History Flanderization / FamilyGuy

* Lois in general was initially written as a voice of reason [[RedOniBlueOni to contrast with the more foolish and immature Peter]], but also had some of her own flaws quirks that sometimes made her NotSoAboveItAll. Over time her more sensible attitude has been heavily downplayed, and she's often written to be just as impulsive and destructive as Peter himself.

* Lois:
** Her sexuality has become greatly Flanderized over time. Originally she enjoyed a healthy sex life with her husband, but it's gotten to the point where in at least ''four'' different episodes (when Peter became abstinent, when Peter became gay, when Peter got a vasectomy, and when "real life was censored"), she's been shown to be unable to properly live her life unless she can have sex with Peter.

** A few of the earlier episodes had Peter showing some attraction for girls that are Meg's age, but since around Season 12, it's also been heavily implied that he has pedophilic lust for ''much'' younger children as well. A scene in "He's Bl-ack" indicates that he has inappropriate pictures of young children on his computer.

* Peter himself 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.

** A few of the earlier episodes had Peter showing some attraction for girls that are Meg's age, but since around Season 12, it's also been heavily implied that he has pedophilic lust for ''much'' younger children as well. Though not shown onscreen, "Brian's A Bad Father" has him performing oral sex on Joe's ''infant daughter'', and a scene in "He's Bl-ack" indicates that he has inappropriate pictures of young children on his computer.

* Joe's older son Kevin was shown in "Thanksgiving Guy" to be genuinely traumatised by his time in the army, though the side-effects were not immediately visible and the discussion of his experience was played relatively straight. After that episode, he's mainly portrayed as a ShellShockedVeteran whose trauma manifests itself in random acts of violence and hysteria, all of which are PlayedForLaughs.

* Lois' sexuality has become greatly Flanderized over time. Originally she enjoyed a healthy sex life with her husband, yes, but it's gotten to the point where in at least ''four'' different episodes (when Peter became abstinent, when Peter became gay, when Peter got a vasectomy, and when "real life was censored"), she's been shown to be ''unable to properly live her life'' unless she can have sex with Peter.
** Aside from her sexuality, Lois also started off as being a legitimately caring mother who even attacked a group of girls for making fun of Meg. Unlike the other characters, her flanderization came much later. Since Season 7, she's been consistently shown to be extremely abusive to Meg, even going so far as to suggest Meg commit suicide because she doesn't want to put up with her daughter's depression anymore. Her callousness seems to be exaggerated outside Meg. By the eight season what were merely a few out of character moments to remind she was NotSoAboveItAll slowly eclipsed her original more logical persona to the point she was a DistaffCounterpart for post Flanderization Peter, a [[PsychopathicManchild childish]], [[LackOfEmpathy self centered]] [[ComedicSociopath heckler]] constantly bullying her family and friends [[ItAmusedMe for kicks]]. Half the time she is shown giggling or joining in on Peter's antics, something she showed nothing but disdain for early on. In later episodes it is revealed that she has often tormented the kids over the years. [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking And her voice has gotten higher in pitch and more nasally as the seasons go on.]]

