Quahog (Family Guy)

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The actual skyline of Providence as viewed from the northwest looking southeast

Animated counterpart: assuming no animation error giving excessive building depth, the view is about 15 degrees south of the above shot, suggesting a location mostly west of Providence for Quahog

Quahog (pronounced "koh-hawg", IPA /kohɑɡ/, "kwag", or "kwa-HOG", IPA /kwɑhɑɡ/) is a fictional suburb of Providence, Rhode Island where the TV show Family Guy is set.

[edit] Possible Real-World Locations

It may be that Quahog, Rhode Island was not intended to have a real-world counterpart in Rhode Island but rather be a ubiquitous suburb in the state much as The Simpsons' creators intentionally never placed Springfield in a specific state. Regardless, Seth MacFarlane, the show's creator, had been a resident of Rhode Island, and leaves unequivocal Rhode Island landmarks from which one may infer intended locations for events.

Several times every episode, the actual Providence skyline can be seen in the distance. The three buildings that are depicted are, from left to right and furthest to closest, One Financial Center, 50 Kennedy Plaza, and the Bank of America Tower. This ordering of buildings and the angle at which they are viewed (see figure at right) indicates that Quahog is primarily west of downtown Providence. If Quahog is to have a counterpart in Rhode Island geography and be consistent with this, it would have to be either Johnston, Cranston, North Providence, Scituate, or a western portion of Providence itself. However, it has been shown that Quahog has a coastline (in the episodes "Fifteen Minutes of Shame", "Fore Father", and "The Perfect Castaway"), which only Cranston and Providence possess.

[edit] Culture and Media in Quahog

Adam West, the actor best known for portraying Batman on the 1960's TV series, is the mayor of Quahog. The real Adam West provides the voice for the show. Quahog's best known residents are the members of its Channel 5 news broadcast, Tom Tucker and Diane Simmons. The Drunken Clam is a notable bar in the area. The town also houses an Olive Garden restaurant, which is referred to in the Family Guy episode "Lethal Weapons". (In reality, the only Olive Garden restaurant in the state of Rhode Island is in the city of Warwick.)

[edit] The Name Quahog

The choice of the name "Quahog" for the town is possibly inspired by the real Rhode Island village of Quonochontaug. Many of the features of Quahog exist in Quonochontaug, such as a coast. Additional more conspicuous evidence can be see on the reverse of the UK DVD, clearly stating, "Meet the Griffins and find out what in the name of Quonochontaug, Rhode Island is going on in their heads!" Many people living in Quonochontaug commonly refer to their home as Quahog. However, the real Quonochontaug is a tiny village community of no more than a few hundred people located within the rural town of Charlestown, more than halfway across the state from Providence where the aforementioned urban skyline would not be visible.^{[original research?]}

A quahog is a large hard shell clam. The word "quahog" has been absorbed into the English language as a loanword from the original Narragansett language, which is of the Algonquian languages family.