Lois Griffin

Lois Patrice Griffin (née Pewterschmidt) is a fictional character from the animated television series Family Guy. She is voiced by writer Alex Borstein and first appeared on television, along with the rest of the Griffin family, in a 15-minute short on December 20, 1998. Lois was created and designed by series creator Seth MacFarlane. MacFarlane was asked to pitch a pilot to the Fox Broadcasting Company based on Larry and Steve, a short he made which featured a middle-aged character named Larry and an intellectual dog, Steve. After the pilot was given the green light, the Griffin family appeared in the episode "Death Has a Shadow".

For the former Toronto city councillor, see Lois Griffin (politician).
Lois Griffin
Family Guy character
First appearance"Death Has a Shadow" (1999)
Created bySeth MacFarlane
Voiced byAlex Borstein
In-universe information
Full nameLois Patrice Griffin
GenderFemale
OccupationHousewife
Piano instructor
FamilyCarter Pewterschmidt (father)
Barbara Pewterschmidt (mother)
Patrick Pewterschmidt (brother)
Carol Pewterschmidt (sister)
SpousePeter Griffin
Brian Griffin (ex-husband)
ChildrenMeg, Chris, and Stewie Griffin
NationalityAmerican

Lois is the mother of the Griffin family. She and her husband, Peter, have three children: Meg, Chris, and Stewie, along with the family dog, Brian. Lois is often portrayed as a stereotypical television mother and housewife, despite her admitting to being a recovering methamphetamine addict and a kleptomaniac. Lois has also had several affairs, one of which allegedly resulted in the conception of Chris.

Role in Family Guy

Lois Griffin was born to affluent WASP parents, Carter and Barbara Pewterschmidt. It is revealed in the episode "Family Goy" that her mother is actually a Holocaust survivor who concealed her Judaism,[1][2] though she was raised a Protestant. Lois and the rest of the Griffins live in the fictional city of Quahog, Rhode Island, which is modeled after Cranston, Rhode Island.[3][4][5] Lois also speaks with a distinctive New England accent. She primarily works as a housewife throughout the series, though she did give piano lessons in early episodes. Lois has also had various jobs in single episodes such as in "FOX-y Lady", where she becomes the new reporter for Fox News Channel, in "It Takes a Village Idiot, and I Married One", Lois is elected the mayor of Quahog, and in "Call Girl" Lois gets a job doing phone sex. In the episode "Take a Letter", Lois works at the Post Office, where she sarcastically states she is "6,004th in line for the Presidency".

Character

Creation

When he was still in college, Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane created a cartoon short called The Life of Larry.[6] The short centered around a middle-aged man named Larry and his anthropomorphic dog Steve.[7] He made a sequel called Larry & Steve, which Cartoon Network broadcast in 1997.[8] In 1999, MacFarlane was working for Hanna-Barbera Studios, writing for shows such as Johnny Bravo, Dexter's Laboratory, and Cow and Chicken.[9] The short caught the eye of 20th Century Fox representatives, who asked him to create a TV series revolving around the characters.[7] MacFarlane received a US$50,000 budget to develop a pilot for the show, which was about one twentieth of what most pilots cost.[9] MacFarlane claims to have drawn inspiration from several sitcoms, namely The Simpsons and All in the Family.[10] Several premises were also carried over from several 1980s Saturday morning cartoons he watched as a child, namely The Fonz and the Happy Days Gang, and Rubik, the Amazing Cube.[11]

In three months, MacFarlane created the Griffin family and developed a pilot for the show he called Family Guy.[12] Brian's character was largely based on Steve from the Larry and Steve cartoon, with Larry serving as the primary basis of the Peter character.[13] The character's personality was also partially inspired by a friend of his father who rudely fell asleep while watching the 1993 film Philadelphia.[14] The network executives were impressed with the pilot and ordered thirteen episodes, giving MacFarlane a $2 million per-season contract.[12]

Voice
Alex Borstein is the voice of Lois Griffin.

Lois Griffin is voiced by producer and staff writer,[15] Alex Borstein, who also voices recurring characters such as Asian reporter Tricia Takanawa, Loretta Brown and Lois' mother Barbara Pewterschmidt.[16] Borstein has been part of the main voice cast from the beginning of the series including the pilot, and has been voicing Lois from the start.[17]

"I was doing this character in a stage show, so I brought that over, which was very slow... that was based on my cousin in Long Island and Seth said that 'It would be a four hour show if you talked at that pace so could you make it quicker and raise it?'. "Over the years you can notice that it started lower and slower and it's gotten higher and higher and quicker and quicker."

