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'Resident Alien' creatives look back on bringing one of Family Guy's trippiest moments to life

Brian's mushroom trip in Season 10 remains one of the most iconic moments of the long-running animated series.

There's been no shortage of memorable Family Guy moments across the show's 20-season run on television, but one of the strangest and most iconic has got to be the Season 10 episode in which Brian horrifically trips out on a batch of psychedelic mushrooms.

The extended sequence, which finds the Griffins' sardonic talking dog thrust into a nightmarish hellscape, was designed by storyboard artist (and eventual writer-director) Joe Vaux, who would later be brought onto SYFY's Resident Alien by another longtime Family Guy vet — creator Chris Sheridan — to whip up the Goliath murals featured in Season 2 when Harry (Alan Tudyk) and Asta (Sara Tomko) head to New York City.

"Early on, the writing team at Family Guy was aware of my painting career outside of the show," Vaux explained to Jackie Jennings and Juan Cadavid, co-hosts of the official Resident Alien After-Show . "I'm sure Chris was involved with this decision, but years ago, there was a scene where there's a storm hitting Quahog and Brian's gonna consume some mushrooms he's been holding off on. I remember one of the PAs calling me early [and saying:] 'Are you going to this table read today?' I'm like, 'Yeah, I'll probably be there.' He's like, 'You need to be there because there's an important bit in there.' I didn't know this, but the writers had scripted this scene where once Brian trips, it was scripted as, 'Drips into Joe Vaux's paintings...nonsense and nightmares ensue.' That was another really great moment for me and I have nothing, but gratitude for the writer team. 'Yeah, let's just give Joe some air time here.'"

"Even to this day, I think that was one of the best sequences we've done," added Sheridan, who currently serves as showrunner and executive producer on Resident Alien (he previously oversaw the production of  Family Guy with David A. Goodman and creator/cast member Seth MacFarlane). "That sequence ... was scripted, but not really, with Joe taking his artistic talents and creating this whole world for Brian on mushrooms. It was scripted [as] 'Brian's on mushrooms and he falls into a Joe Vaux world' and then Joe takes it from there. It goes through Joe's filter and then Joe, as a director and an artist will figure out what the moves are and that's no small feat. That is the essence of storytelling and being able to have artists who can tell those stories. It's a huge help to writers."

Season 1, as well as episodes 1-8 of  Resident Alien  Season 2 are now streaming on the  SYFY app  and  Peacock . 

New episodes of  Resident Alien  Season 2 are set to land this summer on SYFY.

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Brian's a Bad Father

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Brian's a Bad Father Brian tries to use Dylan's television connections to further his career. Season : 12 Episode : 11 Total Episode Count : 221 Prod. no. : BACX10 First Aired : January 26, 2014 Guest Starring : Liam Neeson , Ashley Benson Featuring : Brian , Dylan Flannigan Also Appearing : Lois , Stewie , Meg , Peter , Quagmire , Joe , Susie Swanson , Jerome , Tom Tucker , Cameron , Dakota , Josh & Derek , Billy Bird , Mr. Devlin , Captain Stubing , Dr. Adam "Doc" Bricker, Burl "Gopher" Smith, Julie McCoy , Marvin Gaye, Marvin Gay, Sr. , Leo the Lion , Liam Neeson , Joe Pesci , Michael Chiklis Musical Numbers : We've Been On For Years Director : Jerry Langford

Peter and the guys go hunting. While stopping for a bite to eat, Quagmire is disturbed that Peter's gun is facing his way and Peter promptly manages to shoot him while trying to prove it is harmless. At the Drunken Clam, Quagmire angrily accuses Peter of being stupid and refuses to have anything to do with him again. Peter finds himself shut of his booth and Joe suddenly has to decide which one he wants to be friends with. Joe calls the two together and elects to be Quagmire's friend to Peter's disappointment and loneliness. Depressed, Peter considers suicide with helpful advice from Meg. Peter comes up with the idea of having Quagmire shoot him in return but Peter is startled when Quagmire takes him up on the offer. While trying to keep from getting shot for real, Joe shoots Peter in the arm to settle the matter. When Peter demands to shoot Joe, Quagmire isn't satisfied that he hasn't shot Peter and shoots him in the head, everyone becoming friends again while Peter is in a semi-vegitative state.

