Family Guy is an animated, comedy phenomenon that has spent over twenty years entertaining fans. It's a series often revered for its raunchy humor, cutaway gags, and various pop culture references. However, if there was anything the series has struggled with doing right, it's consistently developing memorable characters that fans care about.
This is evident in the wide disparity between the number of people killed in the series and the level of reaction from the fans. The series has become a near revolving door of characters with anyone easily shoved off to be replaced by the next. However, that doesn't mean that there haven't been a few heartfelt goodbyes. This list will be running down a few character deaths that fans actually cared about as well as a few that the series didn't even try and make important.
10 Didn't Care: Mr. Weed
Mr. Weed was Peter's original boss when he worked his totally memorable, comedic job as an assemblyman in a toy factory. However, once the series started to have an identity crisis and wanted to launch Peter into his seasons spanning job search (Remember when he was a fisherman?), they killed off Mr. Weed as the catalyst.
And, because this is totally how real life works, Mr. Weed's death also resulted in the entire toy factory being torn down. They really couldn't think of anything funny or interesting to do with a toy factory and killed a guy over it.
9 Surprised: Loretta Brown
While she wasn't necessarily the most stand out character during her initial years, Loretta Brown was part of one of the series' most pivotal and memorable arcs, where she cheated on Cleveland with Quagmire and divorced him. She would later return to try and get back with Cleveland, only for him to finally vindicate himself and move on.
She would later die within the midst of The Cleveland Show, allowing years of build-up and development to actually pay off in a humorous funeral in the episode "Gone with the Wind." Though she wasn't a prevalent character, she somehow contributed a lot of interesting material for the show, leaving a sassy hole in the series' heart.
8 Didn't Care: Thelma Griffin
It's easy to tell that a series doesn't even really care about a character when they're not only killed off-screen but the episode of their death isn't even dedicated to them. Such is goodbye for Thelma Griffin, Peter's chain-smoking mother whose main contribution to the show was one episode where she dated Tom Tucker and a bunch of gross, old people jokes.
Her death would lead to the episode, "Mom's the Word," in which Peter starts to become harassed by an elderly friend of hers, essentially allowing the series to return to the same gross, old people jokes one last time (or until whenever they feel like it again).
7 Surprised: Brian Griffin
Given all the marketing material surrounding this, Brian's death wasn't necessarily all that surprising when it happened, but it was still incredibly shocking and sparked a large reaction out of the TV viewing audience.
Brian is in fact a core character who has had an amazing rapport with everyone in the series and has contributed to some of the series' most beloved episodes, up to and including his "Road To" series with Stewie. While it wouldn't last long, one really can't say that people didn't care for Brian's death.
6 Didn't Care: Muriel Goldman
Muriel Goldman was essentially the Ms. Pac-Man of the series' Jewish stereotypes, i.e. she was Mort Goldman, snot and all, in a dress. She wouldn't really add much to the series other than the same, tired Jewish jokes that her husband was already perpetrating. She would get her major spotlight in "Believe It or Not, Joe's Walking on Air," when she got a couple of jokes in.
Besides that, her other major contribution to the series was being another one of deaths in "And Then There Were Fewer," and she was mostly just a means of adding tension to the episode without jeopardizing too much of the series' established chemistry.
5 Surprised: Diane Simmons
Speaking of "And Then There Were Fewer," Diane Simmons would probably have the most memorable send-off out of anyone else in the series. For years, she was part of a genuinely interesting rapport with Tom Tucker as his partner in Quahog's news crew, having also been a prominent character in a few other episodes.
During this special, she is revealed to be the main conspirator of James Woods' death (at that point) and the entrapment of everyone else. As she attempts to get rid of Lois, the only other person to realize her plan, Diane is suddenly shot by Stewie from far away and falls off a cliff to her death.
4 Didn't Care: Horace
The main reason that anyone would notice that Horace was gone at all is the fact that he was essentially a consistent set piece for The Drunken Clam. Besides that, he didn't really stand out in the series aside from a few odd jokes here and there.
Nothing really defined the guy, and the series never really gave him much of a chance. Like other forgettable character deaths, Horace just suddenly dies and the rest of the episode is dedicated to filling in his role with a slightly more interesting character. Here's hoping the same doesn't happen to Jerome.
3 Surprised: Angela
In a definite upgrade to Mr. Weed's passing, Angela definitely hit fans hard in more ways than one. At one level, her departure reflected one of the many holes left behind by Carrie Fisher's death. At another, it was the loss of a consistent female character and authority figure for the series.
Balancing both her strict nature towards Peter and her own lonely existence, Angela was definitely a memorable face among the series' sea of side characters. Her death not only meant the loss of a character but a drastic shift in the series' dynamic, especially for Peter's workplace material.
2 Didn't Care: Jess
The most recent entry on this list, Jess was part of one of Family Guy's few story arcs of the modern age. She's a cancer patient that starts dating Brian as a means of getting through her sex bucket list. In an attempt to make her feel better as well as capitalize on the sympathy of the time, Brian decides to marry her for her last days.
Unfortunately for him, his "love" manages to save her life, allowing for the two to continue their marriage and for the series to make about two episodes worth of boring, marriage jokes. Of all things, she would later die during a commercial break.
1 Surprised: Adam West
In the last entry on this list and one of the saddest omissions in the entire series, Adam West's death was not only the loss of that one guy who played the funny Batman but also the loss of one of Family Guy's most storied and charismatic side characters. Fully embracing what Adam West the person had come to be known for, Family Guy had Mayor Adam West do a variety of zany and wacky things, acting as the series' central character for pure, silly humor.
As Mayor of Quahog, he was also a major entryway into a variety of the series' political discussions, acting dumb enough to wreak havoc on the town but not acting so offensive as to be a villain in the series. He was a beloved character, and it was nice for the show to at least rename its central high school after him.