Peter Griffin

Peter Löwenbräu Griffin, Sr., born Justin Peter Griffin according to his birth records, is the protagonist of the show and title character. He's a man of Irish descent currently residing in Quahog, Rhode Island with his wife Lois Griffin. In "Padre de Familia", he was born in Mexico, where his mother had tried unsuccessfully to abort him. Peter agreed to abandon a revolt of his father-in-law Carter Pewterschmidt's servants in exchange for him using his connections to make Peter a United States citizen. According to "I Dream of Jesus", Peter attended Providence High School. Together, Peter and Lois have three children, Chris, Meg, and baby Stewie. After a mix up at a sperm bank, Peter also became the biological father of Bertram. Previously due to selling sperm to raise money for dial-up modem impression lessons, he also found himself the father of many other children in "A House Full of Peters". In addition, he and Lois had a child named Peter Griffin Jr. who died when Peter shook him too much as revealed in "The Juice Is Loose". Out of pity he also adopted an intellectual talking dog named Brian who formerly lived on the street as a stray, an accepted fact in Brian's two adoption stories. In The Real Live Griffins he was portrayed by Tom Arnold.

Age
In "The Tan Aquatic with Steve Zissou", Lois says that he's 43. Lois does say that she is 42 at this time, which would match the age difference stated in "Let's Go to the Hop" and ignore their both being 18 in "Meet the Quagmires". In "Underage Peter", Mayor Adam West gives Peter's age as 42. In a cutaway of remodeling the house like a pueblo in "Peter's Lost Youth", he claims to be 58.

Personality
Peter's favorite pastime is watching TV, with his favorite shows consisting of Star Trek, Three's Company and Charles in Charge. He is also a huge KISS fan and followed them during the KISS Stock shows and even got a copy of Kiss Saves Santa for Christmas. Peter is also an ardent fan of Barry Manilow, though this is a fact he has been known to deny in public. Peter also mentioned that he enjoys the following breakfast cereals: Total, Trix, and Boo Berry.

An I.Q. test in "Petarded" confirms that his low intellect places him in a category below mentally retarded. He rushes off to attend Quahog College just to count to three in "3 Acts of God". His mental shortcomings have resulted in various accidents to other people; most notably the death of his step-father Francis Griffin, and injuries on multiple occasions to his wife Lois. His attention span is also incredibly short. When he discovers his mental retardation in the episode, he closes his eyes while driving, wishing "it would all be over" and hitting Tom Tucker with his car instead. Given his short attention span, as well as his erratic and frequently inappropriate behavior, it is conceivable that Peter suffers from Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, or ADHD. In addition, Peter is often seen getting hurt mostly by his own fault. When trying to impress Chris with his forward-thinking, Peter claims it is still 1998 in "Baby Got Black".

Peter also has a habit of proving his masculinity, not wanting Lois to fall for another man. He is incredibly jealous of other attractions Lois has in her life, an attitude that tends to get out of hand in most cases; in "Stuck Together, Torn Apart", he goes so far as to punch his reflection in the mirror after Lois comments on it being handsome. In "Brian Sings and Swings", he tells Lois, "Remember what I always tell you, if I come home in the middle of the day and catch you having sex with someone, I'll kill you both" though when he catches her in bed with Bill Clinton in "Bill and Peter's Bogus Journey", he takes no hostile actions whatsoever. However, he seems not to mind the fact that she slept with other men before they met, just so long as she doesn't do so again; he is particularly proud of the fact that she once slept with Gene Simmons of Kiss when he discovers this in "Road to Europe", but forbids any sexual activity between the two now as seen in "Don't Make Me Over".

Peter seems to find it frustrating that he is "wrong" while Lois is "right" about issues all the time, and apparently takes these issues competitively, just waiting for the day she slips up. This day finally comes in "PTV" after settling a conflict with Lois about censorship on television that she appeared sure to win. In an ironic twist that forces Lois to concede defeat, Peter celebrates by opening a secret compartment within the ceiling containing balloons, streamers, confetti, and a banner reading "PETER'S RIGHT!"; Peter then claims that he set this up 15 years ago, suggesting that this had been a pretty major issue for him for quite some time. Curiously, in "Da Boom", after Lois admits he was right about the end of the world and she was wrong, Peter makes no reference to the compartment, though he had been bragging about his "victory" for two weeks straight.

