron announced Monday that MacFarlane will host the 85th annual Academy Awards ceremony in February.
Meron called the 38-year-old entertainer “the most unbelievable, consummate host choice we could think of.”
MacFarlane is best known for his envelope-pushing animated TV shows “Family Guy,” “American Dad!” and “The Cleveland Show.” He made his big-screen directorial debut earlier this year with the irreverent R-rated comedy “Ted,” which took in more than $420 million at the box office. He also hosted the season opener of “Saturday Night Live” last month.
He said his favorite Oscar hosts are the classics of yesteryear: Johnny Carson and Bob Hope.
“There’s a lot of questions about edging up the show, but I am a big fan of the kind of old-fashioned showmanship that those hosts embodied,” he said. “I think that’s really, in a perfect world, the balance that should be struck: something that’s fun and relevant and genuinely funny but at the same time has a spine of good, old-fashioned showmanship, which is what the Oscars deserves.”
