Seth MacFarlane Opens Up About Fan Rage Over Brian Griffin's Death On 'Family Guy'

At the Television Critics Association, or TCA, press tour Seth MacFarlane who was there to promote “Cosmos” the science documentary series he’s producing for FOX also talked about the backlash he received for killing Brian Griffin on “Family Guy.” Earlier that day at TCA FOX president Kevin Reilly said the story came about because MacFarlane wanted “to shake things up.” When talking about the decision MacFarlane echoed that statement saying after 12 years of doing “Family Guy” “we were just trying to surprise people.”

As for the rage and massive outcry from fans for killing off the beloved Brian Griffin MacFarlane said, “We were all very surprised -- in a good way -- that people still cared about that character to be that angry. It didn't occur to us. We thought it would maybe create a little bit of a stir, but the rage was not something we counted on." Although there was significant backlash for the decision MacFarlane feels Brian’s death has impacted the show overall.

“Based on the numbers, it helped,” said MacFarlane. It did what it was designed to do and reminded people that this is still a show where anything can happen, despite the fact that it’s been on for awhile.” MacFarlane also said at the end of the day he felt killing Brian was just another “Family Guy” storyline saying, “All it was, was a three-parter without the three words ‘to be continued’ at the end of the episodes.” As for if we will see any more major deaths in the Grffin family MacFarlane remarked “No, I already did it! But who knows… Season 25, we’ll see!”