Seth MacFarlane addresses short-lived Family Guy publicity stunt
Previously, Family Guy staged a transparent publicity stunt by “killing off” one of its lead characters, Brian Griffin.
The family dog had been in the cast since the pilot in 1999. Evidently, after 14 years, fans had become rather attached to Brian and one man reportedly got an “RIP Brian” tattoo… that he’s probably regretting now.
However, it was all a contrived farce because, two weeks later, the “dead” character has come back to life through time travel and a Christmas miracle.
Creator and voice actor Seth MacFarlane addressed the belaboured publicity stunt on Twitter shortly after the episode aired.
“And thus endeth our warm, fuzzy holiday lesson: Never take those you love for granted, for they can be gone in a flash,” Seth wrote.
“I mean, you didn’t really think we’d kill off Brian, did you?” he added. “Jesus, we’d have to be f**king high.”
Finally, he tweeted “Oh and hey… thanks for caring so much about the canine Griffin. He is overcome with gratitude.”