# Family Guy season 12

The twelfth season of Family Guy aired on Fox from September 29, 2013, to May 18, 2014.
The series follows the Griffin family, a dysfunctional family consisting of father Peter, mother Lois, daughter Meg, son Chris, baby Stewie, and the family dog Brian, who reside in their hometown of Quahog.
During this season, Peter gets a vestigial twin ("Vestigial Peter"); the Griffins travel to Italy ("Boopa-dee Bappa-dee"); Quagmire and Peter form a folk band ("Into Harmony's Way"); and, as confirmed by series creator Seth MacFarlane, Cleveland moves back to Quahog along with his family, since The Cleveland Show was cancelled ("He's Bla-ack!"). Also, as mentioned by Steve Callaghan in the 2013 Comic-con Panel, a member of the Griffin family was killed off in a special episode. After much speculation, that member was Brian, after being hit by a motorist in the episode "Life of Brian". This elicited strongly negative reactions from fans of the show, and a petition demanding Brian to be resurrected garnered over 100,000 signatures. His death turned out to be only temporary as in the episode "Christmas Guy", Stewie goes back in time and saves him, effectively changing the future so that he never dies.
The show was initially airing in its usual timeslot of 9:00 PM Eastern. Beginning on March 9 and continuing for the rest of the season, Family Guy moved to 8:30 PM Eastern; the move came as a result of the addition of Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey to the network's lineup.
Guest stars for the season include Conan O'Brien, Lea Thompson, Jeff Daniels, Michelle Dockery, Tony Sirico, Yvette Nicole Brown, Gary Cole, Lauren Bacall, Liam Neeson, Bryan Cranston, Adam Levine, and Ariana Grande.
This is the last season to be secondarily composed by Ron Jones, leaving Walter Murphy in charge of the musical score for the rest of the series.

## Marketing

At San Diego Comic Con 2013, It was revealed by showrunner Steve Callaghan that one member of the Griffin Family would be killed off. Though many assumed to be Meg Griffin, the cast remained silent. This would later be revealed, with Brian Griffin being killed off. In addition, a preview was released. It was also revealed that a crossover episode with The Simpsons was in the works, which released in September 2014, titled The Simpsons Guy. The cover depicts the five members near the grave of Brian Griffin.

