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Lois Patrice Griffin (née Pewterschmidt) is the wife of Peter Griffin and mother of Meg, Chris and Stewie Griffin. Lois lives at 31 Spooner Street with her family and also Brian, the anthropomorphic family dog. In The Real Live Griffins, she is portrayed by Fran Drescher.

Lois is voiced by Alex Borstein. At the time series creator Seth MacFarlane approached her for a role on the show, she was doing a live stage show in Los Angeles, playing a redhead mother in a sketch. The voice style was modeled after one of her cousins' voice.[1]

Biography

Born Lois Pewterschmidt, Lois was brought up in an extremely wealthy household with her sister, Carol. They also have a long-lost older brother, Patrick, who was sent to a mental asylum after he became a serial killer. She met Peter when he was employed as a towel boy by her aunt. Her rich father, Carter Pewterschmidt, cannot stand Peter and makes rude comments at every chance he gets. Peter seems to unintentionally do his absolute best to be a thorn in her side. She also alludes to have studied at Kent State University.

Lois is currently a full-time-mom and spends most of the working day caring for Stewie, cleaning the house and cooking food for her family. However, she is also a piano teacher on the side to supplement the family income. She is currently 43. She is reportedly two years younger than Peter as claimed in "Let's Go to the Hop". However, this is slightly skewed by both Lois and Peter are 18 in "Meet the Quagmires" although only Brian's exclamation that she is 18 supports this.

Personality

Though initially appearing to be a typical doting house wife and ideal mother, Lois has many dark aspects to her and in some cases be worse than her husband, except without the excuse of mild retardation.

Lois appears to have a taste for Sadomasochism (S&M), dressing as a dominatrix in "Let's Go to the Hop", putting out a lit cigarette on her arm in "Breaking Out is Hard to Do", asking Peter to put his finger in a bullet hole and twist it when he accidentally shot her in "Barely Legal" and directing Peter to kick her breasts in "Brian's Got a Brand New Bag". Several times Lois has forced Peter to have intercourse with her, yet she sees nothing wrong with this as she believes men can not be forced to have sex.

She has made it clear several times that she never wanted to be a mother. In "A Fish out of Water" when her and Meg go on Spring Break, during the awkward car-ride she tells Meg that she took birth control but taking antibiotics made it not work, evidently causing Meg's birth. In "Peter's Daughter" she instructs Meg on how to have a miscarriage. Chris was also said to be the result of a broken condom in "Emission Impossible", with the resulting lawsuit paying for the Griffin's house.

Her one-year-old baby Stewie was very much intent on killing her, though it lessened out over the seasons. Her relationship with Meg is a complicated one. She has a way of being supportive and destructive at the same time. When being hurtful, she is extremely caustic. It's been said in "Screwed the Pooch" that Meg is not really Peter's daughter, but her biological father is named Stan Thompson. Lois does show a slightly kinder side toward Meg in "Call Girl" when she refers to Meg by her real name while dismissing Chris and Stewie as "dummy and big-head."

However, in newer episodes, she now has a more non-caring personality and will often show absolutely no emotion or interest in some very emotional situations, and in other cases draw pleasure from others misery. Some examples being when Meg was upset about not being invited to a party hosted by Chris in "Stew-Roids", she just gives up, gives her daughter some pills and a Sylvia Plath novel, walks out stating "whatever happens, happens". Meg even stated she loved her in "Peter's Daughter", only for Lois to not even respond. When Brian was leaving in "Quagmire's Dad", she doesn't even look away from the television to state her goodbyes. Later in that episode when Quagmire was stating that his father wants a sex change operation, she leaves the room while stating "have fun at the circus." She also has occasionally laughed at Brian such as when he unknowingly had sex with Quagmire's father and did not bother to tell him why they were laughing at him. When Brian needed dental surgery in "Brian the Closer" after having all of his teeth knocked out by Peter, she refused to allow good "people money" to be spent on him. In "Jungle Love", she also purposely drew attention to Chris so that he could be hazed on his first day of high school. And she gave Meg a school lunch in "Stew-Roids" consisting of nothing but food waste and a picture of herself eating a chicken leg.

