"The Former Life of Brian" is the thirteenth episode of the sixth season of '' Family Guy''. It was originally broadcast on April 27, 2008. The episode follows the Griffins' anthropomorphic dog,

Brian Brian (sometimes spelled Bryan in English) is a male given name of Irish and Breton origin, as well as a surname of Occitan origin. It is common in the English-speaking world. It is possible that the name is derived from an Old Celtic word me ...

( Seth MacFarlane), as he discovers that he is the biological father of a 13-year-old boy named Dylan ( Seth Green). Dylan's mother, Tracy (

Harvey Fierstein Harvey Forbes Fierstein ( ; born June 6, 1952) is an American actor, playwright and screenwriter. He is best known for his theater work in '' Torch Song Trilogy'' and '' Hairspray'' and movie roles in '' Mrs. Doubtfire'', ''Independence Day'', an ...

), leaves him with Brian after they meet and Dylan starts causing mischief at the Griffin's house. The episode was written by Steve Callaghan and it was directed by

Pete Michels Pete Michels is an American animation director who is the supervising director of ''Future-Worm!'' on Disney XD. Prior, he was a supervising director on seasons 1 and 2 of ''Rick and Morty'', an animation and supervising director on ''Family Guy'' ...

. The episode guest starred Harvey Fierstein, Chace Crawford,

Erinn Hayes Erinn Hayes (née Carter; born May 25, 1976) is an American actress and comedian. She is known for her role as Dr. Lola Spratt on the sitcom ''Childrens Hospital (TV Series), Childrens Hospital'' (2008–2016), which she later reprised in its s ...

and

Max Burkholder Maxwell Henry Wolf Burkholder (born November 1, 1997) is an American actor most notable for his role as Max Braverman in the comedic television drama on NBC, '' Parenthood''. Prior to that, he became known as a voice actor for his roles as Chomp ...

. Recurring voice actors

Patrick Warburton Patrick Warburton (born November 14, 1964) is an American actor. On television, he has played David Puddy on '' Seinfeld'', the title character on ''The Tick'', Jeb Denton on ''Less Than Perfect'', Jeff Bingham on '' Rules of Engagement'' and L ...

, writer Alec Sulkin, episode writer Steve Callaghan, writer

John Viener Jonathan David Viener (; born July 10, 1972) is an American actor, comedian, writer, and producer. Early life Viener was born in New York City, New York. Career He is a writer and producer on the television series '' Family Guy'', where he al ...

and show creator Seth MacFarlane's sister

Rachael MacFarlane Rachael Ann MacFarlane Laudiero (born March 21, 1976) is an American voice actress and singer. Her voice credits include Hayley Smith on the animated television show ''American Dad!'', Supreme Leader Numbuh 362 in the television series '' Code ...

made minor appearances. It received mixed reviews from critics.

Plot

( Seth MacFarlane) decides to visit his former girlfriend Tracy Flannigan (

), who reveals that she has a son named Dylan ( Seth Green) and that he is the father. Dylan proves to be quite the unruly teenager and Brian laments to

Peter Peter may refer to: People * List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Peter (given name) ** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church * Peter (surname), a sur ...

(MacFarlane) and Lois ( Alex Borstein) about his experiences with him. Despite his objections, they attempt to convince him that he should take responsibility for his son. At this time, Dylan arrives at the Griffins' house, explaining that Tracy dropped him off for Brian to raise. There he begins tearing the house apart and acts hostile toward everyone, even attacking the Evil Monkey in Chris's closet. He especially acts hostile towards Brian, who decides to take control and kick him out. However, after he attempts to leave with a bag of Brian's

cannabis ''Cannabis'' () is a genus of flowering plants in the family Cannabaceae. The number of species within the genus is disputed. Three species may be recognized: '' Cannabis sativa'', '' C. indica'', and '' C. ruderalis''. Alternative ...

, they discover a shared enjoyment of the drug and the two smoke up and bond. When Brian apologizes for not being there for Dylan when he was born, it leads to an emotional reconciliation. Brian quickly shapes Dylan up to be a fine young man, though he himself begins to act a bit self-righteous in his newly discovered role as father. Peter feels very uncomfortable about this, so he decides to convince Tracy to take Dylan back to live with her in the hopes that Brian would go back to normal. While Brian attempts to justify his behavior, Dylan steps up, saying it is time for him to turn his mother's life around just as Brian had done for him. Brian agrees, and the two part ways.

Production

The episode was written by Steve Callaghan, in his second writing credit for the season, as he has written "

Lois Kills Stewie "Stewie Kills Lois" and "Lois Kills Stewie" are a two-part episode of the sixth season of the animated comedy series '' Family Guy'', which was originally produced for the end of Season 5. Respectively, both parts are the fourth and fifth episo ...

