Family Guy

http://comicbook.com/blog/2013/11/25/family-guy-vinny-the-dogs-voice-actor-tony-sirico-signed-for-six-episodes/

Any idea what this was all about?

It sites a deadline report as it's source, but there's no link to it. Either way, it's got me questioning: is it possible the production team originally planned to keep Brian dead for longer, but gave in and brought him back after seeing all the fan backlash?

The fact that Vinny briefly was part of the opening credits makes me question this even further. If they planned to bring back Brian two episodes after killing him, they could have just given those two episodes their own exclusive intros, as some episodes like PTV have had—-no need to revise the theme.

Considering the team works ahead of time, it's probably unlikely, but it's interesting to consider the possibility that this might have originally been more than a 3-episode stunt.

Yeah, considering how long it takes to produce episodes, it had nothing to do with any fan backlash.

I have two theories: A). The six episode thing is a red herring or B.) Vinny might return, even if it's just a cameo.

I wish they had done a run with both dogs. Vinny seemed like a cool guy, and he could have been a nice contrast to Brian.

IS Brian's death still canon? A bunch of articles here seem to think so.

It definitley is; it took multiple episodes for him to come back.

But Stewie prevented it from happening.

But now I'm not sure what to think, since according to you, the cast clearly remembers it all!

So now I'm quite frustrated because I REALLY don't know what to think.

edited 16th Nov '14 8:15:11 PM by WhizzerMckwoff

The only one to remember it is Stewie but it's still cannon because it actually happened in the story. It wasn't a dream sequence or anything, Stewie just reveresed it.

But Stewie doesn't remember it because he reversed time so that he changed it, and then HE disapeared!

I'm saying, has it officially been retconned? Because that would mean it's technically no longer a part of the show's canon, even if it exists to watch.

Brian canonically died. Stewie went back into time and stopped him from dying. That is also canon.

Ugh, I'm confused. HOW is Brian's death canon if Stewie altered the past so it NEVER HAPPENED?? NO ONE on the show remembers it!

The show is now in an alternate timeline where Brian lives.

Exactly. So he never died, and so "Life of Brian" and the two episodes that follow aren't true canon.

No they are canon. They actually happened, he actually died. Just Stewie went and changed it. Now the story is following the timeline where Brian is alive. He's still dead in the original.

Huh. I thought that timeline was actually undone, but...hmm. This could make an interesting storyline in which the two timelines somehow come together (you know Family Guy—-always trying out crazy stuff).

The original timeline probably doesn't exist anymore because of Stewie tampering with the past.

Anyway, Stewie retains his memories because he's a time traveler from Timeline A, as we'll call it. He went back in time and save Brian, which creates Timeline B and erases Timeline A. Everything which comes after that point of Brian's rescue ceases to exist. Stewie is safe because he wasn't actively present at any point in Timeline A at that moment in time.

So yeah. Until reason to believe otherwise (such as parallel dimension timeline sort of thing, but this show appears to work on the premise that altering the past effects the future based on episodes we've seen regarding time travel), it IS undone but it did happen. Stewie is the only person who will have memories of it because he existed in the original timeline. Just because he erased the timeline itself doesn't erase his memories of it.

edited 16th Nov '14 9:04:09 PM by Prime_of_Perfection

Stewie doesn't remember though because he's all confused at the end of the Christmas ep.

So really, it's not canon. I wish I could draw this out. It's like if we woke up tommorrow and there was no internet, because someone had gone back and prevented it from being created. But we wouldn't care cause it would never have existed.

So let me set this straight—-no one remembers the incident because it never happened. Stewie himself doesn't, as "Mom's the Word" is true proof of, considering he acts as if he's never realized the full extent of death before, which he never would if "Life of Brian" had actually happened.

I know I'm going all out, but I'm trying to convince people here what really happened.

Cannon doesn't mean what you think it means. The best definition of cannon I can think of is that it actually happened in th story line and is acknowledged outside of it. Brian dying meets that criteria, that he came back doesn't changed that he did.

Why is it such a big deal anyway?

edited 17th Nov '14 5:18:43 PM by LSBK

Uh, well...if someone died and remembered dying and what it was like to be dead, and everyone else (and I literally mean everyone else here) remembered him/her dying and being dead and mourning him/her and going to his/her freaking funeral...don't you think that would kinda be a big deal?

Plus, where's your defense for everything I wrote in the above post? (I'm sorry, I just hate taking the time to write certain things in my posts and have no one respond to them.)

edited 17th Nov '14 8:37:52 PM by WhizzerMckwoff

So that's why it's such a big deal.

It IS canon. Canon doesn't involve what's known by the characters in the story. It involves what the CREATORS say happened. We know that the characters don't remember it happening. The event itself is pretty much irrelevant inside the show. But outside the show we've never been told it didn't happen. So it did happen, and it's acknowledged by the creators. They haven't gone back and said it never happened, so it did.

Its purpose wasn't to change the characters. It was to show US how deeply Stewie loves Brian as a friend.

...I'm sorry. It just...by saying it was canon, it made it sound like even the characters were aware of it. And if they did it solely for the purpose of showing us how much Stewie cares for Brian as a friend—-and granted, "Brian and Stewie" did a pretty good job of doing that—-they could have just given Brian a Disney Death or something.

I really don't know what to think of it.

edited 17th Nov '14 9:16:40 PM by WhizzerMckwoff

Canon just means official. It did officially happen as in the events weren't from a fanfic or a fanmade cartoon.

What it isn't is no longer part of the timeline (I would say no longer in continuity but that would imply Family Guy HAS continuity)

Regarding the Vinny thing, they had all the episodes produced BEFORE fans would be able to react to Brian's death. In fact Genre Savvy fans correctly assumed Brian's death wasn't going to stick because the release fulled episode list for the season included the then unaired "Brian's a Bad Father" and pictures from an episode toward the end of the season leaked showed Brian alive and well.

Vinny being added to the opening for two episodes was merely to throw fans off and think it was a permanent change.

edited 17th Nov '14 11:22:00 PM by Batman39