While writing, Brian hears from his son Dylan and tries to avoid him until Stewie tips his hand. Dylan tells of coming to town but Brian blows him off until he discovers Dylan has become a TV star and rushes to meet with him. Gushing over his success, Brian tries to hint that he could be a match for television as well and Dylan agrees to have a word with the producers. Getting hired as a writer, he tries to push his book and his attitude turns off the other writers. Dylan tries to use Brian's lines and it accepts his work as Brian is fired. Brian begs Dylan to get him hired back and Dylan comes to the realization that he is being used. During his confrontation with Brian, he tells him he's a terrible father. Although he acknowledges the hurtful truth, Brian cleans out the catering table on his way out of the studio.

At home, Brian drinks cheap booze in his depression. Stewie suggests he talk to him and apologize. But at the studio, Brian discovers he is forbidden to enter. In order to get into the studio, Stewie dresses up as Zac Sawyer. On the set, Stewie delivers Brian's message of love and they bond again.

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Brian's a Bad Father

• Episode aired Jan 26, 2014

Brian uses his son to get a writing job for a TV show, and Quagmire stops being friends with Peter after he accidentally shoots him. Brian uses his son to get a writing job for a TV show, and Quagmire stops being friends with Peter after he accidentally shoots him. Brian uses his son to get a writing job for a TV show, and Quagmire stops being friends with Peter after he accidentally shoots him.

• Jerry Langford
• Dominic Bianchi
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• Seth MacFarlane
• David Zuckerman
• Chris Sheridan
• Alex Borstein
• 13 User reviews

• Peter Griffin

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Did you know

[a young lion in class]

Lion : When I grow up, I want to stick my head through a circle at the beginning of movies, and roar.

[Everyone laughs at him. Years later, the lion is now the MGM logo mascot]

Lion : Wassup now, bitches?

• Connections Featured in PhantomStrider: Top 10 Worst Cartoons of all Time (2015)
• Soundtracks Here I Go Again Written by David Coverdale and Bernie Marsden Performed by Whitesnake

User reviews 13

• Jun 8, 2020
• January 26, 2014 (United States)
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Recap / Family Guy S12 E11 "Brian's a Bad Father"

Edit locked, tropes associated with this episode (ymmv goes here ):.

