There is a new mayor in town on Family Guy and he's sporting one of the best mustaches in the game! Family Guy has tapped Sam Elliott to succeed the late Adam West as Mayor of Quahog on the hit animated show. Elliott will make his debut in November on the show.
The role of Mayor became vacant on the series when Adam West died in 2017 after voicing himself on the show in more than 100 episodes. West remained a presence on the show into the following year, as several episodes recorded before his death made their debut. West was a beloved presence of the show and Family paid tribute to him several times but it was about two years after the actor's death that the show finally acknowledged his passing in an episode that saw the high school renamed after him.
Executive producer Richard Appel told "Entertainment Weekly" that they wanted to take time to respect Adam and he want on to say that "In having a conversation about 'How do you replace him?,' the universal belief was: he’s irreplaceable. And then the next question is, 'Do you find a new mayor?' In the world of Family Guy, he had an important role, and a role that was necessary for a lot of stories." When it came down to who could possibly replace Adam West, this is how they came up with Sam Elliott:
"Who could be as original and unexpected and comedically fun and fresh as Adam? Sam has a voice that — obviously he’s a movie star but he also has a voice made for radio, and Sam Elliot quickly became our first choice."
Elliott's character is actually Mayor West's cousin, whose first and middle names are Wild. See what that did there? Wild Wild West? You have to love Family Guy for being wonderfully on the nose. Wild West comes East to Quahog when Peter becomes unhappy with the candidates in consideration for the job and decides that the town needs a celebrity figure who is fun, so Peter persuades him to run for office. Was it easy to persuade Sam Elliott right away to take on the Family Guy role? According to executive producer Alec Sulkin, he said no at first because they wanted him to play himself:
"His first reaction was 'no, he was reluctant. He just felt like he didn’t want to play himself. Which made us go back thinking, 'Well, all right, is there someone else?' And we thought, 'Wait a minute, that note is a smart note. Because that was more what Adam West was doing. And the new mayor shouldn’t be another real-world celebrity playing himself within our fictional world. So we kicked around a bunch of ideas and then said, 'What if we refashion this as Wild West for Sam Elliott and create this new character?' And he responded very well to that idea."
Family Guy kicks off season 19 on September 27, 2020, at 9:30 PM on Fox. The season premiere also happens to be a milestone for the show as it is the 350th episode of the series! Do YOU think Sam Elliott was the right choice to replace Adam West?