Family Guy/Heartwarming

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • The end of "The Father, The Son, And The Holy Fonz": Even though Peter's hope of starting a religion based off of Fonzi came crashing down, Brian, Peter, and Francis manage to find to find some common ground (if it is a giant Take That to Madonna) Disappointed that his religion failed, Lois tries to comfort Peter by giving him hope that there was a shred of hope that the messages of the Fonz, through his religion, managed to touch someone in a meaningful way. Cut to Francis, where he kneels in prayer in front a picture of Fonz, closes his eyes, and claps his eyes in the first few notes of the Happy Days theme song.
  • Near the end of "Road to Rhode Island", Brian finally finds his mother after being separated from her for 7 dog years-only to find her dead, stuffed and used as a table. What follows is a perfect example of Even Evil Has Standards being used for pure tenderness- Stewie, after being a complete bastard to both Brian and Biscuit (the name of Brian's mother) takes some time to respect Brian's wishes buy burying her, and trying- twice, mind you, as the first one was an awkward attempt, to deliver a heartfelt eulogy to someone that meant nothing to Stewie, and who he had never met in his life, followed by a rather tender speech in attempt to comfort his grieving best friend.
  • On "Jerome is the New Black", after Quagmire's tirade on why he hates Brian, the final scene of the episode shows Stewie offering a broken-down Brian to sleep next to his crib.
    • Not to mention Peter apologizing to Jerome for his behavior during the episode, simply because it is delivered in earnest without getting ruined by some joke in the middle of it all.
  • Stewie gets another, bigger one in "Dog Gone" when he makes the rest of the family think that Brian's dead so he'll see how much they appreciate him.
  • In "Dial Meg for Murder", Brian stops Meg from robbing Mort Goldman's pharmacy by reading his kind Teen People article he wrote about her. This moment is then ruined by a lame joke, which in itself was a Take That at The Simpsons's tendency ruin heartwarming moments with dumb jokes.
  • In "Tom Tucker: The Man And His Dream", Lois sees Chris' new girlfriend (who looks exactly like her), cheating on him, she sadly breaks the news to him. Chris then reveals he knows, but wants to date her because if a total trainwreck like Peter can marry a hottie like Lois, he can. Lois then assures him that any woman would be right for him and takes the parental lock off his computer.
  • The episode "Brian and Stewie" is arguably a crowning episode of heartwarming (once you get past the obligatory poop joke, anyway).

Stewie: I love you. Not in like a 'hey let's have an underpants party' or whatever grownups do when their in love, I mean I love you as one loves another person whom one simply cannot do without. You give my life purpose, and maybe that's enough.
Brian: I love you too, Stewie.

