Other Black is an ethnicity category used by the Office of National Statistics in the United Kingdom. It is one of three "Black or Black British" ethnicity options used in ONS statistics, alongside Black African and Black Caribbean.^[1]

The term was used in the 1991 UK Census and the 2001 UK Census. According to the 2001 Census, 97,585 UK residents selected the Other Black category to describe their ethnicity.^[2]

As of 2009, ONS estimates suggest that approximately 124,500 Other Black people are now resident in England.^[3]

References[link]

This article contains Japanese text. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of kanji and kana.

Michio Kaku (加来 道雄, Kaku Michio^?, born January 24, 1947) is an American theoretical physicist, the Henry Semat Professor of Theoretical Physics in the City College of New York of City University of New York, a co-founder of string field theory,^[1] a futurist, and a "communicator" and "popularizer" of science. He has written several books about physics and related topics; he has made frequent appearances on radio, television, and film; and he writes extensive online blogs and articles. He has written two New York Times best sellers, Physics of the Impossible (2008) and Physics of the Future (2011). He has hosted several TV specials for BBC-TV, the Discovery Channel, and the Science Channel.

Early life and education[link]

Kaku was born in San Jose, California to Japanese immigrant parents. His grandfather came to the United States to take part in the clean-up operation after the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake^{[citation needed]}. His father was born in California but was educated in Japan and spoke little English. Both his parents were put in the Tule Lake War Relocation Center, where they met and where his two brothers were born.

At Cubberley High School in Palo Alto, Kaku assembled an atom smasher in his parents' garage for a science fair project.^[2] At the National Science Fair in Albuquerque, New Mexico, he attracted the attention of physicist Edward Teller, who took Kaku as a protégé, awarding him the Hertz Engineering Scholarship. Kaku graduated summa cum laude from Harvard University in 1968 and was first in his physics class. He attended the Berkeley Radiation Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley and received a Ph.D. in 1972, and in 1972 he held a lectureship at Princeton University.

During the Vietnam War, Kaku completed his U.S. Army basic training at Fort Benning, Georgia and his advanced individual training at Fort Lewis, Washington.^[3] However, the Vietnam War ended before he was deployed as an infantryman.

Academic career[link]

Kaku became a visiting professor at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton,^[4] and New York University.^[5] He currently holds the Henry Semat Chair and Professorship in theoretical physics at the City College of New York.^[6]

Kaku has had over 70 articles published in physics journals such as Physical Review, covering topics such as superstring theory, supergravity, supersymmetry, and hadronic physics.^[7] In 1974, along with Prof. Keiji Kikkawa of Osaka University, he authored the first papers describing string theory in a field form.^[8][9]

Kaku is the author of several textbooks on string theory and quantum field theory.

Popular science[link]

Kaku is most widely known as a popularizer of science.^[10] He has written books and appeared on many television programs as well as film. He also hosts a weekly radio program.

Books[link]

Kaku is the author of various popular science books.

• Hyperspace (1994)
• Beyond Einstein (with Jennifer Thompson) (1995)
• Visions: How Science Will Revolutionize the 21st Century^[11] (1998)
• Einstein's Cosmos (2004)
• Parallel Worlds (2004)
• Physics of the Impossible (2008)
• Physics of the Future (2011)

Hyperspace was a best-seller and was voted one of the best science books of the year by both The New York Times^[10] and The Washington Post. Parallel Worlds was a finalist for the Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction in the UK.^[12]

Radio[link]

Kaku is the host of the weekly, one-hour radio program Explorations, produced by the Pacifica Foundation's WBAI in New York. "Explorations" is syndicated to community and independent radio stations and makes previous broadcasts available on the program's website. Kaku defines the show as dealing with the general topics of science, war, peace, and the environment.

