Friday
Family Guy Star Wars Episodes
"Blue Harvest" is the hour-long premiere to the sixth season of the FOX series Family Guy and the first part of the series' trilogy Laugh It Up, Fuzzball. It originally aired on September 23, 2007. The episode is a retelling and parody of the blockbuster film, Star Wars, recasting the show's characters into Star Wars roles.[1] For this purpose, and for the first time in the history of Family Guy, this episode runs an hour long with commercials (48 minutes for the DVD version). It was also made to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Star Wars franchise. The name "Blue Harvest" was the fake working title for the 1983 production of Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi.
It was written by Alec Sulkin and is directed by Dominic Polcino. It guest starred Kirker Butler, Steve Callaghan, Chevy Chase, Beverly D'Angelo, Mick Hucknall, Rush Limbaugh, Helen Reddy, Alex Thomas, Don Tai, and Judd Nelson. It received generally positive reviews from critics.
While the Griffins are watching Phil Mickelson play in a golf tournament on television, the power goes out and they are left with no other form of entertainment. While they wait for the power to return, Peter tells the story of Star Wars, with the Family Guy characters re-imagined as Star Wars characters.
An expository opening crawl reveals spoilers such as Darth Vader being Luke Skywalker's father and Princess Leia being his sister before talking about Angelina Jolie's nude scene in Gia.
After the crawl a Rebel ship is captured by a Star Destroyer with a Bush/Cheney '04 bumper sticker. On the ship are the droids C-3PO (Quagmire) and R2-D2 (Cleveland). While the ship is boarded by stormtroopers, Princess Leia (Lois) tries to send an MPEG to Obi-Wan Kenobi through R2, but encounters so many complications that R2 offers to deliver the message himself. Leia is captured by Darth Vader (Stewie) while R2 and C-3PO flee to Tatooine in an escape pod, where they are captured by Jawas.
The droids are sold to a family of moisture farmers, where nephew Luke Skywalker (Chris) wishes to join the Rebellion and fight the Empire, while enjoying John Williams and the London Symphony Orchestra performing in the background. While cleaning the droids Luke stumbles upon Leia's message inside R2, who later leaves the farm. Luke and C-3PO pursue him but are attacked by Sand People. Luke is knocked out by one of them (Opie) and is found by Obi-Wan Kenobi (Herbert), who takes them to his hut. Leia's message explains that R2 contains the plans to the Death Star, which must be sent to her father on her home planet of Alderaan; she then says that Obi-Wan owes her family for covering up his "little problem". After fast-forwarding through the incriminating parts of the message, Obi-Wan tells Luke that he must learn the ways of the Force and accompany him to Alderaan, and gives him his own lightsaber. Realizing that the Empire must be looking for the droids, Luke returns home to discover that his home has been destroyed and his aunt and uncle killed, along with John Williams and the London Symphony Orchestra. Luke is more concerned with Williams' death, since the film must now be scored by Danny Elfman, whom Luke beheads after hearing a few seconds of the theme from Desperate Housewives. Regardless, the original score plays throughout the rest of the episode.
Luke, Obi-Wan and the droids travel to Mos Eisley to find a ship and pilot to take them to Alderaan. At a local cantina they hire smuggler Han Solo (Peter) and his Wookiee co-pilot Chewbacca (Brian), who agree to take them on their ship, the Millennium Falcon. The group is spotted by stormtroopers and flees into space, evading pursuing Star Destroyers before jumping into hyperspace, traveling through the time vortex tunnel from the Fourth Doctor opening of Doctor Who. Leia is imprisoned on the Death Star, where commanding officer Grand Moff Tarkin (Mayor Adam West) has Alderaan destroyed to test the space station's "planet blower-upper gun".
The Millennium Falcon exits hyperspace into the middle of an Asteroid field where Alderaan once was. The ship is captured by the Death Star's tractor beam and brought into its hangar bay. Disguising themselves as stormtroopers, Han and Luke set off to rescue the captive Princess while Obi-Wan goes to shut off the tractor beam. Han, Luke and Chewie rescue Leia, and the four dive into a garbage chute to escape stormtroopers. Ending up in a garbage compactor with a skulking dianoga (Meg) in the murky water, they are nearly crushed until C-3PO gets high off marijuana R2-D2 gave him earlier and leans against the off switch. As they flee the Death Star, Han and Chewie insist on taking a couch they found in the garbage. Obi-Wan turns off the tractor beam before being confronted by Darth Vader in a lightsaber duel; Obi-Wan's blade falls limp until he sees Luke. Vader strikes Obi-Wan down as the others board the Falcon, taking the couch with them.
