'Family Guy' New Bedford References Still Funny Years Later

We all know Family Guy is based in Rhode Island so it's not unusual to see local references on the long-running animated Fox sitcom, but these New Bedford mentions are still pretty awesome — even years later.

I can't help but get a little giddy when I hear a reference to something local on the show. While the Griffin family lives in the fictional town of Quahog, writers seem to work in the names of real places quite often.

This New Bedford mention, straight out of goofy patriarch Peter Griffin's mouth, is the best. Holding a piece of scrimshaw featuring a dramatic rendering of a whaling voyage, he says, "Ah, brave men all. Lost sons of New Bedford."

Get our free mobile app

As for the other reference we can recall, "New Bedford" ends up being the name of one of two girls Stewie Griffin brings to a club, the other being "Dakota."

Was it just me or did you think that there may have been some kind of tongue-in-cheek slight directed at the Whaling City with the last clip? The bar did kind of resemble the old Bar 908, no?

Perhaps back when these episodes first aired in the early 2000s, someone with a New Bedford connection was on the writing staff. Of course, it's entirely possible that show creator Seth Macfarlane was acquainted with the city. He's a New England native who honed his creative chops at RISD in Providence.

There's also a more recent New Bedford connection to the long-running cartoon. In 2020, city native Arif "Azerrz" Zahir was chosen to become the new voice of Peter's friend and neighbor Cleveland Brown.

Perhaps there are other New Bedford connections to the show. We wouldn't be surprised. Let us know if that's the case.

New Bedford seems to be on a national TV tour these days. The most recent reference came just this week on Bob Odenkirk's new AMC show Lucky Hank. A few weeks earlier, the city got a shoutout on HBO's hugely popular The Last of Us.