In April 2006, Kaku began broadcasting Science Fantastic on 90 commercial radio stations, the only nationally syndicated science program on commercial radio in the United States. It is syndicated by Talk Radio Network and now reaches 130 radio stations and America's Talk on XM. The program is formatted as a live listener call-in show, focusing on "futurology," which he defines as the future of science.^{[citation needed]} Featured guests include Nobel laureates and top researchers on the topics of string theory, time travel, black holes, gene therapy, aging, space travel, artificial intelligence, and SETI. When Kaku is busy filming for television, Science Fantastic goes on hiatus, sometimes for several months. Kaku is also a frequent guest on many programs, where he is outspoken in all areas and issues he considers of importance, such as the program Coast to Coast AM, where on 30 November 2007, he reaffirmed his belief that there is a 100% probability of extraterrestrial life in the universe.^[13]

Kaku has appeared on The Opie and Anthony Show a number of times, discussing popular fiction such as Back to The Future, Lost, and the theories behind time-travel that these and other fictional entertainment focus on.

Television and film[link]

Kaku has appeared in many forms of media and on many programs and networks, including Good Morning America, The Screen Savers, Larry King Live, 60 Minutes, Nightline, 20/20, Naked Science, CNN, ABC News, CBS News, NBC News, Al Jazeera English, Fox News Channel, The History Channel, Conan, The Science Channel, The Discovery Channel, TLC, Countdown with Keith Olbermann, The Colbert Report, The Art Bell Show and its successor, Coast To Coast AM, BBC World News America, The Opie & Anthony Show, The Covino & Rich Show, Head Rush, The Late Show with David Letterman, and Real Time with Bill Maher.

In 1999, Kaku was one of the scientists profiled in the feature-length film Me and Isaac Newton, directed by Michael Apted. It played theatrically in the United States, was later broadcast on national TV, and won several film awards.^{[citation needed]}

In 2005, Kaku appeared in the short documentary Obsessed & Scientific. The film is about the possibility of time travel and the people who dream about it. It screened at the Montreal World Film Festival and a feature film expansion is in development talks. Kaku also appeared in the ABC documentary UFOs: Seeing Is Believing, in which he suggested that while he believes it is extremely unlikely that extraterrestrials have ever actually visited Earth, we must keep our minds open to the possible existence of civilizations a million years ahead of us in technology, where entirely new avenues of physics open up. He also discussed the future of interstellar exploration and alien life in the Discovery Channel special Alien Planet as one of the multiple speakers who co-hosted the show, and Einstein's Theory of Relativity on The History Channel.

In February 2006, Kaku appeared as presenter in the BBC-TV four-part documentary Time which seeks to explore the mysterious nature of time. Part one of the series concerns personal time, and how we perceive and measure the passing of time. The second in the series deals with cheating time, exploring possibilities of extending the lifespan of organisms. The geological time covered in part three explores the ages of the earth and the sun. Part four covers the topics of cosmological time, the beginning of time and the events that occurred at the instant of the big bang.

On January 28, 2007, Kaku hosted the Discovery Channel series 2057. This three-hour program discussed how medicine, the city, and energy could change over the next 50 years.

In 2008, Kaku hosted the three-hour BBC-TV documentary Visions of the Future, on the future of computers, medicine, and quantum physics, and he appeared in several episodes of the History Channel's Universe series.

On December 1, 2009, he began hosting a 12-episode weekly TV series for the Science Channel at 10 pm, called Sci Fi Science: Physics of the Impossible, based on his best-selling book. Each 30-minute episode discusses the scientific basis behind imaginative schemes, such as time travel, parallel universes, warp drive, star ships, light sabers, force fields, teleportation, invisibility, death stars, and even superpowers and flying saucers. Each episode includes interviews with the world's top scientists working on prototypes of these technologies, interviews with science fiction fans, clips from science fiction movies, and special effects and computer graphics. Although these inventions are impossible today, the series discusses when these technologies might become feasible in the future.^[14]

In 2010, he began to appear in a series on the website Gametrailers.com called Science of Games, discussing the scientific aspects of various popular video games such as Mass Effect 2 and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.

