Blue Harvest

"Blue Harvest"

“Blue Harvest” is the hour-long (with commercials) sixth-season premiere episode of the FOX animated television series Family Guy. It was meant to be normal-length, but the original episode (production code 5ACX16) was too short to fit all the content. It is a retelling of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, recasting the show's characters into Star Wars roles.

At the 2007 Comic Con International convention, a series of clips was shown at a panel for Family Guy from the season premiere episode, showing the Family Guy characters as Star Wars characters. The episode aired on September 23, 2007 with some slight changes from the clips shown at Comic Con. The episode's title comes from the fake title used during the filming for Return of the Jedi to camouflage the film's production. Parts of this episode were shown at Star Wars Celebration IV, at which Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane was a special guest, and again at Comic-Con International 2007 The episode was officially endorsed by Lucasfilm, who, MacFarlane said, were extremely helpful when the Family Guy crew wanted to parody their works. It drew 10.7 million viewers, and earned the highest ratings of any Family Guy episode since the show returned to air in 2005.

Plot summary

While the Griffins are watching a golf tournament, the announcers speculate on the possibilities of a sexual encounter with Phil Mickelson's wife, then the power goes out. Brian's suggestion that they turn to reading to entertain themselves instead is met with laughter from the rest of the family, and Peter decides to tell the story of Star Wars, beginning with Part IV (Meg wanted Peter to tell the story of her birth, but Peter shrugged it off). It is then enacted with the Griffins and other characters from the show in key roles, remaining in character as themselves.

The film's opening crawl gives spoilers on the relationship between Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader and Princess Leia, then goes off on a tangent about Angelina Jolie and her relationship with her brother before showing the Tantive IV being chased by the Star Destroyer (complete with Bush/Cheney 2004 bumper sticker) over Tatooine, exactly imitating the sequence in the original film. On the rebel ship, Leia (Lois) tries to send her holographic message to Obi-Wan Kenobi, but encounters complications that R2-D2 (Cleveland) tries to help her through by indicating which menu options to select. R2 then decides to just carry the message himself. After her capture by Imperial Stormtroopers, Leia is brought before Darth Vader (Stewie). She tells him she hid the Death Star plans in one of the 26 briefcases carried by the models on Deal or No Deal. After choosing the $5 one, Vader orders her taken away.

C-3PO (Quagmire) and R2 escape to Tatooine but are, as in the film, quickly captured by Jawas and then sold to Owen & Beru Lars (Carter & Barbara Pewterschmidt). Luke (Chris) stumbles on Leia's message and goes with Threepio to retrieve R2 the next morning, after being accompanied by John Williams and the London Symphony Orchestra playing the "Force Theme" as he gazes into the double sunset. Kenobi (Herbert) rescues them from the Tusken Raiders and gives Luke his father's lightsaber, continually dropping hints that he is sexually interested in Luke. He skips over long portions of Leia's message that make references to an apparent incident of pedophilia on Alderaan. Luke finds his home destroyed along with his aunt & uncle, Williams and the orchestra (Luke then states that Williams has to be replaced by Danny Elfman, but after orchestrating one song, Luke decapitates Elfman with his lightsaber).

On the Death Star, Vader learns during the meeting that station has one remaining vulnerability: the exhaust port, apparently added by the architect for aesthetic purposes. He asks if it can't just be covered up with plywood, but is told the station must consider preserving its resale value. Vader finds this concern ridiculous, and the admiral chides Vader about his failure to sell his Los Angeles condo, leading him to use the Force to strangle him until Tarkin (Adam West) orders his release. Vader orders the staff to get estimates before patching the exhaust port up.

At the Mos Eisley spaceport, Obi-Wan, Luke and the droids find Han Solo (Peter) and Chewbacca (Brian), who agree to transport them to Alderaan. After jumping to light speed and travelling through hyperspace (shown as the Doctor Who theme sequence circa Tom Baker's run on the show), the Falcon arrives at Alderaan (which had, moments before, been destroyed by the Death Star) and the crew find themselves in the middle of an Asteroids screen. The Millennium Falcon is then captured by the Death Star. Once the crew has sneaked off onto the Death Star and past the Stormtrooper, Kenobi goes by himself to shut down the tractor beam, but not before singing "(I've Had) The Time of My Life" as a farewell to Luke in a production number backed by several stormtroopers. Luke, Han and Chewie rescue Leia.

The four are inadvertently rescued from the garbage compactor (where Meg appears as the Dianoga) when a stoned Threepio leans against the shutoff switch. Han and Chewie insist on taking a sofa with them when they escape the Death Star. Kenobi is finally confronted by Vader, who says: "You should not have come back, old man... What part of 'Stay 50 yards away at all times' don't you understand?" Kenobi's lightsaber falls limp until he sees Luke, and then he sacrifices himself (although it appears he just may be fantasizing) as the other characters escape. Han decides to ride on the outside due to difficulties getting the couch from the compactor into the Falcon. Afterwards, Han and Luke successfully fight off the "Thai" fighters sent to stop them, and escape to the rebel base.

