Family Guy is renowned for its irreverent humor that rejects traditional storytelling techniques in favor of cutaway gags and detailed movie references. Through the years, the show has grown progressively darker in tone. From Lois trying to seduce her daughter's boyfriend to, well, just about anything that Peter gets up to in each episode, the Griffin family members have all done some terrible things throughout the show's run.
While Family Guy isn't particularly famed for its sentimentality, the show occasionally delights viewers with genuinely moving storylines. At the heart of its sincerity is the enduring friendship between family dog, Brian, and baby Stewie. Although the latter character was originally written as a villainous infant seeking world-domination and matricide, he has softened considerably in later seasons. Here are the sweetest moments between everyone's favorite anthropomorphic canine and precocious baby.
10 Their Emotional Heart-To-Heart
Creator Seth MacFarlane has admitted that his vocal cords take a beating during the making of the show. He must have suffered profoundly, then, when "Brian & Stewie" was made. This bottle episode focuses solely on the titular characters, both voiced by MacFarlane, as they get trapped in a bank vault together.
Without the support of the regular back up players, the episode relies on dialogue between the two characters, and becomes emotional towards the end. When Stewie discovers that Brian has sometimes contemplated taking his own life, the baby is horrified. In a touching moment, Stewie shares his true feelings: ''If I didn't have you I'd be lost... You're the only one I like."
9 Stewie Sabotages His Play For Brian
Brian's pseudo-intellectualism has become the butt of the joke in much of the later seasons. In "Brian's Play," he writes a crass play called A Passing Fancy, which proves to be popular. This inspires Stewie to write a play as well and he is eager for Brian to read it. But Brian is devastated when he realizes that the infant's work is far superior to his own. Accordingly, he lies to Stewie that his writing is awful.
When Stewie finds his play buried in the yard, he tells Brian that he's just jealous because his own play was so low-brow that even Peter could easily follow the plot. Stewie is invited to share his work on Broadway, but ends up changing it for the worse, much to the audience's displeasure. In a moving act of friendship, Stewie sabotaged a prime opportunity in order to make his friend happy. The episode received positive reviews, with A.V. Club calling it "surprisingly profound."
8 Helping Stewie Overcome His Nightmares
When Stewie begins suffering from horrific nightmares in season 14's "A Lot Going on Upstairs," he invents a device that enables Brian to enter his subconscious and get to the root cause of the bad dreams. His nightmares are filled with typical childhood fears, showing that, despite his supreme intellect, Stewie is still a baby after all. It is revealed that the monster that has been chasing Stewie is in fact Brian, illustrating his fear of disappointing his best friend.
7 Brian And Stewie Scatter Rupert's Ashes
Stewie's love of his stuffed bear, Rupert, has led to many touching moments in the series. But in "Dog Bites Bear," it also stirs Brian's jealousy. Upset that Stewie is spending quality time with his bear, a drunken Brian resorts to chewing the stuffed toy, in effect "killing" him.
To make amends, Brian agrees to go with Stewie to a mountain summit in Vermont so that they can scatter Rupert's ashes. When Stewie is too tearful and upset to give the eulogy, Brian pays tribute to him instead and praises the bear for making Stewie a better person. The pair then sing "It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday" by Boyz II Men, a tear-jerking moment.
6 Stewie Tells Brian That He Loves Him
In "New Kidney in Town," Peter suffers renal failure and Brian agrees to give him both his kidneys, which will inevitably kill him. Stewie is distraught and kidnaps Brian, taking him to the playground where he hopes the pair can live forever. When Brian attempts to convince his friend that he can go on without him, Stewie weeps, "But Brian, I love you." Thankfully, Brian's life is eventually spared as a human donor is found for Peter. The episode was met with acclaim: critic Jason Hughes wrote that the episode "taught us about the depths and bonds of love that make a family."
5 Brian Saves Stewie From The Perils Of Child Stardom
Being a child star comes with many dangers and thankfully a number of former child actors were able to escape at an early age. In "The Peanut Butter Kid," Peter and Lois force their young son into stardom, which leads to horrendous exploitation, including drugging him. Horrified, Brian vows to save him. After Brian explains to Stewie the horrors that potentially await child actors, Stewie decides to sabotage his performance, leading his parents to realize the error of their ways.
4 Stewie Saves Brian's Life
When Brian gets a job at a hardware store in "American Gigg-olo," he annoys everyone with his handyman jargon. Subsequently, Stewie gets him fired and the two end up having an argument, which aggravates Brian's hernia. Due to being fired, he no longer has health insurance and is unable to go to the hospital. But it turns out his knowledge of hardware is actually pretty good and he guides Stewie to operate on him using his work tools. The operation, although messy, is successful.
3 The Pie Contest
In "Absolutely Babulous," Stewie enters a pie-making competition and has his heart set on winning. Brian reminds him that he should be proud of himself regardless of the outcome. But Stewie is heartbroken when he doesn't win first place in the competition. However, Brian points out to him that he came in fifth place, which proves that he is indeed both talented and special. The pain of not winning is always difficult for children to come to terms with, so Brian teaches Stewie an important life lesson.
2 Stewie Brings Brian Back To Life
Fans were devastated when Brian was struck and killed by a moving car in season 12's "Life of Brian". He was replaced by another dog, Vinny, voiced by The Sopranos star Tony Sirico, but Stewie did not take kindly to this and wanted his best friend back. In the episode "Christmas Guy", also from season 12, Stewie travels to the past in order to save Brian from the speeding vehicle. In possibly the sweetest and most moving scene Family Guy has ever given us, Stewie pushes Brian away from the car, in effect bringing him back to life in the present, a gesture that Brian is eternally grateful for.
1 A Trip To Jolly Farm
An early example of Stewie and Brian's bond, season 3's "Road to Europe" sees the duo travel to England after Stewie becomes obsessed with cute British TV series Jolly Farm Revue, hosted by the angelic Mother Maggie. The youngster is insistent that he wants to live on Jolly Farm forever, but Brian attempts to dissuade him against the idea. When they arrive at Jolly Farm, Stewie is devastated to discover that the magical land is merely a BBC studio set, with the actors vulgar and uncouth off screen. Brian reveals to Stewie that he felt it was for the best that he found out on his own. After Brian suggests that they pull a gross prank on Mother Maggie, the pair walk off holding hands.