Kaku is popular in mainstream media because of his knowledge and his accessible approach to presenting complex subjects in science. While his technical writings are confined to theoretical physics, his public speaking and media appearances cover a broad range of topics, from the Kardashev scale to more esoteric subjects such as wormholes and time travel. In January 2007, Kaku visited Oman. While there, he talked at length to select members of that country's decision makers. In an interview with local media, Dr Kaku elaborated on his vision of mankind's future. Kaku considers climate change and terrorism as serious threats in man's evolution from a Type 0 civilization to Type 1.^[15]

He is pictured in Symphony of Science's newest song (as of September 6, 2011), 'The Quantum World.'

On October 11, 2010, Michio Kaku appeared in the BBC program "What Happened Before the Big Bang" (along with Laura Mersini-Houghton, Andrei Linde, Roger Penrose, Lee Smolin, Neil Turok, and other notable cosmologists and physicists), where he propounded his theory of the universe created out of nothing.^[16]

Social policy advocacy[link]

Kaku has publicly stated his concerns over matters including the anthropogenic cause of global warming, nuclear armament, nuclear power and the general misuse of science.^[17] He was critical of the Cassini–Huygens space probe because of the 72 pounds (33 kg) of plutonium contained in the craft for use by its radioisotope thermoelectric generator. Conscious of the possibility of casualties if the probe's fuel were dispersed into the environment during a malfunction and crash as the probe was making a 'sling-shot' maneuver around earth, Kaku publicly criticized NASA's risk assessment.^[18] He has also spoken on the dangers of space junk and called for more and better monitoring. Kaku is generally a vigorous supporter of the exploration of outer space, believing that the ultimate destiny of the human race may lie in extrasolar planets; but he is critical of some of the cost-ineffective missions and methods of NASA.

Kaku credits his anti-nuclear war position to programs he heard on the Pacifica Radio network, during his student years in California. It was during this period that he made the decision to turn away from a career developing the next generation of nuclear weapons in association with Edward Teller and focused on research, teaching, writing and media.^{[citation needed]} Kaku joined with others such as Helen Caldicott, Jonathan Schell, Peace Action and was instrumental in building a global anti-nuclear weapons movement that arose in the 1980s, during the administration of U.S. President Ronald Reagan.

Kaku was a board member of Peace Action and on the board of radio station WBAI-FM in New York City where he originated his long running program, Explorations, that focused on the issues of science, war, peace and the environment.

His remark from an interview in support of SETI, "We could be in the middle of an intergalactic conversation...and we wouldn't even know.", is used in the third Symphony of Science installment "Our Place in the Cosmos".

Personal life[link]

Kaku is married to Shizue Kaku and has two daughters.^[19]

Bibliography[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Michio Kaku

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• Official website
• Michio Kaku on Twitter
• Getting Physical: Dr. Michio Kaku Explains Einstein's Genius
• Russia Takes Aim at Asteroids, op-ed on asteroid defense, Wall St. Journal, Jan. 5, 2010
• The Skeptics' Guide To The Universe interview
• Michio Kaku at the Internet Movie Database
• Michio Kaku on National Public Radio
• About Michio Kaku
• Video: Michio Kaku discusses Physics of the Future on March 23, 2011, on Forum Network.
• In Depth interview with Kaku, October 3, 2010

Nicole Ari Parker
Parker in December 2010
Born	(1970-10-07) October 7, 1970 (age 41) Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.
Other names	Nikki Kodjoe
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1995–present

Nicole Ari Parker Kodjoe (born October 7, 1970), also known as Nikki Kodjoe, is an American actress and a former model. Parker is best known for her role as Becky Barnett in the 1997 film, Boogie Nights and as the attorney Teri Joseph on the Showtime series, Soul Food, which ran from 2000 to 2004.

Early life[link]

Parker was born in Baltimore, Maryland. She is the only child of her divorced parents, health care professional Susan Parker and dentist Donald Parker.^[1] Parker's ethnic background is African American and Cherokee.^[2] At the age of 17, she won best actress in the state of Maryland's high school competition and then moved to the Washington Ballet Company before applying to the New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. She graduated with an acting degree in 1993.^[3]

Career[link]

Early in her career she appeared in several critically acclaimed independent films including The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love, Boogie Nights, 200 Cigarettes, and the 1999 Sundance Film Festival winner The Adventures of Sebastian Cole. She starred with her husband, model and actor Boris Kodjoe, in UPN's situation comedy Second Time Around.

