MacFarlane’s new overall deal will make him the highest-paid writer-producer working in television. Having seen his work, I find this hard to comprehend. The deal, which could be worth more than $100 million (yeah, really), covers his work on “Family Guy” and his other two animated series for 20th Century Fox TV and Fox – “American Dad!” and the upcoming “Family Guy” spinoff “The Cleveland Show” (you gotta be kidding me) – as well as his series development, which includes a multicamera comedy with “Family Guy” writer Gary Janetti. It also encompasses new media projects related to MacFarlane’s TV series as well as DVD and merchandising revenue from them.

The deal is retroactive, as MacFarlane’s previous pact with 20th TV expired more than a year ago. It is expected that MacFarlane’s deal will easily eclipse the $60 million five-year feature/TV pact J.J. Abrams (“Lost”) inked with Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros. TV in 2006.

It’s starting to sound like Abrams got hosed. Have you seen “Lost” lately? Have you seen “Family Guy” lately? This business is screwy.

Still, you have to hand it to MacFarlane. He’s managed to do quite well for himself in a difficult industry. He’s been with Fox his whole network life. He started out ten years ago, fresh out of college, by pitching his idea to Fox for an animated comedy based on characters from his thesis and his sequel to it. The network and 20th Century Fox TV gave him $50,000 to make a presentation and MacFarlane spent 6 months writing, drawing, and animating in his home to create “Family Guy.” The network picked it up and MacFarlane became the youngest executive producer/showrunner ever at the age of 24. He had his first multimillion-dollar long term deal before his show even premiered.

Looks like he’s going to be around for a while.