'Family Guy's' Brian coming back in upcoming episode?

[Ubiquitous]

By Andy Swift

Anyone up for a Christmas miracle? Just weeks after the controversial
death of "Family Guy's" Brian Griffin, it sounds like we might be seeing
America’s favorite atheist pooch again really soon.

Fueling speculation that Brian’s passing was merely a publicity stunt,
the official description for the Dec. 15 episode — cryptic as it may be
— strongly suggests that Brian (Seth MacFarlane) will be returning to
the land of the living.

On the Christmas episode, “Stewie devises a master plan to get the one
and only thing he wants for Christmas,” according to the official
description from Fox. And, as pointed out by Entertainment Weekly, the
network lists Brian as a character on the episode.

Another indicator that Brian will be back for good is that several
episodes this season feature his name in their titles.

MORE: Brian Dies On 'Family Guy'

Even if Brian does return, one question remains: What’s going to happen
to Vinny, the dog who quickly replaced Brian after his untimely demise?
Tony Sirico, who voices the character, recently signed on to do six
episodes, suggesting Vinny will be sticking around even after Brian
comes back.

A popular theory floating around the internet is that Vinny, or his
owner, was driving the car that hit and killed Brian. There was, after
all, a time lapse between Brian’s death and Vinny’s adoption.

Regardless of whether or not that theory turns out to be true, let’s
hope his stay with the Griffin family ends better than “New” Brian’s
did.

[Michael Black]

Even if Brian does return, one question remains: What?s going to happen
to Vinny, the dog who quickly replaced Brian after his untimely demise?
Tony Sirico, who voices the character, recently signed on to do six
episodes, suggesting Vinny will be sticking around even after Brian
comes back.

"Thanks for spoiling things for us!"

I'm sure Vinny will be sent to a better place, a nice farm with lots of
room where he can run wild, chase other animals all day, and eat all he
wants. All his desires will be provided.

Michael

[anim8rFSK]

Post by Michael Black

Even if Brian does return, one question remains: What?s going to happen
to Vinny, the dog who quickly replaced Brian after his untimely demise?
Tony Sirico, who voices the character, recently signed on to do six
episodes, suggesting Vinny will be sticking around even after Brian
comes back.

"Thanks for spoiling things for us!"
I'm sure Vinny will be sent to a better place, a nice farm with lots of
room where he can run wild, chase other animals all day, and eat all he
wants. All his desires will be provided.
Michael

Maybe Stewie will have to trade one dog's life for another, and ... like
the audience, frankly won't care if Vinny gets run down, and will redo
history with a swap out.

[Ubiquitous]

Post by anim8rFSK

Post by Michael Black

Even if Brian does return, one question remains: What?s going to happen
to Vinny, the dog who quickly replaced Brian after his untimely demise?
Tony Sirico, who voices the character, recently signed on to do six
episodes, suggesting Vinny will be sticking around even after Brian
comes back.

I'm sure Vinny will be sent to a better place, a nice farm with lots of
room where he can run wild, chase other animals all day, and eat all he
wants. All his desires will be provided.

Maybe Stewie will have to trade one dog's life for another, and ... like
the audience, frankly won't care if Vinny gets run down, and will redo
history with a swap out.

I can't help but get the feeling they're trying to make us dislike Vinnie so we
won't care.

[Don Del Grande]

Post by Ubiquitous
I can't help but get the feeling they're trying to make us dislike Vinnie so we
won't care.

Because that works so well with Meg...

[Ubiquitous]

Post by Michael Black

Even if Brian does return, one question remains: What?s going to happen
to Vinny, the dog who quickly replaced Brian after his untimely demise?
Tony Sirico, who voices the character, recently signed on to do six
episodes, suggesting Vinny will be sticking around even after Brian
comes back.

I'm sure Vinny will be sent to a better place, a nice farm with lots of
room where he can run wild, chase other animals all day, and eat all he
wants. All his desires will be provided.

Who do you think shoots him?

