In an unprecedented turn of events "Family Guy" drunk family pet, Brian, was killed in a hit-and-run on Sunday night's sixth episode of the 12th season.
In the episode titled "Life of Brian," Stewie decides to destroy his time machine for good right before Brian is hit by a speeding car. With his last breath, Brian, looked into the camera and said: "You've given me a wonderful life. I love you all."
Brian, who has his own Wikipedia page complete with a full background on the characters fictitious struggling writing career, has been a part of the show since the first episode of the pilot season which began in 1999.
According to the shows executive producer Steve Callaghan, the idea was a brought up during a meeting between the writers after they thought it would be a great twist in where the show could go. In an interview with E! Online, Callaghan said everyone became excited after the idea was brought up.
"As soon as this idea came up, we started talking about what the next couple episodes could be and we got very excited about the way this change will affect the family dynamics and the characters," Callaghan told E!.
The show's creator, Seth MacFarlane, chose Tony Sirico to be the voice of the Griffin's new pet Vinny, bringing in a lot of the personality from Sirico's "The Sopranos" character, Paulie 'Walnuts' Gualtieri, according to E!.
"It was Seth's idea ... to get Tony to come in. He's a big fan of The Sopranos and always loved Tony Sirico in particular," Callaghan said, according to E!. "(He though) it would be fun to write a character based around his voice and his personality and just who he is as an actor."
After Callaghan decided Brian would be the most reasonable, and less "traumatic" character to leave the show, the writers went about deciding how he would die, stating that "it seemed more in the realm of a reality that a dog would get hit by a car, then if one of the kids died," according to E!.
"As much as we love Brian, and as much as everyone loves their pets, we felt it would be more traumatic to lose one of the kids, rather than the family pet," Callaghan told E!.
The new character Vinny seems more tough, or rough around the edges, whereas Brian was a seemingly more intellectual character with a social and cultural agenda, and might add a different chemistry to the show and character relationships.
"By losing Brian, it felt like a void needed to be filled both comically, and also for the interpersonal relationships between all the characters. We felt that we needed to fill that role," Callaghan told E!.
When asked about the backlash from fans, Callaghan told E! he wasn't worried because he considers the "Family Guy" audience "smart enough... to know that they can trust us."
