Peter Griffin

Peter Griffin is the protagonist of the animated comedy series Family Guy and the patriarch of the Griffin family. Peter is married to Lois Griffin (formerly Pewterschmidt) and is the father of Meg, Chris and Stewie; he has a dog who is also his best friend, named Brian. He has worked at a toy factory, as a fisherman, and at the Pawtucket Brewery. Despite the suburban blue-collar routine of his life, he has had a number of remarkable experiences.

Peter, a stereotypical blue-collar worker, frequently gets drunk with his neighbours Cleveland (until Cleveland moved to Virginia in 2009 with his son), Joe and Quagmire at “The Drunken Clam,” Quahog’s local tavern. After taking an I.Q. test, Peter discovered his low intellect falls slightly below the level for mental retardation. Peter is known for his brash impulsiveness, which has led to several awkward situations,^[  such as attempting to molest Meg in order to adopt a redneck lifestyle. 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. 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. 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).

Peter has 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) where Peter, Meg and Chris try to create a cartoon and they exclude Meg and her ideas. Though in some episodes Peter has had a good relationship with Meg- in Hell Comes to Quahog, (season 5, 2006) Peter almost tells Meg that 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. 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). 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) were Chris is asking for advice on dating and Peter tells him to treat women horribly.