Tragedy Strikes on Family Guy

Major spoiler alert: A member of the Family Guy family died in last night's episode, and apparently it wasn't a joke. Brian the dog was hit by a car during a street hockey game with baby Stewie, the Huffington Post reports. His last, not-so-funny words: "You’ve given me a wonderful life. I love you all." Following his passing, the Griffins got a new canine companion, Vinny, voiced by Sopranos actor Tony Sirico. Why doesn't Stewie just use his time machine to fix the situation, you ask? Well, he took it apart in the same episode, E! Online notes, and he's missing parts necessary to fix it.

For an explanation of the surprise, E! spoke to executive producer Steve Callaghan. "This was an idea that got pitched in the writers room and it sort of caught fire, and we thought it could be a fun way to shake things up," he said. "We got very excited about the way this change will affect the family dynamics." As for why it was Brian who suffered the fate, "it seemed more in the realm of a reality"—and less "traumatic"—"that a dog would get hit by a car than if one of the kids died." (More Family Guy stories.)