Stewie Griffin
Stewie Griffin | |
---|---|
Quahog, Rhode Island | |
Nationality | American |
Age | 1 |
Stewart Gilligan "Stewie" Griffin[1] is a fictional character from the animated television series 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. Stewie was created and designed by MacFarlane himself, who was asked to pitch a pilot to the Fox Broadcasting Company, based on The Life of Larry and Larry & Steve, two shorts made by MacFarlane featuring a middle-aged man named Larry and an intellectual dog, Steve.
Stewie is a highly
Role in Family Guy
Stewie Griffin is portrayed as a one-year-old
Stewie succumbs to other childish tendencies; he believes Peter has truly disappeared in a game of
Stewie's mastery of
In other, later episodes, Stewie engages in other violent and criminal acts, including
Stewie eventually realizes his dreams of
Stewie shows a complete disdain for most people especially
He generally thinks of Peter as an inferior—regarding him simply as "the fat man" and, at one point, harboring doubts that Peter could be his father ("Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story")—but does bond with him over a shared love of practical jokes made at Lois' expense ("The Courtship of Stewie's Father"). While Stewie typically regards Chris as a stooge, he considers him his only friend aside from Brian and even helped Chris to dress when he felt too shy to date ("Extra Large Medium") and assists him in dealing with bullies ("Secondhand Spoke"). In a few episodes, such as "Stewie Loves Lois", it is shown that Stewie can love his mother. In that episode, after Lois recovers and repairs a lost Rupert and serves Stewie a meal he likes, he rethinks Lois and accepts her as a loving mother. When he becomes too dependent on her, she deliberately takes no notice of him; when he hurts himself, she tries to show notice of him again, and he returns to hating her. However, at the end of the season nine premiere, "And Then There Were Fewer", when Diane Simmons is about to murder Lois for uncovering her murderous revenge scheme, Stewie secretly saves Lois by killing Diane with a sniper rifle, though he states to himself that he only did it to not miss out on the opportunity to kill Lois in the future.
In the more recent seasons, Stewie has a larger amount of freedom from his parents, usually spending much of his time with
He also starts to interact with more people despite still having hatred towards many of them, as shown in cutaways in later episodes and is more flamboyant. Stewie is shown in more recent episodes to be a superfan of
In the
Development
Stewie is voiced by Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane, who also provides the voices of Brian Griffin, Peter Griffin, and Glenn Quagmire as well as numerous minor characters.[12] MacFarlane based Stewie's accent on the voice of English actor Rex Harrison,[13][14] particularly on Harrison's performance in the 1964 musical drama film My Fair Lady, with further influence coming from The Simpsons character Mr. Burns.[15][16] MacFarlane has stated that his inspiration for the Stewie name was a car owned by Stan Lee.[17][failed verification] MacFarlane has also linked Stewie with David Hyde Pierce on more than one occasion, saying he wants Pierce to play Stewie if a live action version of the show would ever be created.[18][19]
Stewie's head has the
Ambiguous sexuality
Stewie's
In other instances, such as when Stewie falls in love with a girl, Janet, in "
He originally began as a diabolical villain, but then we delved into the idea of his confused sexuality. We all feel that Stewie is almost certainly gay, and he's in the process of figuring it out for himself. We haven't ever really locked into it because we get a lot of good jokes from both sides, but we treat him oftentimes as if we were writing a gay character.
