Brian: Portrait of a Dog

"Brian: Portrait of a Dog" is the seventh and final episode of the first season of the animated comedy series Family Guy.

But after an argument over a trick gone bad, with his owner, Peter Griffin, Brian realizes he is a second-class citizen and runs away from home, landing him in the pound on death row.

The episode featured guest performances by Butch Hartman, Rachael MacFarlane, Dick Van Patten, Mary Scheer, Joey Slotnick and Wally Wingert, along with several recurring voice actors for the series.

Peter learns of an upcoming dog show offering a top prize of $500, which he sees as the perfect way to be able to buy an air conditioner.

Peter buys a new pet, a cat, which turns out to be troublesome and abusive; the family gets rid of it and searches for Brian.

Brian becomes homeless, having actually attacked a man on the street for treating him as a drunken hobo and for not believing that he was not a good dog but a crazy animal.

During his parole hearing, he references the court case Plessy v. Ferguson, but unfortunately for him, the council believes that it is stupid to listen to a dog.

[3] Mike Henry, Neil Goldman, Andrew Gormley and Garrett Donovan worked in the episode as story editors and staff writers.

Ahsan Haque of IGN rated the episode a 9.6/10, praising the random jokes and calling it "yet another finely crafted early episode that tells a great cohesive story, has some great random jokes, and throws in a bucket of social satire for good measure.

"[6] "Portrait of a Dog", along with the twenty-seven other episodes from Family Guy's first and second season, were released on a 4-disc DVD set in the U.S. on April 15, 2003.