Family Guy's 15 Worst Episodes, According To IMDb

For decades, "Family Guy" has remained the most enduring and beloved animated sitcom on Fox ... if you don't count shows with characters named "Bart" or "Homer." The series centers on the misadventures of Peter Griffin, voiced by Seth MacFarlane, and his dysfunctional family in the fictional town of Quahog. Infamous for the cutaway gag, "Family Guy" became a gamechanger in the animated space, earning its spot among "South Park" and "The Simpsons." Despite a three-year cancellation, "Family Guy" and its creative team have been entertaining audiences with well over 450 episodes and nine Primetime Emmy wins, reaching massive highs and extreme lows.

Like the other long-running Fox animated sitcoms, the longevity of "Family Guy" has made the low points more noticeable, and in some cases, egregious. Based on IMDb scores, it seems recent years have included some weaker episodes. As we wait for the "Family Guy" Season 25 premiere, let's look back at the 15 worst episodes of the series, according to IMDb.

Some of the best "Family Guy" episodes surround Brian (Seth MacFarlane) and Stewie (MacFarlane) time-traveling together. This is the set-up for Season 23's "Twain's World" where Brian meets several notable writers to help him hone his craft. Of the writers he encounters, Mark Twain (Mike Henry), makes the biggest impression on him. Brian convinces Stewie to bring Twain to the present day, but that leads to its own consequences.

Once in the present, Twain discovers pornography and becomes addicted to it, foregoing any literary aspirations. Brian fails to publish "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" under his own name, and Twain becomes an adult film star. Though Brian and Stewie convince him to return to his time, Twain brings a Fleshlight back with him and builds his own business empire. Time-travel episodes used to be a guaranteed hit for "Family Guy," but in recent years, they've been hit or miss. In the case of "Twain's World," it's a miss, as indicated by the 5.8 IMDb rating. 

With the real life passing of Adam West in 2017, "Family Guy" decided it was finally time to give Quahog a new mayor. Keeping with the "West" theme, "Landman" star Sam Elliott joined the "Family Guy" cast as Wild West, Adam West's cousin, in Season 19's "Wild Wild West." His character has received a mixed response from the fanbase, and Season 21's "Old West" certainly doesn't help.

It's Father's Day in Quahog, and Peter witnesses a showdown between Wild and his estranged father, Old West (Gerald McRaney). After connecting with Old, Peter makes it his mission to transform Old into a better dad for Wild. Although Peter is able to get these gruff men to air out their differences, it ends with Wild shooting his father in the leg. The father and son promise to never see each other again.

Brian, Quahog's resident atheist, gives Christianity a try when he meets Emma (Mae Whitman), an Evangelical who he hits it off with immediately. He pretends to be Christian in order to sleep with her, but he's ultimately rejected when she affirms that she won't have sex with him before marriage. In response, Brian and Stewie travel back in time to prevent Christianity from becoming a religion. When the duo convinces Jesus (Alec Sulkin) to pursue his stand-up comedy aspirations, the ripple effect leads to Judaism becoming the predominant religion.

A time-travel adventure with Brian and Stewie, the set-up of "Faith No More" has worked in the past. Plus, "Family Guy" has also offered previous criticism of Christianity and religion, like in Season 7's "Not All Dogs Go to Heaven." However, this time the execution doesn't follow through, according to IMDb's 5.8 rating. This rating could also reflect Christian audience members who aren't fans of episodes like this.

A shopping trip to the mall leads to the discovery of a growth on Peter's neck in Season 12's "Vestigial Peter." As the name suggests, this growth is, in fact, Peter's twin and a totally autonomous person, Chip. Unlike Peter, Chip (Seth MacFarlane) sees the world with excitement and wonder. Due to this, Chip is endearing to the rest of the Griffin family. Meanwhile, out of envy, Peter tries to get rid of Chip, only for his vestigial twin to depart on his own.

"Vestigial Peter" isn't as offensive as many of the worst "Family Guy" episodes. The IMDb rating for this episode is 5.8, which is definitely on the lower end. This rating could be due to Chip's high-pitched voice, which might come across as grating. Chip is a decent foil to Peter in this episode, but otherwise, "Vestigial Peter" does not rank high within the IMDb community.

"Family Guy" takes direct aim at the sitting president in Season 17's "Trump Guy." Following the events of the previous episode "Hefty Shades of Gray," Peter is hired to be the new press secretary and moves his family to the nation's capital. After Meg (Mila Kunis) gets a makeover, she gets the unwanted attention of the president and he sexually assaults her. When the family eventually catches him in the act, Peter and Trump (Josh Robert Thompson) go head-to-head. By the end of the episode, however, the two call it a truce; there is a fourth wall break that encourages the audience to read the Steele dossier.

