During the taping for tonight’s Piers Morgan, the muckraking Brit sprang questions about a never-revealed war of war of words between guest Seth MacFarlane and The Daily Show anchor Jon Stewart. According to Morgan’s crack investigators, Stewart called the Family Guy creator up in 2008 after MacFarlane lampooned Stewart for continuing to air The Daily Show during the 2007 Writers Guild strike. MacFarlane described Stewart as “angry” and himself both “shocked” and “frustrated” during the hour-long the telephonic ambush. He explained, “I think [Jon’s] response was ‘Who the hell made you the moral arbiter of Hollywood?’”
When Morgan noted, “There’s a certain irony in Jon Stewart ringing up and haranguing you for mocking him, isn’t there?” MacFarlane responded, “If I say yes, he’ll crucify me on his show for a year.” MacFarlane, who admitted he was outmatched by Stewart’s phenomenal debate skills, was surprised Morgan even knew about the altercation, saying, “My publicist has forbidden me to talk about this ever since it happened.” See MacFarlane’s full account of the events — plus Morgan’s insatiable baiting — after the jump.
What do you think PopWatchers? Are you on Team Stewie or Team JStew? What would you give to be a fly on that wall?
“crack investigators” = “phone hackers”?
LOL, TESTIFY, EPIC Comment on the “Crack Investigators” = “Phone Hackers”
Stewart is a blowhard. I’d like to see him take on a guy like Bill Maher and watch the two of them insult each other to death.
Spoken like a true Tucker Carlson fan
Ha. I can’t stand The Family Guy. I find the humor obvious and shallow, so I guess it’s Team Stewart for me.
“Are you on Team Stewie or Team JStew?”
Who is to say that Stewie isn’t Jon Stewart as a child? Both seem to have great senses of humor and want to take over the world!
Team Stewart. All the late night guys went back to work because they’re crew members weren’t getting paid and could have lost their jobs, people who don’t get paid anywhere close to what the writers get.
MacFarlane is just plain wrong to have been upset by that.
And Stewart was just plain wrong to be upset when somebody makes fun of him.
I like Stewart a lot more then Family Guy but he makes a living making fun of others. If he can’t handle it he should find another line of work.
Jon Stewart has always, ALWAYS stood up for what is important to him in a very serious way. If he truly cared about his crew who weren’t getting paid and the seriousness of the situation (in which innocent people were getting screwed over)…then heck yeah, he’s going to make sure he says something to anyone who chooses to misrepresent and make light of what was going on.
I think I am more curious as to how Pier’s Morgan knew about the feud. Seems he knows a lot of things that are confidential. Hmmmmmmmmm.
Phone hacking. Duh.
Doesn’t seem like there was a feud of any kind, more like a disagreement/argument.
MacFarlane was upset that Stewart went back to work during the writers’ strike. Stewart did so, like the other late night hosts, because their non-writing crew wouldn’t get paid if he didn’t.
.
Seems like jerkface Piers Morgan is turning nothing into something (shocker, I know).
Clearly MacFarlane doesn’t seem to think there is feud, Morgan is just turning it into one.
That said, judging by the horrible quality of Family Guy these days, seems like MacFarlane’s writers are still on strike.
poor writing quality of family guy? yeah right. i guess that explains why it’s one of the highest rated comedies on television right? that’s why he could write a show in his sleep and it would be better than half the crap out there. sometimes his shows can be immature but that’s what makes them great. i guess some people are to addicted to feeling better than everyone else to enjoy his show.
Family Guy is the best animated comedy of the past decade, hands down. But it is on the downslide. Seth is probably stretched too thin, with Cleveland Show (unbearable) and American Dad (good but rarely great) sharing his attention. High ratings means a devoted fanbase, not high quality writing. If that were the case Two and a Half Men would be the best-written show on TV
that is so jewish of stewart
um what?
His crew would’ve been out of a job and maybe gotten new jobs so they would not return to the show and John Oliver would have had to go back to England because he would lose his work visa without the show employing him.
We do not need to know about every argument between famous people. Morgan is just trying to get some attention.
Two millionaires fighting about nothing that has anything to do with the real world. That is pretty much what happened is all.
What? It was about all the writers and camera-crew who work on those shows. Those guys are millionaires?
Seth MacFarlane has enough power now that a fear of The Daily Show skewering him wouldn’t stop him from speaking his mind, so I take what he said to Piers as 100% no bs. No conflict here, except the conflict of EW promoting the Piers Morgan show by attempting to drum up controversy without saying they’re owned by the same parent company.
Hey John Stewart; for a guy who has made quite a career off mocking others, you sure are sensitive when your name is brought up by others. You went wild when some of your “facts” were shown to be inacccurate, now your upset that an animated show used you in a joke??? Really? I used to like you but am seriously re-thinking now… has fame gone to your head?
MacFarlane was attacking him for daring to go back to work so his crew wouldn’t get fired and not sticking by the writers who were demanding more money but hurting hardworking staff and crew in the process by shutting down productions
_
He should stand up for himself, he did the right thing. MacFarlane attacked his integrity. MacFarlane was the selfish baby in this who didn’t care that people were getting hurt during the writers’ strike.
When did JS go “wild” when he had some facts wrong? I’m guessing you’re referring to that “consistently misinformed viewers” interwiew on FOX. He acknowledged his errors on his own show, then raised the stakes by showing how frequently the group that spotted his error smacks FOX for errors, and he did it to great comic effect.
Tickles me to watch liberals get caught in their own hypocrisy nets. Stewart doesn’t think he SHOULD EVER BE MOCKED. Funny.
Great job complete misunderstanding the situation. Bravo.
*completely
Team Stewie. Seth is/was absolutely the one right about this.
So why are none of the media outlets that are picking up this story bothering to mention what the offending joke was? It was a few years ago, some of us don’t remember it. Maybe it was tame and/or deserved and Jon Stewart overreacted. Maybe it wascheap or unfair and his response was justified. Without that context, nobody can comment on the situation, only on which guy they like better.
It is in “Former Life of Brian” when Brian’s son comes to the door and has a letter that asks Brian to recommend his ex-girl for university of phoenix. Brian says, “No, no, I’m not going to put myself on the line like that.”
you can tell its that because its a bit off-key and from left field like most inside jokes tend to be.
what episode of FG was this that butthurt stewart?
BTW, EW, you’ve got this all wrong. McFarlane had talked about this incident once before, in a 2008 issue of TIME Magazine, which I believe EW is a sister pub of? Nice research on your part.
In fact, much as I’d rather believe Morgan got this info through phone hacking, I’m betting his researchers found it legitimately. Whoopee.
Other than that, it’s so much mountain out of molehill. Who knows how the conversation really went or who was most upset. If the episode in question is the one Terrance says, nobody else probably got it. And it WAS unfair, because just before the strike Stewart had gone out of his way to get his writers into the Writers Guild of America union, anyway. So he did “put himself on the line.”