Among his many accomplishments, including that time he and co-star Frank Gorshin got kicked out of an orgy while in character as Batman and Riddler, Adam West voiced a fictionalized version of himself on Family Guy until his death in 2017. His character, the mayor of Quahog, remained a presence on the show as multiple episodes were recorded before he passed away; but in the season 17 finale, James Woods High School was renamed to Adam West High in tribute (and because James Woods is a right-wing tool). Family Guy producers were initially hesitant on whether they would find a new mayor before settling on another actor with an iconic voice: Sam Elliott.
The Oscar nominee will take over as Quahog’s mayor next season. “Who could be as original and unexpected and comedically fun and fresh as Adam? Sam has a voice that — obviously he’s a movie star but he also has a voice made for radio, and Sam Elliot quickly became our first choice,” executive producer Richard Appel told EW. Elliott first turned down the role, where he would have played himself, but “we kicked around a bunch of ideas and then said, ‘What if we refashion this as Wild West for Sam Elliott and create this new character?’ And he responded very well to that idea,” Appel said:
Elliott’s character is actually Mayor West’s cousin, whose first and middle names are Wild. That’s right — meet Wild Wild West. Wild West comes East to Quahog when Peter becomes unhappy with the candidates in consideration for the job and decides that the town needs a celebrity figure who is fun, so Peter persuades him to run for office.
What a wicki-wicki-Wild idea. Feel free to use that “joke,” Family Guy.
(Via EW)