## Episodes

| No. overall | No. in season | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original release date | Prod. code | U.S. viewers (millions) |
| 211 | 1 | "Finders Keepers" | John Holmquist | Mike Desilets & Anthony Blasucci | September 29, 2013 (2013-09-29) | BACX01 | 5.23 |
| Peter is convinced that a placemat at a restaurant is a treasure map. The rumor of supposed treasure sparks a city-wide search, turning the residents of Quahog against each other. ||||||||
| 212 | 2 | "Vestigial Peter" | Julius Wu | Brian Scully | October 6, 2013 (2013-10-06) | BACX02 | 5.20 |
| When Peter finds a strange lump on his neck, it reveals to be a vestigial twin, which Peter names the vestigial twin Chip, who ends up winning over Peter's family and friends with his optimism and sense of wonder, so Peter tries numerous ways to get rid of him. ||||||||
| 213 | 3 | "Quagmire's Quagmire" | Pete Michels | Cherry Chevapravatdumrong | November 3, 2013 (2013-11-03) | BACX03 | 4.87 |
| Quagmire dates a woman named Sonja, who is just as sexually active as he is, but things go south when she kidnaps him and treats him like a sex slave, so Peter, Joe and Ida must search the back alleys of the town to rescue him. Meanwhile, Brian, Stewie and Rupert get involved in an unusual love triangle. ||||||||
| 214 | 4 | "A Fistful of Meg" | Joe Vaux | Dominic Bianchi & Joe Vaux | November 10, 2013 (2013-11-10) | AACX22 | 4.18 |
| When Meg accidentally angers a psychopathic bully named Mike Pulaski, who is threatening to kill her in a fight at the school's backyard and its up to her to defeat him in the fight. Meanwhile, Brian becomes disturbed by Peter exposing his nudity to him and to the public. ||||||||
| 215 | 5 | "Boopa-dee Bappa-dee" | Mike Kim | Wellesley Wild | November 17, 2013 (2013-11-17) | BACX04 | 4.46 |
| When the Griffins travel to Italy on vacation, Peter wants to stay there permanently, as he feels life in Quahog has gotten boring, he decides to disintegrate the passports. ||||||||
| 216 | 6 | "Life of Brian" | Joseph Lee | Alex Carter | November 24, 2013 (2013-11-24) | BACX05 | 4.58 |
| After a time travel escapade goes wrong, Stewie demolishes his time machine, but regrets his decision after when Brian is fatally injured and dies after getting ran over by a car, after his passing, the family go off to purchase a new dog to substitute Brian’s place, a five year old Italian greyhound named Vinny. ||||||||
| 217 | 7 | "Into Harmony's Way" | Brian Iles | Julius Sharpe | December 8, 2013 (2013-12-08) | BACX06 | 5.36 |
| Peter and Quagmire find out that their voices create harmony when they get frightened by a bee and become a Simon & Garfunkel-style singer/songwriter duo — and, like the real Simon & Garfunkel, Peter lets fame go to his head and the duo begin feuding. ||||||||
| 218 | 8 | "Christmas Guy" | Greg Colton | Patrick Meighan | December 15, 2013 (2013-12-15) | BACX07 | 6.37 |
| When Peter tries to get Carter to repent his Christmas-hating ways, his attempts to cheer him up doesn’t go well. Meanwhile, Stewie travels back in time to save Brian's life before he got hit by the car that killed him earlier. ||||||||
| 219 | 9 | "Peter Problems" | Bob Bowen | Teresa Hsiao | January 5, 2014 (2014-01-05) | BACX08 | 5.76 |
| When Peter gets fired for crashing a forklift into a business meeting, Lois takes a job at the grocery store while Peter becomes a stay-at-home dad, which leads to a weak performance. ||||||||
| 220 | 10 | "Grimm Job" | Joe Vaux | Alec Sulkin | January 12, 2014 (2014-01-12) | BACX09 | 5.22 |
| When Stewie can’t sleep, Peter decides to tell him three fairy tale stories: Jack and the Beanstalk, Little Red Riding Hood and Cinderella. ||||||||
| 221 | 11 | "Brian's a Bad Father" | Jerry Langford | Chris Sheridan | January 26, 2014 (2014-01-26) | BACX10 | 4.11 |
| Brian's human son, Dylan, returns, now a teen TV star. Rather than be a good father to his estranged son, Brian uses his son's television connections to further his own writing career. Meanwhile, after Peter "accidentally" shoots Quagmire on a hunting trip, the two get into a fight and Joe must choose a side between him or Quagmire. ||||||||
| 222 | 12 | "Mom's the Word" | John Holmquist | Ted Jessup | March 9, 2014 (2014-03-09) | BACX11 | 4.56 |
| When Peter's mother passes away, he befriends her longtime friend, Evelyn, who then tries to seduce him. Meanwhile, Brian tries to help Stewie overcome his phobia of dying, so Brian attempts to console him by seeking out several religions and showing their beliefs on the afterlife such as visiting a synagogue, a buddhist temple, and a church, which leads Stewie to ask Brian what he believes in after death. ||||||||
| 223 | 13 | "3 Acts of God" | Bob Bowen | Alec Sulkin | March 16, 2014 (2014-03-16) | AACX17 | 4.62 |
| Peter becomes enraged when the Patriots lose their tenth consecutive game after a blown chance to win against AFC East rival Buffalo Bills, so he and the guys go on a mission to find God and ask him to stop determining the outcomes of NFL games. ||||||||
| 224 | 14 | "Fresh Heir" | Mike Kim | Steve Callaghan | March 23, 2014 (2014-03-23) | BACX13 | 4.38 |
| Lois's father Carter names Chris as his heir, but Chris replies that he doesn't want the money, much to Carter’s dismay. ||||||||
| 225 | 15 | "Secondhand Spoke" | Julius Wu | Dave Ihlenfeld & David Wright | March 30, 2014 (2014-03-30) | BACX12 | 4.17 |
| When Peter becomes requested to be the face of an anti-smoking campaign, he takes up the habit of smoking, but his smoking habit becomes worse when his face turns grey and Lois takes him to the doctor, Meanwhile, Stewie decides to help Chris face bullies at school. ||||||||
| 226 | 16 | "Herpe the Love Sore" | Greg Colton | Andrew Goldberg | April 6, 2014 (2014-04-06) | BACX16 | 4.77 |
| When Stewie and Brian become blood brothers, this leads to Stewie contracting herpes from Brian and everyone becomes disgusted at Stewie’s herpes. Meanwhile, a gang occupies Peter, Joe and Quagmire's booth at The Clam and the trio decides to fight to take it back. ||||||||
| 227 | 17 | "The Most Interesting Man in the World" | Joseph Lee | Tom Devanney | April 13, 2014 (2014-04-13) | BACX14 | 4.39 |
| Peter decides to make changes to his behavior after he returns from the park with the wrong baby, making Lois believing that his new behavior is becoming overwhelming for her and the others. ||||||||
| 228 | 18 | "Baby Got Black" | Brian Iles | Kevin Biggins & Travis Bowe | April 27, 2014 (2014-04-27) | BACX15 | 4.02 |
| Chris is forbidden to see Jerome's daughter Pam, when the duo run away together, Jerome and Peter must work together to find them. ||||||||
| 229 | 19 | "Meg Stinks!" | Bob Bowen | Danny Smith | May 4, 2014 (2014-05-04) | BACX17 | 4.40 |
| Meg parties with Peter at a college where he takes her for an interview, while Brian is forced to live in the wild after he is sprayed by a skunk and prevented from coming into the house mainly because of the skunk spray effects. ||||||||
| 230 | 20 | "He's Bla-ack!" | Steve Robertson | Julius Sharpe | May 11, 2014 (2014-05-11) | BACX19 | 4.16 |
| With his spin-off show cancelled due to low ratings, Cleveland returns to Quahog, with his new family accompanying him. When a conflict arises between Lois and Donna, it is up to Peter and Cleveland to reconcile their wives in order to save their friendship. ||||||||
| 231 | 21 | "Chap Stewie" | Joe Vaux | Artie Johann & Shawn Ries | May 18, 2014 (2014-05-18) | BACX18 | 3.88 |
| Stewie becomes enraged and throws a fit over having his TV time interrupted, so he heads back in time to see that Lois and Peter break up before he is conceived, thus he would never be born into the Griffin family. However, when he finally is born, it is into a Downton Abbey-esque household in the UK. ||||||||

