Peter Griffin

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This article is about the Family Guy character. For other uses, see Peter Griffin (disambiguation).

Peter Griffin
Karen Griffin (sister)
SpouseLois Griffin
ChildrenMeg Griffin (daughter)
Chris Griffin (son)
Stewie Griffin (son)
Quahog, Rhode Island
NationalityMexican-born American
Age46

Peter Löwenbräu Griffin Sr.[1] (born Justin Peter Griffin)[A] is a fictional character and the protagonist of the American animated sitcom Family Guy. He is voiced by the series' creator, Seth MacFarlane, and first appeared on television, along with the rest of the Griffin family, in the episode "Death Has a Shadow" on January 31, 1999. Peter was created and designed by MacFarlane himself. MacFarlane was asked to pitch a pilot to the Fox Broadcasting Company based on Larry & Steve, a short made by MacFarlane which featured a middle-aged character named Larry and an intellectual dog, Steve. For the series, Larry was renamed Peter.

Peter is married to

crossover appearances in other shows, including The Simpsons, Drawn Together, American Dad!, and Family Guy's spin-off series The Cleveland Show
.

Role in Family Guy

Peter Griffin is a middle-class

Ernie the Giant Chicken, an anthropomorphic chicken who serves as an archenemy to Peter.[12] These battles parody the action film genre, with explosions, high-speed chases, and immense devastation to the town of Quahog.[13]

Character

Creation

MacFarlane initially conceived Family Guy in 1995 while studying animation at the

World Premiere Toons.[14] Executives at Fox saw the Larry shorts and contracted MacFarlane to create a series, entitled Family Guy, based on the characters.[16] Fox proposed MacFarlane complete a 15-minute short, and gave him a budget of $50,000.[17] Several aspects of Family Guy were inspired by the Larry shorts.[18] While working on the series, the characters of Larry and his dog Steve slowly evolved into Peter and Brian.[16][19] 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."[18]

Voice

MacFarlane based Peter's voice on the voices of security guards he heard while he was attending the Rhode Island School of Design.

The voice of Peter is provided by MacFarlane, who also provides the voice for Brian, Stewie,

Carter Pewterschmidt, Dr. Hartman, and others.[20] 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.[21] MacFarlane chose to voice Peter and several other characters himself, believing it would be easier to portray the voices he already envisioned than for someone else to attempt it.[22] MacFarlane's speaking voice is not very close to Peter's; he uses his normal voice as the voice of Brian.[22] MacFarlane drew inspiration for the voice of Peter from the security guards he overheard talking while he was attending the Rhode Island School of Design;[23] 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".[24] MacFarlane also voices many of Peter's ancestors who share the same type of voice.[21] 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.[25] In another interview, he pointed out that Peter's voice is one of the most difficult to do.[26]

There have been rare occasions where MacFarlane does not voice Peter. In the episode "

Friends of Peter G (season 9, 2011), John Viener voiced Peter in an alternate timeline where he gave up drinking.[30]

Personality

Peter Griffin is a stereotypical

Stuck Together, Torn Apart", Peter and Lois split up because of Peter's jealousy, only to discover that Lois has the same character flaw and the two decide to live together with their mutually jealous nature.[36] 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).[37] 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 and treats her badly, such as in the episode "

Walt Disney World Resort in the episode "The Courtship of Stewie's Father" (season 4, 2005).[42] 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 advice on dating and Peter tells him to treat women horribly.[43]

Peter is best friends with his

anthropomorphic 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 wasn'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 friends with local pharmacist Mort Goldman, even once going as far 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 "

The Woof of Wall Street
". Peter also maintains a friendly relationship with his co-workers Opie and Stella.

Ancestry

"Head of the Griffin family is Irish-American Catholic Peter, an obese and bespectacled man who is just a big child – and has other roots beside his Irish ones, including African-American, Spanish, Scottish and German."

