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Spoilers (2)
Seth MacFarlane, the show's creator, was booked to fly from Boston to Los Angeles on American Airlines Flight 11 on Sept. 11, 2001. But his travel agent had mistakenly told him that the flight left at 8:15 a.m., not 7:45 a.m. "And I had a hangover from the night before" he said. He missed the flight, notorious for its role in the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.
Seth MacFarlane based the voice of Peter Griffin on a security guard he knew while going to college.
George Lucas officially gave the producers clearance to do "Star Wars" gags because he's a fan of the show.
Seth MacFarlane has admitted that the family's constant abuse of Meg is a result of "a bunch of male writers not knowing how to write for a teenage girl".
"Angela", Peter's boss, is based on "Joanna", Rachel's boss in Friends (1994).
Brian's voice is simply Seth MacFarlane speaking normally. In addition, many of Brian's personal beliefs, including his generally liberal political views and his atheism, are shared by MacFarlane.
The show has been canceled twice, once following the second season, which caused the show to not air a new episode for a year, and the second (and longest) being between the third and fourth seasons, from 2002 to 2005.
Numerous cutaway gags involve characters from the Jetsons and the Flintstones, who are arguably Hanna-Barbera's most famous characters. This is because Seth MacFarlane was a writer for Hanna-Barbera before creating Family Guy.
In 2009, Brian and Stewie quip about "Bruce Jenner's vagina." This joke seemingly foretold Caitlyn Jenner's actual gender-reassignment six years later.
When the series was first pitched to Fox, William H. Macy had auditioned for the role of Brian.
Seth Green reveals in the commentary for Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story (2005) that the voice of Chris is based on Ted Levine's performance as Buffalo Bill in The Silence of the Lambs (1991).
Nearly every time someone is dead or is unconscious the person lies on his front with one hand on his back while the other on the ground
Bonnie Swanson would seemingly be pregnant throughout most of the series. Peter even mentions in Family Guy: Blind Ambition (2005), "Bonnie, you've been pregnant for like six years, alright? Either have the baby or don't." She finally gave birth to a girl, Susie, in Family Guy: Ocean's Three and a Half (2009).
Lacey Chabert left the show during the second season in order to focus on her schooling and other projects, not because of objections to the show's content as some have claimed.
In some episodes the family pokes fun at "robot chicken" and Chris gets mad this is because Seth Green (Chris Griffin) is a producer and lead voice actor of the series.
Lois was originally drawn as a blonde. After much debate, the creators decided to make her hair red.
The re-runs on Cartoon Network's late night "Adult Swim" schedule are often shown uncut with curse words mostly uncensored and even with scenes cut from the Fox broadcast re-inserted.
Glen Quagmire's facial features are modeled after Bob Hope. Stewie acknowledges this in Family Guy: Baby Not on Board (2008).
When Drew Barrymore was preparing the documentary Choose or Lose Presents: The Best Place to Start (2004), she contacted Seth MacFarlane to appear on it and besides asked him to do a guest voice on the show. MacFarlane enjoyed her work so much as Mrs. Lockhart on season 4 that he offered Barrymore the regular role of Jillian.
The show's Emmy nomination for Outstanding Comedy Series in 2009 marked the first time since The Flintstones (1960) that an animated series earned such a nomination.
Meg's friends assumed her name was short for Megan. In actuality, when Lois hands Meg's birth certificate, to Peter, he alters it; Meg's birth name is Megatron Griffin.
Seth MacFarlane is a fan of the Star Trek franchise, explaining the frequent references to Star Trek in the show. In fact, MacFarlane even appeared in two episodes of Star Trek: Enterprise (2001) during Enterprise's final two years of production.
The first part of the opening credits, where Lois plays the piano and sings with Peter, is a spoof of Edith playing the piano and singing with Archie during the opening credits of All in the Family (1971)
Peter's phrase of choice when climaxing during sex is "Shazam!" Cleveland's phrase of choice in the same situation is "...and boom goes the dynamite." (albeit spoken in an unexcited monotone voice as Cleveland usually speaks.)
In season 11 the opening credits in some episodes are replaced with parodies of the opening credits of King of the Hill (1997) and Modern Family (2009).
The characters of Peter and Brian are very similar to Larry and Steve from the shorts The Life of Larry (1995) and What a Cartoon: Larry & Steve (1996), which feature a moronic man who adopts a talking dog and puts the dog through hell, and were both written and directed by Seth MacFarlane
The Griffins always seem to have the same thing for dinner: three pieces of some kind of beef, mashed potatoes and peas.
