9) Family Guy – Brian And Stewie
One of the unique benefits of animation is that the stories can be located anywhere, restricted only by the creators imagination, so few ever bother to experiment with the bottle episode format. However, Seth MacFarlane wanted to do something special for the 150th episode of Family Guy, so the team behind the long running show took a gamble and set the entire plot in one location.
The episodes that focused solely on Brian and Stewie are usually epic in scope, involving time travel and alternate dimensions, so it was brave of the show to scale things down for this landmark occasion, trapping the pair in a locked bank vault.
Along the way, Brian and Stewie get wasted and shoot some guns, but most importantly, we also learn more about the two characters and their relationship in some surprisingly poignant moments. For a show that’s become more ridiculous and immature as the years have passed, MacFarlane’s experiment paid off in a big way, producing the best episode of Family Guy since the program’s heyday around season three and four.