Alumni continue creating comedy on ‘Family Guy’ after meeting at UCLA

It was business as usual: someone yelled, “Take off your shirt” through the staff introductions while Styx lead vocalist Lawrence Gowan, a guest at the affair, stood on top of his plastic chair to strike a pose.

The band Styx, along with many other guests, had come to the Fox Studios animation conference room to watch a table read of the animated series “Family Guy.” At the head of the long, glass table, UCLA alumnus Steve Callaghan, executive producer and showrunner of “Family Guy,” read the narrative parts of the script. Three seats away, staff writer and UCLA alumnus Patrick Meighan read as Chris Griffin.

Callaghan and Meighan’s ties extend beyond just “Family Guy” and a shared alma mater. Meighan first crossed paths with Callaghan in 1991. Meighan, a first-year history student at the time, left the improv group Spur of the Moment. When it didn’t dissolve after he quit, he went to one of their shows to see what talent had replaced him.

“When I quit, I was thinking, ‘They’re screwed, because they’re never going to find somebody as funny as me,’” Meighan said. “Then I went and saw a show, and (Callaghan) was there and I was immediately so upset because he was just so much funnier than I ever was.”

Yet, Meighan said no hard feelings remained when he officially met Callaghan shortly after joining the UCLA Comedy Club, a different comedian group on campus.

The club members became close friends and eventually made their own improv group in addition to the Comedy Club. Independent filmmaker Tom Huang, who performed alongside Meighan and Callaghan in both comedy groups, said they called their improv club Public Health Alert.

“We liked to call ourselves that because we’d make these posters and people would read them because they looked important cause they’d say ‘Public Health Alert,'” Huang said. “Really we were just advertising our crappy improv group.”

The improv group typically performed in Kerckhoff Coffee House. Meighan said it was a race to catch the audience’s attention with a funny joke before students could pack up their books and find a quieter place to study.

“Shows in Kerckhoff were something we imposed on people,” Meighan said. “Suddenly the lights would turn off, and we would run up onto that slightly raised step to move the piano and try to say something funny, knowing we were the last thing these people want to see.”

Callaghan said he preferred the Comedy Club shows they hosted in the fireside lounges of the residential buildings since they were reserved and publicized events. He said he usually brought talent from the industry, such as a budding David Spade, to come perform at these shows. His secret was a crumpled-up piece of paper.

“I was the president of the Comedy Club for a little while and I got handed down this little piece of paper with possible headliners,” Callaghan said. “It was folded about 20 times and had home phone numbers for Kevin Nealon and Garry Shandling, but it looked like it came out of the bottom of somebody’s backpack.”

Callaghan, who lived in Dykstra for two years, said his dorm experiences, both as a resident and as a performer, affected not only his work but also his personal life.

“I wrote an episode for this animated show called ‘3-South’ about the midnight yell,” Callaghan said. “I was written up by an RA for screaming out the window of the dorm room of this girl I was trying to impress. Now that girl is my wife.”

Like Callaghan, Meighan said he began seeing his future wife at the beginning of his college career. In 2001, Callaghan attended Meighan’s wedding as his groomsman.

Meighan said he didn’t anticipate going into the TV comedy business. Originally from the state of Washington, he said he wasn’t a fan of Los Angeles, instead wanting to finish his degree, get out and become a history teacher. The concept of writing comedy for a living didn’t dawn on him until he said he started a public access show with Callaghan and Huang.

The public access channels, popular in the ’80s and ’90s, provided a medium which anyone could make a show for and broadcast locally.

“It was like, ‘Oh look, it’s this show on cable that everyone has and is kind of forced to watch,'” Huang said. “So we decided to put together a skit show like ‘Saturday Night Live.'”

The young comedians borrowed film equipment from the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television and snuck into the editing bays after hours to make their shows. Meighan said getting around strict UCLA filming rules was a common occurrence for the budding filmmakers.

“We wanted to film in (Charles E. Young Research Library) but weren’t allowed to film inside, so eight of us each snuck in a different piece of equipment, staggered two minutes apart,” Meighan said. “It took us 20 minutes to get into the building for about 10 minutes of filming.”

In 1995, Meighan returned to Washington after graduation where he said his history degree from UCLA came in handy for the Pizza Hut delivery job he secured. By 1998, he said he wanted to give comedy writing another shot and moved back to Los Angeles to work as a production assistant on the sitcom “Dharma & Greg.”

In 1998, Callaghan called up David Zuckerman of “King of the Hill” to ask about any writer’s assistant openings. Zuckerman, a friend of Callaghan’s older sister, said he was leaving “King of the Hill” to start at a new show called “Family Guy.” Soon, Callaghan was picked up as a writer’s assistant for Fox’s newest animated series. A year later, Callaghan was promoted to staff writer.

When the series was cancelled in 2003, Callaghan worked on the sitcom “Yes Dear” as well as “3-South,” and then spent some time unemployed. Then, in 2004, Callaghan received a call from “Family Guy” creator Seth MacFarlane.

“He said he had this meeting with Fox. He thought they wanted to bring ‘Family Guy’ back. A part of me just wanted to say ‘Dude, just let it go,’” Callaghan said. “I really thought he was holding onto false hope, but sure enough he was right.”

Meighan had been writing for the Fox show “Titus” but then joined the “Family Guy” team after the show was cleared for a renewal and “Titus” was canceled.

Meighan and Callaghan worked side by side as staff writers until 2009, when Callaghan was named as “Family Guy” executive producer and showrunner. The show is something both said they feel very fortunate to work on today.

“I realize we get to do jokes only ‘Family Guy’ would do. Like Stewie never gets older, which is great,” Meighan said. “So every several months or so, I’ll text Steve to tell him, ‘Hey, you are the showrunner of a very successful show. Good job.'”