  • There's also the ending of Barely Legal. After Meg develops an obsessive crush on Brian, Quagmire invites her over to his house, saying that he'll give her "what she needs." When she gets there that night, he lights candles, strips down to his underwear...and gives her a heartwarming talk about how special she's grown up to be, and why she shouldn't be in a hurry to grow up. He then gives her a copy of Shel Silverstein's "The Missing Piece."
  • Perhaps the biggest one yet occurred at the end of "Road to the North Pole" where, after everyone sees how much their greed has depleted Santa's health, they all agree to limit themselves to asking Santa for one gift each.
  • Quagmire deciding that while he wanted to keep his daughter, Anna Lee, he decided that she will be much happier with her adopted parents in Quagmire's Baby.
  • The first season was far more ripe in these. In the first episode "Death Has A Shadow" for example, after being put on trial for tax fraud, a defeated Peter expresses to court that he simply saw the scam as the first opportunity to provide his family with what they deserve, and apologizes rather poignantly for lying to Lois.
  • The episode "New Kidney in Town" features many, different tearjerking and heartwarming scenes, due to the fact that Brian has to donate a kidney to keep Peter alive, but since dog kidneys are weak, he needs BOTH of them. So yeah, if Brian gives them obviously he will die. Brian is not only okay with it, but he volunteers! He said that the Griffins saved him from dying in the streets and gave him a better life, that he only has 8 more years to live at best, and that he's willing to give that up so the father of the family can have another 40.
    • Of course it ends with the usual twist: Dr. Hartman winds up giving Peter his kidney instead because it turns out he's a perfect match, thereby saving Brian, and returning hope to the Griffins! Being Dr. Hartman, it turns out he wasn't even sure dogs have kidneys to begin with (they do)!
    • And the ending, which perfectly sums up the episode in a truly beautiful Meaningful Echo: Chris, after finally making up to Meg for plagiarizing her poem, has decided to not only present it in front of the entire populous of James Woods High, but read it along with Meg. As the camera pans along the audience with very sweet, uplifting music in the background, we can see Doctor Hartman, Peter, Brian, Stewie (who is gently sucking his thumb and tugging at Brian's ear) and Lois looking on with a look of both tenderness, understanding, love, and compassion.
  • In "There's Something About Paulie," Peter unwittingly has a hit called on Lois, putting her life in danger for half the episode. Near the end of the episode, during the mob boss' daughter's wedding, Lois is about to be killed, but Peter begs The Don for one more favor; to kill him instead of Lois. The Don is touched by the devotion and decides to call the hit off!
  • "Hey, Brian... knock knock." "Who's there?" "Your friend. Stewie. And he'll always be there."
  • Doubling as a Tear Jerker, we got Brian spending Pearl Burton's last moments with her, using the VR goggles from earlier in the episode to give her a simulation of a happy life they could've had before she passes on.
  • The cutaway with the toilet from "Hell Comes To Quahog".
  • In the season 4 episode "Deep Throats" Meg and Mayor West are in a relationship and when Brian finds out and threatens to go to the press, Mayor West offers to take the fall for both of them, which touches Brian enough for him to give up on his plan.
  • Like a lot of people, I've been quite hard on FG in recent times(I went so far as to suggest that the writers get fired), but I want to say that the second half of "Brothers and Sisters" qualifies for this trope. You didn't swerve us at the end with a brutal moment(and if someone thinks that the "I have a sister" hair-pull thing counts as that, then you are probably too sensitive for this show, and frankly, are probably looking for any reason to attack it), Adam West finally got what he deserved after 10 years of being arguably the most consistently funny character on the show(and hey, maybe we'll see him more now)..in general, FG put me in a better mood for the first time in forever. Funny episode too. Thank you, Seth.
  • In "Road To Europe", Lois is worried that Peter doesn't love her anymore after it's revealed she's been lying about being a KISS fan. When she tells Peter this, he tells her that his love for her is too strong for him to be angry and decides to take it upon himself...by going to Denny's.
  • In "Foreign Affairs", when Joe tells Bonnie he loves and needs her to stop her from leaving him for a disabled Frenchman, he momentarily stands up with great difficulty to hug her. But when they turn to leave the room we see Quagmire is tied in great discomfort to Joe's back, walking for him.
  • It was really brief but in the episode "Petergeist" Peter hugs Lois before she goes into the spirit world because Stewie can't find his way out of Meg's ass (It Makes Sense in Context). A little strange because of all the Flanderization of the show at that point but still heartwarming.
  • The flashback that showed how Brian and Peter meet. Brian was a homeless dog who washed Peter's windshield to his annoyance. After a moment, Peter offered Brian to come home with him for dinner. The sight of Brian's tail wagging was adorable.