Alex Borstein, on Lois Griffin's Origins, Interview with IGN.[17]

At the time Family Guy was being developed, Borstein was working in the sketch comedy, MADtv.[17] She was asked to audition by a member of the MADtv staff who was helping MacFarlane develop the show. She had not met MacFarlane or seen any artwork and said it was "really sight unseen".[17][18] At the time, she was doing a stage show in Los Angeles, in which she played a redhead mother, whose voice she had based on one of her cousins from Long Island, New York.[16][18] She took the voice of the character to the set and use it for Lois. The voice was originally slower, when MacFarlane heard it, he asked her to make it faster and higher. Borstein has noted that the voice of Lois has been changing from the slower original voice to the quicker up tempo voice of the present episodes.[17]

There have been occasions where Borstein does not voice Lois, such as in the episode "Road to the Multiverse", where Lois is not voiced by Borstein in a scene and instead was voiced by Japanese actress Kei Ogawa, who was required for a scene where everything in the world was Japanese (she also did the voice of Meg for the scene).[19]

Personality

Lois's personality has evolved throughout the episodes. She is commonly the voice of reason to Peter's shenanigans, but in some episodes she can act darker than normal and sometimes shows a taste for sadomasochism. In the episode "The Son Also Draws", Lois showed a gambling addiction when the family went to an Indian casino and lost the family car. In the episode "Model Misbehavior", Lois becomes a bulimic model. However, in "Sibling Rivalry", just the opposite happens where Lois gains a ton of weight after Peter has a vasectomy and loses his sex drive. After outgrowing Peter in terms of size, she discovers she enjoys being fat, leading to a new sex life where she lets Peter force feed her junk food so she can continue to grow bigger and fatter. "Stuck Together, Torn Apart" shows Peter and Lois splitting up because of Peter's jealousy, only to discover that Lois has the same jealousy characteristic and the two decide to live with their mutually jealous nature.[20]

Sexuality

Many episodes have suggested that Lois is bisexual or least bi-curious. In an interview, Borstein stated that Lois became "a little more snarky and sassy and sexual" since the first season to challenge "those sitcom rules that a woman is supposed to be a total wet blanket and not like sex and is no fun".[18] In the first straight-to-DVD feature, Stewie Griffin, The Untold Story, Lois also states, "women are such teases. That's why I went back to men." She reveals in "Partial Terms of Endearment" that she had a lesbian affair with Naomi while they were students at Salve Regina University, and she passionately kisses Meg's lesbian classmate Sarah in "Brian Sings and Swings". In the pilot episode for The Cleveland Show, she and Bonnie make out to fulfill Cleveland's, Peter's, Quagmire's, and Brian's wish.

Reception

Commendations

Lois ranked number 12 spot on "IGN's Top 25 Family Guy Characters".[21] In "IGN's top 10 musical moments in Family Guy" ranked number three spot with the song, "This House Is Freakin' Sweet" from the episode, "Peter, Peter, Caviar Eater", (season 2, 1999).[22] In "IGN's Family Guy: Top 10 Fights", Lois ranked on two places, in number seven and number 6 for Lois's fight with Stewie in "Lois Kills Stewie" and in the Griffin Family Fight from "Barely Legal", respectively.[23]

Cultural influence

Appearances in other media

Lois has had several television appearances outside of Family Guy. She and Peter both had a cameo on Drawn Together in the episode "The Lemon-AIDS Walk" where she was voiced by Borstein. In the Family Guy parodies of the Star Wars original trilogy titled "Blue Harvest", "Something, Something, Something, Dark Side" and "It's A Trap" which are parodies of A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi respectively,[24][25] Lois appears as Princess Leia.[26] Lois, and most of the central characters on Family Guy, also appeared in the pilot episode of the show's spin-off The Cleveland Show.[27] She came in at No. 85 out of 100 on Maxim's 2012 Hot 100.[28] She also appears in Season 2, Episode 2 of HBO's Animals.

Merchandise

Lois is also featured on the Family Guy: Live in Vegas CD,[29] and plays a significant part in Family Guy Video Game!, the first Family Guy video game, which was released by 2K Games in 2006.[30] Borstein recorded exclusive material of Lois for a 2007 pinball machine of the show by Stern Pinball.[31] In 2004, the first series of Family Guy toy figurines was released by Mezco Toyz, each member of the Griffin family had their own, except for Stewie, of whom two different figures were made.[32] Over the course of two years, four more series of toy figures have been released, with various forms of Peter.[33]

As of 2009, six books have been released about the Family Guy universe, all published by HarperCollins since 2005.[34] These include Family Guy: It Takes a Village Idiot, and I Married One (ISBN 978-0-7528-7593-4), which covers the entire events of the episode "It Takes a Village Idiot, and I Married One",[35] and Family Guy and Philosophy: A Cure for the Petarded (ISBN 978-1-4051-6316-3), a collection of seventeen essays exploring the connections between the series and historical philosophers which include Lois as a character.[36]

