The Five Voices of Family Guy’s Meg Griffin
“We do get replaced and it doesn’t kill you, it doesn’t kill you. That’s the difference I think between [voice acting and] on-camera. I think if this was on-camera, I think you’d have an all-out f***ing war, it would be in the tabloids, it would be a big stink but we don’t operate that way because it happens. I’ve been replaced several times and you still go to work and it’s okay.”
The Meg Griffin Who Quit: Lacey Chabert (1999)
Singer and actor Lacey Chabert is now Hallmark Christmas Movie royalty, with a string of festive films to her name, both as lead and producer. After being discovered aged eight on this 1991 edition of talent competition Star Search, Chabert starred in several film and TV roles including that of 11-year-old Claudia Salinger in 1990s drama Party of Five, before making a memorable appearance as Gretchen Weiners in 2004’s Mean Girls.
In 1999, Chabert was cast in the role of Meg Griffin and voiced her for all of season one and some episodes broadcast in season two. And then…? She left. According to Seth MacFarlane, speaking to IGN in 2003:
“It was just purely a contractual thing. Lacey Chabert, I think there was a mistake in her contract, and I guess she had not intended to be involved for, like, the full run of the show. I don’t even remember. To be honest, I don’t really, to this day, know what it was. It was nothing – there was no tension or anything. She wanted to go, and she was very cool about it. We obviously don’t want to keep anyone there who doesn’t want to be there.”
Speaking to Game Spy in 2006, Chabert confirmed that she had no sour feelings against her replacement on Family Guy. “I actually left the show of my own accord. And only because I was in school and doing Party of Five at the time. But I think the show is hilarious, and don’t have a grudge against her at all. I think she’s a great actress.”
Chabert-as-Meg has since become an in-joke on the show. In the self-aware clip above, Stewie travels back in time to Chabert’s tenure as Meg and notes “Oh my god, we’re getting closer to the beginning – you’re Lacey Chabert!”.
