Seth MacFarlane tweeted his support for Frankie Shaw’s South Boston-set show “SMILF” over the weekend.
On Sunday, the “Family Guy” creator and New England native slammed City Councilor Ed Flynn for his recent comments about the Golden Globe-nominated series. Flynn wrote in a Facebook post last week that advertisments around the city for “SMILF” should be taken down, saying that many of his constituents view the show as “a degrading, crude and inaccurate portrayal” of people from the neighborhood.
“I’m tired of Hollywood making a profit off of these abysmal shows that in no way capture the real lives, character and contributions of the people of South Boston,” Flynn wrote. “As a result, I reached out to officials from the City of Boston and they have kindly agreed to remove these advertisements.”
MacFarlane defended the Showtime series in a Twitter post criticizing Flynn’s remarks.
“Flynn treads on dark ground,” MacFarlane wrote. “Whether a writer is drawing from personal experience or pure imagination, it’s troubling when anyone, politician or otherwise, suggests a story should not be told or a character should be censored. Make room, Ed.”
Flynn treads on dark ground. Whether a writer is drawing from personal experience or pure imagination, it’s troubling when anyone, politician or otherwise, suggests a story should not be told or a character should be censored. Make room, Ed. https://t.co/Jk9LJeGwdx
— Seth MacFarlane (@SethMacFarlane) February 11, 2018
The filmmaker and actor was also mentioned in a lengthy post by Shaw responding to Flynn’s comments over the weekend. The Boston native, who created and stars in “SMILF,” took issue with the city councilor’s assessment of the series, which she believes comes “from underlying gender-bias more than anything else.”
“These deep-seated unconscious judgements are centuries old and very hard to recognize,” Shaw wrote. “But just like Ben Affleck and Seth MacFarlane, who came into town to make their very male art of chasing women, robbing banks, and getting high with teddy bears, I’d like the same consideration to tell the stories that are important to me.”
As for the series’ controversial title, Shaw said in her response that it’s “an attempt to reclaim a terrible term, a term that men use to categorize women.”
“What’s clear is that I’m telling a personal story about a woman who loves her kid and is also burdened by her circumstances of being a single mom, a survivor of childhood sexual abuse, and living in a neighborhood she and her own mom can no longer afford,” Shaw wrote. “And if you don’t know what to tell the kids about the title’s meaning, you can say what my cousin Jess tells her kids: ‘It’s a word that is degrading to women and Frankie is trying to use it in a feminist way.'”
