I've only heard it in Doodle Doods, which is on game grumps, but it's essentially an Oneyplays show since he and Ross are the hosts and Arin (thankfully) only shows up for two episodes.
Technically is was the Grumpcade's episode of Simpsons Hit and Run with the Oneyplays crew on it but it was Chris (Oney) who made the joke so I'm fine with him getting the credit.
As some have stated, I always saw Brian’s death as Seth MacFarlane’s spiritual exit from Family Guy, since the character is basically a self-insert of MacFarlane.
Personally, I would’ve had Brian’s death be a season wide thing. Like the premiere episode would be a Road To called Road To Brain where Stewie takes Brian on a dangerous mission. And throughout, stewie would have no regard for Brian’s well being and would constantly shit on him. And the premiere would end with Brian not only dying but sacrificing himself to save Stewie from dying. The second episode would introduce Vinny but this time, Vinny is established as an old friend of Brian’s. This way we can introduce Stewie to facts about Brian that he wasn’t aware of. The rest of the season would be fairly normal just with Vinny instead of Brian and in a couple of episodes here and there, Vinny would tell Stewie more things about Brian. And the season finale would be another Road To called Road To Stewie where Stewie finds a loophole to save Brian and brings Vinny with him. The episode would end with Stewie instead sacrificing Brian. And before Stewie dies, he tells Brian how sorry he was for treating him like that and how miserable he was without him. We’ll still have the old timeline Stewie, but the one we followed died. But hey that’s just me.
The problem wasn't that they killed Brian and brought him back, I mean, they already did an episode where Stewie kills Lois, just to find out she survived and in the next episode Peter kills Stewie, ending in the reveal that it was all just a simulation. The problem was the way they advertised Brian's death, like it was permanent. It was a publicity stunt. Family Guy is written, animated, and recorded months before it is on the air, so his death was *never* going to be permanent. If they just let the episode air like they did the "Stewie Kills Lois" episode, there would never have been as much outrage as there was. It was a cheap tactic to get people talking and watching.
I still believe that this episode was a joke on the audience, like the equivalent to Freddy Got Fingered, a movie that was made with the sole purpose to troll the studio for making it and the audience that dared to watch it.
You make a great point because I forget when the episode came out I think it was either later that same season or was the next season and Brian had already come back from the dead by this point after Stewie went back in time and saved him, but anyways there was an episode where Brian did not appear on screen the entire episode and then there was this banner on the bottom of the screen that showed a picture of Brian and some text basically saying "did you notice that Brian has not appeared in this episode? You got so mad before Why not now?" To be honest I'm completely sure I misquoted it but it was something along those lines
i remember calling the christmas time travel bit as how they'd revive brian when i was 11 and having all of my older relatives say i was so wrong and that brian was dead for good
I mean... it was, though. Just because there are more brutal deaths doesn't mean that death wasn't. What do you gain in comparing them in this oddly pretentious way?
Family Guy must've been very desperate for the ratings at that point to put a stunt like this. Funny that after bringing back Brian he became more of a douchebag on the show.
It would've been hilarious if instead of Vinny and the time travel everything was just normal the next episode. They totally should've done that instead.
i’m not even trying to be rude or a grammar nazi or anything but yoi should put a comma after brian so it’s there’s a pause in the words and like brian, a dog
im gonna be honest. i think vinny and brian could have and should have co-existed at least for a little while. we’ve never seen Brian have a friend outside of that robot of himself.
When Brian died is when the original Family Guy died, ever since then, he and nearly every other character kept getting worse and worse as time went on. The only character that is still decent and redeemable is Stewie. I actually greatly miss when Brian was one of the best characters in the show.
Brian’s death and subsequent revival has formed a filmmaking/writing philosophy within me. Have all episodes in a series have continuity and make the series serialized. If a character dies then they’re not returning unless its flashbacks, hallucinations, or other means not in a coporeal fashion. Brian’s death is my primary reason as to why I hate the status quo in a series, especially on TV. And also why I prefer to watch serialized shows. Its through this that I happen to notice a shift between audience tastes, and why these shows are most binged
thats kinda why i like south park so much. yeah it suffers from resetbutton but characters actually stay dead and previous events are referenced. take jesus dying in season 6. when he does get revived (and unlike other shows he has lore reasons for how he came back to life) he mentions getting killed and coming back
"If a character dies then they’re not returning unless its flashbacks, hallucinations, or other means not on a physical plane." That's not an inherently good rule to have lol
You know I was a hormonal angry 15 year old when life of brian came out. I can still remember the amount of anger and sadness I felt. Being younger I fell right into Seths trap with this. 11 years later. And occasionally checking in on the show. I kinda wish brian stayed dead and was given a proper sendoff episode and build a relationship between stewie and vinnie
As much as I do hate to say, I do feel you left out some vital information- especially with the why- since stewie got rid of the time machine, and Brian was excited for just some normal fun
How did they change the story in one episode? Don’t family guy episodes take 10 months to be made but they work on all the episodes simultaneously. And when they release a season even if the episodes haven’t aired yet they would of had all of them already finished.
Honestly I feel like I would’ve liked this episode more if it was more centered around Peter and Brian’s relationship than just Stewie and Brians. They had a lot more of a brotherly friendship than than the latter, and kickstarted the family guy journey. Sure the road to episodes are popular and amazing. But barely using the original prime duo of the show for especially a plot like this is really underwhelming, and the worse fact is that mostly all of peters scenes talking about Brian mostly consists of a cheap joke. Remember the episode where Brian and Peter had a falling out and Peter was desperately trying to replace him but realized it’s no use. It’s some good stuff and don’t get me wrong you can have stewie in it too, but they make stewie the only one that cares after the scene where he actually dies.
