‘Family Guy’ Fun Facts: 7 Things You Didn’t Know Before 300th Episode

“Family Guy” first premiered on Fox in 1999 and Sunday night (Jan. 14) it will air its 300th episode, which is smack dab in the middle of the show’s 16th season. To celebrate the milestone event, here are seven fun facts about the long-running animated series.

1. Lois originally was a blonde.

The character was originally conceived as a blonde and she even had the golden hair in the pilot, but then the show decided to quickly go in a different direction, giving her red hair in all the episodes that followed.

2. “Family Guy” was the first animated show to be nominated in the Emmy’s outstanding comedy series category since “The Flinstones.”

Seth MacFarlane’s series helped the Emmys realize that animated shows are important, too, by being so good that it was nominated in the outstanding comedy series category, which was something that hadn’t been done since “The Flinstones,” which aired in the 1960s.

3. Lacey Chabert was the original voice of Meg.

The “Mean Girls” star voiced Meg for the first season of the series, but after her contract expired, the show hired Mila Kunis to take over as the voice actress.

4. Seth Green based Chris’ voice on Buffalo Bill from “Silence of the Lambs.”

The actor has been very open about the inspiration behind his character’s voice, often discussing it on talk shows and even in the “Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story” special movie.

5. The phrase “What the hell” is a running joke on the show.

The characters themselves might not consider it a joke, but the writers sure do, as the phrase is said by at least one character in every episode of the long-running series.

6. William H. Macy auditioned to voice Brian.

Though MacFarlane voices Peter, Stewie and Brian, three of the show’s main characters, Macy really wanted the role of Brian and tried out for it in 1997. MacFarlane confirmed this on Twitter in 2010 and even said that he thinks he “made a bad call.”

7. The whole franchise is worth an estimated $2 billion.

This number was revealed by Barbara Walters in 2012 during an interview with MacFarlane and as its been a few years since then and the show is set to air its milestone 300th episode, that number has likely only increased.

The 300th episode of “Family Guy” airs Sunday (Jan. 14) on Fox at 9 p.m. EST.