History Flanderization / FamilyGuy

* Peter:

* Stewie started out mostly as a one-note villain who wanted to kill his mother and take over the world in general. Season 2 gradually shifted the focus away from his plans for Lois in particular and towards his general goals of world domination, along with giving him an increasing amount of effeminate moments (i.e. modeling for Calvin Klein, worrying about his diaper making his rear end look big, and noting that growing up to be gay would remove the complications of dealing with women). During season 3, Stewie started to become even more effeminate and show some more overt glimpses of homosexuality, and became more fond of Brian as time went by, while largely retaining his desires for world domination. During season 4, and especially from Season 7 onwards, he lost much of his former EnfantTerrible traits, and started to crossdress on a daily basis, dates other guys dressed as a girl, openly wants to have sex with Brian and blatantly hints that he's gay every five seconds.
* Brian:

* Quagmire:

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[[quoteright:500:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/family_guy_over_time.png]] [[caption-width-right:500:[[WebVideo/LSMark It wasn't the same show anymore.]]]]

** In the most recent season (season 21), Quagmire's predatory behavior has become non-existent to a point that he seems like a new character, with one notable example being "A Wife-Changing Experience", where he was the one who caught Lois purposely sexually teasing Joe and told Peter, despite having been guilty of the same behavior as Joe in earlier seasons.

[[quoteright:500:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/family_guy_over_time.png]] [[caption-width-right:500:"[[WebVideo/LSMark It wasn't the same show anymore]]"]]

** Lois was always a stay-at-home housewife, but also had a side-job as a piano teacher [[note]]This was initially used to partially explain how the family survives despite Peter's mediocre paycheck and poor decisions[[/note]]. After about Season 4 or 5, it's completely dropped this (even though Lois playing the piano is ''literally'' the first thing that opens the show) in favor of making her role as the housewife into her sole defining character trait, to the point where she savagely beats Peter for buying the groceries instead of her. That said, it still appears every once in a while in newer seasons.

* During season 3, Stewie started to become a bit effeminate and show some glimpses of homosexuality, and became more fond of Brian as time went by. During season 4, and especially from Season 7 onwards, he lost much of his former EnfantTerrible traits, and started to crossdress on a daily basis, dates other guys dressed as a girl, openly wants to have sex with Brian and blatantly hints that he's gay every five seconds.

** In earlier episodes, Brian was cast as the intelligent, witty one in the family. When the show was uncancelled, he started to voice his left wing views and contempt for religion, until in season 7 caused Brian's character to be swallowed by his political views, turning him into a sleazy StrawHypocrite who flip flops views to give himself moral superiority, and often babbles pretentious rants in a desperate ploy for [[AttentionWhore attention]].
** Brian used to be a very smart and cultured character, even if he did drink from time to time. He became a full-blown alcoholic and is not very sophisticated (he even thinks ''Literature/PortnoysComplaint'' is about a man filing a noise complaint about a port).
** Brian's tendency to date stupid women with hot bodies was originally played as something that frustrated him because he was really in love with Lois. Over time it became that he dated dumb women so he could feel smarter than them, and his love for Lois turned into an obsession.

** Though Brian was always selfish, his jerkassery became much more pronounced following his revival in "Christmas Guy", as he started doing things like giving Stewie and Chris herpes and taking advantage of his son Dylan's career.

** He went from a generic hedonist to a pervert to a guy who has adapted his entire house to rape women more easily. However, his overall wackiness and perverted tendencies have been toned down in favor of making him a SelfDeprecation avatar in the Steve Callaghan seasons, and he has effectively displaced Brian as the show's VoiceOfReason, with his perverted qualities usually only peppered on occasionally for HypocriticalHumor.