" earlier in the season. It was directed by

, also on his second working episode of the season (he directed " Padre de Familia" earlier in the season). Series regulars

Peter Shin Peter Shin is an American animator, director, and producer who served as supervising director of '' Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story'', the director of '' Big Bug Man'', the director of '' Family Guy'' episodes "Death Has a Shadow" (the series prem ...

and James Purdun acted as supervising directors for the episode. The episode's music was composed by Walter Murphy. The episode marked the first appearance of Brian's son Dylan, voiced by one of the shows main voice actors, Seth Green. "The Former Life of Brian", along with the last four episodes of the sixth season and the first eight episodes of the seventh season were released on DVD by

20th Century Fox Home Entertainment 20th Century Studios Home Entertainment (commonly referred to as 20th Home Video, or 20th Home Entertainment, formerly known as 20th Century-Fox Video, CBS/Fox Video, Fox Video, and 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment) is a home video label of Wa ...

in the United States and Canada on June 16, 2009, one month after it had completed broadcast on television. The "Volume 7" DVD release features bonus material including

deleted scene A deleted scene is footage that has been removed from the final version of a film or television show. There are various reasons why these scenes are deleted, which include time constraints, relevance, quality or a dropped story thread. A similar o ...

animatics A storyboard is a graphic organizer that consists of illustrations or images displayed in sequence for the purpose of pre-visualizing a motion picture, animation, motion graphic or interactive media sequence. The storyboarding process, in t ...

, and commentaries for every episode. In addition to the regular cast, actor

, actor Chace Crawford, actress

and actor

made guest appearances in the episode. Recurring voice actors

, writer Alec Sulkin, episode writer Steve Callaghan, writer

and show creator Seth MacFarlane's sister

made minor appearances.

Cultural references

When

finds out that he has a son, Stewie, with much anticipation, yells "Jerry! Jerry! Jerry!" in reference to ''

The Jerry Springer Show ''Jerry Springer'' is an American scripted syndicated tabloid talk show that aired from September 30, 1991 to July 26, 2018. Produced and hosted by its namesake, Jerry Springer, it aired for 27 seasons and nearly 5,000 episodes. The television ...

''. Dylan ties Meg to a chair and makes her watch 178 hours of '' Monty Python'' that were not funny or memorable. In a scene,

Sonny the Cuckoo Bird Sonny is a common nickname and occasional given name. Often it can be a derivative of the English word "Son", a name derived from the Ancient Germanic element *sunn meaning "sun", a nickname derived from the Italian name Salvatore (especially in N ...

being subjected to a

psychological evaluation Psychological evaluation is a method to assess an individual's behavior, personality, cognitive abilities, and several other domains. A common reason for a psychological evaluation is to identify psychological factors that may be inhibiting a pers ...

, where the tester presents to him a bowl of the cereal to test his reaction, this is a reference to his famous motto "cuckoo for

Cocoa Puffs Cocoa Puffs is an American brand of chocolate-flavored puffed grain breakfast cereal, manufactured by General Mills. Introduced in 1956, the cereal consists of small orbs of corn and rice flavored with cocoa. Cocoa Puffs have the same shape as ...

!". When Brian finds his magician outfit, Peter is seen wearing a "Count Crotchula" costume, this is a reference to the breakfast cereal and character of the same name, '' Count Chocula''. In a scene Dorothy says goodbye to the

Cowardly Lion The Cowardly Lion is a character in the fictional Land of Oz created by American author L. Frank Baum. He is depicted as an African lion, but like all animals in Oz, he can speak. Since lions are supposed to be "The Kings of Beasts," the Cowardl ...

, Tin Man and

Scarecrow A scarecrow is a decoy or mannequin, often in the shape of a human. Humanoid scarecrows are usually dressed in old clothes and placed in open fields to discourage birds from disturbing and feeding on recently cast seed and growing crops.Lesley ...

, all of them from the film '' The Wizard of Oz''. When Peter gets his hair cut by Dylan, he is able to grow it back thanks to being "full of

Play-Doh Play-Doh is a modeling compound for young children to make arts and crafts projects at home. The product was first manufactured in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States, as a wallpaper cleaner in the 1930s. Play-Doh was then reworked and marketed to Ci ...

Reception

In its original broadcast on April 27, 2008, "The Former Life of Brian" was watched by 8.42 million households according to the Nielsen ratings, the

audience measurement Audience measurement measures how many people are in an audience, usually in relation to radio listenership and television viewership, but also in relation to newspaper and magazine readership and, increasingly, web traffic on websites. Sometim ...

systems developed to determine the audience size and composition of

television programming Broadcast programming is the practice of organizing or ordering (scheduling) of broadcast media shows, typically radio and television, in a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly or season-long schedule. Modern broadcasters use broadcast automation ...

in the United States. The episode acquired a 4.3 rating/10 share in the 18–49 demographic, The episode received mixed reviews from critics. Ahsan Haque of

IGN ''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...

wrote that "not all of the manatee jokes were hits, but the storyline makes up for it". He graded "The Former Life of Brian" 8.3 out of 10. Brad Trechak of

TV Squad Weblogs, Inc. was a blog network that published content on a variety of subjects, including tech news, video games, automobiles and pop culture. At one point, the network had as many as 90 blogs, although the vast majority of its traffic could be ...

called the episode "pretty good" and stated that "it had its ups and downs but it came out ahead overall". Genevieve Koski of

The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...

criticized the episode, saying that it "didn't really offer many surprises or laughs", and commenting that Brian is "too much of a straight man to carry an arc with one-time character no one cares about". She graded "The Former Life of Brian" C+. Greg Rock of the

Parents Television Council The Parents Television and Media Council (PTMC), formerly the Parents Television Council (PTC), is an American media advocacy group founded by conservative Christian activist L. Brent Bozell III in 1995, which advocates for what it considers ...

, an organization that has frequently criticized the series, named this episode the "Worst TV Show of the Week".

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Former Life Of Brian, The 2008 American television episodes Family Guy (season 6) episodes Television episodes directed by Pete Michels