Family Guy's Seth MacFarlane to make live-action sitcom

In a move that demonstrates the network’s faith in MacFarlane, Fox has waived the need for a pilot and ordered six episodes of the sitcom Dads. The decision was made based on a pilot script which went down a storm with Fox’s top brass, reports Deadline.

MacFarlane will act as executive producer on Dads, which is being scripted Ted's co-writers Alec Sulkin and Wellesley Wild.

According to the brief, Dads will be a multi-camera sitcom about two successful 30-something guys whose lives are turned upside down when their nightmare fathers unexpectedly move in with them.

Discussing the commission on Twitter, MacFarlane wrote: “Congrats to my "Ted" co-writers @thesulk and Wellesley Wild on their series pickup from Fox! You talented d**** make my job easy.”

MacFarlane, who will host the 85^th Academy Awards on Sunday 24 February, has seen his career go from strength to strength in recent times: his debut album Music is Better than Words was nominated for a Grammy in 2011, his first feature film Ted grossed over $500m in 2012, and the 200^th episode of Family Guy was broadcast last November.

Wild and Sulkin have worked with MacFarlane since 2005, when they began writing for Family Guy.

It was recently revealed by actor Mark Wahlberg that MacFarlane, Wild and Sulkin are currently working on a sequel to Ted.