Season 8 · Episode 17 · First aired 2 May 2010
Brian & Stewie
Episode 17 of Family Guy season 8 (S08E17), the 143rd Family Guy episode overall. Written by Gary Janetti and directed by Dominic Bianchi. First broadcast on 2 May 2010.
Story
Brian and Stewie are shut in a bank vault over a weekend after Brian calls at his safe deposit box. Stewie soils his nappy and, holding the revolver from the box, makes Brian help him clean up. He then spends the last of his phone battery on a call to a clothes shop. The two drink a bottle of scotch from the box, argue and trade insults, and Stewie sets the gun off. Sobering up, Stewie asks why Brian owns a firearm. Brian says he keeps it in case he decides to kill himself, having never found a purpose of his own. Each then admits how much the other matters. Stewie falls asleep as Brian reads to him, and in the morning Brian carries him out.
Production and reception
- The half hour has no cutaway gags, no music and no other characters. Seth MacFarlane was the only performer, and repeats drop the title sequence and the end credit music. Wikipedia, Brian & Stewie
- Nielsen figures put the first broadcast at 7.68 million homes, with a 3.7 rating among viewers aged 18 to 49. Wikipedia, Brian & Stewie
- Producer Kara Vallow said the idea came from an All in the Family instalment in which Archie Bunker is shut in a cellar, and described the result as close to a one act stage play. Wikipedia, Brian & Stewie
- On first broadcast Brian and Stewie introduced the programme in front of a red curtain and afterwards presented a set of musical numbers from earlier seasons, making up an hour long special. Wikipedia, Brian & Stewie
- The Parents Television Council attacked a sequence in which Brian eats Stewie's waste and vomit. Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly called the episode tedious, vulgar and, by the close, sentimental. Wikipedia, Brian & Stewie
Voices
| Voice | Characters |
|---|---|
| Seth MacFarlane | Brian Griffin, Stewie Griffin |
| Alex Borstein | Lois Griffin, Lois Griffin |
| Seth Green | Chris Griffin, Chris Griffin |
| Mila Kunis | Meg Griffin, Meg Griffin |
| Mike Henry | Cleveland Brown, Cleveland Brown, John Herbert, John Herbert |
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.
Season 8: episode 17 of 21
- E1Road to the Multiverse
- E2Family Goy
- E3Spies Reminiscent of Us
- E4Brian's Got a Brand New Bag
- E5Hannah Banana
- E6Quagmire's Baby
- E7Jerome Is the New Black
- E8Dog Gone
- E9Business Guy
- E10Big Man on Hippocampus
- E11Dial Meg for Murder
- E12Extra Large Medium
- E13Go, Stewie, Go!
- E14Peter-assment
- E15Brian Griffin's House of Payne
- E16April in Quahog
- E17Brian & StewieYou are here
- E18Quagmire's Dad
- E19The Splendid Source
- E20Something, Something, Something, Dark Side
- E21Partial Terms of Endearment
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- 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.