Fans of "Family Guy" received an early Christmas present. On Sunday's Dec. 15 Christmas special, creator Seth MacFarlane gave fans a treat and resurrected Brian Griffin from the dead. During the episode a tearful Stewie told a mall Santa that all he wanted for Christmas was his best friend, Brian Griffin back.
A couple weeks ago, the family pet was hit and killed by a car. Right before the accident Stewie destroyed his time machine and couldn't find the pieces he needed to fix it, go back into the past and save Brian's life. The episode ended with the family saying goodbye to their beloved pet and eventually getting a new pup named Vinny.
Fans were outraged. Twitter exploded with angry tweets and shortly after the episode aired over 15,000 fans signed an online petition demanding MacFarlane and the show bring Brian back.
During the Christmas special fans got exactly what they asked for. Stewie was able to time travel and saved Brian from getting hit by the car.
"I mean, you didn't really think we'd kill off Brian, did you?" MacFarlane tweeted. "Jesus, we'd have to be f**king high."
"Oh and hey... thanks for caring so much about the canine Griffin. He is overcome with gratitude," he added.
At the time of the shocking death, executive producer Steve Callaghan told E! News that the idea to kill Brian came up during a meeting and they decided to run with it because they wanted a "fun way to shake things up."
"As soon as the 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," he explained.
It seems like the show expected the fan backlash and had no plans to completely write Brian off for good. As Entertainment Weekly pointed out, even though Brian was killed on the Nov. 24 episode his name was still mentioned in future episodes. For example, in an episode slated to air in the fall the family dog falls for an avid runner (voiced by Maya Rudolph). To impress her, Brian pretends to a runner.
So why did the team behind "Family Guy" decided to trick their fans? This is what MacFarlane had to say about it: "And thus endeth our warn, fuzzy holiday lesson: Never take those you love for granted, for they can be gone in a flash."
Are you glad Brian Griffin is back from the dead? Let us know in the comments.