Among the members of his family, he tends to treat Meg with the least respect; in "Peter's Daughter", for example, he reminisces about the various pranks he played on her, including tripping her, flicking her nose with his finger, and even shooting her at one point. Also, he wipes a boogie on her hat saying "Hey Meg...Proud of you". He is known to embarrass her at times and with things that mean the most to Meg; the entire family once huddled together to read her diary and continue after Meg catches them. However, some episodes of the series show Peter developing greater respect and unity between himself and his daughter such as in "Road to Rupert", the aforementioned "Peter's Daughter", "Meg Stinks!", and "Peter's Sister", though these moments tend not to last for very long. In the latter, it is revealed that his reason behind frequently bullying Meg throughout the years is the abuse he suffered from his sister Karen Griffin.

"I Dream of Jesus" reveals that his favorite song is the Trashmen's "Surfin' Bird", and loves the song to the point of repeatedly singing it, playing the record of it, and trying to convince others that "the bird is the word". In "Wasted Talent", a running gag debuted when someone, usually Peter, will be running and fall and then hold his shin exclaiming the sound "Ssss Ahhhh" once or multiple times.

Friends
Aside from Brian, Peter's best friends are Glenn Quagmire, Joe Swanson and Cleveland Brown. They enjoy hanging out at their local bar, The Drunken Clam, drinking and chewing the fat. The four men do many things together. The four friends entered and won a costume contest at an 80s TV convention in "Brian Goes Back to College", dressing up as the A-Team. In "The Perfect Castaway", their fishing boat was wrecked, and they were stranded together on a desert island. Although not as close, Mort Goldman has also been a close associate, often getting invited to house and backyard parties such as for the Oscars in "Road to Germany".

Employment History
Peter first met Lois while he was working as a towel boy for Marguerite Pewterschmidt. He worked at the Happy-Go-Lucky Toy Factory for the bizarre Mr. Weed for the first three seasons of the show. But when Mr. Weed was accidentally killed by choking on a dinner roll on which Brian had originally been choking, Peter was out of a job and had to find work elsewhere.

To date, Peter has been employed as a toymaker, knight and a fisherman. In "The Perfect Castaway" during a desperate attempt to catch more fish at a private island, Peter's boat is destroyed by a hurricane. Despite surviving the hurricane, with the loss of his boat, Peter is again jobless. In "Jungle Love", Peter goes to the unemployment office, and obtains a job at the Pawtucket Brewery. Initially he is placed on the line, but after over-indulging in the free ale, he is demoted to the shipping department, working with Opie and under Angela.

Ernie the Giant Chicken
In a running gag, storylines are interrupted by unexpected fights between Peter and a giant chicken. These battles feature long strings of action film-style sequences, with explosions, high-speed chases, and excessive collateral damage to both property and innocent bystanders, ending with Peter the victor leaving the giant chicken for dead, only for a sudden movement to show that the chicken is still alive.

In "Da Boom", the feud starts over a trivial incident where the chicken gives Peter an expired coupon at the grocery store. The fight resumes in "Blind Ambition". In "No Chris Left Behind" the chicken is identified as "Ernie", and he has a wife named Nicole, also a giant chicken. Peter is invited to dinner with them after they realize that their fighting is pointless, but then they argue over who will pay the bill, and the fighting starts all over again. Ernie makes a brief, non-fighting appearance in "Meet the Quagmires", in which Peter unwittingly assaults the giant chicken at an 80s dance, retroactively providing Ernie with a grudge against Peter. Ernie the chicken appears in the Star Wars parody episodes Something, Something, Something, Dark Side and It's A Trap!, as the infamous bounty hunter Boba Fett.

Ernie was also mentioned in "New Kidney in Town". When Peter was hospitalized due to kidney failure, Brian offered to give Peter his kidney. In response to the family's shock, Dr. Hartman stated that this transplant was not the only crazy thing that took place in medical research, and said that he once attempted to clone a chicken. This resulted in the original chicken to grow human-sized, violent, and incredibly hostile. Peter paused at this, and stated "we need to have a talk later."