Sexual Orientation

Although she admitted to only having a bisexual affair in college in "Partial Terms of Endearment", there have been hints throughout the entire series showing Lois' latent bisexuality even if she does not actively pursue it currently:

  • In "Stewie B. Goode", when Peter is doing his 'Grind my Gears' bit, Lois says "Women are such teases. that's why I went back to men.", alluding to her previous sexual exploits.
  • In "Brian Sings and Swings", Lois shared a kiss with one of Meg's lesbian friends to teach Meg how to kiss a girl.
  • In "Fifteen Minutes of Shame" she told Meg and her friends at Meg's slumber party that she used to practice French kissing with her friends.
  • In "Stew-Roids" she lustfully rubbed sunscreen on Bonnie's lower back for about 4 seconds.
  • In the premiere episode of The Cleveland Show, Cleveland asks Lois and Bonnie to make out. The two act awkward for about 5 seconds before passionately making out, thus shocking Joe, Peter, Brian and Quagmire and pleasing Cleveland.

Possible Death

The age of 50 seems to be ominous for Lois. In "Lethal Weapons", Stewie reveals that his first violent act was leaving a time bomb in Lois's uterus, followed by the quote "Happy 50th Birthday, Lois."

In "Quagmire's Baby", it is revealed that Chris nearly cut Lois in half and dragged out almost all of her organs with him. Her body had to be completely rearranged and the doctors said she would be lucky if she lived to 50.

She was depicted as having lived to old age in "Stu & Stewie's Excellent Adventure", the third segment of Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story, apparently nullifying these events.

In "Petarded", one scene shows Lois' brain tumor. Peter also reveals in "Turkey Guys" that Lois had a stroke that inhibited her from saying "Jack Robinson."

Notes

  • In the Pilot Pitch, Lois had blonde hair and a pink top.
  • Lois had relationships with other men, especially those associated with 1980s rock bands, such as J. Geils, Darryl Hall, the "pyro guy" from the band Whitesnake, and Gene Simmons of KISS. Lois also had an affair with Bill Clinton in "Bill and Peter's Bogus Journey". Lois has also had sex with Jerome some time in the past as revealed in "Jerome Is the New Black".
  • Lois has went on a date with Glenn Quagmire three times, in "Stuck Together, Torn Apart", "Meet the Quagmires", and "Big Man on Hippocampus".
  • She used to be a circus freak, apparently a dwarf like creature, who used a trampoline and shouted "Me likey bouncy!".
  • In "The Perfect Castaway" she married Brian, thinking that Peter was dead. It was later annulled upon Peter's return.
  • She was selected for an Olympic diving team, but ended up being pregnant with Meg instead. She later became pro-choice.
  • She is very ticklish. Peter tackled her in one episode and tickled her until she was screaming for mercy.
  • She hates the sound of squeaking plastic wrap.
  • She considers herself Protestant but is technically ethnically Jewish, something that both her father-in-law, Francis Griffin, a devout Roman Catholic, and father, Carter Pewterschmidt bitterly resent.
  • Lois became a black belt in Tae-Jitsu in "Lethal Weapons".
  • As written into the episodes, Lois has had possibly eight children: Meg, Chris, Stewie, Peter Griffin Jr., Dave Griffin, Stewie's Funny Brother, Other brother and Other sister.
  • She tries to be friends with other women, but fails occasionally as in "And Then There Were Fewer".
  • She has an eponymous song dedicated to her, which was first performed in "Emission Impossible", on the night that she and Peter attempted to have a fourth child.
  • In "Family Gay" Peter reveals that Lois is a size four.
  • She reveals in "And I'm Joyce Kinney" that she starred in a pornographic film in her college days.
  • In "Baby, You Knock Me Out" she was ranked the top ranked fighter in Rhode Island. The episode also revealed she can speak a dialect of Ukrainian
  • She is the only Family Guy character to have death threats from outside the family three times, in "Baby, You Knock Me Out" by Deirdre Jackson; In "And Then There Were Fewer" by Diane Simmons; And in "There's Something About Paulie" by the mob.
  • In "Deep Throats" it was revealed that she played in a band with Peter named "A Handful of Peter", in which she played the mandolin.
  • Peter claims Lois lost a fetus when they visited the museum of staircases and spring-loaded boxing gloves in "Burning Down the Bayit".
  • Although her job as a piano teacher had not been referenced for several seasons, it was mentioned in "Yug Ylimaf".
  • "Call Girl" reveals Lois' middle name as "Patrice" when she asks another applicant at the employment agency to take a look at her resume. Lois' resume also only lists her as a housewife since 1992 without any mention of her job as a piano teacher.
  • Lois claims she used to bowl back when she attended college in "Total Recall".


Relatives

See: List of Griffin and Pewterschmidt ancestors, Griffin Family

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