Member-only story
Need Writing Tips? Don’t Be Brian Griffin
The iconic cartoon family dog is everything I don’t want to be as a writer.
“Family Guy” is notorious for poking fun at every and any demographic, including writers. I’ve been a long time fan of the sitcom since the early 2000’s, and I’ve noticed a majority of the main characters have had a negative character arch over the past 18 seasons. Peter Griffin went from being a lovable and whimsical adult to being a downright idiot, Joe Swanson went from being a courageous officer to a depressed paraplegic. But in my opinion, the character that has had the worst development over the years is Brian Griffin.
Brian started out as the wise voice of reason for Peter’s issues, but has now fully become a pretentious, deluded liberal. He constantly holds himself on a higher standard from the rest of his family, but in the sense that he thinks he is far more intelligent than everyone else. An accurate depiction of why Brian has become a more unlikable character is in this clip from Season 8, Episode 7 where Glenn Quagmire tells Brian all of the reasons why he hates him.
However, what makes Brian one of the most laughable characters is his writing career and the mindset he has towards it. With that being said, I wanted to take the time to break down one of my favorite episodes (“Brian…