After a string of odd jobs (including scooping ice cream), bit-roles and low wage work in the theater circuit, Parker was offered her breakthrough role on Soul Food. In Soul Food, she showcased her singing voice in several episodes. Parker also had a guest appearance on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, playing a singer. She played the role of Stephanie in the movie Divas, alongside Khalil Kain. She also had a lead role in the 1998 film Exiled: A Law & Order Movie. She worked alongside Martin Lawrence in two of his films: Blue Streak and Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins.

Ms. Parker recently opened on Broadway in the play, A Streetcar Named Desire, in the role of Blanche DuBois.

Personal life[link]

Parker eloped with actor Joseph Falasca in March 2001. Their marriage lasted only eight months; they divorced later that year. She married her Soul Food co-star Boris Kodjoe on May 21, 2005 in Gundelfingen, Germany. She gave birth to their first child, a girl, Sophie Tei-Naaki Lee Kodjoe, on March 5, 2005. Sophie has spina bifida, which was diagnosed at birth.^[4] Parker gave birth to the couple's second child, Nicolas Neruda Kodjoe, a boy, on October 31, 2006 in Atlanta, Georgia. The family resides in Atlanta.

Filmography[link]

• The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love (1995)
• Divas (1995)
• Boogie Nights (1997)
• The End of Violence (1997)
• Exiled: A Law & Order Movie (1998)
• The Adventures of Sebastian Cole (1998)
• Spark (1998)
• Mute Love (1999)
• 200 Cigarettes (1999)
• Blue Streak (1999)
• The Loretta Claiborne Story (film) (1999)
• "Harlem Aria"(1999)
• Dancing in September (2000)
• Remember the Titans (2000)
• Loving Jezebel (2000)
• Brown Sugar (2002)
• King's Ransom (2005)
• Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins (2008)
• Imagine That (2009)
• Pastor Brown (2009)
• 35 and Ticking (2011)

Television[link]

• Cosby (1999–2000)
• CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (1 episode, guest appearance, 2002)
• Soul Food (2000–2004)
• Second Time Around (2004–2005)
• All of Us (2004)
• The Deep End (2010) (Susan Oppenheim)

Awards and nominations[link]

• Image Awards
  • 2001, Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture: Remember the Titans (Nominated)
  • 2001, Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series: Soul Food (Nominated)
  • 2002, Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series: Soul Food (Nominated)
  • 2003, Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture: Brown Sugar (Nominated)
  • 2003, Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series: Soul Food (Nominated)
  • 2004, Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series: Soul Food (Nominated)
  • 2005, Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series: Soul Food (Nominated)

• Screen Actors Guild
  • 1998, Outstanding Cast in a Motion Picture: Boogie Nights (Nominated)

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Nicole Ari Parker

• Official website
• Nicole Ari Parker at the Internet Movie Database

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.

[edit] Role in Family Guy

Peter Griffin is an overweight Irish American , blue collar worker with a prominent Rhode Island and Eastern Massachusetts accent.^[1] He's the husband of Lois and the father of Meg, Chris and Stewie. He is the son of Thelma Griffin and Mickey McFinnigan, and is the step-son of Francis Griffin. Peter and the rest of the Griffins live in the fictional town of Quahog, Rhode Island which is modeled after Cranston, Rhode Island.^[2][3][4] Peter primarily worked as a safety inspector at the Happy-Go-Lucky Toy Factory, until his boss Jonathan Weed choked to death on a dinner roll; he then became a fisherman on his own boat, known as the "S.S. More Powerful than Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, and The Incredible Hulk Put Together", with the help of two Portuguese immigrants, Santos and Pasqual, until his boat was destroyed.^[5][6] He now works in the shipping department of the Pawtucket Patriot brewery.^[7][8] Peter is also shown in various jobs for single episodes and cutaway gags. In a running gag, storylines are randomly interrupted by extremely long, unexpected fights between Peter and Ernie the Giant Chicken, an anthropomorphic chicken who serves as a rival to Peter.^[9] These battles parody the action film genre, with explosions, high-speed chases and immense devastation to the town of Quahog.^[10]

Character[link]

Series creator Seth MacFarlane based Peter's voice on the voices of security guards and maintenance he had heard talking, while attending the Rhode Island School of Design.