[Michael Black]

Post by Ubiquitous

Post by Michael Black

Even if Brian does return, one question remains: What?s going to happen
to Vinny, the dog who quickly replaced Brian after his untimely demise?
Tony Sirico, who voices the character, recently signed on to do six
episodes, suggesting Vinny will be sticking around even after Brian
comes back.

I'm sure Vinny will be sent to a better place, a nice farm with lots of
room where he can run wild, chase other animals all day, and eat all he
wants. All his desires will be provided.

Who do you think shoots him?

I hadn't thought that far.

Michael

[Don Del Grande]

Post by Ubiquitous
By Andy Swift
Anyone up for a Christmas miracle? Just weeks after the controversial
death of "Family Guy's" Brian Griffin, it sounds like we might be seeing
America’s favorite atheist pooch again really soon.
Fueling speculation that Brian’s passing was merely a publicity stunt,
the official description for the Dec. 15 episode — cryptic as it may be
— strongly suggests that Brian (Seth MacFarlane) will be returning to
the land of the living.
On the Christmas episode, “Stewie devises a master plan to get the one
and only thing he wants for Christmas,” according to the official
description from Fox. And, as pointed out by Entertainment Weekly, the
network lists Brian as a character on the episode.

The network listed Brian in its press release for last week's episode,
as well.

Post by Ubiquitous
A popular theory floating around the internet is that Vinny, or his
owner, was driving the car that hit and killed Brian. There was, after
all, a time lapse between Brian’s death and Vinny’s adoption.

Not the theory I keep hearing:

POSSIBLE SPOILER SPACE (I don't know any more than you do - I thought
"for sure" that the character who was going to die was Peter's mother
(she is "a Griffin", and the actress who did her voice died last year)
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The car that hit Brian appears to be a gray Toyota Prius. What a
coincidence; Brian owns (well, owned) a gray Prius. (Note that it
didn't have a front license plate, and they didn't show the rear one,
which is "BRI DOG" on Brian's car).

Here's a theory:

1. Stewie has already mentioned that he used his time machine to go
forward in time to get a Christmas gift on the day it came out (I
think it was a Jolly Time Farm playset of some sort).

2. Stewie goes to the store where "past Stewie" went to buy the item,
and uses that Stewie's return pad to return to past Stewie's time -
where there's still (a) a working time machine and (b) a living Brian.

From here, there are two different theories:

3a. Stewie tells Brian what happens, so Brian simply does not get the
street hockey goal that resulted in his death; Stewie then returns to
his own present in the time machine and gives the return pad to past
Stewie so he can go back, and there won't be a time period without any
Stewies in it.

3b. Stewie takes past Brian forward in time to just before Brian was
hit by the car - so past Brian hits Brian with his own car, then they
rush to the hospital, wait in hiding for the injured Brian to show up,
then switch him with the Brian who drove the car (and who, er, had to
be injured bad enough so it would be believeable that he was hit by a
car, but not bad enough so that he can't be saved).

Oh, there's a third possibility:

3c. Brian is somehow saved...only to be run over again, either by
Quagmire or a returning Cleveland (it has already been announced that
Cleveland will be returning to Quahog and staying), but then, they
break character and explain that it was another of the show's
screwjobs, and Brian will be back in the next new episode as if
nothing had happened.

[The Doctor (as portrayed by John Hurt)]

Post by Don Del Grande

Post by Ubiquitous
By Andy Swift
Anyone up for a Christmas miracle? Just weeks after the controversial
death of "Family Guy's" Brian Griffin, it sounds like we might be seeing
America’s favorite atheist pooch again really soon.
Fueling speculation that Brian’s passing was merely a publicity stunt,
the official description for the Dec. 15 episode — cryptic as it may be
— strongly suggests that Brian (Seth MacFarlane) will be returning to
the land of the living.
On the Christmas episode, “Stewie devises a master plan to get the one
and only thing he wants for Christmas,” according to the official
description from Fox. And, as pointed out by Entertainment Weekly, the
network lists Brian as a character on the episode.

