Family Guy’s Stephen King Parody Episode Made One Major Mistake

Over the years, “Family Guy” has made jokes at the expense of some revered names in popular culture. George Lucas, Quentin Tarantino, and Agatha Christie have all been put under the knife and cut into comedic pieces. One big name that Seth MacFarlane’s show went after was Stephen King, who, in the 15th episode of season 7 (one of the best seasons of the series), paid homage to the author with a brief anthology in “Three Kings.”

The episode saw Peter Griffin (Seth MacFarlane) sitting by the fire going through three of Stephen King’s beloved stories as they each get the “Family Guy” treatment: “Stand By Me,” “Misery,” and “The Shawshank Redemption.” The problem is that each segment starring some of Quahog’s finest is taken from the films based on the books and not the books themselves. Peter might say he’s made a trip to the library, but it seems more like he headed to Blockbuster instead. (Remember those?)

As a result, the segments that make up “Three Kings” lack the same key elements that never made it from page to picture when each of the respective stories got the big-screen treatment. Had Peter gone by the book, it might have allowed “Family Guy” to lean into its signature levels of vulgarity and gore even more than usual.

One of the biggest plot points that gets skimmed over both in the “Family Guy” episode and “Stand By Me,” the adaptation of Stephen King’s novella “The Body,” is in its final act. Initially, Chris Chambers, not his best friend Gordie, is the one who pulls a gun on Ace in the original story, cementing that the “Family Guy” episode is replicating the films, not the books on which they’re based. There’s also the added detail that in the “Family Guy” version of “The Shawshank Redemption,” Cleveland (Mike Henry before Arif Zahir replaced him) fills in as Red, the character initially played by Morgan Freeman in the Frank Darabont film. The difference in the book is that Red is named as such because of his red hair and is a pale Irishman. (Coincidentally, that’s also why Morgan Freeman only read one page of King’s original tale when adapting the film.)

Finally, there’s the detail regarding the sheriff in “Misery,” which, had “Three Kings” taken from the book instead of the film, would have had a lot more gory comedic ammo to use on Joe Swanson (Patrick Warburton). In this segment, Joe is the sheriff who comes close to discovering Brian is being held by Stewie (both voiced by MacFarlane). Like the film, he’s swiftly killed by the hostage-taker after being shot. In the book, however, he meets a far more gruesome end when she drives over him with her ride-on lawnmower. Had the “Family Guy” writers’ room only looked at the source material, audiences might’ve had an even greater, grislier laugh at Joe’s expense.