Pretending & Believing on TV's Family Guy

Nielsen Ratings revealed that Frasier's viewers were largely upper middle class to wealthy, older, and educated, while the Family Guy's are lower middle class, younger, and uneducated. Family Guy is about Peter and his family, a mockery of fat, dumb, working class breadwinners reminiscent of a vast majority of sitcoms in the history of American television. Although it lacks the sophistication and wealth of "Frasier," it still leaves us with valuable clues about attracting wealth.

The show's lead character's wife, Lois was born with a silver spoon in her mouth but chose to be a housewife in working class society. Lois' family is part of the super rich, Newport elite and her parents are snooty and especially unkind to Peter. She never enjoyed associating with the rich because most rich people whom she knew were jerks. Essentially, she believes that money makes people heartless--she'd rather struggle and live below her means than accept a dime from her wealthy and sophisticated father. She admires her husband for because he doesn't care about etiquette and money.

Lois' character is important because it typifies the way most people think about money--that it's the root of evil, or in Lois' own words, it "changes people." If you choose to believe this, then money will behave accordingly.

In the episode, "Peter, Peter Caviar Eater." Peter's wife, Lois inherits her aunt's luxurious Newport, RI summer home. When the Griffins dine at the local country club, Peter embarrasses Louis as he just doesn't fit in well with Newport high society. Desperate for change, Peter seeks help from the more sophisticated family dog, Brian. Frustrated by a lack of progress, Brian resorts to electroshock therapy, forcing Peter to watch endless hours of Frasier in hopes of making him as sophisticatedly witty as Dr. Krane himself--perfect for rubbing elbows with the local elite.

Of course everything goes according to plans, and Peter becomes so charming and money-minded that he convinces everyone at the Newport Historical Society Auction to like him and think that he's worth billions. Lois now regrets moving to Newport because "it changes people."

Things turn a bit sour when he bids $100 million on an antique vase; Lois and Brian don't believe that Peter has the money so Brian convinces him to snap out of it. Although Peter returns to his old self, his plan to get the money is very brilliant. He wants to sell the Newport home. Always the pessimist, Brian tells Peter that the estate isn't worth $100 million. Who do you think was right? If you said "Brian" then you'd be wrong.

In Peter's efforts to convince the Historical Society of the estate's value, he stumbled across some old photos showing that the estate was actually a historic brothel for US presidents and New England's high society. Thus Peter was indeed able to sell the house for $100 million and to have enough money to buy his old house back for double what it's worth. We thank Family Guy for showing us the power of believing, an important step to manifesting your desires.

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