Creation MacFarlane initially conceived
Family Guy in 1995 while studying animation at the
Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). During college, he created his thesis film entitled
The Life of Larry, Then in 1996, MacFarlane created a sequel to
The Life of Larry entitled
Larry & Steve, which featured a middle-aged character named Larry and an intellectual dog, Steve; the short was broadcast in 1997 as one of
Cartoon Network's
World Premiere Toons. Fox proposed MacFarlane complete a 15-minute short, and gave him a budget of $50,000. Several aspects of
Family Guy were inspired by the
Larry shorts. While working on the series, the characters of Larry and his dog Steve slowly evolved into Peter and Brian. MacFarlane stated that the difference between
The Life of Larry and
Family Guy was that "
Life of Larry was shown primarily in my dorm room and
Family Guy was shown after the
Super Bowl." MacFarlane has been part of the main voice cast from the beginning of the series including
the pilot, and has voiced Peter from the start. MacFarlane's speaking voice is not very close to Peter's; he uses his normal voice as the voice of Brian. according to him, "I knew a thousand Peter Griffins growing up in New England. Guys who would not think before they spoke, like [switching to Peter's voice] there was no self-editing mechanism. [Pointing to himself] Everything in here, [pointing to his front] it's coming out here, with no gateway". MacFarlane also voices many of Peter's ancestors who share the same type of voice. He noted in an interview that he voices Peter and the rest of the characters partly because they initially had a small budget, but also that he prefers to have the freedom to do it himself. In another interview, he said that Peter's voice is one of the most difficult to do. There have been rare occasions where MacFarlane does not voice Peter. In the episode "
No Meals on Wheels" (season 5, 2007), actor
Patrick Stewart voiced Peter in a cutscene, but MacFarlane voices Peter for the rest of the episode. In the episode "
Family Gay" (
season 7, 2009),
Seth Rogen provided a guest-voice as Peter under the effects of the "Seth Rogen gene". In "
Road to the Multiverse" (
season 8, 2009), he was voiced by actor Jamison Yang, who was required for a scene where everything in the world was Japanese. In "
Friends of Peter G" (season 9, 2011),
John Viener voiced Peter in an alternate timeline where he gave up drinking.
Personality Peter Griffin is a stereotypical
blue-collar worker who frequently goes to a local bar with his neighbors and friends
Cleveland Brown,
Joe Swanson and
Glenn Quagmire named "The Drunken Clam," Quahog's main tavern. In the
season 4 episode "
Petarded", Peter discovered his low intellect falls slightly below the level for
intellectual disability after taking an
I.Q. test, which places his I.Q. at around 70. In that same episode, Peter is declared intellectually disabled because of his low I.Q. level. Peter also might have brain damage in
Wernicke's area as he cuts away into seemingly random situations and speaks in perfect grammar, but cannot seem to choose how to create a sentence. Peter is known for his brash impulsiveness, which has led to several awkward situations, such as attempting to
molest Meg in order to adopt a
redneck lifestyle. He is easily influenced by anyone he finds interesting and will often try to replicate their lifestyle and behavior merely out of curiosity. He is incredibly jealous of other attractions Lois has in her life, an attitude which has led to extreme situations, such as when he assaulted a whale that kissed Lois at
SeaWorld. Peter has a very short attention span which frequently leads him to bizarre situations, as Chris points out in "
Long John Peter", after Peter's parrot dies "He will get over it pretty quickly and then move on to another wacky thing", to which Peter finds a
pipe organ and forgets about his parrot (Peter then destroys the pipe organ within seconds and then finds a deed to a cattle ranch). Peter is also naïve with one example in "
Airport '07" where he thinks his truck will fly by filling it with airplane fuel. Peter has complex relationships with all three of his children. He normally makes fun of Meg since
season six and treats her with neglect, such as in the episode "
FOX-y Lady", where he, Meg and Chris try to create a cartoon and they exclude Meg and her ideas. Though in some episodes Peter has had a good relationship with Meg, in "
Hell Comes to Quahog" (season 5, 2006), Peter almost tells Meg he loves her and in "
Road to Rupert" (season 5, 2007), he told Meg that he would mistreat in front of the family, but that he would be her friend in secret. It was presumed though that in "
Peter's Sister" (season 14, 2015), that Peter would stop bullying Meg. Peter has a much better, but usually one-sided, relationship with Stewie. Peter and Stewie had their adventures when he took him to
Walt Disney World Resort in the episode "
The Courtship of Stewie's Father" (season 4, 2005). With Chris, Peter communicates well, but at times when in need of advice or in an adventure Peter tells Chris to do the opposite of what he should do, like in "
Long John Peter" (season 6, 2008), where Chris is asking for dating advice, and Peter tells him to treat women horribly. Peter is best friends with his human-like dog,
Brian. In earlier seasons, Brian often served as a voice of reason for Peter, helping him out with issues. Brian is extremely grateful to Peter for picking him up on the side of the road as a stray, shown during a
flashback in the episode, "
Brian: Portrait of a Dog". His gratitude was affirmed in "
New Kidney in Town", where Brian offers to give up both his kidneys and his life so that Peter could undergo a kidney transplant, although he did not have to do it thanks to another, more suitable donor being found. At Brian's funeral in "
Life of Brian", Peter said that Brian was his "best friend in the whole world" and "like a brother to him". In the episode "Forget-Me-Not", Stewie puts Brian and Peter, along with Joe and Quagmire, in a simulation to prove that they would have never been friends if Peter weren't Brian's owner, wherein they all wake up in a hospital after a great disaster of some kind and forget both their names. In the simulation, Joe and Quagmire believe that Peter was the cause of everybody in Quahog disappearing in the great disaster due to a fake newspaper clipping from a laser tag arena that they had visited with Peter earlier in the episode. Brian, who learns of Joe and Quagmire's plans, goes to talk to Peter to warn him, only for them to quickly bond and become great friends with each other. When Joe and Quagmire come to kill him, Brian saves Peter's life by taking a bullet for Peter, wherein the simulation then ends, and Stewie reveals what happened to him. Beyond Brian and his main trio of Joe, Quagmire, and Cleveland, Peter is shown to be good friends with a few other characters in the show. Peter is shown to be acquainted with local pharmacist Mort Goldman, even going far as to assist Mort in committing insurance fraud by burning down his pharmacy. Mort even becomes Peter's manager when Peter and Quagmire become a musical duo in the episode "
Into Harmony's Way". Peter and his core friend group are also shown to be good friends with Jerome, who initially served as Cleveland's temporary replacement in the episode he was first introduced (due to Cleveland living in Virginia at the time). Jerome would later buy the Drunken Clam in the episode "
Save the Clam" and often interacts with Peter and the gang at the Clam. Peter and his friends even watch over the bar for Jerome in the episode "
The Woof of Wall Street". Peter also maintains a friendly relationship with his co-workers, Opie and Stella.
Ancestry Before Peter was born, his mother Thelma went to
Mexico City to have an abortion but gave birth during the procedure, and smuggled him home to Providence, Rhode Island, where he spent his childhood. Peter was raised by Francis and Thelma Griffin in the
Roman Catholic faith. In "
Peter's Two Dads", he discovers that his biological father is an Irishman named Mickey McFinnigan. Mickey is based on the friends of MacFarlane's father. MacFarlane said: "When I was growing up, my father had lots of friends: big, vocal, opinionated New England Irish Catholics. They were all bursting at the seams with personality, and
Family Guy came out of a lot of those archetypes that I spent years observing." == Reception ==