* Chris has also gotten a small, but noticeable flanderization, abruptly insulting others for no reason and gaining a cynical edge to him. His relationship with Meg has taken a strange turn also. It has been revealed that Chris and Meg practice kissing on one another, unknowingly made out with each other at a Halloween party and are implied to take baths together. Even Peter himself was shocked!
** His lack of intelligence. Early episodes had him expressed his stupidity to at least, somewhat a normal child's level, that is, as about intelligent you'd expect someone his age to act. Nowadays, he'd very well be a younger and even ''less'' intelligent version of his ol' man albeit (''mostly'') less violent. Oh, and TooDumbToLive.
* The supporting cast has fallen into this trope as well over the years.
** Cleveland originally was the calm, soft guy. However when he got his [[WesternAnimation/TheClevelandShow own show]], his personality morphed into the abrasive, crude and cynical sitcom father character (to [[{{Expy}} fit in the role of leading male]] having a personality more similar to that of Peter and American Dad's [[WesternAnimation/AmericanDad Stan Smith]]).
** Joe Swanson was initially introduced as one of [[HandicappedBadass the most competent and skilled characters on the show who just happened to be unable to walk]]. His disability hardly ever held him back and he was highly admired by everyone because of it. Over time, Joe eventually devolved into a sad sack who's inferior at everything, and his entire character now revolves around his disability to the point where just everything involving Joe now ends with a "Get it? Because he's a cripple" joke.
** Bonnie was initially introduced as a genuinely loving and compassionate wife and neighbour who served as a [[RedOniBlueOni more down-to-earth foil to both Joe and Lois]]. Once Joe turned into a one-dimensional cripple joke, Bonnie became far more cynical and bitchy as his long-suffering and unfaithful wife. She also subtly developed a sociopathic streak and recent episodes have even gone as far as implying that she wants Joe dead by this point (while others imply Joe himself wants it too).
** Joe's older son Kevin was shown in "Thanksgiving Guy" to be genuinely traumatised by his time in the army, though the side-effects were not immediately visible and the discussion of his experience was played relatively straight. After that episode, he's mainly portrayed as a ShellShockedVeteran who's trauma manifests itself in random acts of violence and hysteria, all of which is PlayedForLaughs.
** Everybody noticed how Quagmire went from a generic hedonist to a pervert to a guy who has adapted his entire house to rape women more easily, but he suffered a second flanderization much more prominent and fast: in Season 8, it was revealed that he hated Brian. Before Cleveland's departure, Quagmire seemingly had no beef with Brian and even allowed him to stay at his house at one time, and even in the episode that revealed his contempt presented it as passive aggressive, more exacerbated by Brian's unctuous attempts to make him like him. Within less than half a season, Quagmire gained a tall order HairTriggerTemper towards Brian, having brutally assaulted him for unknowingly dating his transgender mother, furiously ranted at him for things Brian didn't know, and ran him over with his car. This was evened somewhat as Brian started openly [[ThenLetMeBeEvil loathing Quagmire back and getting rises out of him intentionally]], making his vitriol towards him far more justified in most later cases, but also causing another Flanderization of turning them into priggish SitcomArchNemesis for each other.
*** Quagmire's overall wackiness and perverted tendencies have been toned down in a favor of making him a SelfDeprecation avatar in the Steve Callaghan seasons, and effectively displaced Brian as the show's VoiceOfReason. Even when Brian isn't around, he seems a lot more down to earth and rather prudish and cynical on occasion. Whether this counts as Flanderization or subversion is hard to say.
*** For the first few episodes of Season 12, Quagmire's personality reverted back to the way he was in the Zuckerman and Goodman and Sheridan era. Until "Life of Brian".....
** Mort went through a somewhat reverse-Flanderization similar to that of Joe and Cleveland. He was always a [[JokeCharacter one-joke character]], but initially the joke surrounding him was that his wife looked identical to him. In later seasons, he mainly exists nowadays for the show to make jokes about Judaism. This is more evident in the "Road to..." episodes such as "Road to Germany", "Road to the Multiverse" (where he gets beaten to a pulp by the characters in the Disneyverse as a reference to the rumor of Walt Disney being an anti-Semite), and "Road to the North Pole" (where during the episode's musical number, he says he'll sue if he sees a Christmas tree at the airport).
* After returning from The Cleveland Show, everyone from The Brown-Tubbs Family has gone through this. This is mostly because [[DependingOnTheWriter the writers of TCS were no longer handling the characters]], making Family Guy's writers deprive them of the personalities they developed on the show, and water them down to one-note stereotypes of Black people.