* Carter Pewterschmidt used to be an intelligent and rich businessman, even if his views were stuck in the 1950s. As the seasons went on, Carter's behavior is almost comparable to Peter's Flanderization where he will say the stupidest things or perform the most ridiculous acts (mostly to Peter) and allows ongoing misery just because he is rich and powerful and [[ItAmusedMe needs a quick giggle.]] The point is driven further home whenever Carter loses his assets and it's shown that [[RichInDollarsPoorInSense he cannot function in life without his fortune]]. He gets Flanderized even further into a straight-up CorruptCorporateExecutive in "The Old Man And The Big C" as it's revealed that his company developed a cure for cancer several years ago but he refuses to release it to the public all so he can increase corporate profit by making money off of sick people who have to rely on medication. Even after Lois lectures him about it, Carter still refuses to release the cure.
* When Jesus Christ first appears in "I Dream of Jesus", he is a benevolent, albeit socially awkward, person that is kind to everyone. The entire arc of that particular episode has him falling into a drug addled Hollywood lifestyle, and becoming a self-obsessed {{Jerkass}} because of it. Later appearances have him being an outright ManipulativeBastard, such as talking Peter into letting him sleep with Lois by pretending to be a virgin.

** Joe has always been portrayed as a paraplegic from his introductory episode, but he was initially written as one of [[HandicappedBadass the most competent and skilled characters on the show, despite his inability to walk]], and he was highly admired by the other characters because of this. But over time, Joe devolved into a sad sack who's inferior at everything and his disability became his primary character trait, to the point where just about everything involving Joe now ends with a "Get it? Because he's a cripple" joke.

** As mentioned below, following "Jerome Is The New Black", Brian became an unwitting VillainBallMagnet to Quagmire's hatred of him. By "Tiegs For Two", Brian [[RageBreakingPoint snapped]] and started spiting and angering Quagmire on purpose, but still often [[ThenLetMeBeEvil only after Quagmire was the instigator]], almost posing as CharacterDevelopment. In later bouts however, where their feud takes up a lot more screentime, Brian is even more of a petty SmugSnake than Quagmire and sometimes harrasses him just for kicks in extremely complex ways, such as scamming him out of thousands of dollars or sabotaging his relationship with a dog lover.

** As mentioned below, following "Jerome Is The New Black", Brian became an unwitting VillainBallMagnet to Quagmire's hatred of him. By "Tiegs For Two", Brian [[RageBreakingPoint snapped]] and started spiting and angering Quagmire on purpose, but still often [[ThenLetMeBeEvil only after Quagmire was the instigator]]. In later bouts, where their feud takes up a lot more screentime, Brian is even more of a petty SmugSnake than Quagmire and sometimes harrasses him just for kicks in extremely complex ways, such as scamming him out of thousands of dollars or sabotaging his relationship with a dog lover.

** He went from a generic hedonist to a pervert to a guy who has adapted his entire house to rape women more easily. However, his overall wackiness and perverted tendencies have been toned down in favor of making him a SelfDeprecation avatar in the Steve Callaghan seasons, and he has effectively displaced Brian as the show's VoiceOfReason.

** Peter has always been a {{Jerkass}}, but in the earlier seasons he was shown with a [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold genuine good side]] and actually cared about his kids, even Meg. Peter's intelligence also drops from 'idiot' to 'legally mentally disabled'. His original flanderization came after "Petarded" where he started to rip on Meg and often make jokes about her, but at the same time, was actually well-intentioned and a little intelligent deep down.

** Some episodes in the earlier seasons indicated that Lois had goals and ambitions, such as wanting to become a model, that she was forced to abandon after marrying Peter, but she was still content with the life she had. In more recent seasons, Lois is heavily implied to be extremely depressed by the hopes and dreams she's given up, and spends most nights [[DrowningMySorrows drinking whole bottles of wine to cope with it]].

* Stewie:
** During season 3, Stewie started to become a bit effeminate and show some glimpses of homosexuality, and became more fond of Brian as time went by. During season 4, and especially from Season 7 onwards, he lost much of his former EnfantTerrible traits, and started to crossdress on a daily basis, dates other guys dressed as a girl, openly wants to have sex with Brian and blatantly hints that he's gay every five seconds.

