One of the defining features of the Family Guy TV show, apart from its resolutely irreverent sense of humour, is its use of lush musical arrangements. Almost every episode features a musical number, and these are performed by top swing players and recorded on the legendary Newman scoring stage at Fox Studios in Hollywood.

While the show’s writers pen the lyrics, someone has to turn these into musical pieces that work. That person is Walter Murphy, a musician of note in his own right whose disco version of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony shot to fame as part of the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack.

In this video, Walter walks us through two musical cues, from turning a script into a song, to creating demos, right through to recording a live, 60-piece swing band on one of the most famous scoring stages in the world. We also find out how he and the show’s creator, Seth MacFarlane, created the title sequence music for the pilot episode on a shoestring budget.

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Chapters

00:00 - Introduction
01:03 - 'Family Guy Through The Years' clip
01:56 - Walter's Approach To Working From A Script
04:18 - Walter's Process And Composing Demo Tracks
05:52 - Recording A Scoring Session
07:37 - Writing Original Music With Lyrics From A Script
13:12 - Example Of A Scoring Cue
15:30 - 'Post Raisin Bran' & 'Sci-fi' Family Guy Clip
17:36 - Production Of The Family Guy Intro Theme

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CREDITS

Orchestral Session Personnel
Recording Engineer - Armin Steiner
Assistant Engineer - Christine Sirois
Chief Technician - Dennis St. Armand
Pro Tools Recordist - Steve Hallmark
Walter’s Personal Engineer - Richie Raposa

The Orchestra
Family Guy Orchestra, contracted by Murray Adler, conducted by John Elg

Fox Studios Liaisons
Erin Moody
Jordan Frey
Alex Alcala
Stacey Robinson


Camera, Direction & Post Production
Harding & Brookes Ltd.
www.hardingandbrookes.com