New Family Guy photos show Sam Elliott's new mayor Wild Wild West, who looks just like the actor in real life, complete with his giant grey mustache. The animated show, created by Seth MacFarlane, will air season 19 beginning September 27, over 21 years after its debut. The irreverent adult animated sitcom focuses on the Griffin family, headed up by Peter (MacFarlane) and Lois (Alex Borstein), who live in the Rhode Island town of Quahog. The show mixes satire and parody with musical numbers and, in recent seasons, has become increasingly meta, referencing itself in an almost never-ending loop.
One of the longest-running and funniest gags on Family Guy was the fact that the mayor of the fictional town of Quahog is Adam West. The original TV Batman played an unhinged and potentially insane version of himself on the show. He provided the voice for the role from season 2 until he died in 2017. The actor, and his character, were officially memorialized on the show when the high school was renamed after him in the season 17 finale. Season 18 didn't feature a new mayor, with many believing that the show wouldn't cast a new character.
However, EW reveals Sam Elliott has been unveiled as the new mayor of Quahog. In yet another in-joke, the character he plays is called Adam West's cousin, Wild Wild West, referencing Elliott's reputation as a Western movie and TV star. Initially, Elliott was going to play himself, but turned the part down, fearing it was too derivative. The show-runners agreed and offered him the role again, this time with the new name and a different backstory. Elliott signed on once that decision was made and will appear in his first episode in November. Richard Appel, and executive producer on Family Guy, explains the process below. You can also see images of the character below that:
Who could be as original and unexpected and comedically fun and fresh as Adam? Sam has a voice that — obviously he’s a movie star but he also has a voice made for radio, and Sam Elliot quickly became our first choice. [But] he was reluctant. He just felt like he didn’t want to play himself. Which made us go back thinking, "Well, all right, is there someone else?" And we thought, "Wait a minute, that note is a smart note. Because that was more what Adam West was doing. And the new mayor shouldn’t be another real-world celebrity playing himself within our fictional world. So we kicked around a bunch of ideas and then said, "What if we refashion this as Wild West for Sam Elliott and create this new character?" And he responded very well to that idea.
If the character looks familiar, that's deliberate. While Appel admits that Elliott wouldn't have worked as himself, the new character is very similar to Elliott in appearance and demeanor, playing off the actor's gruff voice and role in pop culture as a sullen older man who likes to be left alone. The character of Wild Wild West reportedly enters the show after Peter decides the people running for mayor aren't suited the job, and hunts down the old mayor's cousin, convincing him to come to Quahog to take up the mantle.
The role seems tailor-made for Elliott, whose deep voice is well-known to movie fans, being used to full effect in several roles, from his part as The Stranger in The Big Lebowski to his Oscar-nominated turn in A Star Is Born. How much he will change the core dynamic of the show remains to be seen, but there is no doubt that MacFarlane and the rest of the creative team will use the character to gently mock Elliott in real life, and likely reference his more famous roles. It wouldn't be Family Guy if they didn't.
Source: EW