Dear Seth MacFarlane,

I find it strange that you think your show, "The Family Guy," should compete in the same category as live-action comedies. I know you want the show to be viewed as a comedy, not an animated comedy, but to do that is to disregard a truly salient feature of the show. Namely, that it's animated.

Of all people, I would expect you to understand the importance of animation as a medium. You got your start as an animator, and I think you're an artist at heart. There are artistic capabilities inherent in and unique to every medium: literature, music, film. As such, each medium allows an artist to do things impossible, or at least difficult, with other media. Let's call these capabilities organic traits. It's not that these traits have no added preservatives or pesticides, it's just that they come naturally to the medium. And organic is a very cool thing to be these days.

In a way, you belittle the power of animation by implying it's not important to the show. It's precisely animation that allows you to express your humor in your unique way. Sure, you could rip on Bush in a live-action show, but would you be able to have a dog do it? You could probably work Cap'n Crunch or free health care into a show without animation, but since both of those things are fictitious, it would probably ruin the effect.

In truth, I think TFG employs the organic traits of the animation medium to great effect. Like when Stewie imagines himself in thirty years as a callous playboy. Or when the Kool-Aid Man breaks through a wall at an inopportune moment. Or the very fact one of the main characters is a dog, and another a baby. That's awesome. Real-life babies who get put on sitcoms end up as anorexic drug addicts. Nobody wants that.

So give your medium the respect it deserves and call TFG what it is. It may not feel great at first to lumped in a category with "Dora the Explorer," and it might be discouraging to lose to "The Simpsons" every year. But then, if you've used the medium better than those others, you should win eventually.