Family Guy Celebrates 450th Episode with Lois and Stewie Conversation

Showrunners reveal the episode almost had a different storyline involving Peter and Stewie getting high instead.

Published on Feb. 16, 2026

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For its milestone 450th episode, the animated comedy series Family Guy broke new ground by finally allowing the show's matriarch Lois to have a meaningful conversation with her baby son Stewie. Showrunners Rich Appel and Alec Sulkin explain how the episode, titled "Edible Arrangement," came to be and how it almost had a different storyline involving Peter and Stewie getting stoned together.

Why it matters

Fans have been waiting years for Lois and Stewie to communicate, as their relationship has been a central dynamic of the show since its premiere. The showrunners felt this 450th episode milestone was the perfect time to explore that long-awaited interaction in a meaningful way, rather than a more comedic storyline.

The details

In the episode, Stewie accidentally slips some of Brian's marijuana gummies into Lois' wine, leading to a surprisingly tender and revelatory exchange between the two characters. They both open up and come to a deeper understanding of each other, with Stewie even revealing why he once wanted to kill Lois. The showrunners say the original concept had Peter and Stewie getting high together, but they realized the more interesting "psycho-drama" would be between Stewie and his mother Lois.

  • Family Guy celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2024 with a live table read of the Lois and Stewie episode.
  • The 450th episode aired as the Season 24 premiere in 2026.

The players

Rich Appel

Family Guy showrunner who helped develop the Lois and Stewie storyline for the 450th episode.

Alec Sulkin

Family Guy showrunner who worked with Appel on the 450th episode storyline.

Travis Bowe

The writer who penned the "Edible Arrangement" episode featuring Lois and Stewie.

Lois Griffin

The matriarch of the Griffin family on Family Guy who finally gets to communicate with her son Stewie in the 450th episode.

Stewie Griffin

The Griffin family's diabolical baby who has had a long-running dynamic with his mother Lois on Family Guy.

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What they’re saying

“We just always try to make every episode funny and special. And I think then, when we're looking at, 'OK, 450 is coming up. OK, it's going to be our season premiere,' we look at the pool of episodes that we could possibly use for that, and Rich and I have just, since the minute the outline was made for this one, it's been one of our favorites, and it turned out great.”

— Alec Sulkin, Family Guy showrunner (TV Insider)

“When this idea was first kicked around, for obvious comic reasons, it was, 'Peter gets high with Stewie, and they go on kind of a buddy adventure,' which has its fun. Then we realized, 'Well, hold on, who's got the interesting psycho-drama and emotional history with Stewie? It would be, obviously, the mother he's wanted 'to kill' since the show premiered.' And a conversation between them, we realized, 'Oh, wait, that won't just be funny, we hope, but it'll be more meaningful and emotionally based than something with Peter.'”

— Rich Appel, Family Guy showrunner (TV Insider)

“When we got to the act break when they first spoke, there was just this roar from the audience, which just made me and Alec think, 'Yes, we were right.' Because they were obviously big fans who came to this event, but they recognized in the lore of the show after 25 years that would be a big, big moment.”

— Rich Appel, Family Guy showrunner (TV Insider)

What’s next

The showrunners tease that the next two episodes of Family Guy Season 24 will also feature notable mother-child dynamics, with Lois introducing Meg to pumpkin spice lattes and an episode focusing on the men of the Griffin family shipwrecking on an island and wishing for a world without women.

The takeaway

Family Guy's landmark 450th episode represents a long-awaited breakthrough in the show's central dynamic between Lois and her son Stewie, allowing the characters to finally communicate in a meaningful way that the showrunners felt would be more impactful than a more comedic storyline. This episode highlights the series' ability to balance humor with emotional resonance as it continues to evolve after over two decades on the air.