Fox's Pins and Needles

Spent part of the afternoon at Fox Animation walking around and doing a 401k enrollment meeting. Visited with the Family Guy crew, then the American Dad staff ...

And I'll tell you, morale is kind of low at AD. First person I met said: We still don't know if the show is getting canceled or picked up."

This has got to be frustrating because:

May 8, 2012 -- 8 of the Top 20 programs among Adults 18-34: FAMILY GUY (No. 3), AMERICAN IDOL-Wed (No. 4), AMERICAN DAD (No. 7 tie) ...

10 of the Top 20 programs among Teens: AMERICAN IDOL-Thurs (No. 1 tie), FAMILY GUY (No. 1 tie), AMERICAN IDOL-Wed (No. 3), GLEE (No. 4), AMERICAN DAD (No. 5) ...

AMERICAN DAD at 9:30 pm did 2.3/6, up 15% from five weeks ago (4/1/12, 2.0/5). AMERICAN DAD was the second-highest rated program of the night in Adults 18-34, Teens and key male demos (behind FAMILY GUY) and won its half hour in those same demos. ...

So you can believe how some of American Dad's crew members are contemplating slitting their wrists over corporate's blank silence. People are looking at end dates of May 30th and mid-June, and are acutely aware that The Flintstones (a potential life raft) has been delayed indefinitely. An artist who's been with the show for years told me:

"I don't know why they haven't told us yes or no. I've got some money saved, and when my end date comes I'm going to take some time off and sleep. Because it's been non-stop around here.

But a lot of people have mortgages and family and can't afford to do that. And they're going to have to go look for other jobs.

"And I think that's crappy, because if Fox picks up Dad for one, or two more seasons, they won't be able to get a lot of the artists back because many will have taken other jobs to keep their heads above water. And that's a shame, because we've got a good crew on this show. Everybody knows what they're doing. And that will be gone."