The network listed Brian in its press release for last week's episode,
as well.

Post by Ubiquitous
A popular theory floating around the internet is that Vinny, or his
owner, was driving the car that hit and killed Brian. There was, after
all, a time lapse between Brian’s death and Vinny’s adoption.

POSSIBLE SPOILER SPACE (I don't know any more than you do - I thought
"for sure" that the character who was going to die was Peter's mother
(she is "a Griffin", and the actress who did her voice died last year)
40
39
38
37
36
35
34
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2
The car that hit Brian appears to be a gray Toyota Prius. What a
coincidence; Brian owns (well, owned) a gray Prius. (Note that it
didn't have a front license plate, and they didn't show the rear one,
which is "BRI DOG" on Brian's car).
1. Stewie has already mentioned that he used his time machine to go
forward in time to get a Christmas gift on the day it came out (I
think it was a Jolly Time Farm playset of some sort).
2. Stewie goes to the store where "past Stewie" went to buy the item,
and uses that Stewie's return pad to return to past Stewie's time -
where there's still (a) a working time machine and (b) a living Brian.
3a. Stewie tells Brian what happens, so Brian simply does not get the
street hockey goal that resulted in his death; Stewie then returns to
his own present in the time machine and gives the return pad to past
Stewie so he can go back, and there won't be a time period without any
Stewies in it.
3b. Stewie takes past Brian forward in time to just before Brian was
hit by the car - so past Brian hits Brian with his own car, then they
rush to the hospital, wait in hiding for the injured Brian to show up,
then switch him with the Brian who drove the car (and who, er, had to
be injured bad enough so it would be believeable that he was hit by a
car, but not bad enough so that he can't be saved).
3c. Brian is somehow saved...only to be run over again, either by
Quagmire or a returning Cleveland (it has already been announced that
Cleveland will be returning to Quahog and staying), but then, they
break character and explain that it was another of the show's
screwjobs, and Brian will be back in the next new episode as if
nothing had happened.

It was #2.

[Don Del Grande]

Post by The Doctor (as portrayed by John Hurt)

Post by Don Del Grande
The car that hit Brian appears to be a gray Toyota Prius. What a
coincidence; Brian owns (well, owned) a gray Prius. (Note that it
didn't have a front license plate, and they didn't show the rear one,
which is "BRI DOG" on Brian's car).

It wasn't Brian's car after all. My guess: they didn't want to go
through the time and money to make a 3D model for a car that would
appear for five seconds, so they just used Brian's Prius and made some
cosmetic changes (you can't see through the windshield, and the "BRI
DOG" license plate is missing).

Post by The Doctor (as portrayed by John Hurt)

Post by Don Del Grande
2. Stewie goes to the store where "past Stewie" went to buy the item,
and uses that Stewie's return pad to return to past Stewie's time -
where there's still (a) a working time machine and (b) a living Brian.

It was #2.

Not quite. Apparently, the writers retconned the return pad so now it
can go anywhere and anytime, and not just back to the time machine;
Stewie adjusted it to take him to the spot right when the car was
about to hit Brian, so he could push him out of the way. Stewie then
somehow knew exactly where the other Stewie would be standing at an
exact momentin time so he could get the return pad back into his
backpack without his noticing that it was ever missing.

I wonder if the writers will ever realize that now Stewie can just
build a return pad (remember, it runs on ordinary batteries) and use
that as a time machine.

Oh, wait, I forgot: they didn't have time to think about this because,
while most episodes of FG take something like nine months to write,
record, animate, and do the music, this one was done in less than two
weeks in response to all of the "Bring Back Brian" requests on
Facebook and on online petitions, all of which are now demanding
either tickets to the next Comic-Con to attend whatever Family Guy
event happens there, or tickets to the Hollywood premiere of the
Family Guy Movie when it finally gets made...