** In The Cleveland Show, Cleveland Brown was a three-dimensional well-rounded character with depth and personality. However, the instant he returned to Family Guy, he immediately lost all of that and simply became subject to being nothing more than the [[TokenBlackFriend token Black]] guy, who committed to Black stereotypes and really only talked if it was about his race. He also became an occasional [[ButtMonkey butt monkey]], occasionally getting insulted for the cancellation of his show.
** Like with her husband, Donna's Blackness pretty much consumed her, whereas, in the show, she had plenty of character traits outside of her race, Family Guy has demeaned her into Lois' [[TokenBlackFriend Black best friend]] and the [[SassyBlackWoman sassy Black woman]], who does very stereotypical things that would be jarringly out of character for her to do in The Cleveland Show.
** Junior has more or less stayed the same. However, a few Black stereotypes have been quietly thrown in there. In "A Shot in the Dark", Junior was listening to "Jay-Z", which doesn't sound like something he would have done on the original show, as Junior is more into nerdy stuff like the scores from his favorite movies and TV shows and the occasional stupid children's nursery rhymes.
** 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".
** Rallo has lost his snappy, sarcastic wit, being insulted by Stewie in his debut and sadly walking away after Stewie called him a "[[WesternAnimation/TheBoondocks Boondocks]] rip-off".
* 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, and later in season 7, Brian's character was swallowed by his political views, much to the fans' frustration.
** The political facets itself have also been dumbed down. In its initial form, Brian was originally your average cliche left wing caricature (i.e. condescending and self righteous but still well meaning and earnest in his beliefs), he slowly just devolved into a sleazy StrawHypocrite, flip flopping views to give himself moral superiority, and often babbling pretentious rants even he barely understands in a desperate ploy for [[AttentionWhore attention and dignity]].
** Infuriating given his statement in the very first episode that he didn't vote, and in "The Thin White Line" when he thanks God for blessing him with his nose.
** His insisting that [[PunctuatedForEmphasis "God! Is! Pissed!"]] when Peter's blasphemous behavior causes the ten biblical plagues to descend on the family. In that same episode Brian immediately interprets a power outage, fleas, and blood as three of the Ten Plagues of Egypt, a response you wouldn't expect from a staunch atheist.
** More than his politics became Flanderized. Originally he was a very smart and cultured character, even if he did drink from time to time and had trouble getting women to go out with him because most of the women he dated were airheads with hot bodies. Now, he's a full-blown alcoholic, he's not very sophisticated (he even thinks ''Literature/PortnoysComplaint'' is about a man filing a noise complaint about a port), and a lot of his plotlines now revolve around him trying to get a date, always one with a human woman, and yes, many of them were bimbos.
** 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. On the other hand his love for Lois has just been made it almost an obsession and is very creepy. Both these aspects were brought up by Quagmire in his TheReasonYouSuckSpeech directed at Brian.
*** His predilection for naive, attractive young women has now morphed into a tendency towards ephebophilia, to the point that he is shown as comfortable with trysts with underage teens provided there won’t be legal ramifications.
** On top of this, Brian's flanderization when it comes to meeting women was turned up a few notches when he goes to date Stewie's preschool teacher, a woman who is clearly unqualified for the job, ignoring their injuries and even a ''dead child''. This is driven further when Stewie comes home with his arm out of the socket and tries to tell Lois when Brian shuts Stewie up just so Brian can keep dating the teacher. Brian eventually turns the teacher in to the police but only because the woman had a boyfriend already (naturally with an ever-hypocritical "there's a special level in Hell for people like you" comment as she's dragged off by the police).
** Brian's failures in dating women was also brought to light when Stewie brought him every single woman Brian dated and had them explain to him why they broke up with him (jealous, callous, insecure, pretentious, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking has a small penis]]). Rather than taking what the women said to heart, Brian tried to flip it around by pointing out why all the women he dated were flawed instead of actually taking responsibility for his own actions, a trait that seems to have stuck to Brian's character.
** In a case of a de-Flanderized trait, Brian was also extremely deadpan in early episodes, to the point of bordering TheStoic. By the end of the pre-cancellation run, he is a fully emotional character and more prone to neuroses.
** After his revival in "Christmas Guy", he went through ''another'' Flanderization that saw him become more and more of a {{Jerkass}}, doing things like giving Stewie and Chris herpes (which is often considered his MoralEventHorizon) and taking advantage of his son Dylan's career.
** When his son Dylan was first introduced, Brian was shown to be a loving, if OverprotectiveDad. While the episode ends with the two parting ways, it was at Dylan's insistence as he felt his mother needed him. Whenever Dylan is brought up in future episodes, Brian is treated as a [[ParentalNeglect neglectful parent]] who abandoned his son.