• Peter at the end of the episode. After molesting baby Susie , and committing a bunch of other heinous acts throughout the series, he gets a well-deserved bullet to the head courtesy of Quagmire.
• Quagmire could be counted as well when Peter shoots him due to being a proud sex-maniac who rapes his victims.
• Assuming the Audience's Age : Peter does an Aside Glance and tells the audience, "Oh, you don't know who Joe Pesci is cuz you're fourteen." The show itself is rated TV-14.
• Axes at School : Peter thinks it would be cool and funny to massacre a cafeteria full of students at an elementary school, what with using that as an analogy to grouping wild animals together to shoot as on a hunting trip.
• Big Eater : Brian, possibly, seeing as he drowns his sorrows after Dylan leaves him by taking the entire refreshment table.
• Blowing a Raspberry : What Peter tries to do to little Suzie. Normally, you'd do it on the cheek or the arm, or in the very least, the stomach. It's all but shown that he goes lower .
• Boom, Headshot! : Peter receives this courtesy of Quagmire. Unlike most examples, he does survive albeit rendered immobilized.
• Bond One-Liner : Quagmire has one after he shoots Peter. Quagmire: Alright, we're good.
• Call-Back : In order to infiltrate Dylan's show, Stewie dons his Zac Sawyer disguise that was previously seen in "McStroke".
• Clueless Aesop : Stewie convinces Dylan to make amends with Brian by arguing that "taking a risk is better than not having a dad". Before this point, their falling out was caused by Brian willingly taking advantage of Dylan and only reconnecting with his son because he had something that Brian could benefit from. Brian being his father should not be enough for Dylan to forgive him, and in this case, not having his father in his life would be far better for Dylan's wellbeing than letting Brian continue to exploit and manipulate him.
• Cluster F-Bomb : Quagmire says the following in one scene when Peter refers to him as trash: Quagmire: Jerome, can you tell that piece-of-shit asshole to fucking get the hell out of here before I fucking kick him in the face?
• Darker and Edgier : Attempted In-Universe . When joining the writing team of Dylan's show, having never seen any prior episodes beforehand, Brian has the characters going on long, depressing monologues about life and death, with Dylan's character even putting a gun in his mouth onscreen , when the show is supposed to be a lighthearted teen sitcom with a much younger demographic. Naturally, his ideas don't go over well with the show's actual creative team.
• When presenting his ideas for implementing more mature themes and content into Dylan's show, it apparently hasn't yet occurred to Brian that he's writing for a Disney Channel sitcom aimed at young children . When this is pointed out to him, he's clearly too embarrassed to backtrack and instead tries to spin this misunderstanding as further wisdom.
• Peter and Quagmire have a falling out after Peter shoots Quagmire in the arm during a hunting trip. Eventually, Peter offers Quagmire the opportunity to shoot him to make them even, thinking Quagmire would decline and consider the "thought" as being what counts. He never once considered that Quagmire would actually take him up on the offer, and tries to back out when he does.
• Disproportionate Retribution : When Peter chickens out of getting shot in the arm, Quagmire gets fed up and finally shoots Peter in the head .
• Epic Fail : As Quagmire points out, Peter is literally incapable of walking and chewing gum at the same time.
• Even Evil Has Standards : It is strongly implied in past episodes that Quagmire has had sexual relations with teenaged girls, making him in many eyes a sex offender. Even he is shocked at Peter's (off-camera) behavior with 1-year-old Suzie.
• Eye Scream : Peter's eyeball graphically pops out when Quagmire shoots him.
• Feud Episode : Happens with Peter and Quagmire, after the former deliberately shoots the latter.
• Hidden Depths : Apparently, Quagmire is an outstanding godfather to Susie.
• Jerkass : Brian previously parted ways with Dylan on good terms, yet now views spending contact with his son as a waste of time until he sees the opportunity to use him.
• My God, What Have I Done? : Brian when he realizes how selfish he was to use Dylan for his own writing career.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown : When the guys are hunting at the beginning of the episode, Peter finds a buck, but hesitates to shoot it. The buck then points behind Peter, who looks to see that its buddies have surrounded him with baseball bats. Buck : Should have taken the shot, fatass.
• Parental Abandonment : Brian hasn't even bothered to contact Dylan in the years since the episode his son was introduced and was even making excuses not to go visit Dylan when he called. But the instant Brian finds out that Dylan is going to be starring in a TV show, he races over to the studio to mooch off of his son's upcoming fame.
• Pre-emptive Declaration : Deconstructed in this episode: Security Guard: (at the studio where Brian's son Dylan works) Sorry, Brian, Dylan says he doesn't want to see you anymore. We're not allowed to let you in. Brian: Well, you know what? I'm sorry, too. Security Guard: For what? Brian: For this! (Brian takes a swing at the security guard, but the guard catches Brian's arm and then hits Brian with his baton) Stewie: Yeah, you know, you probably would've had a better shot if you hadn't yelled "For this!" You know, that-that kind of telegraphed what you were gonna do.
• Rejected Apology : Dylan towards Brian at first, mostly because texting "SRY" with a frowny face emoji is not even a remotely sufficient apology for deliberately avoiding all contact with your son for years until it was beneficial to your career. However, once Stewie reveals that Brian told him that he could not believe how selfish and horrible he was to Dylan and acknowledges he's a terrible father, Dylan is quick to reconcile with his canine pop.
• Sequel Episode : To the sixth season's "The Former Life of Brian".
• Shout-Out : The Love Boat — A parody of Captain Phillips that doesn't end too well for Captain Stubing.
• Spoiler Title : For those who read episode listings, "Brian's A Bad Father" comes five episodes after "Life of Brian" , spoiling that Brian's death in the latter wasn't going to stick.
• Suicide as Comedy : Peter asks Lois for advice on how to slit his wrists. Meg responds off-screen "Sideways for attention, long way for results," which Lois concurs with.
• Take a Third Option : Peter offers to let Quagmire shoot him in order to square things. Quagmire agrees, and a horrified Peter tries to back out—saying the gesture should be enough. They argue and start to scuffle over the gun, so Joe shoots Peter in the arm as an attempted compromise. Neither Quagmire nor Peter are satisfied (the former because he should have been the one to take the shot, the latter because he got shot at all), and then Quagmire decides to just shoot Peter anyways while Peter is claiming he should shoot Joe for this.
• 'Tis Only a Bullet in the Brain : Quagmire shoots Peter in the head, leaving him mentally handicapped with severe brain damage (well, more than he had anyways). Naturally , he's completely back to normal in the next episode .
• Title Drop : Almost. At the end of their argument, Dylan tells Brian that he's a terrible father.
• This Is for Emphasis, Bitch! : The MGM lion said this in a cutaway after "sticking his head in a circle at the beginning of movies" as a child.
• With Catlike Tread : See Pre-emptive Declaration above.
• Yank the Dog's Chain : Dylan is willing to give Brian another chance, only to realize Brian was just using him.
• Family Guy S 12 E 10 Grimm Job
• Recap/Family Guy
• Family Guy S12E12 "Mom's The Word"