Joe Swanson originally had a son named Kevin, who was eventually written out of the series. His disappearance was later explained in Family Guy: Stew-Roids (2009) as that he had died in Iraq, though he was later brought back into the series in Family Guy: Thanksgiving (2011) where it's revealed that he faked his own death in order to escape from the war.
Brian still insists on being an atheist even though he's personally met God and Jesus Christ on several occasions.
The series began airing in high definition with Family Guy: And Then There Were Fewer (2010). However, Family Guy: Excellence in Broadcasting (2010) is the first episode to acknowledge the transition to the new format.
Brian is a struggling novelist. Throughout the series, everyone in the family has made jokes about his "unfinished novel". In the episode "Movin' Out (Brian's Song)", it is revealed that the title of Brian's novel is 'Faster Than The Speed of Love'. When he describes the story to Lois, it turns out to be a rip-off of the film Iron Eagle (1986).
Like real-life children, Chris and Meg share the facial/body features of their parents, Peter and Lois. Meg has the same hairstyle, nose, and mouth as Lois (although Lois is considered very attractive and Meg very ugly in the show's universe) and has brown hair and wears glasses like Peter. As for Chris, he has eyes like Lois and a nose, mouth and dimpled chin like Peter. Chris has one attribute he shares with neither parent: His blonde hair. However in the early pre-production stages of the series, Lois was supposed to have blonde hair but the creative team decided to make her a red head (See IMDb trivia elsewhere on page). Despite the change, they chose to leave Chris' hair blonde.
"Quahog," the name of the Griffin's hometown, is also the name of an edible clam. The bar the characters frequently visit, "The Drunken Clam", is a reference to this.
Brian drives a Toyota Prius, with a license plate that says "BRI DOG" on it, and a Kucinich bumper sticker.
Believing the series to be cancelled after season 2, many of the writers took on other jobs for different shows. The show was renewed for a third season at the last minute; many new writers were used for the new series.
All of the high-end hotels seen on the show have Barrington in their name. Series creator Seth MacFarlane has stated they are named after the city of Barrington, Rhode Island, a very upscale community.
Every episode contains cutaways starting off with "Like that time I" or "This is worst than" or "This is better than"
The character of Neil Goldman, the boy who perennially chases Meg, is named after one of the show's writers.
Seth MacFarlane graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, R.I. The shell of the quahog clam (Mercenaria mercenaria) is the official Rhode Island State shell. A quahog is a pretty standard looking clam, except that it's big - about the size of a grown man's hand. Rhode Islanders like to eat them in clam chowder (not white chowder, but clear, made without milk). They also stuff the clams with a bread and clam stuffing and serve them for dinner. The area's Indians, the Narragansetts, called them "quahog" which means simply "clam". They used the purple part of the shells to make wampum, which was traded by Indian tribes throughout North America.
The running gag with Mr. Herbert is that his name rhymes with "pervert" which pertains to his creepy demeanor regarding young boys.
According to the British TV programme 100 Greatest Cartoons (2005), Seth MacFarlane's favorite Family Guy moment is the scene from Family Guy: Da Boom (1999) where Peter is feeding Tom Selleck.
Meg goes to James Woods Reqional (with a "Q") High School, and Chris goes to Buddy Cianci Junior High in fictional Quahog, RI. James Woods is from Warwick, RI, and Vincent "Buddy" Cianci, Jr. is the former mayor of Providence, RI.
Lacey Chabert was originally the voice of Meg Griffin until 2000, when Mila Kunis was given the job.
Brought back an unprecedented second time after its amazing DVD sales (record for best selling TV show on DVD), and its popularity on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim, which a few times had a higher Nielsen rating than broadcast television at that time slot.
The original idea for titles of episodes were supposed to be based on 1940s Mystery Radio shows. This is why the first few episodes have some sort of reference to death in them. Eventually the writers of the show had to start describing the episodes to one another (rather than simply using the titles), so that idea was dropped.
In the early seasons in the opening credits, the pictures on the wall of Chris, Meg and Stewie, in the background, have blurred faces. Later on however, their faces appear normally.
Before Seth MacFarlane created the idea of a regular half-hour series, he conceived of the Griffin family appearing as characters in animated shorts to appear on MADtv (1995). Many of the regular voice actors (including Alex Borstein, Phil LaMarr, Debra Wilson and Nicole Sullivan) are MADtv alumni. Alex Borstein was the first cast on this show and is the only "official" cast member as the voice of Lois Griffin.
In early episodes of the series, the rest of the family can seemingly hear what Stewie says. In more recent episodes this becomes ambiguous: at times it's unclear altogether, other times (when it's convenient for plot development) they seem to somewhat understand.