Creation[link]

When he was still in college, Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane created a cartoon short called The Life of Larry.^[11] The short centered on a middle-aged man named Larry and his anthropomorphic dog Steve.^[12] He made a sequel called Larry & Steve, which Cartoon Network broadcast in 1997.^[13] In 1999, MacFarlane was working for Hanna-Barbara Studios, writing for shows such as Johnny Bravo, Dexter's Laboratory, and Cow and Chicken.^[14] The short caught the eye of 20th Century Fox representatives, who asked him to create a TV series revolving around the characters.^[12] MacFarlane received a US$50,000 budget to develop a pilot for the show, which was about one twentieth of what most pilots cost.^[14] MacFarlane claims to have drawn inspiration from several sitcoms, namely The Simpsons and All in the Family.^[15] Several premises were also carried over from several 1980s Saturday morning cartoons he watched as a child, namely The Fonz and the Happy Days Gang, and Rubik, the Amazing Cube.^[16]

In three months, MacFarlane created the Griffin family and developed a pilot for the show he called Family Guy.^[17] Brian's character was largely based on Steve from the Larry and Steve cartoon, with Larry serving as the primary basis of the Peter character.^[18] The character's personality was also partially inspired by a friend of his father who rudely fell asleep while watching the 1993 film Philadelphia.^[19] The network executives were impressed with the pilot and ordered thirteen episodes, giving MacFarlane a 2 million dollar per-season contract.^[17]

In "Peter's Two Dads", it is revealed that Peter's biological father is an Irishman named Mickey, which is based on the heritage of MacFarlane's biological father.^[12] MacFarlane said, "When I was growing up, my father had lots of friends: big, vocal, opinionated New England, Irish Catholics. They were all bursting at the seams with personality, and Family Guy came out of a lot of those archetypes that I spent years observing."^[12]

Voice[link]

The voice of Peter is provided by the show's creator MacFarlane who also provides the voice for Brian, Stewie and Quagmire, MacFarlane also provides the voices for various other recurring and one-time only characters, most prominently those of news anchor Tom Tucker, Lois' father Carter Pewterschmidt, and Dr. Hartman.^[21] MacFarlane has been part of the main voice cast from the beginning of the series including the pilot, as well he has been voicing Peter from the start.^[22] MacFarlane chose to voice Peter and the rest of characters voices himself, believing it would be easier to portray the voices he already envisioned than for someone else to attempt it.^[16] MacFarlane´s speaking voice is not very close to Peter´s as his normal voice is used to voice Brian.^[16] MacFarlane drew inspiration for the voice of Peter from a security guard he overheard talking while he was attending the Rhode Island School of Design.^[23] Macfarlane also voices many of Peter´s ancestors which share the same type of voice.^[22] He noted in an interview that the reason that he voices Peter and the rest of the characters is partly because they initially had a small budget, but also that he prefers to have the freedom to do it himself.^[20] In another interview he mentioned that Peter's voice is one of the most difficult to do.^[15]

There have been several occasions were MacFarlane does not voice Peter. In the episode "No Meals on Wheels", (season 5, 2007) actor Patrick Stewart voiced Peter.^[24] In the episode "Family Gay", (season 7, 2009) Seth Rogen provided a guest-voice as Peter under the effects of the "Seth Rogen gene".^[25] In "Road to the Multiverse", (season 8, 2009) he was voiced by Japanese actor Jameson Yang, who was required for a scene where everything in the world was Japanese.^[26]

Personality[link]