— Seth MacFarlane, "Big Gay Following",The Advocate interview[18]
When asked why he made the decision "to take Stewie from homicidal maniac to gay little song boy?," MacFarlane answered: "It wasn't a conscious decision. Characters evolve in certain ways and we found that doing the take-over-the-world thing every week was getting played out and was starting to feel a little dated. It was weirdly feeling a little '90s and believe me, if we were still doing that, the show would be on its last legs. I only half-jokingly go by the guideline that, if it's something that might ruin the show, it's a story we should probably do."[21][22]
MacFarlane told
Reception
MacFarlane has been nominated for two awards for voicing Stewie Griffin. In 1999, he won a
Allegations of plagiarized design
Several commentators have noticed similarities between Stewie and the title character of the graphic novel
Merchandise and appearances in other media
Stewie has been included on Family Guy T-shirts, baseball caps, bumper stickers, cardboard standups, refrigerator magnets, posters, and several other items. Stewie appears in the Family Guy Video Game!,[34] where Stewie discovers his brother Bertram attempting to outdo him in taking over the world. Desperate to stop him, Stewie shrinks and makes his way to Bertram's lair within Peter's testicles to discover his plan, destroy his henchman cloning lab, and rescue a kidnapped Rupert from a rocket. He finally confronts Bertram in the park, where Bertram turns himself into a giant.[35] Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story is a DVD movie about Stewie's secret and what can be his future.[36] Stewie is also a playable character (along with Brian) in the show's second video game, Family Guy: Back to the Multiverse, where the pair travel through the multiverse again, to defeat Bertram.
Stewie appeared in the Bones episode "The Critic in the Cabernet",[37] as the result of a brain tumor-induced hallucination that FBI Special Agent Seeley Booth (David Boreanaz) was suffering from. MacFarlane wrote all of Stewie's dialogue for the episode.[38] The character appeared in a Coca-Cola[39] commercial during Super Bowl XLII, he and Brian appeared in a commercial for Wheat Thins, he presented a musical number at the 59th Primetime Emmy Awards with Brian, and he appeared at the 62nd Primetime Emmy Awards.[40][41] He appeared on the December 21, 2009, episode of Late Show with David Letterman to present "Top Ten Things You Don't Want To Hear From Your Child." In the 2023 animated feature film Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, Stewie was mentioned as part of a joke from Donatello to Micheangelo on how the latter's head shape was if "Stewie had a baby with Hey Arnold!."[42]
Understanding Stewie
There is much debate over which characters in Family Guy can understand Stewie. In an interview, MacFarlane said that everyone can basically understand him, but they ignore him or just think to themselves "oh how cute" when he talks.
There are several jokes within the series revolving around whether the Griffins, other than Brian, can understand Stewie. In "
References
- ^ "Chitty Chitty Death Bang". Family Guy. Season 1. Episode 3. April 18, 1999.
- ^ Rabin, Nathan (January 26, 2005). "Seth MacFarlane". The A.V. Club. Chicago, Illinois: Onion, Inc. Archived from the original on February 3, 2006.
- ^ a b Burke, Myles (October 21, 2009). "Putin parody appears in Family Guy". The Telegraph. London, England: Telegraph Media Group. Archived from the original on January 12, 2022. Retrieved March 7, 2012.
- Emission Impossible". Family Guy. Season 3. Episode 11. November 8, 2001. Fox.
- Fox.
- ^ "I Never Met the Dead Man". Family Guy. Season 1. Episode 2. April 11, 1999. Fox.
- ^ "Road to Rupert". Family Guy. Season 5. Episode 9. January 28, 2007. Fox.
- ^ "Patriot Games". Family Guy. Season 5. Episode 20. January 29, 2006. Fox.
- Back to the Woods". Family Guy. Season 6. Episode 9. February 17, 2008. Fox.
- ^ "Saving Private Brian". Family Guy. Season 5. Episode 4. November 5, 2006. Fox.
- ^ "Gronkowsbees". Family Guy. Season 15. Episode 11. January 15, 2017. Fox.
- ^ Graham, Jefferson (January 29, 1999). "Cartoonist MacFarlane funny guy of Fox's 'Family' Subversive voice of series is his". USA Today. p. E7.
- News Corp. Archivedfrom the original on August 29, 2012. Retrieved August 24, 2009.
- ^ "Episode 9". The Graham Norton Show. Season 15. May 30, 2014. BBC. Archived from the original on February 28, 2022. Retrieved May 31, 2014.
- ^ Franklin, Nancy (January 16, 2006). "American Idiots". The New Yorker.
- ^ Snierson, Dan (September 27, 2014). "'Simpsons' and 'Family Guy' creators Matt Groening and Seth MacFarlane talk crossover episode, movies, rivalry". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on August 17, 2021. Retrieved August 16, 2021.
