Top 10 Times Family Guy Predicted the Future
Welcome to WatchMojo and today we’ll be counting down our picks for the Top 10 times “Family Guy” Predicted the Future. For this list, we’ll be looking at occasions when content from the animated series appeared eerily similar to real world events that happened after the episodes in question aired. If “Family Guy” got something right that we lacked the foresight to put on our list, tell us in the comments!
#10: Antonin Scalia’s Death
“Meet the Quagmires”
“Family Guy” likes its “what ifs,” and one of them sees Peter in a world where Quagmire married Lois instead of him. When Peter is given an opportunity by Death to change it back, Brian objects when Death tells them that Dick Cheney killed several political figures, including supreme court justice Antonin Scalia. Fast forward nine real-world years, and Antonin Scalia died in his sleep, likely from heart related causes. However, it was the day after he’d gone on a hunting trip, so while “Family Guy” didn’t get the cause right, it’s still odd that hunting was involved.
#9: Brett Ratner’s Misconduct
“Leggo My Meg-O”
In 2017, director and producer Brett Ratner was accused by half a dozen women of sexual harassment and assault. While Ratner’s legal battle over one incident ended without a public resolution, he’s effectively been out of work in Hollywood for years, though he has been attempting to make a comeback of late. “Family Guy,” it turns out, knew the writing was on the wall years earlier in 2012. An episode parodying the movie “Taken” sees Stewie go undercover as an underage girl being bid on by various wealthy men. One of these is announced as being Brett Ratner. He’s certainly lucky Liam Neeson wasn’t involved.
#8: Barry Manilow’s Orientation
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“Back to the Woods”
Barry Manilow is loved by millions of fans, and some of his biggest fans are in Quahog, with Peter, Joe, Cleveland, and Quagmire all loving his work… even if they’re reluctant to admit it. The foursome attends his concert and Quagmire is lucky enough to be serenaded by Manilow himself, to the tune of “Mandy.” Although Manilow singing a love song to a man may have been played for a gag in the episode, it wasn’t far off from reality, as Manilow later came out as gay in 2017. Although rumors had long persisted about his orientation.
#7: Charlie Rose’s Downfall
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“The New Adventures of Old Tom”
When Peter inadvertently ruins the career of local newsman Tom Tucker, he compares the anchor’s fall from grace to Charlie Rose. A cutaway implies that Rose is doing the news after drinking heavily the night before. But, little did the “Family Guy” writers know that Rose would fall much further than reading the news hungover. In 2017, a year after the episode aired, Rose was fired from both CBS and PBS after multiple allegations of sexual harassment going back decades. The show got the fall from grace right, even if how Rose fell differed from their version.
#6: Paul Walker’s Death
“Life of Brian”
Much like his character Brian O’Conner from the “Fast & Furious” films, actor Paul Walker was an avid car enthusiast. However, Walker was tragically killed in a high-speed car accident on November 30, 2013. In an eerie coincidence, earlier that week, Brian Griffin also died in a vehicular-related accident. Both “Brians” meeting their fate in the same week struck several “Family Guy” fans as rather spooky. And while Brian Griffin ultimately came back because of time travel, all that could be done for Walker were some fitting and emotional tributes - both in “Furious 7,” and on “Family Guy.”
#5: Kevin Spacey’s Harassment Allegations
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“Don’t Make Me Over”
In 2017, in yet another scandal that erupted from the #MeToo movement, actor Anthony Rapp came forward with the allegation that fellow actor Kevin Spacey made a sexual advance on him when Rapp was underage. This sparked several others to come forward with more accusations of similar misconduct. However, back in 2005, “Family Guy” featured Stewie Griffin accepting money from Brian to go streaking through the mall yelling that he’d escaped from Spacey’s basement. Clearly, the “Family Guy” staff had the inside scoop on all of Hollywood’s unsavory secrets years before the press got a hold of them.
#4: Caitlyn Jenner’s Gender Identity
“We Love You, Conrad”
In 2015, Caitlyn Jenner came out as a trans woman. Her transition helped spread awareness to non-trans people about trans identities, even if her views are considered… odd, compared to most in the community. But once again, “Family Guy” was years ahead with their predictions. A 2009 episode saw Stewie express his disbelief that Brody Jenner was born to a woman like Caitlyn, then called Bruce. This may have been another open secret in the industry that the showrunners knew about beforehand - or maybe Seth MacFarlane is MAGIC! We know which possibility we prefer.
#3: Robin Williams’s Death
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“Family Guy Viewer Mail #2”
Comedian and actor Robin Williams was a beloved icon for decades. Tragically, Williams took his own life in 2014 after experiencing worsening health problems. In a bizarre twist of fate, “Family Guy” once did an episode where everything Peter touches becomes Robin Williams. While Peter enjoys it at first, Williams’s presence everywhere begins to take a toll on his mental health, and he tries to make it stop - permanently. It’s a dark pseudo-prediction on its own, but in an eerie coincidence, this same episode aired in the UK the same day Williams died.
#2: Boston Marathon Bombing
“Turban Cowboy”
On April 15th, 2013, the Boston Marathon suffered a terrorist attack by two brothers, whose homemade explosives killed three and injured hundreds. It was a horrific event that’s still shocking years later. However, it’s made even more shocking by the fact that “Family Guy” seemed to foreshadow the event in a cutaway. Peter mentions winning a marathon, and a flashback shows him driving through the runners to “win” the Boston Marathon. It’s already a dark joke, but with hindsight and the fact that the other parts of the episode see Peter unwittingly become a terrorist, the sight of him causing mass death at that specific city’s marathon is downright grim.
#1: Quarantine & Anti-Vaccination Movement
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“Hot Shots”
In 2016, “Family Guy” did an episode focused on the anti-vaccination movement. Lois and Peter persuade the town to forgo vaccination and, predictably, all of Quahog is put in quarantine until they can be vaccinated. While the anti-vaxxer crowd certainly predates COVID-19, it’s still wild to see that the show predicted this several years before the pandemic began. The episode essentially boiled down the cycle of quarantines and vaccination refusals that have extended the pandemic across large swaths of the world. Given how frequently they’ve predicted future events, we wonder if the “Family Guy” writers have been given a shot of something special themselves…
