Meg Griffin, despised and neglected by her family, survived an actor switch. For the first season and part of the second, Lacey Chabert, best known at the time for her work on Party of Five, voiced Meg. Then, all of a sudden, the distinctive voice of That ’70s Show star Mila Kunis came out of the overlooked, pink hat-wearing teen.
What happened? Well, Chabert was fired, if a biting joke from a 2009 episode is to be believed. When Peter takes over his father-in-law’s company, he fires everyone, and Lois protests. “Keep it up, Lois, I might fire you, too,” Peter threatens. Lois calls his bluff, to which he responds, “Does the name Lacey Chabert mean anything to you?” And Lois sheepishly backs off.
But according to Chabert herself, her departure was extremely noncontroversial. “I actually left the show of my own accord,” she told GameSpy (via Sonic Retro). “And only because I was in school and doing Party of Five at the same time.” However, creator Seth MacFarlane told IGN that it was “purely a contractual thing,” adding, “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.” Chabert apparently harbored no ill feelings, because she returned to voice a rival Meg in a 2012 Family Guy episode.
Written by: Looper