So I never really watched Family Guy when I was younger, only really starting to appreciate it nowadays, but I remember so many people talking about this back when it happened. "They killed Brian!", "They killed off the dog from Family Guy!" Things like that. Crazy stuff.
Interesting video but I disagree with one point. Comparing Brian's death to Infinity War is wrong for two reasons: 1. Everyone already knew that Endgame was the Avengers bringing everyone back and stopping Thanos once and for all. It wasn't a publicity stunt or a trap by the writers to retcon everything, it was a purposeful move and part of the story they were telling and they didn't make out like this was the be-all, end-all in any way, but they did prove that they weren't afraid to do something risky and grand; and it was actually something other superhero movies hadn't done before. 2. The events of Infinity War and Endgame actually did impact quite a lot of the story moving forward, such as Loki and WandaVision and even Spider-Man: No Way Home, unlike Brian's death, which has literally no bearing on the show whatsoever. I often forget it ever happened in the first place! Great video overall but I just wanted to put that out there.
Everyone from Seth McFarlane on down has said it takes 6 months to animate a SINGLE episode of Family Guy and that each season is planned out years in advance typically. Brian was literally gone and back in less than one month. You can't even really call it an actual death he was gone for literally *1* full episode and then back immediately.
That 2nd episode you mentioned, With the spousal abuse is personally where I stopped watching. Growing up as a teenager, I got to see lots of episodes on TV weekly and then eventually bought the dvds. But as with everyone, We all grow up and taste changes.
I was about to say Jon "at least stayed death for a couple more episodes" but nope, i checked and he also died in one, stayed dead for the seocnd one, and was ressurrected for the third one, what a mess. I guess it was more shocking because of the real life year gap between the season finale and the next one.
7:03 Oh hell yeah! Road to the multiverse has always been my favorite episode of Family ever since it came out. Maybe not immediately after it came out it was my favorite of all time but as time has gone on it's just always been my favorite episode ever so it's cool to see that it tops the IMDb list
If the Family Guy writing team was afraid of entering the pitfalls of overtly formulaic writing, then yes, I think killing off Brian would be good for the show.. BUT they didn't commit. Or didn't feel like they could commit, without presumably alienating their fanbase. We had the best of Brian the dog in seasons 1-3. He was good in 4-5, but it was becoming clear at that point afterwards that they were beginning to run out of ideas in how to implement him as a character. Even if his death wasn't made to be permanent in the series, I would've stretched it to last a season, to show how the family struggles to live without Brian; Stewie creates a bond with Vinnie to help cope with the loss of his best friend, Peter gets too upset to drink, Chris starts trying to paint again to get his emotions out, et cetera. While the writing team was close to striking a cord to bring new life to the series, they undermined the significant shift in the family dynamic; not letting the tension build naturally. And I'm not saying Family Guy had to become a drama to keep things fresh. I'm merely suggesting that the core characters can be given more room to grow and entertain, when vital elements which they cherished (or took for granted) were removed from the household. Vinnie could do an episode with Peter. Stewie could (attempt) to hang out with Meg for an episode to fill the void in his life, and improve her sense of self worth. The best thing a writer can do is challenge themselves, and work their way to thinking outside of the box. If you set up the death of a character like this, I personally think you can make some compelling stories from its aftermath.
Well to be fair in the case of Infinity war and end game I think everybody watching new at some point all the characters that were snapped out of existence were going to come back so I mean that plot point was definitely a thing. And did a great job misleading by finding out that the Infinity Stones were destroyed at the beginning of the film so I really do think at least in defense of that amazing two-part avengers film they did it right even if they brought back the characters because the intention all along was to bring them back And the audience already knew it. With Family Guy they should have taken longer to bring Brian back because it would have actually caused more appreciation for him by the fans but of course instead they decided to just have him gone way too short
If I ever make a series, I’m either going to keep characters dead when they die, or at least keep them dead for more than *one episode.* Seriously, who thought this was a good idea?
I remember secretly watching this show when I was younger because i left cartoon network on. And yeah it felt wrong. I never watched family guy with my parents. Oddly my mom was ok when i saw an episode of south park (from what I've seen, it was the tamest episode I could have seen) and i had to watch the Simpsons with my dad (still the tamest adult show) Wait was this uploaded before or after they brought him back?
7:55 I guessed 3 and I wasn't expecting to be right on a technicality. But the reason to stick to 1 is funny enough for me to agree. Feels good to be wrong this time.
The team behind family guy should’ve pulled a Jason Todd there should’ve been a road two Italy episode where are they running to the Italian mob and Vinny is able to get Stewie and himself out of it using his connections to the mafia and at the end there could be a phone number vote for Brian to come back or vote for Vinny to stay and whatever wins is what they would do if there were more votes for Vinny to stay and replace Brian and if there are more votes for Brian to come back then they could’ve gone with the ending that they did in the real world
Biggest example of a pointless and lazy excuse of a ratings grab ever. Honestly, it wouldn't bother me if they kept Brian dead for more than two episodes, but nope, they didn't. Which just made his death entirely pointless.
I’m highly offended ya that comparison to Avengers. Those films were the culmination of ten years worth of stories, so the shock of losing half the characters and then bringing them back a year later was well earned.
Not to mention it wasn't like nothing happened, they were brought back after a 5 year gap to the "present" and some were "replaced" since people had to move on. Not that marvel did particularly much with it but on paper is great drama, kinda like Cast Away when he comes back after 4 years his wife already had a new housband and a daughter.
It's funny, a bunch of people I knew were convinced it was gonna be permanent and I knew it was a ratings stunt that wouldn't stick and I so called it. I didn't really feel particularly validated for being right, I'd stopped watching family guy years before then.
I know this was a year ago but “beloved” dude brian is like one of the MOST hated characters in family guy by the audience, even at the time you released this
