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Family Guy: Producer Talks Mayor Adam West's Involvement Going Forward

"I think the proper way to honor him is to keep the character in the show."

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Batman actor Adam West died earlier this month, leading to the question of what would happen to the character he played on Family Guy, also named Adam West. Now, Family Guy executive producer Steve Callaghan has confirmed that West recorded lines for future episodes before his passing. These episodes are going forward as planned.

"He's gone," Callaghan said told Entertainment Weekly. "But we can still enjoy his tremendous work for a while longer."

Mayor West will appear in five episodes to air for the upcoming Family Guy season. Callaghan said there was never any talk about scrapping the episodes or altering them after West's passing.

"He's such an integral part of the series that it never even occurred to us to take that out," he said. "I would almost feel like that was somehow not properly honoring him. I think the proper way to honor him is to keep the character in the show."

Callaghan added that there were two or three episodes that were planned to feature May West, but West hadn't recorded his lines before he passed away.

"So obviously we've made accommodations for that," he said. "There was one scene where he was officiating a wedding, and it was easy enough to just have a different character do that. I [wouldn't] even consider having someone come in and try to imitate his voice."

Family Guy producers are currently thinking about how they will address the departure of Mayor West from the show, but no decisions have been made as of yet. The same goes for Carrie Fisher's character, Angela.

"What I can say is that both of their departures from the show will certainly reflect the importance that each of those characters--and actors--had within our series," Callaghan said.

As for who will take over mayoral responsibilities in Quahog, Callaghan said they haven't decided if they will bring in a new mayor or if the city will go without a mayor for a while.

"There could very well be a situation where we leave that office empty as a tribute for at least some period of time," he said. "It's been a little too painful for us really get too deep into that conversation just yet."

West made his Family Guy debut in the Season 2 episode "Fifteen Minutes of Shame," which featured the Quahog Clam Day event. Callaghan recalled series creator Seth McFarlane saying in a meeting, "'Well, we need to have the mayor there to introduce this town-wide event.' So, we’re kicking around who would that be and what would the character of the mayor be, and I remember Seth saying, 'What about Adam West?' And I [said], 'Oh, he could be funny. What would the mayor's name be or what would the character be?' And he said, 'No, just Adam West. Like, he's the mayor of the town."

You can read the full interview here at Entertainment Weekly--it's really good.

West passed away earlier this month after a battle with leukemia. He was 88.

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