For Alex Borstein, Sunday’s “Family Guy” is more than just a milestone — it’s a gift. “It’s not something I ever thought I needed, but boy did I need it,” the voice of Lois Griffin tells TVLine of the show’s 450th episode.
After 23 seasons (plus a few Hulu holiday specials), “The Edible Arrangement” finds Lois and Stewie communicating for the first time, thanks to some edible gummies Brian picks up from Quahog’s new legal weed dispensary. And while the duo shares plenty of laughs along the way, they also drop a few truth bombs on one another that lead to some difficult, long-overdue conversations.
“It was so extremely therapeutic, not just as Lois, but also for me as a mom,” Borstein says. “This is going to sound like bulls***, but honestly, I think it’s my favorite episode. It’s such an absurdist depiction of the mother-son relationship and all the weird layers that are there. I think it hits on so many levels, and it’s also really funny.”
Another highlight of this particular episode, Borstein says, was getting to perform a live table read as part of the show’s 25th anniversary celebration at PaleyFest. It was a rare opportunity for her to “actually act” opposite series creator Seth MacFarlane, who also voices Stewie.
“It was a 100% performance with two people finding each other and communicating that have never communicated before,” she recalls.
And if you’re high on Stewie and Lois’ new dynamic after watching Sunday’s “Family Guy,” you’ll be very happy to hear that working on the 450th episode has inspired the show’s writing team to consider other possibilities for the mother-son duo.
“It springboards a lot of future ideas,” Alex Borstein tells TVLine. “As soon as we started recording this one, it was like, ‘Oh, this would be really cool. Well, what if we take this and do this in the future?’ So hopefully we’ll see more adventures of the two of them.”
The Season 24 premiere of “Family Guy” airs Sunday, February 15 at 9:30 pm ET on Fox. Are you excited to see what Stewie and Lois get into? Drop a comment with your thoughts below.