Country of origin United States Original network Fox | No. of episodes 21 | |
Original release September 29, 2013 (2013-09-29) – May 18, 2014 (2014-05-18) | ||
Family Guy's twelfth season began airing on Fox on September 29, 2013, and ended on May 18, 2014.
The series follows the Griffin family, a dysfunctional family consisting of father Peter, mother Lois, daughter Meg, son Chris, baby Stewie, and the family dog Brian, who reside in their hometown of Quahog.
During this season, Peter gets a vestigial twin ("Vestigial Peter"); the Griffins travel to Italy ("Boopa-dee Bappa-dee"); Quagmire and Peter form a folk band ("Into Harmony's Way"); and, as confirmed by series creator Seth MacFarlane, Cleveland moves back to Quahog along with his family, since The Cleveland Show was cancelled ("He's Bla-ack!"). Also, as mentioned by Steve Callaghan in the 2013 Comic-con Panel, a member of the Griffin family was killed off in a special episode. After much speculation, that member was Brian, after being hit by a car in the episode "Life of Brian". This elicited strongly negative reactions from fans of the show, and a petition demanding Brian to be resurrected garnered over 100,000 signatures. His death turned out to be only temporary as, two episodes later, Stewie goes back in time and saves him, effectively changing the future so that he never dies.
Guest stars for the season include Conan O'Brien, Lea Thompson, Jeff Daniels, Michelle Dockery, Tony Sirico, Yvette Nicole Brown, Gary Cole, Lauren Bacall, Liam Neeson, Bryan Cranston, Peter Dinklage, Adam Levine, and Ariana Grande.
Reception
The season received mixed reviews.