There's also the issue of Brian's resurrection being more hassle than it's worth. Brian's return inevitably alters the future to some extent, for instance, there would be no need for his funeral and, perhaps more pointedly, no need for the Griffins to buy a new dog. Yep. Goodbye Vinnie - you're still in the pound, never to be bought by, or encounter Peter, Lois, Stewie and co. in this version of the timeline. Brian's revival also screws up a lot of other things, such as the episode Into Harmonys Way, sandwiched right in between the two fateful episodes "Life of Brian" - Brian's death - and "Christmas Guy" - Brian's return - are we to pretend that the events of that episode never happened? Canonically speaking, Into Harmonys Way can be considered to have no existence in Family Guy continuity, making MacFarlane's decision to kill and re-birth Brian seem unnecessarily pointless and a gigantic waste of time, much like those Conway Twitty cut-away gags.