An element of Family Guy Fanon is it taking characters who were minor or even background players and boosting them into higher roles.
- Cleveland Brown Jr.. Not the modern version that was from The Cleveland Show, but the original skinny hyperactive Cleveland Jr.. In the original, Cleveland Jr. in his original form only appeared for seven episodes in four seasons before disappearing until The Cleveland Show (with one episode "Ready, Willing, and Disabled" having a scrapped bit with him, and two episodes "Petarded" and "The Perfect Castaway" only had him pictured and seen in a crowd shot). Here, Junior in his original form appears much more often in the first four seasons. Compare the original's five appearances to the Fanon's twenty-one before his redesign.
- Kevin, the teenage son of Joe and Bonnie, was rarely seen in the first three seasons and even underwent Chuck Cunningham Syndrome for multiple seasons. And he came back from Iraq, he still ended up being a background extra. Here, he's given far more presence both before and after the Iraq War, even getting an episode that has him sign up for the war and bid farewells.
- Change for a Buck was just a mere casino worker at Geronimo's Palace, in a Blink-and-You-Miss-It three second cameo and had one line in the extended cut of Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story. Here, he gains his own place when the casino goes out of business and becomes a Quahog resident with his own life and having multiple episodes where helps out Peter and the guys ("One if by Clam, Two if by Sea"), have his own agenda on holidays ("Thanks But No Thanksgiving") and even works with Seamus to sell taffy (rewritten Brian and Stewie B-Plot from "A Bottle Episode").
- Randall Fargus's appeared in only one episode "Running Mates" and acts as a Plot Device to get Peter to run against Lois. With him disappearing after the first act, only to be killed in The Stinger. Here, the episode's rewritten to have him be a major player helping Peter with his campaign and keep him alive, giving Randall far more time to shin. He becomes a Mad Scientist, gains a wife Eliza and son named Anthony ("Good Ol' Fargy Love" and "A Cheater Runs Through It"), overthrows Peter's president roles in Petoria and uses his machines to turn the luck against the military to get them to surrender ("E. Peterbus Fargnum"), becomes a pirate alongside Peter ("Long John Peter") and even runs an attraction called the Wacky World of Mayhem. In addition, he gets his two episodes dedicated to his death. The first, Season 7's "How Farg is Heaven?" is centered on him catching colon cancer from a nuclear reaction from his Microwave-ception experiment and Peter dealing with his death. And the second, Season 8's "Holy Jolly Folly" centering on the aftermath of his death and Peter trying to reopen his attraction to bring back some Christmas magic Randall brought.
- Francis and Thelma, Peter's parents, only really appeared in few select episodes throughout the series and actually were mentioned more than they appeared. Here, both get boosted into the recurring roles. Compare Francis' episode count before his death in the original (three, not counting cameos and mentions) to his episode count before his death in here (over twenty, not counting cameos and mentions) and the difference is night and day.
- Hennessey (now with the last name O'Callaghan) from "A Fish Out of Water" only appeared in that episode and was just The Rival. Here, he's Peter's boss while he's a fisherman and appearing semi-frequently. And even though he did go through a lengthy period of not appearing after Peter lost his boat, and by proxy his fisherman job, he came back again as one of Carol's Polyamorous Husbands in Season 17, and gained more of a presence when Peter returned to his fisherman job and was rehired alongside Stan Thompson being hired.
- Bernice, a girlfriend of Cleveland's that was semi-and-not-semi seen through season four to six, now has a story arc in Season 6 about her and Cleveland dating
- Peter's parrot Adrien Beaky, renamed to Adrianne Beaky, he bought in "Long John Peter" becomes a recurring housepet as to follow along with him being alive after his debut episode, until he's killed in "Long John Peter II: Shelly's Return".
- Vinny, the Wisedog with an Italian accent that was purchased at the pet store by the Griffins after Brian's now undone death, is given an entire season to be the family's new dog instead of the two and a half episodes he got in the original. And even though he does still have his timeline erased, he does still do rare cameos.
- Kimi, Quagmire's date when the Griffins and their neighbors attend a couple retreat in the Bahamas in "Take My Wife", ends up becoming Quagmire's wife in "Kimi Stupid Love" and ends up becoming a recurring character until "The Quagmire Show
", with Quagmire and Kimi get divorced in this episode - The Brown-Tubbs family, which ever since moving to Quahog have had non-speaking roles, have episodes dedicated to them and speak more in this adaptation.
- Peter's Evil Twin Retep from "Meg Stinks" becomes a semi-recurring villain, and this adaption actually shows him to be a threat.
- From the Brian Moves Out story arc:
- Lou Spinazola, the apartment manager of the run down complex Brian goes to, was only given a small amount of dialogue in the three episodes and brief time he appeared in the Season 17 premiere. Here, Lou's a major character for the entire arc, as the Brian Moves Out arc lasts half of Season 16 instead of three episodes, and Brian was close to Lou. And Lou got even more time with him in the first half of Season 22, when Stan Thompson moved into his apartment complex
- Lance Prueher, a nameless guy in the original show, only appeared in a brief scene in "Petey IV". Here, he's a recurring character in Brian's arc living in Spinazola Apartments and is now changed to be Brian's boss.
- Hudson, a little boy Stewie wants to be friends with in "Pal Stewie", becomes a part of the major cast when he officially becomes friends with Stewie in "The Strange Case of Dr. Stewie & Mr. Hudson"
- Anna, Chris' Girl of the Week from "Long John Peter", ascends to the level of actually becoming Chris' girlfriend in Season 20.
