Season 8 · Episode 1 · First aired 27 September 2009

Road to the Multiverse

Episode 1 of Family Guy season 8 (S08E01), the 127th Family Guy episode overall. Written by Wellesley Wild and directed by Greg Colton. First broadcast on 27 September 2009.

Story

At the county fair Stewie reveals that his prize pig came from a parallel universe and shows Brian a remote control that moves them between worlds. They visit a world where Christianity never existed and technology is far ahead, then several more with their own Griffins. Brian tires of the trip and discovers Stewie cannot get them home. In a universe run by dogs, where humans are pets, Stewie fixes the remote, but Brian wants to stay and the two break it fighting over it. They seek out that universe's Griffins, all dogs apart from a human Brian. Dog Stewie has his own device, but human Stewie bites dog Peter and is sent to the pound to be put down. The others free him, and Stewie and Brian return home. The human Brian follows them through the portal and is immediately hit by a car.

Production and reception

The first broadcast on 27 September 2009 was watched by 10.17 million viewers, the show's highest figure since "McStroke" in season six. Wikipedia, Road to the Multiverse
The working title was "Sliders", after the science fiction series; director Greg Colton persuaded Seth MacFarlane to make it a Road to episode instead. Wikipedia, Road to the Multiverse
The Disney universe sequence was animated in Los Angeles by Main Street Productions, with every character redesigned in the style of Disney films. Wikipedia, Road to the Multiverse
Ahsan Haque of IGN rated it 9.6 out of 10, Emily VanDerWerff of The A.V. Club gave it a B+, and in 2019 IGN placed it fourth among the 20 best Family Guy episodes. Wikipedia, Road to the Multiverse
It was the first episode produced after the 2007 to 2008 Writers Guild of America strike, which had left the seventh season made up of held-over episodes. Wikipedia, Road to the Multiverse

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, John Herbert
John G. Brennan	Mort Goldman
Steve Callaghan	Head Executive
Ralph Garman	Weight Exchanger
Mark Hentemann	Dog Police Officer
Kei Ogawa	Japanese Meg, Japanese Lois

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

Kei Ogawa as Japanese Lois and Japanese Meg, Asian Meg
Kotaro Watanabe as Japanese Brian and Japanese Quagmire, Asian Peter
Jamison Yang as Japanese Chris, Japanese Stewie and Japanese Peter, Asian Chris
Johnny Brennan as Mort Goldman
Adam West as Disney Mouse
John Viener as Police Dog
Noriko Watanabe as Asian Lois

Season 8: episode 1 of 21

Season hub with air dates and credits for all 21 episodes

SourceFacts from Wikipedia: Family Guy season 8 and the episode's article (CC BY-SA 4.0). Spotted an error? See corrections.

Provenance

Facts only

Sources: Wikipedia: Road to the Multiverse
Wikidata Q4048355
IMDb
TVmaze
Data refreshed: 6 September 2026
Verification: Checked against Wikidata and IMDb: title, date, numbering and credits agree
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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.