- ^ Lamar, Cyriaque (December 10, 2011). "In 1992, Stan Lee gave Todd McFarlane and Rob Liefeld 20 minutes to invent a superhero". io9. Archived from the original on October 16, 2017. Retrieved October 16, 2017.
- ^ The Advocate. PlanetOut. Archived from the originalon February 3, 2008. Retrieved February 15, 2008.
- ^ Battaglio, Stephen (February 9, 2006). "Successful Guy Seth MacFarlane takes advantage of his hit status with a new comedy". TV Guide. Archived from the original on October 14, 2012. Retrieved August 24, 2009.
- Stuck Together, Torn Apart". Family Guy. Season 3. Episode 19. January 31, 2003. Fox.
- ^ "Interview: Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane". Archived from the original on January 14, 2009.
- ^ Sovo.com Archived August 26, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "'Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane outs Stewie: Yes, he's gay". New York Daily News. New York City: Tribune Publishing. August 13, 2009. Archived from the original on September 18, 2009. Retrieved August 13, 2009.
- ^ "2K Announces Voice Talent for Family Guy Video Game; Will the Real Baby Stewie Please Stand up!; Family Guy Show Creator Seth MacFarlane and the Main Cast Sign on with 2K to do Voice Over Roles for the Upcoming Family Guy Video Game". Business Wire. August 24, 2006.
- ^ "Annie Award Winners". Annie Awards. Archived from the original on July 1, 2007. Retrieved August 24, 2009.
- Wizard Magazine. No. 177. p. 86.
- ^ Staff (May 27, 2009). "IGN's Top 25 Family Guy Characters". IGN. Archived from the original on November 29, 2011. Retrieved August 24, 2009.
- ^ Vary, Adam (June 1, 2010). "The 100 Greatest Characters of the Last 20 Years: Here's our full list!". Entertainment Weekly. New York City: Meredith Corporation. Archived from the original on June 11, 2010. Retrieved June 16, 2010.
- ^ Peeples, Jase (March 24, 2011). "The 20 Gayest Cartoon Characters Ever!". Here Media. Archived from the original on January 2, 2013. Retrieved March 25, 2011.
- The Orlando Sentinel. Orlando, Florida: Tribune Publishing. p. 3.
- ^ Haque, Ahsan (January 12, 2010). "Stewie and Brian's greatest adventures". IGN. San Francisco, California: j2 Global. Archived from the original on January 30, 2024. Retrieved January 19, 2013.
- ^ Time, Inc. Archived from the originalon December 3, 2008. Retrieved July 10, 2009.
- ^ "Interview with Seth MacFarlane". IGN. San Francisco, California: j2 Global. Archived from the original on December 3, 2011. Retrieved December 17, 2009.
- ^ 2K Announces Voice Talent for Family Guy Video Game; Will the Real Baby Stewie Please Stand up!; Family Guy Show Creator Seth MacFarlane and the Main Cast Sign on with 2K to do Voice Over Roles for the Upcoming Family Guy Video Game.
- ^ "thefamilyguystore.com". Archived from the original on February 1, 2016.
- IMDb
- ^ "Stewie a real dream for Bones star". Winnipeg Sun.[dead link]
- ^ "Exclusive: 'Bones' plots 'Family Guy' crossover!". Archived from the original on March 21, 2009.
- ^ Clipta.com Archived April 15, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Livevideo.com Archived September 30, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Brian and Stewie open the Emmy awards". Archived from the original on October 3, 2008. Retrieved August 21, 2009.
- ^ "'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem': All the Easter Eggs and References". Collider. August 2023. Archived from the original on September 4, 2023. Retrieved October 22, 2023.
- ^ "Interview with Seth MacFarlane". Archived from the original on August 24, 2007. Retrieved August 26, 2012.
- ^ Friar, Christine (July 24, 2011). "Comic Con 2011: Seth MacFarlane says which 'Family Guy' characters can hear Stewie [VIDEO]". HuffPost. Archived from the original on March 7, 2021. Retrieved April 26, 2020.
Bibliography
- Callaghan, Steve (2005). Family Guy: The Official Episode Guide: Seasons 1 - 3. New York City: Harper Paperbacks. ISBN 978-0060833053.
External links
- Stewie Griffin at Fox.com