## Reception

Review grades :
| # | Title | Air date | The A.V. Club (A-F) | TV Fanatic (5) |
| 1 | "Finders Keepers" | September 29, 2013 (2013-09-29) | C | — |
| 2 | "Vestigial Peter" | October 6, 2013 (2013-10-06) | C+ | — |
| 3 | "Quagmire's Quagmire" | November 3, 2013 (2013-11-03) | B+ | — |
| 4 | "A Fistful of Meg" | November 10, 2013 (2013-11-10) | D | — |
| 5 | "Boopa-dee Bappa-dee" | November 17, 2013 (2013-11-17) | C- | — |
| 6 | "Life of Brian" | November 24, 2013 (2013-11-24) | A- | — |
| 7 | "Into Harmony's Way" | December 8, 2013 (2013-12-08) | B- | — |
| 8 | "Christmas Guy" | December 15, 2013 (2013-12-15) | B+ | — |
| 9 | "Peter Problems" | January 5, 2014 (2014-01-05) | D | — |
| 10 | "Grimm Job" | January 12, 2014 (2014-01-12) | C- | — |
| 11 | "Brian's a Bad Father" | January 26, 2014 (2014-01-26) | C- | — |
| 12 | "Mom's the Word" | March 9, 2014 (2014-03-09) | C+ | — |
| 13 | "3 Acts of God" | March 16, 2014 (2014-03-16) | B | — |
| 14 | "Fresh Heir" | March 23, 2014 (2014-03-23) | D | — |
| 15 | "Secondhand Spoke" | March 30, 2014 (2014-03-30) | B | — |
| 16 | "Herpe the Love Sore" | April 6, 2014 (2014-04-06) | C- | 4.6 |
| 17 | "The Most Interesting Man in the World" | April 13, 2014 (2014-04-13) | B+ | 4.6 |
| 18 | "Baby Got Black" | April 27, 2014 (2014-04-27) | D+ | 3.8 |
| 19 | "Meg Stinks!" | May 4, 2014 (2014-05-04) | B | 4.6 |
| 20 | "He's Bla-ack!" | May 11, 2014 (2014-05-11) | B- | 3.8 |
| 21 | "Chap Stewie" | May 18, 2014 (2014-05-18) | B- | 4.8 |