Season 7 · Episode 12 · First aired 19 April 2009
420
Episode 12 of Family Guy season 7 (S07E12), the 122nd Family Guy episode overall. Written by Patrick Meighan and directed by Julius Wu. First broadcast on 19 April 2009.
Story
Quagmire adopts a stray cat called James and starts spending his time with it instead of his friends. While he is away buying it a present, Peter, Brian, Cleveland and Joe decide to shave the cat, and Peter kills it by accident. Driving out to dump the body, Peter and Brian are stopped by police, who arrest Brian for carrying cannabis. Put on probation, Brian responds by campaigning to make the drug legal in Quahog. A musical number with Stewie wins the town over, and Mayor West changes the law. Crime falls, but Carter loses money in the timber trade as hemp replaces paper. He buys Brian off by promising to publish the novel Faster Than the Speed of Love. The deal goes through, cannabis is banned again, and the book fails to sell a single copy. Quagmire calls round still searching for James, and Peter admits killing him.
Production and reception
- The first broadcast on 19 April 2009 was watched by 7.40 million viewers and drew a 4.3/6 Nielsen rating. Wikipedia, 420 (Family Guy)
- Brian and Stewie's song A Bag o' Weed takes its tune from Me Ol' Bamboo, a number from the film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Wikipedia, 420 (Family Guy)
- High Times magazine named Brian its 2009 Stoner of the Year, the first animated character to receive the award. Wikipedia, 420 (Family Guy)
- The Venezuelan government banned Family Guy from local networks after the episode, and Justice Minister Tareck El Aissami said cable stations that kept showing it would be fined. Wikipedia, 420 (Family Guy)
- Ahsan Haque of IGN rated it 8.5 out of 10, Genevieve Koski of The A.V. Club gave it a B, and Robin Pierson of The TV Critic scored it 54 out of 100. Wikipedia, 420 (Family Guy)
Voices
| Voice | Characters |
|---|---|
| Seth MacFarlane | Peter Griffin, Brian Griffin, Stewie Griffin |
| Alex Borstein | Lois Griffin |
| Seth Green | Chris Griffin |
| Mila Kunis | Meg Griffin |
| Mike Henry | Cleveland Brown |
| Lori Alan | Diane Simmons |
| Chris Cox | Melvin Udall |
| Ralph Garman | Woody Harrelson |
| Phil LaMarr | Ollie Williams |
| Kerrigan Mahan | Jack Ryan |
Principal voice credits as recorded by IMDb, which lists up to ten credits per episode, so recurring characters can be missing here. Guest voices below come from Wikipedia and TVmaze.
Guest voices
- Phil LaMarr as Ollie Williams
- Kerrigan Mahan as various characters
- Patrick Warburton as Joe Swanson
- Adam West as Mayor Adam West
- Lori Alan as Diane Simmons
Season 7: episode 12 of 16
- E1Love, Blactually
- E2I Dream of Jesus
- E3Road to Germany
- E4Baby Not on Board
- E5The Man with Two Brians
- E6Tales of a Third Grade Nothing
- E7Ocean's Three and a Half
- E8Family Gay
- E9The Juice Is Loose
- E10Fox-y Lady
- E11Not All Dogs Go to Heaven
- E12420You are here
- E13Stew-Roids
- E14We Love You, Conrad
- E15Three Kings
- E16Peter's Progress
SourceFacts from Wikipedia: Family Guy season 7 and the episode's article (CC BY-SA 4.0). Spotted an error? See corrections.
Provenance
Facts only- Data refreshed
- 6 September 2026
- Verification
- Checked against Wikidata and IMDb: title, date, numbering and credits agree
- Licence
- Facts are not copyrightable. Source text on Wikipedia is CC BY-SA 4.0; Wikidata is CC0; IMDb data is used for verification under its non-commercial terms.
- Note
- The story summary and notes were written for this site from the sources listed, by Claude in Claude Code on 2026-09-08, awaiting editorial review. Facts only; no dialogue is reproduced. Voice credits: Information courtesy of IMDb (https://www.imdb.com). Used with permission. Guest cast data from TVmaze (https://www.tvmaze.com), CC BY-SA.