* And [[UnpopularPopularCharacter let's not even go into what happened to]] ''[[ButtMonkey her]]''... Meg has "developed" from an ordinary, level-headed teenage girl with teen problems into an outrageously hated and despised punching bag whose desperation for happiness and love often makes her insane. At one point she even snaps and beats up a passing car driver who is picking on her, and stalks Brian after he goes to the prom with her out of pity.
* 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. From season 4 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.

** Peter also was arguably more racist and sexist in early episodes like "When You Wish Upon a Weinstein" and "I Am Peter, Hear Me Roar" as [[Series/AllInTheFamily Archie Bunker]] was one of his primary influences.

** A few of the earlier episodes had Peter showing some attraction for girls that are Meg's age, but since around Season 12, it's also been heavily implied that he has paedophilic lust for ''much'' younger children as well. Though not shown onscreen, "Brian's A Bad Father" has him performing oral sex on Joe's ''infant daughter'', and a scene in "He's Bl-ack" indicates that he has inappropriate pictures of young children on his computer.

** Joe Swanson was initially introduced as one of the most [[{{Badass}} competent and skilled characters on the show]] who just happened to be unable to walk. His disability hardly ever held him back and he was highly admired by everyone because of it. Over time, Joe eventually devolved into a sad sack who's inferior at everything, and his entire character now revolves around his disability to the point where just everything involving Joe now ends with a "Get it? Because he's a cripple" joke.

* After returning from The Cleveland Show, everyone from The Brown-Tubbs Family has gone through this. This is mostly because [[DependingOnTheWriter the writers of TCS were no longer handling the characters]], making Family Guy's writers deprive them of the personalities they developed on the show, and water them down to one-note stereotypes of black people.
** In The Cleveland Show, Cleveland Brown was a three-dimensional well-rounded character with depth and personality. However, the instant he returned to Family Guy, he immediately lost all of that and simply became subject to being nothing more than the [[TokenBlackFriend token black]] guy, who committed to black stereotypes and really only talked if it was about his race. He also became an occasional [[ButtMonkey butt monkey]], occasionally getting insulted for the cancellation of his show.
** Like with her husband, Donna's blackness pretty much consumed her, whereas, in the show, she had plenty of character traits outside of her race, Family Guy has demeaned her into Lois' [[TokenBlackFriend black best friend]] and the [[SassyBlackWoman sassy black woman]], who does very stereotypical things that would be jarringly out of character for her to do in The Cleveland Show.
** Junior has more or less stayed the same. However, a few black stereotypes have been quietly thrown in there. In "A Shot in the Dark", Junior was listening to "Jay-Z", which doesn't sound like something he would have done on the original show, as Junior is more into nerdy stuff like the scores from his favorite movies and TV shows and the occasional stupid children's nursery rhymes.

** Bonnie was initially introduced as a genuinely loving and compassionate wife and neighbour who served as a [[RedOniBlueOni more down-to-earth foil to both Joe and Lois]]. Once Joe turned into a one-dimensional cripple joke, Bonnie became far more cynical and bitchy as his long-suffering and cynical wife. She also developed a more sociopathic streak and recent episodes have even gone as far as implying that she wants Joe dead by this point (while others imply Joe himself wants it too).

** In early episodes, she was a piano teacher, which partially explains how the family was able to survive on Peter's paycheck. Later episodes exaggerated her being a housewife to the point she's obsessed with shopping for groceries. It's strange the writers forgot she used to have a job given her playing the piano starts off the show.

* The supporting cast has fallen into this trope as well. Joe Swanson went from just a handicapped character (who in fact was greatly competent despite this and admired by everyone because of it) to everything involving him leading to a "Get it? Because he's a cripple" joke with rage tendencies, and Cleveland lost his quiet, boring personality to become the butt for black jokes.
** Cleveland originally was the calm, soft guy. However when he got his [[WesternAnimation/TheClevelandShow own show]], his personality morphed into the abrasive, crude and cynical sitcom father character (to [[{{Expy}} fit in the role of leading male]] having a personality more similar to that of Peter and American Dad's [[WesternAnimation/AmericanDad Stan Smith]]).
** Joe Swanson got even worse as time has gone on-his rage issues are more or less gone and now he's just a sad sack whose completely inferior at everything because he's handicapped, even being unable to use the toilet.

** Bonnie slowly shifted into a long suffering woman who was bitchy and unhappy with her marriage around the time Joe started turning into a one-dimensional cripple joke. Some recent episodes have even gone as far as implying that she wants Joe dead by this point (while others imply Joe himself wants it too).