Peter, a stereotypical blue-collar worker,^[27] frequently gets drunk with his neighbors Cleveland, Joe and Quagmire at "The Drunken Clam," Quahog's local tavern.^[28] After taking an I.Q. test, Peter discovered his low intellect falls slightly below the level for mental retardation.^[29] Peter is known for his brash impulsiveness, which has led to several awkward situations,^[30] such as attempting to molest Meg in order to adopt a redneck lifestyle.^[31] He is incredibly jealous of other attractions Lois has in her life, an attitude which has led to extreme situations, such as when he assaulted a whale that kissed Lois at SeaWorld.^[32] In the third season episode "Stuck Together, Torn Apart", Peter and Lois split up because of Peter's jealousy, only to discover that Lois has the same character flaw and the two decide to live with their mutually jealous nature.^[32] Peter has a very short attention span which frequently leads him to bizarre situations, as Chris points out in "Long John Peter", after Peter's parrot dies "He will get over it pretty quickly and then move on to another wacky thing", to which Peter finds a pipe organ and forgets about his parrot (Peter then destroys the pipe organ within seconds and then finds the deed to a cattle ranch).^[33]

Peter has a complex relationships with all three of his children. He normally makes fun of Meg and treats her badly. In "FOX-y Lady", (season 7, 2009) were Peter, Meg and Chris try to create a cartoon and they exclude Meg and her ideas.^[34] Though in some episodes Peter has had a good relationship with Meg, in Hell Comes to Quahog, (season 5, 2006) Peter almost tell Meg he loves her and in Road to Rupert, (season 5, 2007) he told Meg that he would treat her badly in front of the family, but that he would be her friend in secret.^[35][36] Peter communicates and has a much better relationship with Stewie. Peter and Stewie had their adventures when he took him to Walt Disney World Resort in the episode "The Courtship of Stewie's Father", (season 4, 2006).^[37] With Chris, Peter communicates well, but at times when in need of advice or in an adventure Peter tells Chris to do the opposite of what he should do, like in "Long John Peter", (season 7, 2008) where Chris is asking for advice on dating and Peter tells him to treat women horribly.^[38]

Ancestry[link]

Before Peter was born, his mother Thelma went to Mexico to have an abortion.^[39] However, she gave birth during the procedure, and smuggled him home to Providence, Rhode Island, where he spent his childhood.^[39][40] Peter was raised by Francis and Thelma Griffin in the Roman Catholic faith.^[41] However, in "Peter's Two Dads", he discovers that his biological father is an named Mickey McFinnigan.^[42] Peter visits McFinnegan, who neglects him at first, yet eventually accepts him as his son after beating him in the "game of drink". The game of drink referring to matching shots until one passes out.^[42] Peter has also referred to a large number of ancestors throughout the series, stating, "the Griffin family history is a rich tapestry".^[43] Famous ancestors of Peter include Moses Griffin, who led the Jews out of Egypt; Willie "Black-Eye" Griffin, Peter's great-grandfather, a 1920s silent film star; and Peter Hitler, the flamboyant brother of Adolf Hitler. Peter's ancestor Nate Griffin, an African American slave from Virginia, was owned by Lois' ancestors. He fell in love with their daughter, and secretly raised a family with her. Nate's family was eventually discovered and they escaped.^[43]

Reception[link]

Commendations[link]

Editors of Variety put Family Guy in their contenders for the 2011 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series; they stated that, depending on your sense of humor, Peter is either " a comedy genius" or "an obnoxious idiot".^[45] MacFarlane has been nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award in the Outstanding Voice-Over Performance category in 2009 for voicing Peter.^[46] He was also nominated in 2008, for an Annie Award in the Voice Acting in an Animated Television Production or Short Form for voicing Peter.^[47] Peter has ranked in several of IGN's top 10s (generally these list are related to the show).^[48][49] Among these lists Peter ranked the third spot on IGN's "Top 25 Family Guy Characters", in the list it was stated that many of the shows best gags come from Peter and his shenanigans and that "Peter practically invented the "manatee joke".^[44] Entertainment Weekly placed Peter in their "18 Bad TV Dads" list (the list also included characters like Homer Simpson and Al Bundy).^[50]

Criticism and controversy[link]

Peter has been criticized for being similar to Homer Simpson. Peter has appeared in some episodes of The Simpsons, in these episodes which he has been featured he has been depicted as a Homer Simpson's clone or is accused of plagiarism. Ken Tucker from Entertainment Weekly stated that Peter is Homer Simpson "as conceived by a singularly sophomoric mind that lacks any reference point beyond other TV shows".^[51] Robin Pierson from the TV Critic criticized the Griffin family for being too similar to the Simpson family; and he said that Peter "has Homer Simpson written all over him".^[52]