* The Clevelands:
** Despite it occurring in his [[WesternAnimation/TheClevelandShow spin-off series]], Cleveland was flanderized from being a slow-talking but friendly and hilarious Black man, into a whiny, immature, annoying, unfunny, and literal manchild in his very own show, as he acts like a literal clone of Peter. [[CharacterRerailment Thankfully, he redeemed himself after that show's first season and when he moved back to Quahog]].
** Roberta's promiscuous behavior from the original show have devolved into her becoming a full-blown slut, willfully choosing to "spend the night" with Quagmire in "He's Bla-ack!" (something that TCS's Roberta would never dream of doing even with someone her own age) and also being implied to be addicted to painkillers in "Peter's Sister".
* Carter Pewterschmidt:
** Lois's father used to be an intelligent and rich businessman, even if his views were stuck in the 1950s. As the seasons went on, Carter's behavior is almost comparable to Peter's Flanderization where he will say the stupidest things or perform the most ridiculous acts (mostly to Peter) and allows ongoing misery just because he is rich and powerful and [[ItAmusedMe needs a quick giggle.]] The point is driven further home whenever Carter loses his assets and it's shown that [[RichInDollarsPoorInSense he cannot function in life without his fortune]]. He gets Flanderized even further into a straight-up CorruptCorporateExecutive in "The Old Man And The Big C" as it's revealed that his company developed a cure for cancer several years ago but he refuses to release it to the public all so he can increase corporate profit by making money off of sick people who have to rely on medication. Even after Lois lectures him about it, Carter still refuses to release the cure.
* When Jesus Christ first appears in "I Dream of Jesus", he is a benevolent, albeit socially awkward, person that is kind to everyone. The entire arc of that particular episode has him falling into a drug addled Hollywood lifestyle, and becoming a self-obsessed {{Jerkass}} because of it. Later appearances have him being an outright ManipulativeBastard, such as talking Peter into letting him sleep with Lois by pretending to be a virgin.
* Dr. Elmer Hartman:
** Dr. Elmer Hartman was hit by Flanderization also. Initially, Hartman was a qualified doctor and served as the straight man to the other character's antics, often calling them out whenever they got hurt, such as when he called out Mayor West for rolling in toxic waste to gain superpowers. However, as time progressed, his competence as a doctor took a nose dive, barely keeping his patients alive. By the modern seasons of the show, he's completely inept and has no idea what he's doing, and his personality as the straight man is long gone.

Various characters of ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' have suffered heavy {{Flanderization}} due to the writers gradually stripping away most of the characters' likable traits for the sake of conflict or comedy, making them all unlikable pricks in the process. [[FranchiseOriginalSin Some of this originated as early as Season 3]], but diffidently reached worse levels in later seasons:

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** She started out as an ordinary, level-headed teenage girl with pretty teen problems that weren't out of the ordinary - however, those got turned UpToEleven and then some; with most of her insecurities somehow becoming objective facts: Her unhappiness about her (all in all normal) looks became her being universally considered horrifically ugly; her desire to be popular or at least fit in became her being an universal outcast; her lack of outstanding success with boys and occasional neediness became her being considered completely undatable; her occasionally feeling embarrassed about her parents became them actively and intentionally humiliating and abusing her. Basically, she turned from a normal semi-misfit into an outrageously hated and despised punching bag.

** Despite it occurring in his [[WesternAnimation/TheClevelandShow spin-off series]], Cleveland was flanderized from being a slow-talking but friendly and hilarious Black man, into a whiny, immature, annoying, unfunny, and literal manchild in his very own show, as he acts like a literal clone of Peter. Thankfully, he redeemed himself after that show's first season and when he moved back to Quahog.

** While Lois in the earlier seasons tried her best to be a loving and responsible mother, she sometimes failed to listen to her children or understand their problems, especially Meg. Around the same time Peter became a PsychopathicManchild, later seasons started portraying Lois as a negligent and emotionally abusive mother who openly insults her children and regularly implies that she considers them a burden. In fact her behavior of her kids is comparably worse than Peter's, because although Peter dwells on the edge of ComedicSociopathy, he is obviously too stupid to know any better and can never really grasp any Aesops that are thrown his way for long (although he does have his PetTheDog moments), but Lois obviously knows better and yet acts meanly in more insidious ways.