[Wiseguy]

Post by Don Del Grande

Post by The Doctor (as portrayed by John Hurt)

Post by Don Del Grande
The car that hit Brian appears to be a gray Toyota Prius. What a
coincidence; Brian owns (well, owned) a gray Prius. (Note that it
didn't have a front license plate, and they didn't show the rear one,
which is "BRI DOG" on Brian's car).

It wasn't Brian's car after all. My guess: they didn't want to go
through the time and money to make a 3D model for a car that would
appear for five seconds, so they just used Brian's Prius and made some
cosmetic changes (you can't see through the windshield, and the "BRI
DOG" license plate is missing).

Post by The Doctor (as portrayed by John Hurt)

Post by Don Del Grande
2. Stewie goes to the store where "past Stewie" went to buy the item,
and uses that Stewie's return pad to return to past Stewie's time -
where there's still (a) a working time machine and (b) a living Brian.

It was #2.

Not quite. Apparently, the writers retconned the return pad so now it
can go anywhere and anytime, and not just back to the time machine;
Stewie adjusted it to take him to the spot right when the car was
about to hit Brian, so he could push him out of the way. Stewie then
somehow knew exactly where the other Stewie would be standing at an
exact momentin time so he could get the return pad back into his
backpack without his noticing that it was ever missing.

I see you're just as anal about Family Guy as you are about the
Simpsons.

Post by Don Del Grande
I wonder if the writers will ever realize that now Stewie can just
build a return pad (remember, it runs on ordinary batteries) and use
that as a time machine.
Oh, wait, I forgot: they didn't have time to think about this because,
while most episodes of FG take something like nine months to write,
record, animate, and do the music, this one was done in less than two
weeks in response to all of the "Bring Back Brian" requests on
Facebook and on online petitions, all of which are now demanding
either tickets to the next Comic-Con to attend whatever Family Guy
event happens there, or tickets to the Hollywood premiere of the
Family Guy Movie when it finally gets made...

Nonsense. Just because YOU didn't know about it doesn't mean it wasn't
planned well in advance.

[Don Del Grande]

Post by Wiseguy

Post by Don Del Grande

Post by The Doctor (as portrayed by John Hurt)
It was #2.

Not quite. Apparently, the writers retconned the return pad so now it
can go anywhere and anytime, and not just back to the time machine;
Stewie adjusted it to take him to the spot right when the car was
about to hit Brian, so he could push him out of the way. Stewie then
somehow knew exactly where the other Stewie would be standing at an
exact momentin time so he could get the return pad back into his
backpack without his noticing that it was ever missing.

I see you're just as anal about Family Guy as you are about the
Simpsons.

I wouldn't go that far, but yes, I can be quite picky about writing,
especially in animation - ask half of the writers who worked for
Nickelodeon in the 1990s about that...

Post by Wiseguy

Post by Don Del Grande
I wonder if the writers will ever realize that now Stewie can just
build a return pad (remember, it runs on ordinary batteries) and use
that as a time machine.
Oh, wait, I forgot: they didn't have time to think about this because,
while most episodes of FG take something like nine months to write,
record, animate, and do the music, this one was done in less than two
weeks in response to all of the "Bring Back Brian" requests on
Facebook and on online petitions, all of which are now demanding
either tickets to the next Comic-Con to attend whatever Family Guy
event happens there, or tickets to the Hollywood premiere of the
Family Guy Movie when it finally gets made...

Nonsense. Just because YOU didn't know about it doesn't mean it wasn't
planned well in advance.

Your newsreader's sarcasm filter seems to be set too high. Obviously,
the whole thing was planned months in advance - in fact, it was the
fact that there are upcoming episode titles with Brian's name in them
that made me rule out Brian being the one killed in the first place.

It was a reference to just about every "Family Guy" Facebook post made
by Fox being flooded with "Bring Back Brian!" comments.

[FG Fan]

Post by Ubiquitous
What’s going to happen
to Vinny, the dog who quickly replaced Brian after his untimely demise?

Seriously, who the fuck cares about this non-issue?