Peter has created controversy in various episodes of Family Guy. In the episode The Cleveland-Loretta Quagmire, (season 4, 2005) featured a sequence titled "You Have AIDS", in which Peter Griffin dances and sings in a barbershop quartet fashion around the bed of a man with end-stage AIDS about his diagnosis, this drew protests from several AIDS service organizations.^[53] In "The Son Also Draws", (season 1, 1999) Peter states that "Canada sucks" as part of the ending joke of the episode; the statement resulted in the producers receiving hate mail from Canadian viewers of the show.^[5] In the episode "When You Wish Upon a Weinstein", (season 3, 2000) Peter sings a parody song of "When You Wish upon a Star", entitled "I Need a Jew"; on October 3, 2007, Bourne Co. Music Publishers filed a lawsuit accusing the show of infringing its copyright on the original song; Bourne Co., the sole United States copyright owner of the song, alleged the parody pairs a "thinly veiled" copy of their music with antisemitic lyrics.^[54]

Cultural influence[link]

Appearances in the media[link]

Peter has had several television appearances outside Family Guy, often in the form of direct parody. Peter has appeared in two episodes of The Simpsons, referencing how the two shows are frequently compared to each other. In the fourteenth season episode "Treehouse of Horror XIII", Peter is depicted as one of Homer Simpson's clones,^[55] and in the seventeenth season episode, "The Italian Bob", a photo of Peter is in a book of criminals, which says he is wanted for "plagiarismo".^[56] Peter also appeared in various episodes of the show's spin-off The Cleveland Show.^[57] In addition, Peter has appeared at the end of the American Dad! episode "Hurricane!" with guns on both Stan Smith and former neighbor Cleveland Brown. During the stand-off, Francine is accidentally shot by Stan, which Peter declares as "classic American Dad."

Merchandise[link]

Peter is also featured on the Family Guy: Live in Vegas CD,^[58] and plays a significant part in Family Guy Video Game!, the first Family Guy video game, which was released by 2K Games in 2006.^[59] Peter will be used in the game Family Guy Online as a character class for the game's character creator.^[60] MacFarlane recorded exclusive material of Peter's voice and other Family Guy characters for a 2007 pinball machine of the show by Stern Pinball.^[61] In 2004, the first series of Family Guy toy figurines was released by Mezco Toyz, each member of the Griffin family had their own toy, with the exception of Stewie, of whom two different figures were made.^[62] Over the course of two years, four more series of toy figures have been released, with various forms of Peter.^[63] Alongside the action figures, Peter has been included in various other Family Guy-related merchandise.^[64]

As of 2009, six books have been released about the Family Guy universe, all published by HarperCollins since 2005.^[65] This include Family Guy: It Takes a Village Idiot, and I Married One (ISBN 978-0-7528-7593-4), which covers the entire events of the episode "It Takes a Village Idiot, and I Married One",^[66] and Family Guy and Philosophy: A Cure for the Petarded (ISBN 978-1-4051-6316-3), a collection of seventeen essays exploring the connections between the series and historical philosophers.^[67] which include Peter as a character. Peter appears in comic-book based on the Family Guy universe; by Titan Comics.^[68] The first comic book is going to be released in July 27, 2011.^[68]

In 2008, the character appeared in advertisements for Subway Restaurants, promoting the restaurant's massive feast sandwich.^[69][70] Chief marketing officer Tony Pace commented "Peter's a good representation of the people who are interested in the Feast, and Family Guy is a show "that appeals to that target audience."^[71] The Boston Globe critic Brian Steinberg praised the restaurant's use of the character for the commercials.^[69] NFL News reporter Michael Fabiano felt it was a bad decision to have an obese character advertise for a chain of restaurants that based their advertisement campaigns on health.^[72]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Peter Griffin at Fox.com
• Peter Griffin at the Internet Movie Database