  • The Former Life of Brian: Brian looks up an ex, who reveals that he had a son with her, 13 year old Dylan. He moves in with the Griffins because he was troubled. He was a total bully to the family, and when enough is enough, Brian confronts Dylan and tells him to leave, but then a bag of pot falls out of one of their pockets (the fact that both Brian and Dylan both say, "My pot! ...your pot?!" in unison makes it ambiguous) and the two of them bond while being high. When they break down in tears, that's where it gets heartwarming.
  • The end of Peter-assment. Sure, it involves Peter having sex with his boss Angela ( well, actually Mort...don't ask) even when he didn't want to, but he does it to prevent her from committing suicide out of shattered self-esteem; he does out out of genuine care for Angela.
  • In "Seahorse Seashell Party" the whole episode we have Stewie taking care of Brian when he is completely high on psycothropic mushrooms.
  • In the episode where Joe's son Kevin returns home for Thanksgiving after he was thought to have been dead, it turns out he went AWOL after his unit was attacked with a bomb, naturally Joe is severely disappointed, until Kevin tells Joe that HE was the very reason he made that decision in the first place-the heartwarming parts comes in the flashback when it's revealed that Joe decided not to arrest a man for stealing since he was only trying to feed his family and he gives a speech on how the law isn't always right, and that even though he doesn't agree with Kevin's decision, he'll still look after him.
  • In Quagmire and Meg, the Family went through so much effort to get Quagmire away from Meg. This may seem like a Yank the Dog's Chain, but we have to remember who Quagmire is here. It was cute seeing Stewie tell Quagmire to leave her alone considering earlier in that episode, he made crude pictures of her sleeping. It shows that despite all the Character Derailment and Flanderization, they still care about Meg.
    • Stewie punching Quagmire's shins and shouting "Stay away from mah sis!" was probably the most hilarious and heartwarming thing ever.
  • YMMV, but I really like Meg and Eli's relationship in Amish Guy, yes they break up at the end because Eli chose to stay where he thought he belonged, but it wasn't just some worthless excuse to make Meg the Buttmonkey again. He genuinely cared about her and if they weren't from different worlds he would still love her unlike all her other boyfriends. She still ends up brokenhearted, but at least it was because the guy knew they wouldn't work not because she's the show's Butt Monkey.
  • The end of the White House battle in "Lois Kills Stewie", when Stewie is about to blow Lois' brains out all over the rug in the Oval Office. From out of nowhere Peter shows up and shoots Stewie twice, killing him. Then after he and Lois embrace, Peter reaches out and gently closes Stewie's eyes. Sure it turned out to be only a simulation, but it shows once again the depth of Peter's love for Lois.
  • In "Forget-Me-Not" Peter, Brian, Quagmire and Joe wake up to have their memories erased and appear to be the last people on Earth. Through a series of circumstances Brian and Quagmire think they are dog and master and Joe, Quagmire and Brian think Peter is responsible for destroying the world. Joe and Quagmire plan to kill Peter but Brian bonds with him and when Joe shoots at Peter, Brian jumps in front of him and takes the bullet. He dies in Peter's arms and Peter cries over his body. Brian wakes up and discovers the others unconscious and hooked up to a machine in Stewie's room. It turns out the whole thing was a simulation created by Stewie who wanted to prove that Peter and Brian were too different and their friendship was due to one being the pet of the other. Instead Stewie admits he was wrong and that Peter and Brian became friends even in a scenario where they were strangers.
  • In "Barely Legal" even though he was drunk there's that moment when Brian stood up for Meg and told Connie exactly why she sucks before telling Meg that she doesn't deserve all the abuse she gets from people.
  • Meg in "He's Too Sexy For His Fat" complimenting Chris on the weight he's lost, after Chris has become frustrated because his exercise and diet regimen isn't going well.
  • While it ended in a way predicted; "Leggo My Meg-O" was probably one of the rarest showings in the newer seasons to prove that the family (other than Brian) love Meg. Even going as far to contact the FBI and Stewie going to save her.
    • And how Meg wasn't going to be a sex slave, but a bride to an Arabian prince, who is okay if she wants to be his princess or not.
  • The cutaway with the Hamburger Helper.
  • Peter and Lois trying to get Joe and Bonnie back together at the end of the season finale is also a worthy mention.
  • After Lois sleeps with Bill Clinton in "Bill & Peter's Bogus Journey", Lois concludes that the only way to save their marriage is for Peter to sleep with somebody of his choosing - and that somebody is Lois' mother Babs. And Babs is perfectly willing to go along with it. But at the last minute Peter backs out and runs back to Lois, unwilling to sleep with anyone else.

Peter: Screw our marriage; I love you!

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