| Lois Griffin | |
|---|---|
| Family Guy character | |
 | |
| First appearance | "Death Has a Shadow" (1999) |
| Created by | Seth MacFarlane |
| Designed by | Seth MacFarlane |
| Voiced by | Alex Borstein |
| In-universe information | |
| Full name | Lois Patrice Griffin (née Pewterschmidt) |
| Gender | Female |
| Occupation | |
| Family |
|
| Spouse | Peter Griffin |
| Children |
|
| Relatives |
|
| Home | Quahog, Rhode Island |
| Nationality | American |
| Age | 43 |
| Mayor ofQuahog (Temporarily) | |
| In office May 13, 2007 – May 27, 2007 | |
| Preceded by | Adam West |
| Succeeded by | Adam West |
Lois Patrice Griffin (néePewterschmidt) is a fictional character from the American animated television seriesFamily Guy. She is voiced byAlex Borstein and first appeared in the show's pilot episode, "Death Has a Shadow", on January 31, 1999. WriterSeth MacFarlane created and designed Lois after his 1995 student film,The Life of Larry, was picked up by20th Century Fox for a series order. Lois is thematriarch of theGriffin family. She and her husbandPeter have three children:Meg,Chris, andStewie.
Lois Griffin was born to affluentWASP parents,Carter andBarbara Pewterschmidt. It is revealed in the episode "Family Goy" that her mother is actually aJewish AmericanHolocaust survivor whoconcealed her Judaism,[1][2] though Lois was raised aProtestant. Lois and the rest of the Griffins live in the fictional city ofQuahog, Rhode Island, which is modeled afterCranston, Rhode Island.[3][4][5] Lois speaks with a distinctive nasalNew England accent. In the episode "A Lot Going on Upstairs", Lois’s drivers license reveals that her height is 5 feet 8 inches (1.73 m). Lois primarily works as ahousewife throughout the series, though she did give piano lessons in early episodes. She has also had various jobs in single episodes such as in "FOX-y Lady", where she becomes the new reporter forFox 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 doingphone sex. In the episode "Take a Letter", Lois works at post office. In the episode "Dammit Janet!" Lois gets a job as aflight attendant. Lois is a championshipboxer[6] who retires with an undefeated record of 18–0 in the episode "Baby, You Knock Me Out". Lois is also aBlack belt inTae-Jitsu,[7] which she quickly achieved in the episode "Lethal Weapons". In "The Fat Guy Strangler", Lois is revealed to have a murderous brother.
While still in college,Family Guy creatorSeth MacFarlane created a cartoon short calledThe Life of Larry.[8] The short centered around a middle-aged man named Larry and his anthropomorphic dog Steve; other characters are his patient wife Lois and his overweight teenage son Milt.[9] He made a sequel calledLarry & Steve, whichCartoon Network broadcast in 1997.[10] In 1999, MacFarlane was working forHanna-Barbera Studios, writing for shows such asJohnny Bravo,Dexter's Laboratory, andCow and Chicken.[11] The short caught the eye of20th Century Fox representatives, who asked him to create a TV series revolving around the characters.[9] MacFarlane was given aUS $50,000 budget to develop a pilot for the show, which was about one twentieth of what most pilots cost.[11] MacFarlane claims to have drawn inspiration from several sitcoms, includingThe Simpsons andAll in the Family.[12] Several premises were also carried over from several 1980sSaturday morning cartoons he watched as a child, namelyThe Fonz and the Happy Days Gang, andRubik, the Amazing Cube.[13]
In three months, MacFarlane created the Griffin family and developed a pilot for the show he calledFamily Guy.[14] Brian's character was largely based on Steve from theLarry and Steve cartoon, with Larry serving as the primary basis of the Peter character. While Larry and Peter's wives share the same name, they do not resemble one another. Peter's son Chris, by contrast, harbors a design similarity to Larry's son Milt. Stewie and Meg were new characters that were completely new at the time, and were not based on old Seth MacFarlane characters.[15] Peter's personality was also inspired by a friend of his father who fell asleep while watching the 1993 filmPhiladelphia.[16] The network executives were impressed with the pilot and ordered thirteen episodes, giving MacFarlane a $2 million per-season contract.[14]
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Lois Griffin is voiced byproducer and staff writer[17]Alex Borstein who also voices recurring characters such asAsian reporterTricia Takanawa,Loretta Brown and Lois' motherBarbara Pewterschmidt.[18] Borstein has been part of the main voice cast from the beginning of the series including the pilot, and has voiced Lois from the start.[19]
"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."
