The mother of one Family Guy star hates the series so much she even tried to get it cancelled

Seth MacFarlane‘s Family Guy is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, but if Patrick Warburton’s parents had their way, the long-running animated comedy series would be dead and buried.

Patrick Warburton has voiced Joe Swanson on Family Guy since the first season, but his parents have never approved of his involvement in the series. “They hate the show even more today than they did 25 years ago,” Warburton said during the PaleyFest LA: Family Guy 25th Anniversary Celebration panel (via People). “My father was in a monastery for three months. He almost became a monk. … My mother [went] around the neighborhood when I was 13 years old passing out pamphlets on the sins of masturbation, [which] did not get me into the cool crowd. So they hate the show.“

Warburton added his mother even tried to get Family Guy cancelled, despite the fact that he was using the money he made from the series to help support them. “My mother belonged to the American Television Council and they were trying to get the show canceled,” Warburton said. “I was helping support my parents with ‘Family Guy’ money. She tried to get me to sign the petition [to cancel the show]. I said, ‘Mom, if you don’t think I’m going to talk about this publicly, this is the greatest irony. You’re laundering money, you’re laundering it to yourself.’ They hate it more today.” I’ve got to say, having your parents actively try to put you out of work while you’re supporting them is a little wild.

Fox initially cancelled Family Guy after three seasons, but following strong syndication ratings and DVD sales, they brought the series back in 2005, and it’s been running consistently ever since. With the show set to debut its 23rd season later this year, Seth MacFarlane told the Los Angeles Times that he doesn’t “see a good reason to stop” the series.

“People still love it. It makes people happy and it funds some good causes,” MacFarlane said. “It’s a lot of extraneous cash that you can donate to Rainforest Trust and you can still go out to dinner that night. There was a time when I thought, ‘It’s time to wrap it up.’ At this point, we’ve reached escape velocity. I don’t know that there’s any reason to stop at this point unless people get sick of it. Unless the numbers show that people just are, ‘Eh, we don’t care about “Family Guy” anymore.’ But that hasn’t happened yet.“