** As time went on, Stewie actually went through a reverse Flanderization going from a real sociopath to being the OnlySaneMan of the family and easily being the most likeable character despite his CampGay tendencies.

*** Quagmire's overall {{wack|yGuy}}iness and perverted tendencies have been toned down in a favor of making him a SelfDeprecation avatar in the Steve Callaghan seasons, and effectively displaced Brian as the show's [[Main/VoiceOfReason voice of reason]]. Even when Brian isn't around, he seems a lot more down to earth and rather prudish and cynical on occasion. Whether this counts as Flanderization or subversion is hard to say.

** Rallo has lost his snappy, sarcastic wit, being insulted by Stewie in his debut and sadly walking away, and Stewie’s probably one of the most easiest characters to trash talk, given that he’s essentially a gay football that grew legs and wears hillbilly clothing.

** When his son Dylan was first introduced, Brian was shown to be a loving, if OverprotectiveDad. While the episode ending with the two parting ways, it was at Dylan's insistence as he felt his mother needed him. Whenever Dylan is brought up in future episodes, Brian is treated as a [[ParentalNeglect neglectful parent]] who abandoned his son.

** When his son Dylan was first introduced, Brian was shown to be a loving, if OverprotectiveDad. While the episode ending with the two parting ways, it was at Dylan's insistence as he felt his mother needed him. In future episode, Brian is treated as a [[ParentalNeglect neglectful parent]] who abandoned his son.

** In The Cleveland Show, Cleveland Brown was a three-dimensional well-rounded character with depth and personality. However, the instant he returned to Family Guy, he immediately lost all of that and simply became subject to being nothing more than the [[TokenMinority token]] [[BlackBestFriend black]] guy, who committed to black stereotypes and really only talked if it was about his race. He also became an occasional [[ButtMonkey butt monkey]], occasionally getting insulted for the cancellation of his show.
** Like with her husband, Donna's blackness pretty much consumed her, whereas, in the show, she had plenty of character traits outside of her race, Family Guy has demeaned her into Lois' [[BlackBestFriend black best friend]] and the [[SassyBlackWoman sassy black woman]], who does very stereotypical things that would be jarringly out of character for her to do in The Cleveland Show.

** Everybody noticed how Quagmire went from a generic hedonist to a pervert to a guy who has adapted his entire house to rape women more easily, but he suffered a second flanderization much more prominent and fast: in Season 8, it was revealed that he hated Brian. Before Cleveland's departure, Quagmire seemingly had no beef with Brian and even allowed him to stay at his house at one time, and even in the episode that revealed his contempt presented it as passive aggressive, more exacerbated by Brian's unctuous attempts to make him like him. Within less than half a season, Quagmire gained a tall order HairTriggerTemper towards Brian, having brutally assaulted him for unknowingly dating his transgender father, furiously ranted at him for things Brian didn't know, and ran him over with his car. This was evened somewhat as Brian started openly [[ThenLetMeBeEvil loathing Quagmire back and getting rises out of him intentionally]], making his vitriol towards him far more justified in most later cases, but also causing another Flanderization of turning them into priggish SitcomArchNemesis for each other.

** Not forgetting about his lack of intelligence. Early episodes had him expressed his stupidity to at least, somewhat a normal child's level, that is, about as intelligent you'd expect a kid his age to act. Nowadays, he could very well be a younger, even ''less'' intelligent, version of his ol' man albeit (''mostly'') less violent. Oh, and TooDumbToLive.

** Rallo has lost his snappy, sarcastic wit, being insulted by Stewie in his debut and sadly walking away.

** Peter's LethallyStupid tendencies were more a case of InnocentlyInsensitive behavior in early seasons, and, akin to a standard BumblingDad, being too arrogant and idiotic to quite get what he was doing was wrong. Even at that Peter usually was handed AnAesop and saw the error of his ways. Around mid-Season 4 (and completely around Season 7 onwards), however, he evolved more into a PsychopathicManchild, completely apathetic to the misery he causes, and in some episodes, outright sadistic and amused by it.

*** Has predilection for naive, attractive young women has now morphed into a tendency towards ephebophilia, to the point that he is shown as comfortable with trysts with underage teens provided there won’t be legal ramifications.