Season 12 · Episode 12 · First aired 9 March 2014
Mom's the Word
Episode 12 of Family Guy season 12 (S12E12), the 222nd Family Guy episode overall. Written by Ted Jessup and directed by John Holmquist. First broadcast on 9 March 2014.
Story
Peter soils himself at work after eating a tube of raw cookie dough and a taco picked up in the car park, and comes home to the news that a stroke has killed his mother Thelma. At the service he meets Thelma's friend Evelyn, a widow, and starts treating her as a replacement mother, which unsettles the family. Evelyn kisses him and blames her medication, then keeps making advances, so Peter breaks off the friendship. They make up at Thelma's grave, where Peter accidentally cracks Evelyn's spine while hugging her and leaves the body on a bench. Meanwhile Brian's remarks at the funeral leave Stewie frightened of dying. Brian takes him round several religions, admits that he expects nothing after death, and finally talks Stewie out of jumping from a window.
Production and reception
- The episode was the last television role for the actress Lauren Bacall. Wikipedia, Mom's the Word
- Nielsen figures gave it a 2.2 rating among viewers aged 18 to 49 and an audience of 4.56 million, the largest in Fox's animation block that evening. Wikipedia, Mom's the Word
- Eric Thurm of The A.V. Club graded it C plus, calling the tone inconsistent while rating the Brian and Stewie story the better of the two. Wikipedia, Mom's the Word
Voices
| Voice | Characters |
|---|---|
| Seth MacFarlane | Peter Griffin, Brian Griffin, Stewie Griffin |
| Alex Borstein | Lois Griffin |
| Seth Green | Chris Griffin |
| Mila Kunis | Meg Griffin |
| Lauren Bacall | Evelyn |
| Steve Callaghan | Co-Worker at Meeting |
| Carrie Fisher | Angela |
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
- Lauren Bacall as Evelyn
- Carrie Fisher as Angela
- Ariana Grande as Italian Daughter
- Patrick Warburton as Joe Swanson
- Adam West as Mayor Adam West
- Glenn Howerton as Co-Worker
Season 12: episode 12 of 21
- E1Finders Keepers
- E2Vestigial Peter
- E3Quagmire's Quagmire
- E4A Fistful of Meg
- E5Boopa-dee Bappa-dee
- E6Life of Brian
- E7Into Harmony's Way
- E8Christmas Guy
- E9Peter Problems
- E10Grimm Job
- E11Brian's a Bad Father
- E12Mom's the WordYou are here
- E133 Acts of God
- E14Fresh Heir
- E15Secondhand Spoke
- E16Herpe the Love Sore
- E17The Most Interesting Man in the World
- E18Baby Got Black
- E19Meg Stinks!
- E20He's Bla-ack!
- E21Chap Stewie
SourceFacts from Wikipedia: Family Guy season 12 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.