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Family Guy : "Brian's A Bad Father"

Sitcom plots often exist solely to service fake emotional beats which don’t ever come back—say a character gets a new, cool friend only so she can realize that her reliable, old, lame friend was the better friend the whole time. It can be a little distracting when there are radically new things introduced into a pre-existing sitcom structure solely to drill in some banal, “heartfelt” message, which is why the fake episode of The Love Boat in tonight’s Family Guy (in which a pirate crew comes on board to rekindle a dying marriage) is one of the funniest parts of the episode, but also calls attention to the faults of “Brian’s A Bad Father.” The Love Boat is a particularly good show to illustrate this facet of reset-heavy sitcom storytelling, with its focus on the self-contained stories of guest stars. But the example also calls attention to the way that sort of storytelling works best with one-off characters. “Brian’s A Bad Father,” which does the same thing but in the service of a pre-existing character, just collapses.

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The bulk of tonight’s episode focuses on Brian being, well, a terrible father. We’re reminded that he has a son named Dylan from way back in the day (introduced in season six’s “The Former Life Of Brian”), and further, that Brian has been extremely neglectful. Of course, that’s not quite the case, since at the end of that episode Brian offers to be an attentive, present father and Dylan chooses to take care of his mother, but Family Guy seems happy enough to sweep that under the rug. Here, Brian tries to sleazily avoid Dylan until he discovers that his son is acting on a TV show, at which point he rushes out the door to try to get a writing job. Part of the joke of Brian has always been the juxtaposition of his professed liberal “compassion” and the same selfishness that drives everyone else, but the speed with which he goes to exploit his son still seems a bit off, somehow. Beyond that exploitation, Brian acts like a pretentious windbag on the job (of course) before getting fired. On his way out, he takes a large amount of free food from the craft services table as well as a whole case of Diet Coke (in the best gag of the episode) before stuffing the whole table in his douchey Prius. Brian’s horribleness comes across as just painful, more Eastbound And Down than even It’s Always Sunny .

Other aspects of Brian’s character are also a little off. His terrible writing used to be one of the character’s best sources of humor. The ridiculous, gruesome, after-school special quality of Brian’s writing (there’s an abdomen0punch abortion) and the way he lets himself stop working after having one stupid idea at the beginning of the episode are decent enough, but they don’t quite congeal into the perfection of the early-season digs at Brian’s perpetually unfinished novel. Eventually, Brian tries to redeem himself, feeling terrible about what he did to Dylan. Stewie calls attention to how much of a bad person he is, but he goes through the motions of convincing Dylan to take him back anyway—not that Dylan is ever going to show up on Family Guy again (probably). When so much of the episode is based on moving Brian from one end of the parenting spectrum to the other, that story has to be compelling. But because it’s hard to buy Brian at the beginning, it’s difficult to watch this episode or take it that seriously (or as seriously as you’d ever take an episode of Family Guy ).

