The Orville, a Seth MacFarlane sci-fi comedy that pays homage to Star Trek, is back for Season 3. 

Director Jon Cassar and executive producers Brannon Braga and David Goodman recently sat down with uInterview founder Erik Meers for an exclusive interview where they discussed what it was like working with show creator and actor Seth MacFarlane.

“I worked with his side-by-side, especially in the last five episodes,” Cassar revealed. “After Covid, we came back and we put them all together as one giant schedule between the two of us on any given day. I had epsidoes, he had epsidoes, I did some of the action stuff for him. It was like almost two directors on every episode. Being beside him all that time, I realized not only is he a great writer which he is, comedy and drama. Not only is he a great preformer, but he’s a fantastic director. He really knows his stuff when it comes to direction. He’s great witht he cast. It was a big eyeopener for me. I’ve never met someone so invovled in the show. Most of the time in television, you have the above the line and below the line and they don’t talk to each other that much. In this case, I had above the line sitting beside me all time. It was really interesting.”

“What makes the possible for Seth, too, is that there’s a prolonged period of writing where we write all the scripts ahead of time so that when you go into production, he can dedicate himself to playing the captain and being on set every day,” Braga added. “He just has had a particular laser-focused vision for this show from day one. Sme people say it evolved away from comedy, and it has from some degree, but that was always part of his vision.”

For Goodman, the best example of what it’s like to work with MacFarlane came before production of the show.

“I think for me the story of the selling of the show was always so indicative of what it’s like to work with Seth,” Goodman said. “I’ve worked with Seth for over 20 years and this was just another example of where he and I were having a phone conversation. We’re both sci-fi fans, he’s talking about this idea and I’m encouraging him to write it. We get off the phone, and two weeks later he’s like, ‘Yeah I wrote that script and FOX picked it up for 13 episodes.’ That’s Seth. He just does it and that’s what The Orville is.”

The Orville New Horizons is now streaming on Hulu.