Carter Pewterschmidt

"There's far more money to be made in treating a disease than in curing it. Why cure someone of cancer in a day if we can treat them for a lifetime and bill them every step along the way?"

- Carter about keeping the cure for cancer secret

Carter Pewterschmidt is the main antagonist (sometimes anti-hero) of Family Guy.

He is voiced by Seth MacFarlane.

Character and Personality
"I had no idea you could be so cruel! I'll never forgive you for this!"

- Lois to Carter when he refuses to throw the lawsuit Brian has placed against him.

He is the wealthy and abusive father of Lois Pewterschmidt-Griffin, father-in-law of Peter Griffin, grandfather of Meg  that Carter abused, Chris and Stewie Griffin and husband of Barbara "Babs" Hebrewberg Pewterschmidt that Carter lived with and abused. He owns U.S. Steel and Pewterschmidt Industries. He is portrayed as the stereotypical conservative billionaire. For instance he does not approve gay marriage and uses Mexican immigrants working as gardeners. Although not an inventor nor showing a particularly murderous streak, he is often gleefully sadistic, particularly towards Peter, and is shown to keep a Rancor in a pit below his house in "Peterotica".

To him money, not love, is the secret to happiness, although he briefly reconsiders his stance when he is penniless and Peter is helping him rebuild his fortune. He hates Peter and offered him $1,000,000 if he didn't marry Lois. In the 19th century, his family owned Peter's black ancestor Nate Griffin as a slave. He is good friends with Michael Eisner, Ted Turner and Bill Gates, playing poker with them regularly. He has owned CNN at two different times, in "Screwed the Pooch" via a poker game, and in "Peterotica" following his remarriage to Barbara, who had married Turner briefly following a lawsuit that left Carter poor. He used to own a race-winning greyhound named Seabreeze. However, she became pregnant with Turner's babies, but the father wasn't known until after the birth. When this was realized, he disowned her.

Recently, Carter has shown signs of leniency towards Peter, going so far as to say "You're alright, Griffin." in "Bill and Peter's Bogus Journey". Carter's voice sounds virtually identical to that of Dr. Hartman. Dr. Hartman is also Carter's doctor but they have little interaction, however when Peter tells Dr. Hartman that he sounds exactly like his father in law in "Believe It or Not, Joe's Walking on Air", Carter and Hartman soon notice they do sound a lot alike. Note that this is due to the fact that they are both voiced by Seth MacFarlane, making the coincidence not quite so unique.

In "Peterotica" Peter decides to write his own erotic novels, and goes to Carter to ask for him to lend him some money to get his business open. Instead Carter gives him five dollars at the bottom of a jar filled with salt and barbed wire. Peter is able to properly invest that five dollars to get his novels off the ground; having his books published by "Carter Pewterschmidt Labels". Peter's erotic novels become a success, earning money for Carter and Peter and eventually getting published on audiotape. However, Carter runs into trouble because a motorist was listening to one of Peter's audiotapes, which distracted him and caused him to crash through Kool-Aid Man's house. Carter is then sued as he was the one who underwrote Peter's erotic novels. A lawyer, Scott Greenberg came by Carter's house stating that he was going to take all of Carters property and money. Carter turns around and asks that he can if he can survive Rancor. Carter quickly turns around and hits a switch, causing the collector to fall through a cement block.

After losing the lawsuit, Carter loses his money, his wife, and his lifestyle, and goes to kill Peter at his doorstep, but instead starts to live with his daughter. Peter then tries to make Cater feel better by showing the life of an average American. Afterwards Barbara returns and tells Carter they are rich again. Peter thinks that he would get a share of wealth only for Carter to abandon their friendship and tells Peter to go to hell. He then leaves with his wife, leaving Peter and the others poor as they were. Lois tells Peter that Carter had offered them a million dollars as a wedding present but she turned it down, giving Peter thoughts of murdering her as she explains her view of happiness.

Despite the fact that Carter often locks horns with Peter, he treats Meg, Chris and Stewie well as his grandchildren, even offering to help out when Lois appealed to her father to use his influence to get Chris admitted to a private boarding school in "No Chris Left Behind". His own children are treated a litle less kindly at times. Although he uses endearments like "pumpkin" with Lois, he refused to pay a ransom to free her from kidnappers in "Let's Go to the Hop". His son Patrick was locked into a mental institution and he refuses to discuss the matter with his other children. He also notes that his youngest daughter Carol has "weird boobs" in "Brothers & Sisters".

In "Ocean's Three and a Half", it is revealed he owns an iPod and enjoys rubbing it in Bill Gates's face. He also has a high tech vault in which he stores his, and sometimes others', money. The times the vault is at its richest is when Carter hosts his gala. It has four Locks: A combination lock, foiled by Reese Witherspoon's chin, Voice Identifier, foiled by Cleveland Brown's impressionism skills, Penile Identifier, broken by Glenn Quagmire's penis, and a question: "What is the least appealing male first name?". The question was answered by Peter with the name "Keith".

