When Family Guy creator and funny-man Seth MacFarlane announced that he and famed astronomer Neil deGrasse Tyson were working on bringing back the revolutionary 1980s PBS series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage it certainly raised some eyebrows.

Successfully, Tyson, who will serve as the series' host. Macfarlane and Ann Druyan, wife of the late and former Cosmos host Carl Sagan, brought the television series back as Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey and will begin airing Sunday nights on Fox.

The original series 13-episode series featured Sagan, an astronomer, taking audiences on a scientific journey through the universe while explaining various cosmological theories.

The Los Angeles Times conducted an interview with MacFarlane about why he wanted to get involved with the reboot. He told the newspaper that as a kid he fell in love with the series and that, since Sagan's passing in 1996, the scientific community has lacked a central voice and one that will take us out of the era of scientific illiteracy, as he puts it.

That is of course until Tyson, a leading astrophysicist and author, came along with the initial idea to bring the show back.

At a meeting of the Science and Entertainment Exchange, MacFarlane ran into Tyson where he asked if there were any research projects that needed some help funding. Tyson replied, "Well, not off hand but one thing that may need some help is we're trying to get 'Cosmos' rebooted."

MacFarlane said he loved Tyson's work and is excited to have someone with such an expert knowledge of science and astronomy actually hosting the show.

"He can actually back up what he's saying. He's not just a celebrity." MacFarlane told the L.A. Times. "If somebody approaches Neil after this with a question, he can answer with authority, which is a real plus for me."

MacFarlane said that he hopes the show, which is geared toward bringing families together and enjoying an educational program, will enlighten viewers and put the world back on track toward exploratory science.

"The space program has decayed to a point that is incredibly depressing. We as a species are explorers. Why are we stopping?" MacFarlane asked. "You see it in the rise of schools questioning evolution, all these thing piling up that betray the fact that we've lost our way in terms of scientific literacy and it's incredibly damaging to the evolution of any society."

"Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey" premiere's Sunday at 9 p.m. on Fox.