FOX Broadcasting gave Matt Groening two tries at animated series and was amply rewarded with THE SIMPSONS and FUTURAMA. Now Seth MacFarlane, creator of FAMILY GUY, which aired on FOX for three seasons, is creating a pilot sitcom tentatively titled, AMERICAN DAD, according to VARIETY. If greenlit, the series could launch in fall 2004.

MacFarlane plans to provide several voices on AMERICAN DAD, as he did on FAMILY GUY. Helping him create, write and exec produce the pilot are FAMILY GUY veteran writers Mike Barker and Matt Weitzman.

AMERICAN DAD will feature a new animated family, led by a right-leaning CIA agent and his wife, their two kids and a French-speaking goldfish.

This order comes just as FOX searches for its next animated hits via an open pitch-call to industry and civilian creators in its Pitch-O-Rama contest.