Season 8 · Episode 15 · First aired 28 March 2010

Brian Griffin's House of Payne

Episode 15 of Family Guy season 8 (S08E15), the 141st Family Guy episode overall. Written by Spencer Porter and directed by Jerry Langford. First broadcast on 28 March 2010.

Story

Stewie finds an old television script of Brian's in the basement and leaves it on the kitchen table. Lois reads it, likes it and urges Brian to take it to the networks. CBS responds well, but the producers cast James Woods over Elijah Wood and turn the drama into a sitcom with a studio audience, a chimpanzee and a new title. Told to accept the changes or be sacked, Brian objects and walks out. Meanwhile Chris reads Meg's diary, and in the chase that follows the two knock Stewie down the stairs, leaving him unconscious with a head wound. Peter helps them hide it, then throws Stewie behind Lois's car to shift the blame before agreeing that the baby should go to hospital.

Production and reception

Nielsen figures put the first broadcast at 7.27 million homes, with a 3.7 rating among viewers aged 18 to 49, ahead of The Simpsons, Sons of Tucson and The Cleveland Show. Wikipedia, Brian Griffin's House of Payne
The opening space sequence was started by the Korean studios that normally animate the series, then handed to Atmosphere Visual Effects in Vancouver, which was on a break during the 2010 Winter Olympics. Wikipedia, Brian Griffin's House of Payne
James Woods returned for his fourth appearance as himself. Danielle Panabaker, who had played his daughter in Shark, voiced his fictional daughter. Wikipedia, Brian Griffin's House of Payne
Spencer Porter wrote his first episode for the series, having worked as a writing assistant to Seth MacFarlane. Elijah Wood, Charlie Sheen and Rob Lotterstein guest starred. Wikipedia, Brian Griffin's House of Payne
Emily VanDerWerff of The A.V. Club found the plot about the pilot process funny but uninspired, and Ramsey Isler of IGN thought the half hour would have worked better on the Stewie storyline alone. Wikipedia, Brian Griffin's House of Payne

Voices

Voice	Characters
Seth MacFarlane	Peter Griffin, Brian Griffin, Stewie Griffin
Alex Borstein	Lois Griffin, Female CBS Executive
Seth Green	Chris Griffin
Mila Kunis	Meg Griffin
Mike Henry	Executive #1
Jennifer Birmingham Lee	Actress
Ralph Garman	Executive #2
Mark Hentemann	Boat Passenger
Rob Lotterstein	Rob the Director
Danielle Panabaker	Hillary

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

Jennifer Birmingham
Rob Lotterstein as himself
Danielle Panabaker as Woods' daughter, Hillary
Charlie Sheen as himself, Charlie Sheen
Elijah Wood as himself, Elijah Wood
James Woods as himself, James Woods
Patrick Warburton as Joe Swanson
Jennifer Tilly as Bonnie Swanson
John Viener as Todd Goldstein

Season 8: episode 15 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: Brian Griffin's House of Payne
Wikidata Q4035411
IMDb
TVmaze
Data refreshed: 6 September 2026
Verification: Checked against Wikidata and IMDb: title, date, numbering and credits agree
This page as: Markdown, JSON-LD, or request it with Accept: text/markdown
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.