Family Guy Dog Names

Although there are a few other canine characters in Family Guy, Brian is easily the most featured and one of the most beloved for his snark, wit, and identifiable personal struggles. 

But Brian, like the rest of the Griffin family, was not even an original character used to pitch creator Seth MacFarlane’s first idea to Fox after they requested a pilot. He was originally called “Steve” and one of the main characters of MacFarlane’s first pitch, two animated films called "The Life of Larry" and "Larry & Steve", which were based on a middle-aged man named Larry and an intellectual anthropomorphic dog named Steve. After MacFarlane created a follow up to the original short, he was contacted by Fox and encouraged to make a pilot based off his original characters. In short, Larry became Peter and Steve became Brian. 

Brian’s character has received mixed reviews over the show’s long run, although he was easily marked a favorite of many in the show’s first few seasons. Outside of Stewie and maybe Lois, Brian was easily the smartest in the family, cultured and an outlet for some of the writer’s political views, although in later seasons some of it was poorly received as much of his character stemmed too closely from that idea in certain episodes. 

But in the grand scheme, Brian is an extremely important character in the show and to dog characters on the whole. His place in the show works to provide elements of snark and wit, yet his uphill battles to become a successful writer keep him in the wheelhouse of many viewers, his struggles seeming very real and close to the hearts of many. His overall storyline has provided the show quite a bit of emotional depth as well, as the writers have also been able to use Brian to touch on themes of belonging, family, loss, and soul-searching, as he’s tried to find love, his parents, and the truth about his being when many other dogs in the show are simply traditional non-talking dogs. 

More than all else, Brian has given us many reasons to laugh as he’s able to reach from high-brow to low-brow humor at the drop of a hat, and yet given us someone to identify with even though he’s technically a different species, even if animated. And while he may fall in and out of favor with show-watching regulars, it’s nearly undeniable that he’s set a new standard for dog characters in television shows, as although intelligent, talking dogs have existed before, rarely have they been able to both make us laugh and bring a bit of true depth and meaning out of both complex and comically simple situations, especially now that he's been doing so for nearly 20 years.