Warding off a group of "Thai Fighters" sent to stop them (with a good luck wish from Leslie Nielsen), the Falcon journeys to the Rebel base at Yavin IV where the Death Star plans are analyzed by the Rebels and a weakness is found. The attack requires a pilot to skim along a trench in a one-man starfighter to attack an exhaust port added for aesthetics; they watch an instructional video featuring Magic Johnson that explains the strategy. Luke joins the assault team while Han collects his reward for the rescue (a gift basket with meager prizes) and leaves. The Rebel fighters suffer heavy losses during the assault. During his run, Luke hears Obi-Wan's voice telling him to use the Force, and he turns off his targeting computer. Vader appears with his own group of fighters, and is about to fire at Luke's ship when Han arrives in the Millennium Falcon and attacks Vader and his wingmen, sending Vader's ship careening off into space. Guided by the Force, Luke fires into the port, destroying the Death Star, and he returns to the Rebel base with his friends to celebrate their victory.
As Peter wraps up the story the power comes back on. Everyone thanks Peter for keeping them entertained, though Chris points out that Robot Chicken already did the same thing three months earlier. A discussion follows in which Peter denigrates that show as Chris defends it. Chris leaves the room in frustration as Peter hums part of the Star Wars end credits music.
With the episode's ratings success, a sequel episode entitled "Something, Something, Something, Dark Side" was put into production, and parodies The Empire Strikes Back. It was released on December 22, 2009. On May 22, 2011 a Return of the Jedi parody was aired on Fox in the United States. It is titled "It's a Trap!", which is a reference to a line from the movie when the rebel fleet above Endor is attacked by Imperial forces.
The Fox Network has released a special DVD of "Blue Harvest" on January 15, 2008 in both regular and special editions. Extras include about four minutes of exclusive DVD material, an uncensored audio track, animatics and commentary by the Family Guy staff, interviews with Seth MacFarlane and George Lucas, a sneak preview to "Something, Something, Something, Dark Side" and a table read of dialogue from the episode. In addition, the special edition release will come exclusively with collectible packaging, a 3-D battle scene and glasses, a themed T-shirt, Size XL, trading cards, and brochure which will contain a letter from MacFarlane, script excerpts, pictures and so on. An official website for the DVD has been made with DVD info, games, clips, behind the scenes and more.
It was written by Alec Sulkin and is directed by Dominic Polcino. It guest starred Kirker Butler, Steve Callaghan, Chevy Chase, Beverly D'Angelo, Mick Hucknall, Rush Limbaugh, Helen Reddy, Alex Thomas, Don Tai, and Judd Nelson. It received generally positive reviews from critics.
While the Griffins are watching Phil Mickelson play in a golf tournament on television, the power goes out and they are left with no other form of entertainment. While they wait for the power to return, Peter tells the story of Star Wars, with the Family Guy characters re-imagined as Star Wars characters.
An expository opening crawl reveals spoilers such as Darth Vader being Luke Skywalker's father and Princess Leia being his sister before talking about Angelina Jolie's nude scene in Gia.
After the crawl a Rebel ship is captured by a Star Destroyer with a Bush/Cheney '04 bumper sticker. On the ship are the droids C-3PO (Quagmire) and R2-D2 (Cleveland). While the ship is boarded by stormtroopers, Princess Leia (Lois) tries to send an MPEG to Obi-Wan Kenobi through R2, but encounters so many complications that R2 offers to deliver the message himself. Leia is captured by Darth Vader (Stewie) while R2 and C-3PO flee to Tatooine in an escape pod, where they are captured by Jawas.
The droids are sold to a family of moisture farmers, where nephew Luke Skywalker (Chris) wishes to join the Rebellion and fight the Empire, while enjoying John Williams and the London Symphony Orchestra performing in the background. While cleaning the droids Luke stumbles upon Leia's message inside R2, who later leaves the farm. Luke and C-3PO pursue him but are attacked by Sand People. Luke is knocked out by one of them (Opie) and is found by Obi-Wan Kenobi (Herbert), who takes them to his hut. Leia's message explains that R2 contains the plans to the Death Star, which must be sent to her father on her home planet of Alderaan; she then says that Obi-Wan owes her family for covering up his "little problem". After fast-forwarding through the incriminating parts of the message, Obi-Wan tells Luke that he must learn the ways of the Force and accompany him to Alderaan, and gives him his own lightsaber. Realizing that the Empire must be looking for the droids, Luke returns home to discover that his home has been destroyed and his aunt and uncle killed, along with John Williams and the London Symphony Orchestra. Luke is more concerned with Williams' death, since the film must now be scored by Danny Elfman, whom Luke beheads after hearing a few seconds of the theme from Desperate Housewives. Regardless, the original score plays throughout the rest of the episode.
