Seth MacFarlane

writer, director
Cartoon

Family Guy


Nikolaus Correll turned me on to time travel in Family Guy.
It’s called a temporal causality loop. The universe created me, so that I could create it, so it could create me, and so on.
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  • Eloi Honorable Mention
  • Science Fiction
  • Definite Time Travel
Cartoon

American Dad!


Typical patriotic American family fare with Dad, Mom, two kids, an alien, a man trapped in a goldfish body, and the occasional romp through time.
Getting Scorsese off drugs means he never did all the cocaine that fueled him to make Taxi Driver, which means he never cast Jodie Foster, which means John Hinkley never obsessed over her, and he never tried to impress her by shooting President Reagan, which means Reagan was never empowered by surviving an assassination attempt—he must have lost to Mondale in ’84. Bingo! Forty-seven days into his presidency, Mondale handed complete control of the U.S. over to the Soviet Union.
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  • Eloi Honorable Mention
  • Science Fiction
  • Definite Time Travel
Feature Film

A Million Ways to Die in the West


Albert: Hello?
Doc Brown: Wa . . . uoh.
Albert: What’s uh . . . what’s that?
Doc Brown: [hastily covering the DeLorean] Nothing! Wa . . . uh, it . . . [nods head] it’s a weather experiment.
Albert: Oh. [leaves]
Doc Brown: Great Scott!
Small images of Liam Neeson (as Clinch). Seth MacFarlane (as Albert), and
                Charlize Theron (as Anna) and five other western-themed characters (including a
                sheep).
  • Comedy
  • Western
  • Cameo Time Travel
TV Series

The Orville


It didn’t take long for MacFarlane’s slightly zany Star Trek parody to introduce us to Pria, a collector visitor from their far-future, who grabs people only just before they’re about to die. I know the show has a bit of a comedy take, but I love their excellent take on so many classic sf tropes.
When we get to my century, I'll introduce you to Amelia Earhart.
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  • Eloi Silver Medal
  • Science Fiction
  • Definite Time Travel