The Griffin family is a fictional family from the animated television series Family Guy. The Griffins are a nuclear family consisting of the married couple Peter and Lois, their three children Meg, Chris, and Stewie, and their dog Brian. They live at 31 Spooner Street in the fictional town of Quahog, Rhode Island. Their family car is a red sixth generation Ford Country Squire. They were created by Seth MacFarlane, in model of his two animated films, The Life of Larry and Larry & Steve. The family debuted January 31, 1999, after Super Bowl XXXIII, in the episode "Death Has a Shadow."

Alongside the six main family members, there are a number of other major and minor characters in their family. The most commonly recurring characters are Lois's father, Carter Pewterschmidt, Peter's father, Francis Griffin, as well as Peter's mother, Thelma Griffin. Other family members include Lois's mother Barbara Pewterschmidt, as well as Lois's two siblings, Carol and Patrick.

MacFarlane conceived the idea for the Family Guy in 1998, developing it out of his two short films. MacFarlane caught the attention of Fox, and was given $50,000 to make a pilot. MacFarlane completed the 11 minute pilot after six months of hand animation. Upon review, Fox gave the green light to Family Guy as a series. Although Family Guy's cancellation was initially announced after the second season, Fox decided to make a third season, after which it was truly canceled at the end of 2003. However, reruns on Adult Swim drove up interest in the show, and its DVD releases did quite well, selling over 2.2 million copies in one year, which renewed network interest.

Stewart Gilligan "Stewie" Griffin is a character from the animated television series Family Guy. Once obsessed with world domination and matricide, Stewie (voiced by Seth MacFarlane) is the youngest child of Peter and Lois Griffin, and the brother of Chris and Meg. He also has a close friendship with the family's anthropomorphic dog, Brian.

Stewie is considered to be the show's breakout character.Wizard magazine rated him the 95th greatest villain of all time.

Stewie is a one-year old prodigy who has a very sophisticated psyche, is able to speak fluently, and is intended to have a slightly camp upper class English accent. He reaches his first birthday in the season 1 episode "Chitty Chitty Death Bang," and has not been referred to as being more than a year old since, although it is presumed that he has aged to the age of at least three, as he is seen in several episodes going to Pre-school. While highly literate and able to cite pop culture references that long predate his birth, he is also entranced by Raffi and the Teletubbies. Stewie succumbs to other weaknesses of children his age – he believes Peter has truly disappeared in a game of Peekaboo, talks to his teddy bear (Rupert) as if he were alive, is overcome with laughter when Lois blows on his stomach, and has no idea how to use a toilet. MacFarlane has stated that Stewie is meant to represent the general helplessness of an infant through the eyes of an adult. Per cartoon physics, his ability to move objects of greater weight than himself is not surprising to other characters, nor is his ability to retrieve firearms from hammerspace.

Peter Griffin is a fictional character and protagonist of the animated comedy series Family Guy. He is voiced by cartoonist Seth MacFarlane and first appeared on television, along with the rest of the family in the 15-minute short on December 20, 1998. Peter was created and designed by MacFarlane himself. MacFarlane was asked to pitch a pilot to the Fox Broadcasting Company based on Larry and Steve, a short made by MacFarlane 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".

Peter is married to Lois Pewterschmidt and is the father of Meg, Chris and Stewie; he also has a dog named Brian. He has worked at a toy factory and at Quahog's Brewery. Despite the suburban blue-collar routine of his life, he has had a number of remarkable experiences.

Peter's voice was inspired by a janitor that MacFarlane heard at his school. His appearance was a redesign of the protagonist Larry from MacFarlane's previous animated short films, The Life of Larry and Larry & Steve. The Peter Griffin character has received generally mixed to positive reviews from critics. He has appeared in several pieces of Family Guy merchandise, including toys, t-shirts and a video game, and has made crossover appearances in other shows, including The Simpsons, South Park, American Dad and the Family Guy spin-off The Cleveland Show.