I'll be honest: I haven't watched Family Guy religiously for a long time. The show took a noticeable dive in quality a few years ago when the originality seemed to drain out from within, almost as if the writers - and creator Seth MacFarlane - had given up caring. There wasn't a particular thing about the show that put me off, but it became increasingly mean-spirited, the jokes more obscure and less funny, and the popular culture "references" were bizarrely hollow - Peter on a skateboard whilst the Back to the Future theme plays. That's not a joke. That's just... something. So even though I wouldn't say I'm a huge fan, I've spent enough time with Family Guy to say I'm probably more familiar with it than your average schmo. I don't keep up with it anymore, but I'll check it out if it's on and I haven't got better things to do, like cut off one of my fingers, or jump from a fatal height. Family Guy has taken a few narrative leaps already, of course, some funny (Stewie is gay!), some painfully unfunny (The Cleveland Show), but last night something happened that I'm barely able to comprehend. In fact, to be honest, I'm rather appalled. Family Guy killed off Brian Griffin. The family dog, and Peter's best friend. They killed him. They killed him off in a generic, banal and ridiculously dull fashion. Forget that Brian is by far one of the most likeable characters on the show, or that the only "good" episodes of Family Guy in this era usually consists of Brian and Stewie getting into some kind of misadventure... what the writers (and MacFarlane) don't seem to realise is that Brian is arguably the most important character on the show. Here are 5 reasons why killing him off was a huge, incalculable mistake...