 For " Death Has a Shadow " , several changes were made from the original pilot pitch . For the series , Lois was a redhead , as opposed to the original pilot , where she was a blonde . In the original pilot , Lois discovered that Peter lost his job , and by the end of the episode , he fails to get a new one nor does he apply for welfare . The idea for Peter to apply for welfare and unintentionally become wealthy was suggested by executive producer David Zuckerman , who suggested the idea in order to add a larger amount of plot to the episode . Several sequences and gags were integrated into the episode from creator MacFarlane 's 1995 thesis film The Life of Larry , including the sequence where the Griffin family sees Philadelphia , and a brief cutaway where Peter farts for the first time at the age of 30 . 
