Patrick Warburton’s dad was not excited to see him make his Seinfeld debut.
“The first episode I did of Seinfeld, I got a six-page letter from my father about how disappointed he was in the choices I was making,” Warburton, 59, said on a recent episode of the “Howie Mandel Does Stuff” podcast.
Warburton joined the cast in 1996 for season 6. His first episode, “The Fusilli Jerry,” introduced Warburton as Jerry Seinfeld‘s mechanic, David Puddy. In the episode, Warburton’s character got flirty with Elaine, played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus.
“What it was is I was his mechanic, and I stole his move and used it on Elaine,” the actor recalled. “So [my parents] had an issue with not dealing with the sex act with any sanctity — because we all know the sex act is full of sanctity. It’s all about procreating and nothing else.”
David and Elaine had an off-and-on relationship throughout Warburton’s time on the series. He appeared in a total of 10 episodes, including the series finale in 1998.
Warburton explained that both of his parents were very traditional and gave him a religious upbringing. At one point his father, John Charles Warburton Jr., was a member of a monastery but ended up leaving because it wasn’t “conservative enough” for him. Patrick’s father died in 2018 after battling sepsis.
Patrick’s father wasn’t the only family member disappointed in his acting projects over the years. His mother, Barbara Lord, also criticized him for his role in Family Guy as the voice of Joe Swanson. She even took drastic steps to try to get the show canceled.
“My mother is part of the Parents Television Council, and their biggest fish to fry is to get Family Guy off the air,” he explained during the podcast. “My mother actually gave me a petition to sign to get Family Guy off the air, and then I reminded her what I do and how I’m putting her grandkids through college and I was actually helping support my parents with Family Guy money.”
Patrick claimed that while he was helping his parents financially thanks to the success of the raunchy animated series, his mom was using part of the funds to donate to the organization.
“I go, ‘I’m donating money, this is the most ironic donation ever made, Mom …’ I know what you’re doing, you’re laundering Family Guy money through God and church,” he quipped.
Like his mom, Patrick’s dad also didn’t tolerate Family Guy’s humor.
“My father called me one time because he would get information from my mom so he leaves a voice message on my phone [saying] ‘Patrick, in a future episode of Family Guy, God is sitting in a La-Z-Boy chair next to a bottle of lotion getting ready to masturbate, I wish you would get off that show.’ Click,” he said. “The conversation I could never have with my dad is, ‘Dad, God is not a guy with a beard sitting in a chair, it’s satire.’ I couldn’t explain it to him.”