Family Guy has always been a mean-spirited show—the characters mostly serve as cutouts to set up an endless series of jokes—so the trappings of sitcom beats work even less than they do in other shows, where’s there’s at least slightly more of a stab at continuity. Family Guy laughs in the face of that sort of long-term storytelling—that’s especially true in this episode, which makes several references to how long the show has been on and the age of the audience—so its attempts at getting anyone to care about Brian’s “redemptive” arc even more pointless. That’s especially odd because over in the B-plot, Peter and Quagmire act, weirdly, like real people. Peter accidentally shoots Quagmire on a hunting trip and the two get into a huge fight in which they end up splitting all their friend assets, divorce-style. This story isn’t so funny, but it at least hangs together reasonably well—mostly playing on the aggressively rational, uptight Quagmire, who usually only shows up when he’s angry with Brian. Though, I guess it ends with Quagmire shooting Peter in the face, so there’s only so much realism we can ask for on this show.

Stray observations:

• Unofficial cutaway counter: eight.
• “You’re the worst. Welcome aboard.”
• As weirdly flat as Brian’s story was here, it wasn’t half as flat as most of the Grammys (ba-zing!).

Brian's a Bad Father

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Brian's a Bad Father

When Brian's neglected son Dylan shows up in town as a teen TV star, Brian jumps at the opportunity to be hired on the show's writing staff - instead of being a good father. Meanwhile, after Peter accidentally shoots Quagmire on a hunting trip, the two friends clash and Joe must choose a side.

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Mystik Dan won the Kentucky Derby by a whisker. The key? One great ride.

Jockey brian hernandez delivered one of the great human performances in the history of the kentucky derby. mystik dan wasn’t too bad, either..

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — There would have been a fleeting moment nearly three decades ago, participating in his first Kentucky Derby , when Kenny McPeek thought he might just win it. He was just 32 years old back then, barely starting to crack the top echelon of the sport, and a horse named Tejano Run — the first big horse he had in his barn — was flying through the stretch. 

Ultimately, Tejano Run came up just short to Thunder Gulch. McPeek, a young and confident trainer, figured it was just the beginning.

“If I thought it would take me this long to knock it down…” he said, his voice trailing off Saturday night. “I thought I'd do it before today.” 

But in the 29 years since, McPeek has won a ton of races and learned a lot of lessons. One of them, of course, is that winning the Derby is really, really hard: None of his next eight Derby runners even hit the board. 

He learned another lesson, too: It doesn't take a superstar jockey to give a horse a great ride. 

And on Saturday, in the 150th Kentucky Derby , 38-year-old journeyman Brian Hernandez delivered one of the great human performances in the history of the race. 

And the horse he rode wasn’t too bad, either. 

With a rail-skimming ride that was practically perfect in its boldness and timing, Hernandez got 18-1 shot Mystik Dan home by a whisker over the surging Sierra Leone and Forever Young in a three-horse photo finish that left the Churchill Downs crowd of 156,710 initially wondering who had won America’s most famous horse race. 

“(Hernandez) was the difference in winning and losing today, for sure,” McPeek said. 

Though McPeek's career has progressed from his first Derby in 1995 to the point where he was operating one of the top 20 stables in the country on a regular basis — including a Preakness and Belmont victory — he’s never had a weekend like this one. 

On Friday, he and Hernandez dominated the Kentucky Oaks with front-running Thorpedo Anna. A mere 24 hours later, they pulled a Derby shocker with a humbly bred colt who shot to the lead coming off the final turn and needed every inch of ground Hernandez was able to save to get his nose on the wire first. 

“Three jumps before the wire I didn’t see (the other horses) at all,” Hernandez said. "And right at the wire they surged late and I was like, 'Did we win the Kentucky Derby?’ That was the longest two minutes waiting. From the fastest two minutes to the longest.”