A politics-themed episode can invite controversy regardless of which side of the political spectrum it lands on — which might help explain this episode's 5.8 IMDb rating. "We've had some episodes in the past that had some left leanings in them, but we take hard shots all around," executive producer Alec Sulkin told TVLine at the time. "We've made fun of the Clintons and Barack Obama. It's not like we would avoid anyone because we vote this way or that way."

In Season 23's "Cool Hand Lois," Lois (Alex Borstein) catches Chris (Seth Green) pleasuring himself. After Meg affirms that the act is nothing to be ashamed of, Lois gives it a try and quickly becomes addicted to it. She later bonds with Bonnie (Jennifer Tilly), Joe's (Patrick Warburton) wife, over it, and the two begin to date. Bonnie chooses to take Lois with her on a romantic getaway over her husband. Even though the women don't sleep together and break up, Peter and Joe sleep together out of retaliation.

"Family Guy" isn't afraid to tackle taboo topics, and "Cool Hand Lois" takes a sex-positive outlook on self-pleasure. Prior to this episode, Lois has expressed her bisexuality, and she even had a lesbian relationship while in college as mentioned in the Season 8 episode "Partial Terms of Endearment." This new chapter of Lois exploring her sexuality sits at a 5.7 IMDb rating, which could be reflective of the seemingly rushed nature of Lois and Bonnie's late-in-life lesbian relationship.

In 2023, Fox Entertainment and Hulu closed a multi-year deal giving Hulu the streaming rights to Fox's primetime shows the day after they air on broadcast. With "Family Guy" as part of that deal, the adult animated series decides to welcome their Hulu family with an episode that parodies some of the streamer's biggest hits: Jeremy Allen White's comedy-drama "The Bear," the murder mystery comedy "Only Murders in the Building," and the miniseries "The Dropout" based on Elizabeth Holmes.

"Family Guy" has no shortage of great parody episodes, from the iconic "Blue Harvest" trilogy to Season 16's "Emmy-Winning Episode." Where these episodes packed more of a punch, the execution of Season 23's "A Real Who's Hulu" seems to fall short, according to the 5.7 IMDb rating. Perhaps audiences didn't connect with the commentary on this real-world deal, or maybe people had forgotten about Elizabeth Holmes and the Theranos saga. In any case, the Griffin family needs to stay out of Carmy's kitchen.

Peter really wants to buy a $600 Mr. Potato Head at the local flea market. After watching a commercial for a reverse mortgage featuring Tom Selleck (Josh Robert Thompson) to get more spending money, Peter gets a reverse mortgage and risks losing the Griffin house. Mayor Wild West sees Peter down on his luck and lamenting his predicament. It turns out that he has his own personal score to settle with Selleck, so Wild helps Peter track down Selleck on the "Blue Bloods" set.

As it turns out, Wild West and Tom Selleck used to be a country duo. Despite the musical stylings of these two and its climatic confrontation, "A Stache from the Past" sits at a 5.7 IMDb rating. The episode also includes a subplot where Brian and Stewie compete with Bruce (Mike Henry) at the local flea market.

It's a battle for affection in Season 17's "Con Heiress," yet it didn't win affection from IMDb fans who gave it a 5.7 IMDb rating. On one side, Stewie discovers Brian is trying to win the affections of a wealthy elder woman at Quahog's yacht club; he wants to get in on the action, which turns into a competition between him, Brian, and Quagmire (Seth MacFarlane). Meanwhile, Herbert (Mike Henry) mistakes Peter for another teenage boy and begins to show him more attention than Chris. When Peter and Chris fight in front of Herbert with their clothes off, Herbert explodes from ecstasy. Later, Herbert is reborn like Groot (Vin Diesel) at the end of "Guardians of the Galaxy."

Both storylines push "Family Guy" to opposite ends of the spectrum regarding elder manipulation.
Brian, Stewie, and Quagmire toy with a rich old woman's heart just to win her estate after she dies, which leads to a twist. On the opposite side, Herbert pits a father and son against each other for his attention. 

While watching "The Outlaw Josey Wales," Stewie suggests to Brian that they should become blood brothers. After all, Brian is Stewie's best friend, and this episode comes after Stewie brings Brian back from the dead. Unfortunately for Stewie, he wakes up the next day and discovers he has herpes — a condition Brian contracted at some point and failed to disclose.