On Family Guy: Love Thy Trophy (2000)", Stewie's ABC blocks pyramidally spell REDRUM, a reference to Stephen King's novel and Stanley Kubrick's movie "The Shining (1980)" where REDRUM was MURDER spelled backwards. Which is what Stewie plans to do to Lois.
Starting with season 4, the characters no longer look totally to the left or right. They now look at an angle when looking at something to their side.
Throughout the series, references have been made to the fact that some characters voices sound similar due to them being voiced by the same person. In "Believe it or not Joe's Walking on Air" (2007), Peter tells Dr. Hartman that his voice sounds similar to Carter Pewterschmidt (both voiced by Seth MacFarlane). In "Guy, Robot" (2015), Carl does an impression of Archer from the TV Series "Archer" (2009) and Bob from the TV Series "Bob's Burgers" (2011) who are all voiced by the same person, H. Jon Benjamin.
In Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary on page 963 you'll find the word quagmire. The very next word is quahog, which is where the show takes place.
Throughout the whole series, almost all of the main characters have been in the hospital due to injury by either their own or Peter's carelessness.
In 2014. Shortly after a repeat of Viewer Mail (#10.22) was broadcast on BBC3. There was a news report announcing the death of comedian Robin Williams whom had committed suicide. In Viewer Mail (#10.22), everyone and everything that Peter touches turns into Robin Williams, which also depicted Robin Williams making a failed suicide attempt. (#10.22) foreshadowed the real life death of the comedian.
In the episode that Chris reveals his crush, Sarah Palin claimed she was hurt by a remark made by the character as she has a child with down-syndrome.
Despite the fact Peter makes fun of Robot Chicken (2005) (especially during the Star Wars episodes), Seth McFarlane voiced The Empror in the Robot Chicken Star Wars specials.
In season seven, episode fourteen, "We Love You, Conrad", Stewie tells Brian that Bruce Jenner is a woman. The show was prescient because Bruce's gender change to Caitlin Jenner happened years later around season 12.
Many of the KEN conference attendees in Dumb and Dumber To (2014) are played by writers of the series.
Two Kraft Foods (now Kraft Heinz Company) products are the subjects of running gags on the show. The Kool-Aid Man, mascot for the beverage Kool-Aid, often breaks through a wall after multiple utterances of the phrase "oh no!", whereas he says "oh yeah!". Also, Cool Whip whipped cream is continually pronounced as "Cool Hwip" by Stewie. Additionally, before the original Kraft split into two companies, the Nabisco subdivision's Wheat Thins had an advertisement series featuring Brian and Stewie. Nabisco is now part of Mondelez International.
In an interview with MaD Radio in September 2012, Rachael MacFarlane debunked an Internet rumor that she voiced the character of Meg Griffin in the pilot. She did not.
Angela, Peter's boss is voiced by Carrie Fisher most famously known for The Star Wars Trilogy. And when Family Guy decided to air their own Star Wars Parodies, in "It's A Trap!!!" She played Mon Mothma, ironically for her role as Princess Leia.
Even though many people might think that Meg's name is short for Megan it is actually revealed in one of the episodes that her actual first name is Megatron as said by Peter
The song the marching band plays is very similar to (almost note-for-note), and likely based on, the theme song to Coach (ABC, 1989-97).
The fancy French restaurant featured in multiple episodes is named L'espece D'andouille. This name, when translated into English, means "Dumbass."
In S3 E5 it becomes known that Peter wears corduroy pants, Stewie mentions this while in the grocery store.
In the entry saying "Normally, Joe can't move his legs but in the intro, he is lifting up his legs like everyone else." Joe is actually using his hands to lift his legs.
Mr. Burns from The Simpsons (1989) is considered to be a possible major influence behind Stewie Griffin.
Homer Simpson from the long-running animated comedy series The Simpsons (1999) appeared in 2 episodes with Dan Castellaneta providing the voice.
Cyndi Lauper is considered a possible influence behind Lois Griffin. Mostly the voice of the character.
An episode not thought of by Seth McFarlane, which would be a crossover episode of The Simpsons (1989) would see Stewie running away from home to live with Mr. Burns at his mansion in Springfield.
In Family Guy: Extra Large Medium (2010), there is a nod to the premise of the show Psych (2006) when Peter claims to be a psychic and helps Joe and the police force.
Spoilers
Before Season 8 began, the character of Cleveland Brown left Quahog with his son Cleveland, Jr. to star in his own spin-off, The Cleveland Show (2009). He later reappeared in season 12 when the show ended.