Walter Murphy: Composing The Musical Score For Family Guy

One of the defining features of the Family Guy TV show, apart from its resolutely irreverent sense of humour, is its use of lush musical arrangements. Almost every episode features a musical number, and these are performed by top swing players and recorded on the legendary Newman scoring stage at Fox Studios in Hollywood. While the show’s writers pen the lyrics, someone has to turn these into musical pieces that work. That person is Walter Murphy, a musician of note in his own right whose disco version of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony shot to fame as part of the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. In this video, Walter walks us through two musical cues, from turning a script into a song, to creating demos, right through to recording a live, 60-piece swing band on one of the most famous scoring stages in the world. We also find out how he and the show’s creator, Seth MacFarlane, created the title sequence music for the pilot episode on a shoestring budget. FOLLOW US: Don't forget to hit the Notification bell to hear about all the latest SOS Video content. Chapters 00:00 - Introduction 01:03 - 'Family Guy Through The Years' clip 01:56 - Walter's Approach To Working From A Script 04:18 - Walter's Process And Composing Demo Tracks 05:52 - Recording A Scoring Session 07:37 - Writing Original Music With Lyrics From A Script 13:12 - Example Of A Scoring Cue 15:30 - 'Post Raisin Bran' & 'Sci-fi' Family Guy Clip 17:36 - Production Of The Family Guy Intro Theme ______________________________________________________ Subscribe to Sound On Sound: https://sosm.ag/subscribe Visit our main website (over 17,770 articles!): https://www.soundonsound.com ______________________________________________________ Get 50% SAVING off a Sound On Sound Digital Subscription. Go to https://sosm.ag/digital and apply Promo Code: SOSYT50 RECORDING TECHNOLOGY 2nd Edition FREE 170-page eBook https://sosm.ag/recording-ebook LIMITED OFFER - Get 50% Off SOS For Artists The Complete End-To-End Music Production Suite CREATE / PRODUCE / DISTRIBUTE https://www.sosforartists.com Like FACEBOOK:   / soundonsoundmag   Follow X:   / soundonsoundmag   Follow INSTAGRAM:   / soundonsoundmag   #familyguy #scoring #composer #musicproduction #soundtrack CREDITS Orchestral Session Personnel Recording Engineer - Armin Steiner Assistant Engineer - Christine Sirois Chief Technician - Dennis St. Armand Pro Tools Recordist - Steve Hallmark Walter’s Personal Engineer - Richie Raposa The Orchestra Family Guy Orchestra, contracted by Murray Adler, conducted by John Elg Fox Studios Liaisons Erin Moody Jordan Frey Alex Alcala Stacey Robinson Camera, Direction & Post Production Harding & Brookes Ltd. www.hardingandbrookes.com