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For the variety of clam also known as Quahog, see Hard clam.

The skyline of Providence as viewed from the northwest looking southeast

Animated counterpart: suggesting a location mostly west of Providence for Quahog

Quahog (pronounced "koh-hawg", IPA /kohɑɡ/, is a fictional city in Providence County, Rhode Island where the animated television comedy Family Guy is set. The Griffin family, the Brown family, the Swanson family, and Glenn Quagmire live on Spooner Street, with the Griffin family residing at 31 Spooner Street.

According to Mayor Adam West in "Fifteen Minutes of Shame", the town was founded by Myles "Chatterbox" Musket. He was a sailor on the colony of New York boat and was thrown overboard for "speaking his mind" (non-stop). According to legend, a magical clam rescued him and brought him ashore, sharing the same vision as Musket: founding a new town named Quahog. The clam later left Musket, because Musket contemplated killing him. Musket never spoke again, and later died of a combination of tuberculosis and a tomahawk to the head. These events are celebrated every year as "Quahog clam festival".

Adam West, who shares a name and is voiced by the actor who portrayed Batman on the 1960s TV series, is the mayor of Quahog. The real Adam West voices the character. Quahog's local celebrities are the anchors of its Channel 5 news show, Tom Tucker and Diane Simmons. The Drunken Clam is a bar that protagonist Peter Griffin and his friends frequently visit. Lois's Aunt Margarite left her estate in Newport, Rhode Island to the Griffins, which they made an extended visit to in Peter, Peter, Caviar Eater, and eventually sold. In the episode "E. Peterbus Unum" it is found out that Peter's house is not part of Quahog, and not even part of the United States of America, in which he calls the new territory Petoria.

Seth MacFarlane, the show's creator, had been a resident of Rhode Island, and leaves unequivocal Rhode Island landmarks from which one may infer intended locations for events.

Several times every episode, the actual Providence skyline can be seen in the distance. The three buildings that are depicted are, from left to right and furthest to closest, One Financial Center, 50 Kennedy Plaza, and the Bank of America Tower. This ordering of buildings and the angle at which they are viewed (see figure at right) indicates that Quahog is primarily west of downtown Providence. If Quahog is to have a counterpart in Rhode Island geography and be consistent with this, it would have to be either Johnston, Cranston, North Providence, Scituate, or a western portion of Providence itself. However, in a few episodes Quahog is shown to have a coastline (see "Fifteen Minutes of Shame", "Fore Father", and "The Perfect Castaway"), which only Cranston and Providence possess. This is supported by the fact that the real-world "31 Spooner Street" is located in Providence ^[1][2], immediately west of Roger Williams Park. This could be a coincidence, as MacFarlane has said in a DVD commentary that the street was named after Spooner Hill Road, along which is his boyhood home. Also, a map seen in "Fifteen Minutes of Shame" does not resemble a map of the neighborhood of the actual Spooner Street. In "E Peterbus Unum", a map of Rhode Island is shown with Quahog shown in red.

The choice of the name "Quahog" for the town is possibly inspired by the real Rhode Island village of Quonochontaug. Many of the features of Quahog exist in Quonochontaug, such as a coast. Additional more conspicuous evidence can be seen on the reverse of the UK DVD, clearly stating, "Meet the Griffins and find out what in the name of Quonochontaug, Rhode Island is going on in their heads!" Many people living in Quonochontaug commonly refer to their home as Quahog. However, the real Quonochontaug is a tiny village community of no more than a few hundred people located within the rural town of Charlestown, more than halfway across the state from Providence where the aforementioned urban skyline would not be visible.

A quahog is an edible clam. The word "quahog" has been absorbed into the American English language as a loanword from the original Narragansett language, which is of the Algonquian languages family. This, along with the fact that the town Quahog was co-founded by a clam, might suggest a different scenario for the reason of the name. There is a restaurant in Newport which is named the Rhode Island Quahog Co but is known just as "Quahog's".

1. ^ Arrow Map, Inc.. Arrow Street Atlas of Rhode Island with Southeastern Massachusetts and Southeastern Connecticut [map]. (1999) ISBN 1-55751-405-4. Page 13, section L5.
2. ^ Google Maps: 31 Spooner St, Providence, RI. Retrieved on 2007-07-15.

• List of places on Family Guy