Peter and his family lived in the fictional town of Quahog, Rhode Island, which is modeled after Providence, Rhode Island. Peter primarily worked as a safety inspector at the Happy-Go-Lucky Toy Factory until his boss Jonathan Weed choked to death on a dinner roll while dining with Peter and Lois; he then became a fisherman on his own boat, which was known as the "S.S. More Powerful than Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, and The Incredible Hulk Put Together", with the help of two Portuguese immigrants, Santos and Pasqual, until his boat was destroyed. He later worked in the shipping department of the Pawtucket Patriot brewery. Peter was also shown in various jobs for single episodes and cutaway gags. In one episode, Peter played for the NFL's New England Patriots until his behavior resulted in him being kicked off the team. In a running gag, storylines were randomly interrupted by extremely long, unexpected fights between Peter and Ernie the Giant Chicken, an anthropomorphic chicken who serves as an archenemy to Peter. These battles parody the action film genre, with explosions, high-speed chases, and immense devastation to the town of Quahog. Character Creation MacFarlane initially conceived Family Guy in 1995 while studying animation at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). During college, he created his thesis film entitled The Life of Larry, which was submitted by his professor at RISD to Hanna-Barbera. MacFarlane was hired by the company. Then in 1996, MacFarlane created a sequel to The Life of Larry entitled Larry & Steve, which featured a middle-aged character named Larry and an intellectual dog, Steve; the short was broadcast in 1997 as one of Cartoon Network's World Premiere Toons. Executives at Fox saw the Larry shorts and contracted MacFarlane to create a series, entitled Family Guy, based on the characters. Fox proposed MacFarlane complete a 15-minute short, and gave him a budget of $50,000. Several aspects of Family Guy were inspired by the Larry shorts. While working on the series, the characters of Larry and his dog Steve slowly evolved into Peter and Brian. MacFarlane stated that the difference between The Life of Larry and Family Guy was that "Life of Larry was shown primarily in my dorm room and Family Guy was shown after the Super Bowl." Voice The voice of Peter is provided by MacFarlane, who also provides the voice for Brian, Stewie, Quagmire, Tom Tucker, Carter Pewterschmidt, and