The sixteenth season of Family Guy aired on Fox in the United States from October 1, 2017, to May 20, 2018.[1]
The series follows the dysfunctional Griffin family, consisting of father Peter, mother Lois, daughter Meg, son Chris, baby Stewie, and the family dog Brian, who reside in their hometown of Quahog. The executive producers for the sixteenth production season are Seth MacFarlane, Richard Appel, Alec Sulkin, Steve Callaghan, Danny Smith, and Kara Vallow. Sulkin returns after a two-season absence as the new showrunner for the series, replacing previous showrunner Callaghan. Appel continues to serve as showrunner alongside Sulkin.
The season also marks the final appearances of Adam West and Carrie Fisher following their deaths, as well as the show's 300th episode ("Dog Bites Bear").[4][5]
As of season sixteen, the series' first-run cable syndication rights have switched from Adult Swim and TBS, who had premiered the first fifteen seasons, over to Disney-owned Freeform and FXX, who will continue to premiere new episodes on cable with the coming seasons. Freeform and FXX began exclusively broadcasting the first fifteen seasons starting in September 2021 when Family Guy officially went off Adult Swim and TBS.[6][7]
Marketing
Fox celebrated the series' 300th episode with a character customization website titled familyguyyourself.com in which users could create versions of themselves in the show's art style.
Peter goes out of his way to earn an Emmy win after getting fed up with not being nominated. He tries to make Family Guy more like several Emmy-nominated television shows, including Modern Family and Transparent. But a tip from Bill Maher lets Peter learn the true nature of the awards process and come to terms with his show's futile pursuit of recognition.
After being wobbly-legged upon sitting on the toilet in the girls' bathroom and hitting his head on the counter, Peter meets a paramedic named Stryker Foxx (voiced by Chris Diamantopoulos), who tended to his injury. He later dumps Quagmire, Cleveland and Joe as friends, due to his friendship with the cool guy Stryker giving him an inflated self-esteem. Later on, Peter comes to realize that he does not have the strength to do the physical activities that Stryker wants to do and a fateful sky-diving experience results in Stryker's death.
Lois' mother, Barbara, hires a nanny for the Griffin family when she gets displeased with recent living arrangements for the kids. This enables Peter and Lois to revitalize with their love. However, they soon get tired of their couple time and nearly split up for good. The family nanny, Natalya, is actually a Belarusian assassin who saves Stewie from rival spies who open fire on the Griffin house.
Chris receives a misprinted but extremely valuable dollar for his birthday from Carter, but loses it. They then go on an adventure to find it. Meanwhile, Lois gets in a fight with Peter's nemesis Earnie, the giant chicken's wife.
Brian's tweet involving Baywatch and Ride Along 3 comes back to haunt him as it's deemed racist and goes viral. Even though Brian deletes the tweet and all of his social media accounts, the Griffins are turned into pariahs by all of Quahog, prompting them to kick him out of the house until the situation blows over.
Vladimir Putin visits Quahog after Peter writes an email to him complaining about the ending to a Russian bootleg version of Rocky IV, where Ivan Drago wins the final fight. Meanwhile, in light of moving out, Brian gets a job at a suicide hotline center to obtain some money to pay the rent to Lou Spinazola, where he falls for his co-worker, Martha (voiced by Kristen Bell). He takes drastic measures when she rejects him.
Meg takes up drinking at a high school party, which brings out her more outgoing and loosened side, both concerning and delighting Peter. Meanwhile, while recovering from a leg injury following the incident in the last episode, Brian suspects that Principal Shepherd has murdered his wife and enlists Stewie to help him out.
After Brian falls in love with Ellie (voiced by Amanda Seyfried), a female show dog, he enters a dog show competition, where the winner will get to breed with her. Meanwhile, Peter and Lois attempt to convince Chris that "Arthur Valentine" is not real. When they are unable to do so, they kill Arthur Valentine which leads to Chris falling into depression.
References: Stewie training Brian makes a joke about 9/11, Brian makes a statement saying "I was supposed to be on one of those planes" Stewie saying "yes me too" references when Seth MacFarlane had a hangover on that day missing his flight to Los Angeles, which was crashed into the World Trade Center.
Brian and Stewie's friendship is put to the test after Brian mutilates Stewie's teddy bear, Rupert, out of jealousy. Stewie and Brain travel to Vermont to spread Rupert's remains. Meanwhile, Peter meets his favorite cereal mascot, Boo Berry, and refuses to wash his right hand after shaking it with him, grossing and creeping his friends out.
When Stewie gets sent to see his school's child psychologist Dr. Cecil Pritchfield (voiced by Ian McKellen) for a surprising session, he reveals major secrets about himself that would make him more normal. Stewie soon realizes that his secrets might come out, and decides not to help Dr. Pritchfield when he suffers a heart attack, choosing not to bring him his medication and letting him die, although he feels haunted by his decision as he falls asleep that night.
Note: This episode premiered on Fox without commercial interruption due to a sponsorship agreement with Sony Interactive Entertainment for their PlayStation 4 game, God of War, which was the sole advertiser at the end of this episode.
In a parody of Sherlock Holmes, the episode depicts Sherlock Holmes (portrayed by Stewie) and Dr. Watson (portrayed by Brian) as they embark on solving a string of murder mysteries.
Peter pretends to be a veteran after buying a cap with the name USS Nathan James on it, along with Joe and Cleveland, annoying Quagmire, who is an actual veteran. After they are caught, they are sentenced to join the U.S. Coast Guard, where they must stop a bomb plot by four frat boys.
Stewie teaches Brian how to invest in the stock market, but even after discovering that the product he is investing in uses dog meat, Brian doesn't bother to change his mind. Meanwhile, Peter, Joe, Cleveland, and Quagmire look after the Drunken Clam while Jerome is away which ends up being a disaster.
Family Guy is reimagined as a series that has been on the air for 60 years, and in a special retrospective, it looks back at the cultural events and issues that were tackled on the show in the 1950s, '60s and '70s.
On a boat trip with his friends, Quagmire is attacked by a shark, and loses his penis in the attack; as such, he struggles with living without his most treasured body part. Ida Davis helps to get his life back on track. Meanwhile, Stewie and Brian try to find Mort after they discover that the FBI has put a reward on him, due to him being involved in a drug scam.