The end result is that Hernandez is the first jockey to win the Oaks-Derby double since Calvin Borel in 2009, and McPeek is the first trainer to do it since 1952, making him a cinch to one day enter the horse racing Hall of Fame. 

“For three weeks I felt like we were going to win both races,” McPeek said. "I can’t tell you why. Both horses have been so easy to deal with, the team has done such a great job every day. I believe in mojo and positive energy, and we had a lot of that.”

Though Hernandez has spent a couple of decades riding the Kentucky circuit, Mystik Dan was just his fifth mount in the Derby — a number that suggests he’s never been considered among the top tier of riders.

But about seven or eight years ago, he started riding a lot of horses for McPeek, who appreciated his professionalism and the solid work he would put in day after day. He didn't have to beg Hernandez or his agent to get on his horses, scheduling conflicts were resolved easily and he rarely found himself second-guessing a ride. 

“It’s business, business, business with no drama,” McPeek said. "I like no drama, especially the older I get. But more than anything, I put Brian on horses on a daily basis — good horses and average horses — and he does a good job on every one of them. Then I’ll get outside the box and go to Saratoga and ride some other riders and go, 'Boy, I miss Brian because he doesn’t make many mistakes.’

"I don’t want anybody to know how good Brian is, but I guess the cat’s out of the bag.”

DERBY PAYOUTS: Complete betting results after Mystik Dan's win

In February, Mystik Dan stamped himself as a possible Derby horse with an eight-length victory in the Southwest Stakes at Oaklawn Park, the home track of Arkansas-based owners Lance and Sherilyn Gasaway.

But after a bit of a disappointing third-place finish in the Arkansas Derby, Mystik Dan was slightly forgotten in the Derby lead-up while most of the attention went to horses like Fierceness and Sierra Leone.

When Mystik Dan drew the No. 3 post position, assuring a rail trip would be his likely way through the field, Hernandez went to the film room to watch Calvin Borel, a fellow south Louisiana native he got to know when he first arrived in Kentucky with big hopes and dreams. 

Borel — nicknamed Bo-rail due to his affinity for hugging the inside lane — won the Derby three times with Street Sense (2007), Mine That Bird (2009) and Super Saver (2010). All three times, he came through on the rail with a burst of speed that proved decisive in victory. 

“I was like, ‘I’m going to roll the dice,' " Hernandez said. “Kenny trusts me to do things like that. We thought we had the right kind of horse to give him that kind of trip.”

As the race unfolded, Hernandez was able to establish position just behind the leaders — including 3-1 favorite Fierceness — who were setting a pretty fast pace with a 46.63-second half-mile. 

As the field approached the quarter-pole, Hernandez guided Mystik Dan right on the heels of long-shot Track Phantom, waiting for an opening to develop. Then, as the horses came off the turn, Track Phantom drifted out and Hernandez immediately signaled to Mystik Dan that it was time to go.

In the blink of an eye, he cut the corner and opened up a couple-length lead on the field as Track Phantom, Fierceness and the rest of that leading pack began to tire.

“We might have took out a little of the inside fence, but that's OK,” Hernandez said. "I was just smiling the whole time. It’s an amazing feeling when you are on the horse under you and you know they’re going to go forward.”

Meanwhile, another battle was happening behind Mystik Dan. Sierra Leone and the Japanese entrant, Forever Young, began to move in tandem. Through the stretch, they appeared to make contact several times — though it wasn't entirely clear which horse was at fault — but were still gaining on Mystik Dan with every stride. 

In retrospect, that probably made the difference given the razor-thin margin.

“I had a hard time keeping him straight,” said Sierra Leone’s jockey, Tyler Gaffalione. “That definitely cost us.” 

Meanwhile, the crowd gasped as the horses hit the wire, unsure who had actually won the race. Chad Brown, the trainer of Sierra Leone, thought it might have been a dead-heat. McPeek felt like he had won the race in real time and was even more confident when he saw a slow-motion replay on a monitor in his box. 

After the trophy ceremony, he finally had a chance to watch the whole race, having finally captured the Derby he had been chasing since 1995. The analysis was shockingly simple.

“Great ride,” he said. “Great ride.”