Characters

The show revolves around the adventures of the family of Peter Griffin, a bumbling blue-collar worker. Peter is an Irish-American Catholic with a prominent Rhode Island and Eastern Massachusetts accent.He is married to Lois, a stay-at-home mother and piano teacher who, as member of the Pewterschmidtfamily of wealthy socialites, has a distinct New England accent. Peter and Lois have three children: Meg, their teenage daughter, who is awkward and does not fit in at school, and is constantly ridiculed and ignored by the family; Chris, their teenage son, who is overweight, unintelligent and a younger version of his father in many respects; and Stewie, their diabolical infant son of ambiguous sexual orientation who has adult mannerisms, and speaks fluently in a Home Counties accent, using stereotypical archvillain phrases. Living with the family is Brian, the family dog, who is highly anthropomorphized, drinks martinis, and engages in human conversation, though he is still considered a pet in many respects.

Many recurring characters appear alongside the Griffin family. These include the family's neighbors: sex-crazed airline-pilot bachelor Glenn Quagmire, Cleveland Brown and his wife Loretta Brown, paraplegic police officer Joe Swanson, his wife Bonnie and their baby daughter Susie (Bonnie is pregnant with Susie from the show's beginning until the seventh episode of the seventh season); neurotic Jewish pharmacist Mort Goldman, his wife Muriel, and their geeky and annoying son Neil; and elderly phebophile Herbert. TV news anchors Tom Tucker and Diane Simmons, Asian reporter Tricia Takanawa, and Blaccu-Weather meteorologist Ollie Williams also make frequent appearances. Actors Adam West and James Woods guest star as themselves in various episodes