The Orville is an American science fiction comedy-drama series created by and starring Seth MacFarlane. The series premiered on Sunday, September 10, 2017. MacFarlane stars as Ed Mercer, an officer in the Planetary Union's line of exploratory space vessels whose career took a downturn following his divorce, and who is given the titular ship as his first command, only to discover that his ex-wife, Kelly Grayson (Adrianne Palicki), has been assigned to be his first officer.