The show revolves around the
adventures of Peter Griffin, a bumbling but well-intentioned blue-collar
worker. Peter is an Irish-American Catholic with a thick Rhode Island /
Eastern Massachusetts accent. His wife Lois, who has a similar accent,
is generally a stay-at-home mother and piano teacher, and is a member of
the Pewterschmidt family of wealthy socialites. Peter and Lois have
three children: teenage daughter Meg, who is frequently the butt of
jokes for her unattractiveness and lack of popularity; teenage son
Chris, who is overweight, unintelligent and, in many respects, a younger
version of his father; and infant son Stewie, a diabolical child with
adult mannerisms who speaks fluently with an upper-class English accent
and stereotypical arch-villain phrases. Living with the family is Brian,
the family dog, who is highly anthropomorphized, walks on two legs,
drinks Martinis, and engages in human conversation, though he is still
considered a pet in many respects...
The show revolves around the
adventures of Peter Griffin, a bumbling but well-intentioned blue-collar
worker. Peter is an Irish-American Catholic with a thick Rhode Island /
Eastern Massachusetts accent. His wife Lois, who has a similar accent,
is generally a stay-at-home mother and piano teacher, and is a member of
the Pewterschmidt family of wealthy socialites. Peter and Lois have
three children: teenage daughter Meg, who is frequently the butt of
jokes for her unattractiveness and lack of popularity; teenage son
Chris, who is overweight, unintelligent and, in many respects, a younger
version of his father; and infant son Stewie, a diabolical child with
adult mannerisms who speaks fluently with an upper-class English accent
and stereotypical arch-villain phrases. Living with the family is Brian,
the family dog, who is highly anthropomorphized, walks on two legs,
drinks Martinis, and engages in human conversation, though he is still
considered a pet in many respects.
There are many recurring characters
on the show who appear alongside the Griffin family on a regular basis.
These include the family's colorful neighbors: sex-crazed airline-pilot
bachelor Glenn Quagmire; mild-mannered deli owner Cleveland Brown and
his wife (ex-wife as of the fourth-season episode "The Cleveland-Loretta
Quagmire") Loretta Brown with their hyperactive son, Cleveland Jr.;
paraplegic police officer Joe Swanson and his perpetually pregnant wife
Bonnie; and creepy old gay pedophile Herbert. TV news anchors Tom Tucker
and Diane Simmons also make regular appearances (along with Asian
Reporter Trisha Takanawa and Blaccu-Weather meteorologist Ollie
Williams), as well as mentally disturbed celebrity Mayor Adam West
(voiced by and named after the real Adam West).
Family Guy
has not used an especially large cast of recurring minor characters
(though this has changed to an extent in Season 4, with many one-shot
characters from prior episodes reappearing in new episodes), and most of
the episode plotlines center on the exploits of the Griffin family.