Rick Wiener Uncovered

JF: How'd you get hooked up with this animated show?

RW: Through an agent. My agent represents the guys who created it, so we came in for a meeting and they liked what we had to say . . . that our approach to an animated show would be to have all the fun of animation but still keep the characters emotionally grounded in the stories. We're from shows like "Mad About You" and "Two Guys A Girl and a Pizza Place" - real relationship shows - so we said that's what we would bring to the party, stories that are both funny but emotionally grounded, too. Barker and Weitzman seemed to respond to that, that was their vision as well, so everyone got together.

JF: So where does Seth MacFarlane fit in?

RW: Seth had the idea for the show, and they were both writers for Family Guy, and he asked them to join him, if they were interested in creating a show with him. So they did.

JF: What's the relationship like between the American Dad people and the Family Guy people?

RW: We're really quite separated. They're in another wing of the builidng, so once in a while we see each other in the kitchen, but we really don't have that much interaction with them.

JF: Did you open up Mad Magazine recently?

RW: [chuckling] Yeah, i saw that.
(It depicts an "American Dad" writer scrounging in the dumpster behind the "Family Guy" staff -- see next page for image.)