Flanderization examples in Family Guy.
- Peter:
- Peter has always been a Jerkass, but in the earlier seasons he was shown with a genuine good side and actually cared about his kids, even Meg. Peter's intelligence also drops from 'idiot' to 'legally mentally disabled'. His original flanderization came after "Petarded", where he started to rip on Meg and often make jokes about her, but at the same time, was actually well-intentioned and a little intelligent deep down.
- Peter's Lethally Stupid tendencies were more a case of Innocently Insensitive behavior in early seasons, and, akin to a conventional Bumbling Dad, being too arrogant and idiotic to quite get what he was doing was wrong. Even then Peter usually was handed An Aesop and saw the error of his ways. Around mid-Season 4 (and completely around Season 7 onwards), however, he evolved more into a Psychopathic Manchild, completely apathetic to the misery he causes, and in some episodes, outright sadistic and amused by it.
- A few of the earlier episodes had Peter showing some attraction for girls that are Meg's age, but since around Season 12, it's also been heavily implied that he has pedophilic lust for much younger children as well. Starting with “He's Bl-ack", it has been indicated multiple times that Peter has inappropriate pictures of young children stashed away, and in “Fresh Heir” note , Peter is directly shown gazing at and clearly being attracted to a prepubescent boy.
- Lois:
- Lois in general was initially written as a Voice of Reason to contrast with the more foolish and immature Peter, but also had some of her own flaws and quirks that sometimes made her Not So Above It All. Over time, her more sensible attitude has been heavily downplayed, and she's often written to be just as impulsive and destructive as Peter himself.
- Her sexuality has become greatly exaggerated over the years. Originally she enjoyed a healthy sex life with her husband, but it's gotten to the point where in at least four different episodes (when Peter became abstinent, when Peter became gay, when Peter got a vasectomy, and when "real life was censored"), she's been shown to be unable to properly live her life unless she can have sex with Peter.
- Lois was always a stay-at-home housewife, but also had a side-job as a piano teacher note . After about Season 4 or 5, it's completely dropped this (even though Lois playing the piano is literally the first thing that opens the show) in favor of making her role as the housewife into her sole defining character trait, to the point where she savagely beats Peter for buying the groceries instead of her. That said, it still appears every once in a while in newer seasons, often with self awareness.
- While Lois in the earlier seasons tried her best to be a loving and responsible mother, she sometimes failed to listen to her children or understand their problems, especially Meg. Around the same time Peter became a Psychopathic Manchild, later seasons started portraying Lois as a negligent and emotionally abusive mother who openly insults her children and regularly implies that she considers them a burden. In fact her behavior of her kids is comparably worse than Peter's, because although Peter dwells on the edge of Comedic Sociopathy, he has a somewhat excuse, as he's obviously too stupid to know any better and can never really grasp any Aesops that are thrown his way for long (although he does have his Pet the Dog moments), but Lois obviously knows better and yet acts meanly in more insidious ways.
- Some episodes in the earlier seasons indicated that Lois had goals and ambitions, such as wanting to become a model, that she was forced to abandon after marrying Peter, but she was still content with the life she had. In later seasons, Lois is heavily implied to be extremely depressed by the hopes and dreams she's given up, and spends most nights drinking whole bottles of wine to cope with it.
- Meg:
- She started out as an ordinary, level-headed teenage girl with pretty teen problems that weren't out of the ordinary - however, those got turned up to eleven and then some; with most of her insecurities somehow becoming objective facts: Her unhappiness about her (all in all normal) looks became her being universally considered horrifically ugly; her desire to be popular or at least fit in became her being an universal outcast; her lack of outstanding success with boys and occasional neediness became her being considered completely undatable; her occasionally feeling embarrassed about her parents became them actively and intentionally humiliating and abusing her. Basically, she turned from a normal semi-misfit into an outrageously hated and despised punching bag.
- Her desperation for happiness and love often makes her insane. At one point she even snaps and beats up a passing car driver who is picking on her, and stalks Brian after he goes to the prom with her out of pity.
- In earlier seasons, she was shown to nevertheless have some friends and acquaintances like during her seventeenth birthday party, which had around a dozen people or so, but later on she only hangs out with Patty, Ruth and Esther (her other friend, Beth, has completely disappeared into the ether) and in other episodes she has no friends at all.
- Stewie started out mostly as a one-note villain who wanted to kill his mother and take over the world in general. Season 2 gradually shifted the focus away from his plans for Lois in particular and towards his general goals of world domination, along with giving him an increasing amount of effeminate moments (i.e. modeling for Calvin Klein, worrying about his diaper making his rear end look big, and noting that growing up to be gay would remove the complications of dealing with women). During season 3, Stewie started to become even more effeminate and show some more overt glimpses of homosexuality, and became more fond of Brian as time went by, while largely retaining his desires for world domination. During season 4, and especially from Season 7 onwards, he lost much of his former Enfant Terrible traits, and started to crossdress on a daily basis, dates other guys dressed as a girl, openly wants to have sex with Brian and blatantly hints that he's gay every five seconds.
- Brian:
- In earlier episodes, Brian was cast as the intelligent, witty one in the family. He was generally level-headed, morally committed, and far more self-aware than the rest of the cast. He sometimes was frustrated with the world around him (in the very first episode, he even remarks that he doesn't vote due to such cynicism) but rarely did he let it out on individuals. When the show was uncancelled, he started to voice his left wing views and contempt for religion, until in season 7 caused Brian's character to be swallowed by his political views, turning him into a sleazy Straw Hypocrite who flip flops views to give himself moral superiority, and often babbles pretentious rants in a desperate ploy for attention.