Luke, Obi-Wan and the droids travel to Mos Eisley to find a ship and pilot to take them to Alderaan. At a local cantina they hire smuggler Han Solo (Peter) and his Wookiee co-pilot Chewbacca (Brian), who agree to take them on their ship, the Millennium Falcon. The group is spotted by stormtroopers and flees into space, evading pursuing Star Destroyers before jumping into hyperspace, traveling through the time vortex tunnel from the Fourth Doctor opening of Doctor Who. Leia is imprisoned on the Death Star, where commanding officer Grand Moff Tarkin (Mayor Adam West) has Alderaan destroyed to test the space station's "planet blower-upper gun".
The Millennium Falcon exits hyperspace into the middle of an Asteroid field where Alderaan once was. The ship is captured by the Death Star's tractor beam and brought into its hangar bay. Disguising themselves as stormtroopers, Han and Luke set off to rescue the captive Princess while Obi-Wan goes to shut off the tractor beam. Han, Luke and Chewie rescue Leia, and the four dive into a garbage chute to escape stormtroopers. Ending up in a garbage compactor with a skulking dianoga (Meg) in the murky water, they are nearly crushed until C-3PO gets high off marijuana R2-D2 gave him earlier and leans against the off switch. As they flee the Death Star, Han and Chewie insist on taking a couch they found in the garbage. Obi-Wan turns off the tractor beam before being confronted by Darth Vader in a lightsaber duel; Obi-Wan's blade falls limp until he sees Luke. Vader strikes Obi-Wan down as the others board the Falcon, taking the couch with them.
Warding off a group of "Thai Fighters" sent to stop them (with a good luck wish from Leslie Nielsen), the Falcon journeys to the Rebel base at Yavin IV where the Death Star plans are analyzed by the Rebels and a weakness is found. The attack requires a pilot to skim along a trench in a one-man starfighter to attack an exhaust port added for aesthetics; they watch an instructional video featuring Magic Johnson that explains the strategy. Luke joins the assault team while Han collects his reward for the rescue (a gift basket with meager prizes) and leaves. The Rebel fighters suffer heavy losses during the assault. During his run, Luke hears Obi-Wan's voice telling him to use the Force, and he turns off his targeting computer. Vader appears with his own group of fighters, and is about to fire at Luke's ship when Han arrives in the Millennium Falcon and attacks Vader and his wingmen, sending Vader's ship careening off into space. Guided by the Force, Luke fires into the port, destroying the Death Star, and he returns to the Rebel base with his friends to celebrate their victory.
As Peter wraps up the story the power comes back on. Everyone thanks Peter for keeping them entertained, though Chris points out that Robot Chicken already did the same thing three months earlier. A discussion follows in which Peter denigrates that show as Chris defends it. Chris leaves the room in frustration as Peter hums part of the Star Wars end credits music.
With the episode's ratings success, a sequel episode entitled "Something, Something, Something, Dark Side" was put into production, and parodies The Empire Strikes Back. It was released on December 22, 2009. On May 22, 2011 a Return of the Jedi parody was aired on Fox in the United States. It is titled "It's a Trap!", which is a reference to a line from the movie when the rebel fleet above Endor is attacked by Imperial forces.
The Fox Network has released a special DVD of "Blue Harvest" on January 15, 2008 in both regular and special editions. Extras include about four minutes of exclusive DVD material, an uncensored audio track, animatics and commentary by the Family Guy staff, interviews with Seth MacFarlane and George Lucas, a sneak preview to "Something, Something, Something, Dark Side" and a table read of dialogue from the episode. In addition, the special edition release will come exclusively with collectible packaging, a 3-D battle scene and glasses, a themed T-shirt, Size XL, trading cards, and brochure which will contain a letter from MacFarlane, script excerpts, pictures and so on. An official website for the DVD has been made with DVD info, games, clips, behind the scenes and more.
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