Top 10 Overlooked Family Guy Characters

Brian has had his share of girlfriends, and many were surprisingly out of his league. The most memorable is Jillian, brilliantly voiced by Drew Barrymore. Jillian is… not the brightest crayon in the box. She is very sweet, filled with child-like wonder and completely vacant brain-wise. Despite her shortcomings, she becomes Brian’s “one that got away.” Jillian eventually finds love with overachiever Derek Wilcox and invites the Griffins, sans Brian (but including B. Ryan) to her wedding. Brian tries to crash the wedding and win her back, but Jillian refuses. She appears in multiple episodes, most often reaffirming her airheadedness.

In the absurd category, the “greased-up deaf guy” is a recurring and thoroughly bizarre character in the “Family Guy” universe. He doesn’t have a name, unfortunately, so let’s just call him “Greasy” for the purposes of this entry. Greasy first showed up in season 3 as a company picnic activity - participants must catch him, but he’s just so darn slippery. He has a backstory. Greasy used to be a lawyer, until a grease truck explosion burned his ears and covered him in grease. That… appears to be it. “Family Guy” wouldn’t be the same without cameos of its own secondary characters, and the screen time for greased-up deaf guy is just right. Too much spotlight would likely fry him, anyway.

Every town needs a resident pirate, right? Seamus Levine is Quahog’s sea captain, and is questionably made entirely of wood, minus his head. He has an odd habit of emerging from obscurity to provide random information, whether sea-related or not. In fact, his wooden arms store diagrams and maps, as well as assorted irrelevant documents, including a diseased prostate and 1980s band Primus. He’s also an accomplished organist, for some reason, which raises more questions than anything else (how is he hitting the right keys?) “Family Guy” wouldn’t be the same without its recurring interrupters, and Seamus is always welcome - albeit perhaps in small doses - there are only so many nautical puns we can kinda laugh at.

Angela was voiced by the irreplaceable Carrie Fisher. Need we say more? She was Peter’s supervisor at the Pawtucket Brewery, and was never really a big fan of her rotund employee. In fact, she repeatedly praised his coworker Opie as superior, despite the latter’s obvious shortcomings. She did once have a crush on Peter when he showed up for work wearing his contact lenses; apparently the usual eyewear was hiding his irresistible side. When Carrie Fisher unfortunately passed away, “Family Guy” had a small tribute to her character, with Peter giving a bizarre eulogy. It is revealed that Angela passed away after swimming too soon after eating. Our parents warned us!

Adam West High School’s principal Shepherd is kind of a sad character. He’s recently divorced (twice), at one point living in his car. His entire life revolves around the school. He’s sometimes seen hanging out with his friends, also stereotypical principals. He’s voiced by Gary Cole, whom you may remember as Bill Lumbergh in 1999’s “Office Space.” This seems fitting, for some reason. Aside from his occasionally questionable morals, Principal Shepherd is the principal most of us remember from school - a little portly, glasses, cheap coffee breath and a bad suit. He’s also quite incompetent, to be honest.

Quahog has been occasionally host to the Lord and Savior himself, Jesus. Aside from a couple of hilarious cutaway gags, he was featured in a few episodes as a main character. His father makes more than one appearance as well. When found working in a record store, Jesus reveals that he occasionally comes to Earth and lives a normal life for a while out of sheer boredom. With a couple of glaring exceptions, “Family Guy”’s portrayal of Jesus is a clever parody that doesn’t aim to offend its roots. In fact, it humanizes Jesus, giving him earthly problems and making him one of the guys. Of course it’s shaky ground, but what parody isn’t?

Hollywood kid Olivia Fuller is the archetype child actor, pushed into the spotlight at a young age. She has a couple of run-ins with Stewie, and the two get “married” at some point, living in a cardboard house and dining on Play-Doh spaghetti. Their marriage is short-lived, however. When Olivia is caught cheating with the precocious Victor, Stewie sets their house on fire to retaliate. Olivia is definitely underused as a character, as it would have been interesting to see a little more of the toddler couple’s wedded life. She made another appearance in an episode in which she came between Stewie and Brian in their two-man band, dissolving the group Yoko-style.

Vastly under qualified medical professional Elmer Hartman is the Griffins’ family doctor. He’s basically an idiot, and really makes it seem easy to get through medical school sans intellect. He often uses highly inappropriate schtick to discuss serious issues. Dr. Hartman may be a minor character, but he’s appeared in dozens of episodes. Why is he on this list? Well, we need to raise a glass to the writers for coming up with endless double entendres and ridiculous dad jokes to complete the Doctor’s dialogue. Also, props to him for knowing how to reveal bad news to teens. But we’re glad he isn’t our doctor.

The Grim Reaper, aka Death, has visited Quahog on more than one occasion, and we don’t mean metaphorically. He first appeared in season 2, when he sprained his ankle and had to stay with the Griffins. He showed up in a number of episodes after that, but hasn’t been seen in a while. As an occupational hazard, anyone Death touches immediately gives up the ghost, making it difficult for the ghoul to fit it. The fact that he’s a sentient skeleton in a cloak doesn’t help either. Death was initially voiced by the late, great Norm Macdonald who unfortunately couldn’t commit to further episodes due to other projects. He was ultimately replaced by comedian Adam Corolla.



Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions.

James Woods
Peter’s Arch-Enemy for Some Reason




Carl
Quahog’s Answer to the Comic Book Guy




Tomik & Bellgarde
These Foreign Guys Are “Much Entertaining” - Like a Night at the Discotheque!

Quahog’s Channel 5 Action News has the quickest weather reports: straight to the point and no nonsense. Ollie Williams provides the forecast, and he doesn’t waste any time with his “Blaccuweather” segment which lasts all of 3 seconds. It’s regularly pointed out that he’s African American, much as with his fellow reporter Tricia Takanawa, whose Asian descent is made very evident. Let’s face it - every news team needs its cultural diversity. The thing about Ollie Williams is, we only get him in small bursts (yeah, pun intended). We want to know more about who he is and what his daily life is like. But we’ll settle with knowing whether or not it will rain.




Who’s your favorite “Family Guy” character? Let us know in the comments!


“Family Guy” (1999-2003; 2005-)
Fox
S07E05 - “The Man with Two Brians”
Buzz Killington
https://youtu.be/f68VXKMZT1Q?si=z1UK4AcctaZpsKKS