References
  1. "Lois Griffin - Something To Stewie About?". Baltimore Jewish Times. October 7, 2009. Archived from the original on September 24, 2010. Retrieved June 15, 2011.
  2. "Elliptical vs. treadmill: Which will give you the better workout?". Daily News. New York. August 13, 2009.
  3. "Family Guy writer at Bryant". The Providence Journal. September 24, 2008.
  4. Hines, Michael (September 15, 2007). "Family funny business". Chicago Tribune.
  5. James, Caryn (January 29, 1999). "TV Weekend; Where Matricide Is a Family Value". The New York Times. Retrieved November 23, 2008.
  6. "Family Guy Seth MacFarlane to speak at Class Day". Harvard Gazette. November 5, 2006. Archived from the original on August 6, 2012. Retrieved October 18, 2009.
  7. Bartlett, James (March 12, 2007). "Seth MacFarlane – he's the "Family Guy"". The Great Reporter. Presswire Limited. Retrieved October 18, 2009.
  8. Graham, Jefferson (January 29, 1999). "Cartoonist MacFarlane funny guy of Fox's 'Family' Subversive voice of series is his". USA Today. p. 7E.
  9. MacFarlane, Seth (2006). "Inside Media at MTR (2006): Family Guy 2". Yahoo! Video. The Paley Center for Media. Retrieved October 18, 2009.
  10. "Interview with Seth MacFarlane". IGN. Retrieved December 9, 2009.
  11. Cruz, Gilbert (September 26, 2008). "Family Guy's Seth MacFarlane". Time. Retrieved August 28, 2009.
  12. Dean, Josh (October 13, 2008). "Seth MacFarlane's $2 Billion Family Guy Empire". Fast Company. Retrieved October 18, 2009.
  13. Strike, Joe (February 13, 2007). "Cartoon Network Pilots Screened by ASIFA East at NYC's School of Visual Arts". Animation World Network. Retrieved October 18, 2009.
  14. Weinraub, Bernard (July 7, 2004). "The Young Guy of 'Family Guy'". The New York Times. Archived from the original on December 7, 2013. Retrieved October 18, 2009.
  15. "Alex Borstein from Family Guy". Film.com. Archived from the original on April 28, 2009. Retrieved August 24, 2009.
  16. Miller, Kirk (November 19, 2008). "Q&A: Alex Borstein". Metromix. Archived from the original on February 18, 2012. Retrieved August 28, 2009.
  17. Haque, Ahsan (October 31, 2007). "Family Guy TV Behind the Scenes - Alex Borstein As Lois Griffin". IGN. Retrieved August 18, 2010.
  18. "Alex Borstein (Lois) Laughs at the Once-Dead Family Guy's Longevity". TV Guide. November 13, 2006. Retrieved August 24, 2009.
  19. "Family Guy – Road to the Multiverse – Cast and Crew". Yahoo!. Retrieved April 4, 2010.
  20. Writ.: Hentemann, Mark; Dir.: DiMartino, Michael Dante (January 31, 2002). "Stuck Together, Torn Apart". Family Guy. Season 3. Episode 19. Fox Broadcasting Company.
  21. "IGN's Top 25 Family Guy Characters". IGN. May 27, 2009. Retrieved March 13, 2011.
  22. Haque, Ahsan. "Family Guy: Top 10 Musical Moments". IGN. Retrieved November 14, 2009.
  23. Haque, Ahsan. "Family Guy: Top 10 Fights". IGN. Retrieved November 14, 2009.
  24. "Family Guy Presents :Blue Harvest". Family guyblueharvest.com. Archived from the original on September 22, 2012. Retrieved November 28, 2009.
  25. Firecloud, Johnny. "Family Guy: Something Something Something Dark Side". Crave Online. Archived from the original on December 21, 2009. Retrieved December 25, 2009.
  26. Hughes, Jason (May 24, 2010). "Sundays With Seth: Cleveland Strikes Back". TV Squad. Retrieved May 25, 2010.
  27. Conroy, Tom (October 8, 2009). "Cleveland Show, acquired lack of taste". Media Life Magazine. Archived from the original on October 14, 2009. Retrieved October 19, 2009.
  28. Mandell, Nina (May 22, 2012). "Amanda Knox makes Maxim Hot 100 list". Daily News. New York.
  29. Owen, Rob (May 1, 2005). "'Family Guy' goes beyond TV with CD, movie". Press-Enterprise. Retrieved October 19, 2009.
  30. "'Family Guy' makes for simple-but-funny gaming". The Gazette. November 24, 2006.
  31. Finley, Adam (February 3, 2007). "Family Guy pinball is freakin' sweet". TV Squad. Retrieved October 19, 2009.
  32. Clodfelter, Tim (November 11, 2004). "Here's the Offbeat Stuff that true geeks are made of". Winston-Salem Journal. p. 33.
  33. Szadkowski, Joseph (June 3, 2006). "Undead monster doomed to wander the high seas". The Washington Times.
  34. "Search results: Family Guy". HarperCollins. Archived from the original on January 2, 2011. Retrieved August 23, 2009.
  35. "Family Guy: It Takes a Village Idiot, and I Married One". HarperCollins. Retrieved December 26, 2008.
  36. "Philosophy Professor Jeremy Wisnewski Publishes Book on Family Guy". Hartwick College. September 18, 2007. Archived from the original on May 27, 2010. Retrieved August 23, 2009.
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