- Brian used to be a very smart and cultured character, even if he did drink from time to time. He was always shown to act rather embarrassingly after a few drinks, but those moments only happened once or twice per season in the early years. He became a full-blown alcoholic and is not very sophisticated (he even thinks Portnoy's Complaint is about a man filing a noise complaint about a port).
- Brian's tendency to date stupid women with hot bodies was originally played as something that frustrated him because he was really in love with Lois. There was an entire episode in the third season dealing with him not being satisfied dating people less intelligent than himself, and feeling fulfilled in a relationship with an older and more thoughtful woman. Over time it became that he dated dumb women so he could feel smarter than them, and his love for Lois turned into an obsession.
- His predilection for naive, attractive young women has morphed into a tendency towards ephebophilia, to the point that he is shown as comfortable with trysts with underage teens provided there won’t be legal ramifications.
- Though Brian was already growing selfish prior to that point, his jerkassery became much more pronounced following his revival in "Christmas Guy", as he started doing things like giving Stewie and Chris herpes and taking advantage of his son Dylan's career.
- Following "Jerome Is The New Black", Brian became an unwitting Villain Ball Magnet to Quagmire's hatred of him. By "Tiegs For Two", Brian snapped and started spiting and angering Quagmire on purpose, but still often only after Quagmire was the instigator, almost posing as Character Development. In later bouts however, where their feud takes up a lot more screentime, Brian is even more of a petty Smug Snake than Quagmire and sometimes harrasses him just for kicks in extremely complex ways, such as scamming him out of thousands of dollars or sabotaging his relationship with a dog lover.
- The Swansons:
- Joe has always been portrayed as a paraplegic from his introductory episode, but he was initially written as one of the most competent and skilled characters on the show, despite his inability to walk, and he was highly admired by the other characters because of this. Later episodes would show him having bouts of bitterness towards his disability, but retaining his confident personality overall. Over time, Joe devolved into a sad sack who's inferior at everything and his disability became his primary character trait, to the point where just about everything involving Joe now ends with a "Get it? Because he's a cripple" joke.
- Some earlier episodes implied that Joe's wife Bonnie suffered depression from the difficulty caring for her disabled husband, but they still loved and appreciated each other despite this. Later seasons present Bonnie as outright despising Joe, openly cheating on him and even plotting to have him killed to relieve herself of his burden.
- Joe's older son Kevin was shown in "Thanksgiving Guy" to be genuinely traumatised by his time in the army, though the side-effects were not immediately visible and the discussion of his experience was played relatively seriously. After that episode, he's mainly portrayed as a Shell-Shocked Veteran whose trauma manifests itself in random acts of violence and hysteria, all of which are Played for Laughs.
- Quagmire:
- He went from a generic hedonist in the first season to a pervert in the second and third seasons to a guy who has adapted his entire house to rape women more easily after the show was uncancelled. However, his overall wackiness and perverted tendencies have been toned down in favor of making him a Self-Deprecation avatar in the Steve Callaghan seasons, and he has effectively displaced Brian as the show's Voice of Reason, with his perverted qualities usually only peppered on occasionally for Hypocritical Humor.
- His hatred for Brian was brought up in "Jerome Is The New Black", and besides a lengthy Take That! gag, was pretty passive aggressive. In several episodes after, Brian basically being Quagmire's Berserk Button became a Running Gag, with Quagmire compulsively dressing down or even beating up Brian for slights beyond his control, to the point Brian after a while started biting back and provoking Quagmire on purpose. In newer seasons, they are full-time pompous Sitcom Arch Nemesises who obsessively squabble for hypocritical reasons, with the dynamic taking up many of their limelight episodes and subplots.
- Roberta's promiscuous behavior from the original show have devolved into her becoming a full-blown slut, willfully choosing to "spend the night" with Quagmire in "He's Bla-ack!" (something that TCS's Roberta would never dream of doing even with someone her own age) and also being implied to be addicted to painkillers in "Peter's Sister".
- Carter Pewterschmidt used to be an intelligent and rich businessman, even if his views were stuck in the 1950s. In fact, Peter's recklessness and lack of common sense are a big part of why Carter doesn't like him early on. As the seasons went on, Carter's behavior is almost comparable to Peter's Flanderization where he will say the stupidest things or perform the most ridiculous acts (mostly to Peter) and allows ongoing misery just because he is rich and powerful and needs a quick giggle. The point is driven further home whenever Carter loses his assets and it's shown that he cannot function in life without his fortune. He gets Flanderized even further into a straight-up Corrupt Corporate Executive in "The Old Man And The Big C" as it's revealed that his company developed a cure for cancer several years ago but he refuses to release it to the public all so he can increase corporate profit by making money off of sick people who have to rely on medication. Even after Lois lectures him about it, Carter still refuses to release the cure.
- When Jesus Christ first appears prominently in "I Dream of Jesus" (after making several cameos in Cutaway Gags), he is a benevolent, albeit socially awkward, person that is kind to everyone. The entire arc of that particular episode has him falling into a drug addled Hollywood lifestyle, and becoming a self-obsessed Jerkass because of it. Later appearances have him being an outright Manipulative Bastard, such as talking Peter into letting him sleep with Lois by pretending to be a virgin.
