MacFarlane first thought of the idea for "Family Guy" in 1995. He was studying animation at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). There, he created his thesis movie "The Life of Larry". His professor at RISD submitted the movie to Hanna-Barbera. This gave MacFarlane being hired by the company. Executives at Fox saw the movie. They contracted MacFarlane to create a show based on the characters. They called it "Family Guy". While working on the show, Larry and his dog Steve, became Peter and Brian. The rest of the show's characters were added later.