In "420", he loses money from the timber industry due to the legalization of marijuana, so he first teams up with Peter on a smear campaign. When that fails, he bribes Brian to support the re-illegalization of marijuana by publishing Brian's Faster Than the Speed of Love. It is unknown how the book's failure affected him. It is revealed that he had sold his Bangles records, halting his project on learning the song lyrics. We also find out that he has a liking for Diet Rites, and keeps a whole stack of them in his car.

In the parodies two movies in the Star Wars original trilogy that apply, "Something, Something, Something, Dark Side" and "It's A Trap!", Carter assumes the role of Emperor Palpatine. In Blue Harvest, Carter played the role of Owen Lars, having the much simpler lifestyle of a moisture farmer.

In episodes such as "Bill and Peter's Bogus Journey" and "You May Now Kiss the...Uh...Guy Who Receives", it is made clear that Barbara and Carter married because Carter was rich. However, in "Welcome Back, Carter", it is revealed that Barbra and Carter had fallen in love before they married. It is also revealed that Carter is a war veteran, and he and Barbara exchanged letters, and when that ceased, Carter was presumed dead. At a party Barbara and her new fiancé Roginald attended, he crashed it, and the two reaffirmed their love, sealed by a marriage proposal. However, in the latter episode, Carter was caught in an affair, and though Barbara demanded a divorce, the two are still living in the same household. It is also hinted in the same story that he abused Lois as a child, as when he is woken up by Barbara he mumbles that he is just taking Lois' temperature.

The Pewterschmidts considered retirement after Carter fell asleep behind the wheel of their car in "Grumpy Old Man". Carter soon became bored and listless, needing to be returned to his office at Pewterschmidt Industries to recover.

Portraits of Babs and Carter hang in Peter and Lois' bedroom, notably in "Family Guy Viewer Mail No. 2".

When Stewie travels to the 1960s and falls in love in "Valentine's Day in Quahog", he learns that the infant he kissed is really his mother when Carter arrives to pick her up.

In "The Old Man and the Big 'C'", Carter was told by his doctor that he is dying of terminal cancer, which is overheard by Brian. He returns and tells Stewie who confirms it via online camera in the Pewterschmidt house. Brian tells Lois who rounds up the family and heads for her parent's home, but when they arrive they find Carter in good health and Brian loses his credibility.

Brian and Stewie eventually find out that Carter had and kept the cure for cancer a secret since 1999 after they try to find evidence that the Carter they saw was an imposter. He did it so people would spend more money on treating cancer rather than curing it. He then kicks them both out of the lab, unaware that Stewie swiped the cure. Brian is about to tell about the cure to the family only for Peter to interrupt him to show him his false attempt of doing a somersault, delaying enough time for Carter and a group of men to claim the cure from Brian. Brian then tells Louis what Carter did and is doing before Carter does anything else. Lois is appalled but Carter refuses to show pity until she brings up some of his closest loved ones possibly dying of cancer and he 'promises' to reveal the cure.

However, he crosses the Moral Event Horizon by going back on his word and releases an edible brand of deodorant for the developmentally disabled called 'Slow Stick' instead. This enrages the Griffins and causes Brian to swear. Lois calls Carter to find out why he didn't reveal the secret whilst being disappointed and in tears, only for Carter to blow her off with the fact that he lied. In the end, Carter puts himself on the front of a magazine with the quote "Carter, you devil!", tricking Peter and Lois into forgiving him, whilst Brian still and might never forgive him. This has shown to be Carter's most selfish, monstrous, and devilish act, almost making him a Complete Monster, since he is now responsible for millions of deaths via cancer and millions to come in the Family Guy Universe, only thinking about and caring for profit and himself and only giving himself access to the cure.

Trivia

 * Carter Pewterschmidt is considered as a close remembrance to Mr. Krabs. As both start off as friendly characters in the first couple seasons, but later became more greedy and only thoughtful about money that made them a lot more heartless than the early main villains were.
 * He and Glenn Quagmire are the two prime suspects of being The Car Driver who killed Brian Griffin in Life of Brian.
 * He is similar to Mr. Burns from The Simpsons.
 * Both are rich old men.
 * Both are the main antagonists of their show.
 * Both hate the main character (Peter for Carter Pewterschmidt and Homer for Mr. Burns), but they respect them in some occasions.
 * Though at first Stewie appears to be the main villain, it is revealed later on that Carter actually the villain. However, Stewie is the one who drives the plot, and is probably more dangerous than Carter.