Seth MacFarlane heads to space 300 years from now in big TV comeback

LOS ANGELES -- Seth MacFarlane has been laying low. Well, by Seth MacFarlane standards, anyway.

And that was probably a good call, after A Million Ways to Die in the West (which got a generous 33% on Rotten Tomatoes), Ted 2 (a merciful 42%) and the 2013 Oscars hosting gig (in which he probably dodged a few rotten tomatoes, or should've).

But listen, when you're the writer/producer/comedian/animator/actor/song-and-dance-man who created and did voices for Family Guy and American Dad! and The Cleveland Show and made a bunch of movies and once dated the Mother of Dragons, you can't sit still for long. 

In fact, you're not laying low at all -- you're gearing up for something big.

And so he was: MacFarlane will executive produce and star in an untitled, hour-long "comedic drama" set 300 years in the future aboard the Orville, a "a not-so-top-of-the-line exploratory ship in Earth’s interstellar Fleet," Fox announced Wednesday.

A linear primetime TV sci-fi dramedy starring Seth MacFarlane. That's about as high-risk, high reward a proposition as we're gonna get from the networks these days.

Fox has ordered up 13 episodes of the show for its 2017-2018 season. More from the logline:

Facing cosmic challenges from without and within, this motley crew of space explorers will boldly go where no comedic drama has gone before.

Well, except maybe Firefly. (Or if this reads more Galaxy Quest to you, never fear -- plans for a TV revival were put on hold after the death of original cast member Alan Rickman.)

Anyway, MacFarlane's years-long relationship with Fox has surely earned him the right to more than a little creative freedom, so ... why not a space comedy? Why should we crush MacFarlane's childhood dreams?

"I've wanted to do something like this show ever since I was a kid, and the timing finally feels right," he said. "20th and Fox have been good to me for many years ... I think this is gonna be something special."

And finally, in case you're worried that MacFarlane, he of "We saw your boobs" infamy, can't be serious enough to hold up the "sci" in sci-fi, remember this: He was the creator/executive producer of the Emmy-winning Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, the one hosted by Neil deGrasse Tyson.

Because honestly, the guy needed a hobby.

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