January 5, 2007 - After a stall that began back in October, the writers of Family Guy have finally been told to return to work and began putting together scripts for the sixth season of the show. The holdout began thanks to complicated contract negotiations between Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane and the show's studio, 20th Century Fox.

While no new deal has been officially announced between McFarlane and 20th, the fact that the writers went back to work Wednesday seems to be a clear sign that such an announcement is imminent. It's expected that MacFarlane, who also produces American Dad and the upcoming live-action series The Winner, will have quite a lucrative new deal with the studio.

Due to the amount of time it takes to write and produce an episode of the animated series, it's possible that this delay might cause some problems with new episodes being ready for the start of the fall 2007 TV season. However, Variety reports that if that is the case, it is likely 20th will put some extra money into the show, in order to get the episodes back on schedule.