At the time whenFamily Guy was being developed, Borstein was working in thesketch comedy,MADtv.[19] She was asked to audition by a member of theMADtv staff who was helping MacFarlane develop the show. She had not met MacFarlane or seen any artwork and said it was "really sight unseen".[19][20] At the time, she was doing a stage show inLos Angeles, in which she played a redhead mother, whose voice she had based on one of her cousins from Long Island, New York.[18][20] She took the voice of the character to the set and used 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.[19]
There have been rare occasions where Borstein does not voice Lois, such as in the episode "Road to the Multiverse", where Lois is instead 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).[21]
Lois's personality has evolved throughout the episodes. She is commonly the voice of reason to Peter's tomfoolery and shenanigans, but in some episodes she can act darker than normal and sometimes shows a taste forsadomasochism. In the episode "The Son Also Draws", Lois had agambling addiction when the family went to aNative American casino and lost the family car. In the episode "Model Misbehavior", Lois becomes abulimic model. However, in "Sibling Rivalry", just the opposite happens where Lois gains a ton of weight after Peter has avasectomy and loses his sex drive. After outgrowing Peter's 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. The two then decide to live together again despite their mutually jealous nature.[22]
Several episodes have suggested that Lois isbisexual or, at 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".[20] 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 atSalve Regina University, and she passionately kisses Meg's lesbian classmate Sarah in "Brian Sings and Swings". Lois fantasizes about running away with Target cashier Esparanza in "Prescription Heroine". In the pilot episode forThe Cleveland Show, she and Bonnie make out to fulfill Cleveland, Peter, Quagmire, and Brian's wishes.
Lois Griffin ranked number 12 spot on "IGN's Top 25 Family Guy Characters".[23] 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).[24] In "IGN's Family Guy: Top 10 Fights", Lois ranked on two places, in number seven and number six for Lois's fight with Stewie in "Lois Kills Stewie" and in the Griffin Family Fight from "Lethal Weapons", respectively.[25]
Lois has had several television appearances outside ofFamily Guy. She and Peter both had a cameo onDrawn Together in the episode "The Lemon-AIDS Walk" where she was voiced by Borstein. She, along with the rest of her family, appeared onSouth Park in the episodes "Cartoon Wars Part I" and "Part II". In theFamily Guyparodies of theStar Warsoriginal trilogy titled "Blue Harvest", "Something, Something, Something, Dark Side" and "It's A Trap" which are parodies ofA New Hope,The Empire Strikes Back andReturn of the Jedi respectively,[26][27] Lois appears asPrincess Leia.[28] Lois, and most of the central characters onFamily Guy, also appeared in thepilot episode of the show's spin-offThe Cleveland Show.[29] She came in at No. 85 out of 100 onMaxim's 2012 Hot 100.[30] She also appears in HBO'sAnimals Season 2 episode, "Pigeon". She, along with the family, appeared in aThe Simpsons episode, "Homerland", and the short filmMay the 12th Be with You, along with her daughter Meg, and sons Chris and Stewie.
Lois is also featured on theFamily Guy: Live in Vegas CD,[31] and plays a significant part inFamily Guy Video Game!, the firstFamily Guy video game, which was released by2K Games in 2006.[32] Borstein recorded exclusive material of Lois for a 2007pinball machine of the show byStern Pinball.[33] In 2004, the first series ofFamily Guy toy figurines was released byMezco Toyz, each member of the Griffin family had their own, except for Stewie, of whom two different figures were made.[34] Over the course of two years, four more series of toy figures have been released, with various forms of Peter.[35]
As of 2009, six books have been released about theFamily Guy universe, all published byHarperCollins since 2005.[36] These includeFamily 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",[37] andFamily 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.[38]
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