He was part of one of Family Guy’s most controversial storylines, but what happened to Brian’s replacement dog, Vinny? The Seth MacFarlane created Family Guy would eventually become a major success, though it took some time to catch on. The series became a cult favorite in its early years, but it was canceled after three seasons. In its years off the air, it became a big hit on re-runs and home media, so much so that a new season was greenlit and arrived in 2005.

Family Guy has been running ever since and follows the exploits of the dim-witted Peter Griffin, his wife Lois, their children and talking dog Brian. The show has clocked up nineteen seasons thus far, while it also received a spinoff with The Cleveland Show, which was canceled after four seasons. Family Guy is set to run for at least two more seasons, though the reception of the show has noticeably dipped in the last decade. The overreliance on cutaway gags, pop culture references and Peter acting like a jerk have been cited as issues with the series for some time now.

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One of the most controversial stories from Family Guy came with season 12’s “Life Of Brian.” This saw Brian being hit by a car and later dying, which devastated the Griffins and Stewie. Fans were also quite furious and let their anger be known. The Griffins’ soon found another talking dog named Vinny, voiced by The Sopranos’ Paulie, actor Tony Sirico. While reception to Vinny was initially mixed, he’s been regarded a little more fondly now the anger over Brian’s “death” has died away. Vinny proved to be a welcome addition to the family, but he later helps Stewie travel back in time so Brian can be saved. This has the effect of wiping out the Vinny timeline, meaning he and the family never met.

The fact Vinny was willing to give up his new home to help bring Brian back should be enough to establish his big heart. Still, it’s a sad outcome for the Family Guy newcomer – though the series later gave him a cameo to pay off his story. In season 15’s “The Boys In The Band,” Brian and Stewie form a band that sings about “real” baby issues, though following their initial success, they split and Brian continues with Stewie’s ex, Olivia Fuller.

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Brian and Olivia later split too, and she get’s a new talking dog: Vinny. That was Vinny’s final appearance on Family Guy to date, but it’s at least nice to know he got a somewhat happy ending.

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About The Author


Padraig Cotter
(3484 Articles Published)

It’s pronounced Paw-rick, not Pad-raig. Now that’s out of the way, a brief introduction. Padraig has been writing about film online since 2012, when a friend asked if he’d like to contribute the occasional review or feature to their site.

A part-time hobby soon blossomed into a career when he discovered he really loved writing about movies, TV and video games – he even (arguably) had a little bit of talent for it. He has written words for Den of Geek, Collider, The Irish Times and Screen Rant over the years, and can discuss anything from the MCU – where Hawkeye is clearly the best character – to the most obscure cult b-movie gem, and his hot takes often require heat resistant gloves to handle.

He’s super modern too, so his favorite movies include Jaws, Die Hard, The Thing, Ghostbusters and Batman. He can be found as i_Padds on Twitter making bad puns.

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