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Today, Robert Downey Jr. is a bona fide blockbuster star with an array of incredible performances under his belt. Thanks to his career-defining turn as the genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist Tony Stark, aka the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Iron Man, he’s one of the most beloved and respected actors working in Hollywood. But back in the mid-2000s, Downey was still earning back the trust of both show business and the audiences that fell in love with him in the 1980s and 1990s, after they watched him descend into tragedy with multiple arrests for various possessions of illegal substances and several jail sentences between 1996 and 2000.
Thankfully, Downey was able to piece his life and career back together. Key roles in the TV series “Ally McBeal” and movies like “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang,” and “Good Night, and Good Luck” helped the actor’s profile rise. Despite skepticism from Paramount Pictures, director Jon Favreau was able to sneakily secure Downey in the role of Tony Stark in “Iron Man,” and the rest is history. But a few years before that, Downey made a pit stop by Seth MacFarlane’s thriving animated sitcom “Family Guy.”
Similar to Downey, “Family Guy” also had a comeback in the mid-2000s, following the show’s cancellation by Fox in 2002 after just three seasons. At the time, TV shows were just starting to be released on DVD, and when “Family Guy” got the physical media treatment, it gained a whole new fan following, resulting in the show’s revival in 2005 — and it’s still going strong to this day. It was in the show’s fourth season, the first back after cancellation, that Downey made an appearance in the “Family Guy” episode titled “The Fat Guy Strangler,” guest starring as Patrick, the estranged brother of Griffin family matriarch Lois (Alex Borstein).
So how did Downey get involved with “Family Guy” in its resurgence? It’s all because of his son.
Robert Downey Jr. wanted to produce an episode
“The Fat Guy Strangler” is the 17th episode of the fourth season of “Family Guy,” and this is where Downey stars as Patrick, who has been living in a mental hospital since he was a young child. Patrick had a nervous breakdown after walking in on his mother having an affair with “The Honeymooners” star Jackie Gleason, which leads to his unhealthy and illegal obsession with strangling overweight men, putting Peter Griffin (MacFarlane) in danger. It’s a strange role for Downey to take, even at this stage in his career, and it happened simply because his son was a fan of “Family Guy” at the time.
As revealed on the commentary for the episode in the fourth season’s release on DVD, writer Chris Sheridan explained that Downey actually called the show’s production staff with an interest in merely producing or assisting in an episode, because his son loved the series. Instead, they came up with a character for him to play, and the rest is “Family Guy” history. In that same commentary, McFarlane said that Downey “did a great job” and complimented the “very kind of half-crazy, and maybe just eccentric personality to that character that really worked out great.”
Though Downey has yet to return to “Family Guy” since his Marvel-fueled career spike, his character did appear in the season 10 episode “Killer Queen,” where Patrick was voiced by Oliver Vaquer instead. Downey is pretty busy these days, but maybe one day “Family Guy” will get him to come back for another guest appearance. After all, MacFarlane has said he won’t stop the show until audiences stop caring, and that doesn’t seem to be happening anytime soon, so why not get the legendary Avenger back for some fun?