It is possible to get feelings out of any TV show, animated or live action!

I don't care if Brian isn't gone for good, seeing him so badly wounded was hard to take. I know he's a cartoon character, but he has given that show everything for the last decade.

Don't look at Meg for character development, look at Brian and Stewie, the only characters that have grown MORE interesting since the cancellation. Their episodes tell stories, the rest are just for laughs really.

Family Guy is 12 seasons old, of course you're going to get poor stories occasionally. All the episodes still have laughs in. And sometimes you have great episodes (Brian's Play and Roads to Vegas last season, the bank vault one a few years ago).

Look at when the Griffins thought Brian had died in a fire, they all cried…clearly Family Guy cares also.

Family Guy uses random humour (like Monty Python did), and also satire, and recurring jokes (Brian as a dog, Peter the idiot, etc.) That's where it's humour comes from.

They said it'd be one of the six main Griffin characters. So it's not Peter's mom.

Brian and Stewie have developed as characters since the cancellation, but the others are now just one-joke bores.

They won't "contaminate future projects", as they've already created the second most successful, second most-popular and probably the joint funniest animated sit-com ever (behind the Simpsons).

Give Meg her own show, are you kidding!? It would be cancelled after about half an episode. Brian and Stewie are the only ones who could sustain their own show, but it'd kill Family Guy if they left.

I know this comment was from ages ago, but it made me want to puke.

The Brian and Stewie plot of "Seahorse seashell party" was okay, but the Meg part was dreadful.

There's three more episodes this season with Brian's name in it, one of which is the season finale. And there's a confirmed plot for next season with Brian in it. So he's clearly not dying this season.

The furless Brian scene was really odd, as Brian has been shown without fur before (when the family lost all Ther hair in that lake), but he looked normal there. But last night it was disgusting! Although I liked how Stewie dealt with it, by dressing Brian up in his clothes.

Brian and Stewie basically carry Family Guy nowadays, without them, the show would be cancelled within a year.

I'm confused, I've never seen those cutaways in actual episodes before. I saw them in the Season 12 trailer online, but that's what a trailer is for, right?

What, when did Brian previously match the sound of a fire truck?

I think this has probably been the strongest episode so far this season. Whenever Family Guy has a clear A and B plot, especially with a Brian/Stewie sub-plot, you know it's going to be alright.
The Quagmire story was a bit weird and I think on its own it would've garnered a C. But the sub-plot with Stewie's problem…

As I have said in several comments, Stewie and Brian are likeable, as their jokes go beyond random humor. And their characters have actually developed as the series has gone on. The rest of the cast are one-joke characters, yes.

Laughs don't automatically mean "comedy gold" or "ROFL". A good laugh here or there because of a ridiculously random or surreal event in the show is worth a chuckle. This episode did have several chuckle-worthy moments.