Brian Griffin is a character from the animated television series Family Guy. An anthropomorphic dog, he is voiced by Seth MacFarlane and first appeared on television, along with the rest of the family, in a 15-minute short on December 20, 1998. Brian was created and designed by MacFarlane himself. MacFarlane 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 (the second one at Hanna-Barbera for Cartoon Network's "What-A-Cartoon" project) which featured a middle-aged character named Larry and an intellectual dog, Steve. After the pilot was given the green light, the Griffin family appeared on the episode "Death Has a Shadow".
Brian is a member of the Griffin family. He primarily works in the series as a struggling writer attempting essays, books, novels, screenplays and newspaper articles. His appearance was a redesign of the protagonist Steve from MacFarlane's previous animated short films, The Life of Larry & Steve. He has been featured in much of the Family Guy merchandise, including toys, t-shirts, and video games, and has made crossover appearances in the other MacFarlane-produced shows, American Dad! and The Cleveland Show.
Read more about Brian Griffin: Role in Family Guy, Reception, In Other Media
Famous quotes containing the words brian and/or griffin:
“... cooking is just like religion. Rules don’t no more make a cook than sermons make a saint.”
—Anonymous, U.S. cook. As quoted in I Dream a World, by Leah Chase, who was quoted in turn by Brian Lanker (1989)
“Borrow a child and get on welfare.
Borrow a child and stay in the house all day with the child,
or go to the public park with the child, and take the child
to the welfare office and cry and say your man left you and
be humble and wear your dress and your smile, and don’t talk
back ...”
—Susan Griffin (b. 1943)