Although Stewie and Chris team up to torment their dog, the episode tries to center around an emotional scene where Stewie reveals why he's so upset — Stewie feels like he can't trust his best friend anymore. Although they make amends in the end, the attempt at another "shocking" chapter in their friendship is simply boring. Not even Peter's plot line of standing up to a group of bar bullies is enough to make this episode better. It's no wonder IMDb users gave "Herpe, the Love Sore" a 5.7 rating.

Brian and Stewie have an odd relationship. The dog and the Griffin baby have been a dynamic duo for years, but in "Stewie Is Enceinte," Brian decides he doesn't want to hang out with Stewie anymore. In a desperate attempt to keep him in his life, Stewie uses Brian's DNA to get himself pregnant. Although Brian tries to persuade Stewie to get an abortion, Stewie sees the pregnancy through, giving birth to a litter of half dog, half human hybrids.

Parenthood isn't a walk in the park, which is what Brian and Stewie realize while they're at the park with their children and notice their birth defects. Brian's hesitancy towards fatherhood, combined with Stewie's realization of the cost of care for these kids, leads the pair to abandon their children at an animal shelter. Stewie has manipulated Brian before, but "Stewie Is Enceinte" takes that to a new level. With a 5.7 IMDb rating, there isn't much humor to be found from Griffin baby making himself pregnant by the family dog.

At the beginning of Season 12's "Fresh Heir," Lois' father, Carter Pewterschmidt (Seth MacFarlane) injures himself and needs someone to look after him. Chris is recruited to look after his grandfather, and the two begin to bond. Once Carter is recovered, he offers to pay Chris money, but his grandson refuses to take it. This act impresses Carter, and it leads him to naming his grandson his sole heir.

After Peter rejects spending time with his son, he tries to get closer to Chris in order to get closer to that inheritance. His plan? Peter divorces Lois and convinces Chris to marry him. While the father and son don't go through with the ceremony, "Fresh Heir" puts Chris repeatedly in harm's way from men in his family. From bonding with Carter in a highly disturbing manner to becoming the romantic object of his father's eyes, his victimization is played for laughs.

Peter is on tour guide duty at Pawtucket Brewery where he's tasked with giving a private tour to Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, voiced by Chris Cox. The two men have a drunken night together that ends with Kavanaugh switching lives with Peter. While Kavanaugh bonds with Peter's friends, Peter becomes the deciding vote on gay marriage.

A handful of episodes from Season 23 did not land with the IMDb community. It certainly didn't help that this early episode "Drunk with Power" set the tone for what would ultimately be a weak season of the adult animated series. Rather than pressing into Kavanaugh's divisive reputation, the episode attempts to make him more likable by turning the Supreme Court justice into a drunken oaf like the Griffin patriarch.

In Season 12, the "Family Guy" creative team decided to shake things up in a dramatic way. "Life of Brian" starts off as a time-travel adventure with Brian and Stewie. When they return to the present day, Stewie decides to destroy his time machine so they can't meddle with time. This decision proves lethal as later that day, Brian is hit by a car in the street, and his injuries are too extensive to recover. He dies on the vet's operating table surrounded by the Griffin family.

By starting with insensitive racist jokes about Indigenous people and ending with Stewie embracing the new dog, Vinny (Tony Sirico), "Life of Brian" felt like a slap in the face to fans. Seth MacFarlane wanted to keep audiences on their toes with this major death. Within two episodes, the series brings Brian back to life in "Christmas Guy" — which Seth Macfarlane has indicated was the plan all along. Sitting at a 4.8 IMDb user rating, this episode is not widely beloved.

Currently sitting at a 4.3 IMDb score, Season 17's "You Can't Handle the Booth" remains the worst "Family Guy" episode according to the IMDb community. This episode takes a sharp meta turn as the Griffin family records a DVD commentary at Fox Studios for an episode. As the episode plays in the background, Lois is hit with the shocking news that Peter gets paid more than she does because he's still paying alimony to his first wife, Sarah Paulson. In her fury, she reveals that Chris might actually be Philip Seymour Hoffman's son and decides to quit the show.

The nature of the episode was already self-referential enough, but the end of the episode takes it to the extreme when the "Family Guy" actors — Seth MacFarlane, Alex Borstein, Mila Kunis, and Seth Green — engage in a dialogue with their characters. MacFarlane tells Peter and Lois that their argument doesn't even matter because they aren't real. This revelation allows Peter and Lois to reconcile and tie everything up for a "happy" ending.

"Family Guy" has experimented with different styles of episodes throughout its run, and "You Can't Handle the Booth" marked another risk-taking plot. The episode juggles both the Griffin family's commentary and the episode they're watching. The third act conversation between the actors and the characters could be seen as introspective, self-indulgent, or something in between. Over seven years later, there hasn't been an episode that has left a bad taste in IMDb users' mouths quite like this one.