During this season, Peter gets a vestigial twin ("Vestigial Peter"); the Griffins travel to Italy ("Boopa-dee Bappa-dee"); Quagmire and Peter form a folk band ("Into Harmony's Way"); and, as confirmed by series creator Seth MacFarlane, Cleveland moves back to Quahog along with his family, since The Cleveland Show was cancelled ("He's Bla-ack!").[4] Also, as mentioned by Steve Callaghan in the 2013 Comic-con Panel, a member of the Griffin family was killed off in a special episode.[5] After much speculation, that member was Brian, after being hit by a motorist in the episode "Life of Brian". This elicited strongly negative reactions from fans of the show, and a petition demanding Brian to be resurrected garnered over 100,000 signatures. His death turned out to be only temporary as in the episode "Christmas Guy", Stewie goes back in time and saves him, effectively changing the future so that he never dies.
The show was initially airing in its usual timeslot of 9:00 PM Eastern. Beginning on March 9 and continuing for the rest of the season, Family Guy moved to 8:30 PM Eastern; the move came as a result of the addition of Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey to the network's lineup.
This is the last season to be secondarily composed by Ron Jones, leaving Walter Murphy in charge of the musical score for the rest of the series.
Marketing
At San Diego Comic Con 2013, It was revealed by showrunner Steve Callaghan that one member of the Griffin Family would be killed off. Though many assumed to be Meg Griffin, the cast remained silent. This would later be revealed, with Brian Griffin being killed off. In addition, a preview was released.[10] It was also revealed that a crossover episode with The Simpsons was in the works, which released in September 2014, titled The Simpsons Guy. The cover depicts the five members near the grave of Brian Griffin.[11]
Peter is convinced that a placemat at a restaurant is a treasure map. The rumor of supposed treasure sparks a city-wide search, turning the residents of Quahog against each other.
Peter finds a strange lump on his neck that turns out to be a vestigial twin, who ends up winning over Peter's family and friends with his optimism and sense of wonder.
Quagmire dates a woman named Sonja, who is just as sexually active as he is, but things take a turn for the worse when she kidnaps him to be her sex slave, so Peter, Joe and Ida (Quagmire's transgender father) must search the seedy back alleys of Quahog to rescue him. In the meantime, Brian, Stewie and Rupert get involved in a most unusual love triangle.
Meg angers a psychopathic bully who threatens to kill her in a fight at the school's backyard. Meanwhile, Brian is disturbed by Peter exposing his nudity to him.
The Griffins go to Italy on vacation, but Peter wants to stay there permanently, as he feels life in America has gotten boring, so he disintegrates their passports.
Peter and Quagmire find out that their voices create beautiful harmony when they get frightened by a bee and become a Simon & Garfunkel-style singer/songwriter duo — and, like the real Simon & Garfunkel, Peter lets fame go to his head and the duo begin feuding.
When Peter gets fired for crashing a forklift into a business meeting, Lois takes a job at the grocery store while Peter becomes a stay-at-home dad — which leads to poor bedroom performance.
Brian's human son, Dylan, returns, now a teen TV star. Rather than be a good father to his estranged son, Brian uses his son's television connections to further his own writing career. Meanwhile, after Peter "accidentally" shoots Quagmire on a hunting trip, the two friends clash, and Joe must choose a side.
When Peter's mother dies, he befriends her longtime friend, Evelyn, who then tries to seduce him. Meanwhile, Brian tries to help Stewie overcome his fear of death.
Peter is sick of opposing football teams thanking God for beating the Patriots, so he and the guys go on a quest to find the Lord and ask Him to stop determining the outcomes of football games. Cleveland Brown drops by to assist Peter.
Peter is asked to be the face of an anti-smoking campaign just as he has taken up the habit of smoking cigarettes, while Stewie helps Chris face bullies at school.
Stewie and Brian become blood brothers, which leads to Stewie contracting herpes from Brian. Meanwhile, a gang occupies Peter, Joe and Quagmire's booth at The Clam and they have to fight to take it back.
Meg parties with Peter at a college where he takes her for an interview, while Brian is forced to live in the wild after he is sprayed by a skunk and prevented from coming into the house.
With his spin-off show cancelled due to low ratings, Cleveland returns to Quahog, with his new family accompanying him. When a conflict arises between Lois and Donna, it is up to Peter and Cleveland to reconcile their wives in order to save their friendship.
Stewie gets upset over having his TV time interrupted, so he heads back in time to see that Lois and Peter break up before he is conceived, thus he would never be born into the Griffin family. However, when he finally is born, it is into a Downton Abbey-esque household in Great Britain.