Health
Despite being obese, a heavy drinker, and accident-prone, Peter appears to be in great health. Periodically, in typical cartoon fashion, Peter is shown recovering quickly from serious injuries, such as losing all the fingers on his right hand while handling M-80 firecrackers. In spite of the injury, he has no visible scarring on his hand. In some episodes he displays enormous strength, such as when single handedly challenging a professional football team in "Patriot Games". According to "The Father, the Son, and the Holy Fonz", Peter played high school football and his sister mentions his wearing a bra while playing in "Peter's Sister".

Peter asserts that he weighs 293lbs in "Vestigial Peter", the same as he did in grade school. In "Spies Reminiscent of Us", during Peter's "poop montage", he loses over 50 pounds; going from around 330 lbs to 270 lbs.

He underwent a vasectomy in "Sibling Rivalry".

Occasionally Peter soils himself, prominently featured in "Death Lives" and "When You Wish Upon a Weinstein". After these accidents, he never seems to notice that it was a result of his own behavior.

Episodes like "Mr. Saturday Knight", "Model Misbehavior", "Deep Throats", "Peter's Two Dads" and "April in Quahog" show that Peter has used various drugs such as LSD, Meth, "ecstasy", marijuana, steroids, cocaine, and crack cocaine, but has managed to avoid incarceration and long-term effects from the use of these drugs.

In "McStroke", after eating thirty hamburgers in one sitting, Peter suffered a stroke that paralyzed the left side of his body. For the next three months he walked with a limp, his arm and leg hung lifelessly from his body, and his eye and part of his mouth had slid down his face, giving him a speech impediment. This damage was reversed completely after a five minute session at a stem cell research facility.

In "The Fat Guy Strangler", Peter's mass causes him to have his own gravitational pull, shown when Brian threw an apple, a glass of water, a book and a Television, which immediately started to orbit his body.

In "I Take Thee Quagmire", it is revealed that Peter used to smoke. Peter also smokes during a modern-day cutaway gag break in "Back to the Pilot".

In "Not All Dogs Go To Heaven", Peter reveals as a child he was never immunized for the mumps.

In "New Kidney in Town", Peter suffers a kidney failure from a homemade energy drink. Brian offers do donate his kidneys, which would kill him. Before the surgery, Dr. Hartman offers to give up one of his kidneys, which he does and reveals that Brian's kidneys could not have been transferred to Peter's body.

Peter states that he is 6'3" when exiting the Space Shuttle near the end of "Space Cadet". He is visibly taller as well but quickly reverts back to his normal height soon after making the statement.

Peter's estranged sister Karen Griffin visits for Thanksgiving in "Peter's Sister" and reveals several personal details to his friends, including that when upset, he stutters and pees his pants.

Intelligence
Peter is shown generally to be a complete idiot, such as being dumb enough in "Stew-Roids" to think that there can be a World War 5 before World Wars 3 and 4 because it would be so intense that it would "Skip right over the other two.". In "Petarded", after winning a game of Trivial Pursuit which Lois rigged with questions from the Pre-school edition so he could win, he thinks that he is a genius, and at Brian's prompting he takes an exam to apply for the MacArthur Genius Grant, which he fails so awfully that he is found to be mentally retarded. In "Quagmire's Baby", Peter thinks that babies can be aborted whether they're born or not.

Peter has shown some sparks of being smarter than those around him, such as in "Back to the Woods" when James Woods returns to get revenge, Peter and Brian get rid of him exactly the same way they did the first time, using a box and trail of candy, he makes a point that next time Woods shows up they should do that in the beginning as he has already fallen for it twice.

Peter does have ideas he thinks are smart but often back fire, such as in "FOX-y Lady" when he got his new drivers license he decided to have the picture taken when he was drunk, so if a cop pulled him over for DUI when he looked at his license he would think he was just fine.

Also despite being married to Lois for 20 years, he was unable to realize she was in danger in "And Then There Were Fewer" despite her acting very odd. As well as was more interested in listening to his songs than to pay any real attention. He also firmly believed that Derek Wilcox was a God due to the fact the picture on his phone made him look as if he was holding up the Hollywood sign, despite Derek clearly explaining to him it was merely a camera trick.

Car
Peter's car strongly resembles a 1975 Ford LTD Station Wagon although no specific brand has been mentioned and in the commentary for "Road to Rupert" there is a remark about it having a flip-down TV in a mid-'80s station wagon.

Relatives
See: List of Griffin and Pewterschmidt ancestors, Griffin Family