Brian started the show as the educated family pet of the Griffin family, the smartest guy in the room. It's a cute joke, really: the dog is the smartest one of the bunch (along with Lois, if we're being honest). Along the way, the show turned Brian's character into a pretentious, unlikable, douchebag of a failed author, for no good reason other than it was probably easier to get laughs that way, as opposed to writing scripts where a Brian could shine as originally written. On top of that, the show has mostly relegated him to being Stewie's sidekick (when he really should be Peter's best pal) - once again, Family Guy blew it. That's still not as annoying as our next point.