James Bartlett, The Great Reporter.[44]

Before Peter was born, his mother Thelma went to

Roman Catholic faith.[47] In "Peter's Two Dads", he discovers that his biological father is an Irishman named Mickey McFinnigan.[48] Peter visits Mickey, who initially rejects him. Mickey later accepts him as his son after beating him in the "game of drink" (the game of drink referring to matching shots until one passes out).[48] 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."[44]

Reception

Praise

"Many of the show's funniest moments come courtesy of Peter's shenanigans. Peter practically invented the "manatee joke," those signature cutaway gags that usually have nothing to do with the episode's plot but offer plenty of laughs anyway. These jokes have revealed, among other things, that Peter wasn't born a man, that he only recently graduated the fourth grade, and that even he doesn't find the comedic stylings of Paul Reiser funny".

Ahsan Haque, IGN[49]

Editors of

Annie Award in the Voice Acting in an Animated Television Production or Short Form for voicing Peter.[53]

Peter has ranked in several of IGN's top 10s (generally these lists are related to the show).[54][55] Among these, Peter ranked the third spot on IGN's "Top 25 Family Guy Characters," in which it was stated that many of the show's best gags come from Peter and his shenanigans and that "Peter practically invented the "manatee joke".[49] Entertainment Weekly placed Peter in its "18 Bad TV Dads" list (the list also included characters like Homer Simpson and Al Bundy).[56]

Criticism and controversy

Peter has been criticized for being too similar to Homer Simpson. Peter has appeared in some episodes of The Simpsons; in these episodes which he has been featured, he has been depicted as Homer Simpson's clone or is accused of plagiarism. Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly wrote that Peter is Homer Simpson "as conceived by a singularly sophomoric mind that lacks any reference point beyond other TV shows".[57] Robin Pierson from The TV Critic criticized the Griffin family for being too similar to the Simpson family, and said that Peter "has Homer Simpson written all over him".[58] This is eventually made fun of in the episode "Ratings Guy" when, after Peter ruins television and goes to the networks to reverse the changes, Homer Simpson shows up with the same plight, with Peter going "A-ha! Looks like this is one we beat you to!"[59] In "The Simpsons Guy", a crossover episode between Family Guy and The Simpsons, the Griffins end up in the town of Springfield after their car is stolen, where they meet the Simpsons.

Peter has created some controversy in various episodes of Family Guy. The episode "

antisemitic lyrics.[61] The complaint was not upheld.[62]

Cultural influence

Appearances in the media

Peter has made several television appearances outside of Family Guy, often in the form of direct

seventeenth season episode, "The Italian Bob", a photo of Peter is in a book of criminals, which says he is wanted for "plagiarismo".[64] Peter also appeared in various episodes of the show's spin-off The Cleveland Show.[65] In addition, Peter has appeared at the end of the American Dad! episode "Hurricane!" with guns on both Stan Smith and former neighbor Cleveland Brown. During the stand-off, Stan accidentally shoots his wife Francine
, which Peter declares as "classic American Dad!".

Merchandise

Peter is also featured on the

2K Games in 2006.[67] Peter was used in the game Family Guy Online as a character class for the game's character creator.[68] In December 2023, Peter was featured as a battle pass skin in the first season of the fifth chapter of Fortnite.[69] Files containing clips of Peter were data mined from the game as early as February 2021.[70]

MacFarlane recorded exclusive material of Peter's voice and other Family Guy characters for a 2007 pinball machine based the show, created by

Stern Pinball.[71] In 2004, the first series of Family Guy toy figurines was released by Mezco Toyz; each member of the Griffin family had their own toy, with the exception of Stewie, of whom two different figures were made.[72] Over the course of two years, four more series of toy figures have been released, with various forms of Peter.[73] Alongside the action figures, Peter has been included in various other Family Guy-related merchandise.[74]

As of 2009, six books have been released about the Family Guy

Titan Comics.[78] The first comic book was released July 27, 2011.[78]

In 2008, the character appeared in advertisements for Subway, promoting the restaurant's massive feast sandwich.[79][80] Chief marketing officer Tony Pace commented "Peter's a good representation of the people who are interested in the Feast, and Family Guy is a show "that appeals to that target audience."[81] The Boston Globe critic Brian Steinberg praised the restaurant's use of the character for the commercials.[79]

Notes

  1. ^
    season 13 episode Quagmire's Mom
    , Peter's birth name is revealed to be Justin Peter Griffin. In the episode Lois tells him he is getting his name legally changed to Peter. His birth name is never mentioned again.

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External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Peter_Griffin&oldid=1215181530"