"Family Guy's" Seth MacFarlane becomes very rich - again

A month or so after Seth MacFarlane signed that sweet, $100-million deal with Fox, he's signed another lucrative contract to create animated shorts online for Google. If this was Stewie Griffin and not MacFarlane we're talking about here, I'd be sensing a fiendish scheme bent on global domination.

The creator of "Family Guy" will be creating 50 2-minute clips under the umbrella title "Seth MacFarlane's Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy." They'll be even naughtier than what you see on "Family Guy." And, per the New York Times, if your online track record has cyberly profiled you as a "Family Guy" fan, you won't be able to avoid these clips once they go live:

"The innovative part involves the distribution plan. Google will syndicate the program using its AdSense advertising system to thousands of Web sites that are predetermined to be gathering spots for Mr. MacFarlane's target audience, typically young men. Instead of placing a static ad on a Web page, Google will place a 'Cavalcade' video clip. ...

"Every time someone clicks on one of the syndicated videos, the associated advertiser pays a fee, with shares going to Mr. MacFarlane, Media Rights [Capital], Google and the Web site that generated the click."

MacFarlane gets a percentage in the ad revenue, more money from a subsequent DVD release of the material and even more money to help create some animated advertising. He'll get yet even more money for allowing the rest of us to remain on the planet after he owns the whole thing. As Alex Borstein, who voices "Family Guy's" long-suffing Lois, said at a benefit performance about six weeks back: "It's Seth's world; we're just breathing the air."

But it does bring up the question of whether Seth may be spreading himself too thin. He'll have three shows on Fox next season - "Family Guy," "American Dad" and the new "The Cleveland Show" - and is ostensibly working on a "Family Guy" theatrical release, as well. Throw this into the mix, and that's an awful lot of comedy (and animation) for one guy to manufacture. And for fans to watch, for that matter.