Before the Battle of Yavin, the Rebel pilots watch a training video featuring Magic Johnson. The battle unfolds mostly as it does in the film with Han and Chewie, much more comfortable in their new couch, saving Luke at the last minute while he is guided through the Force by the dead Obi-Wan.

Finally, the Griffins' power returns. Everyone thanks Peter for keeping them entertained, though Chris accuses Peter of ripping off the Star Wars episode of Robot Chicken, a discussion in which Peter says he is "not a fan" of that show. Chris leaves frustrated, Peter starts humming the Star Wars theme, and the episode ends.

Cast

• Chris Griffin as Luke Skywalker
• Peter Griffin as Han Solo
• Lois Griffin as Princess Leia
• Stewie Griffin as Darth Vader
• Brian Griffin as Chewbacca
• Glenn Quagmire as C-3PO
• Cleveland Brown as R2-D2
• Herbert as Obi-Wan Kenobi
• Mayor West as Governor Tarkin

In addition to the main characters, other characters make cameo appearances in much smaller roles. They include:

• Carter Pewterschmidt as Owen Lars
• Barbara Pewterschmidt as Beru Lars
• Jake Tucker as a WED-15 Septoid Treadwell Droid
• Mort Goldman as a Jawa
• Opie as a Tusken Raider
• Bruce the Performance Artist as Greedo
• Meg Griffin as a Dianoga

Notes

Rush Limbaugh makes a cameo in the episode as the Tatooine radio pundit and the voice of Red Six. Chevy Chase and Beverly D'Angelo reprise their roles from National Lampoon's Vacation as Clark and Ellen Griswold. Mick Hucknall of Simply Red and Helen Reddy also provide their own voices. Additionally, a sample of Leslie Nielsen's voice from the movie Airplane! is used.

In place of the traditional starting words of the Star Wars movies, "A long time ago, in a galaxy far away", the beginning words of the parody are, "A long time ago, but somehow in the future".

This is the second Family Guy episode that does not feature the usual frequent cutaways, the first being "Family Guy Viewer Mail #1". The only use of the cutaway in the episode is a brief segment where Obi-Wan introduces Luke to the lightsaber and says that 'everyone in the neighborhood has one,' with a cutaway to a cameo scene with Watto from Episode I: The Phantom Menace.

The argument between Peter and Chris about Robot Chicken's earlier Star Wars parody features two regular cast members of Robot Chicken - Seth Green, co-creator of the show, and Seth MacFarlane, who voiced Palpatine in the Robot Chicken special.

Cultural references

File:Doctor Who Star Wars.jpg

In addition to parodying the film itself, "Blue Harvest" references similar concepts; for example, the comparison between the original jump to lightspeed (top) and the Doctor Who opening sequence for the Fourth Doctor (bottom).

"Blue Harvest", like many other Family Guy, episodes, makes frequent use of cultural references for humor. The Star Wars universe is the source of many of these, but there are many to other films and television shows as well.

Star Wars films

The episode occasionally problematizes the events of A New Hope. Most notably, Luke questions whether Han is correct in using parsecs as a measure of time rather than distance, a common source of debate among fans, and Han's minimal maneuvers when escaping Tatooine. When Luke exclaims "I got him!" during the TIE Fighter attack upon the Millennium Falcon, Han responds with "Great kid, don't get penisy!", in reference to Han's response in the original movie, "Don't get cocky!" Han shoots Greedo first as well, but without provocation.

Some other scenes call attention to seemingly obvious details the characters miss. Luke wonders if the Obi-Wan Kenobi of Leia's message could be the same as the "Old Obi-Wan Kenobi" he is aware of. As the Falcon approaches the Death Star, Luke says "Maybe we should head for that small moon that's clearly a small moon and not anything else."

Han also remarks that he is the only actor whose career wasn't damaged by the movie when first meeting Luke. While Ford would later star in the successful Indiana Jones franchise, Hamill turned to voice acting after Episode VI and Fisher's next major role would not come until When Harry Met Sally... in 1989.

"Blue Harvest" also directly parodies Star Wars with aspects of popular culture - when the Millennium Falcon makes the jump to hyperspace, Han comments that hyperspace "always looks freaky", before cutting to the view from the cockpit, which is of the Fourth Doctor opening sequence of Doctor Who complete with audio. The film also adds members to the Red Squadron in the Battle of Yavin, in order: Red Buttons, Redd Foxx, Big Red, Red October, Helen Reddy, and Simply Red.

There are some references to other films in the series. Limbaugh as the radio talk show host refers to both Hoth and Lando Calrissian, both of which are not introduced until The Empire Strikes Back, and Watto from Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace runs into the lightsaber being used as a bug zapper (Chris also asks "what The Phantom Menace is wrong" with R2). Within the narrative, Beru foreshadows her own death when she tells Luke he'll join the rebellion "over [her] burnt carcass".

Consanguinities between the Skywalkers that are not established until the following films are mentioned in the episode. In the opening crawl, both Luke's relation to Vader as son (revealed in The Empire Strikes Back) and Leia as brother (revealed in Return of the Jedi) are both mentioned, and Vader's relation to Luke is repeated by Beru later in the episode.

Other film and television references

Intertextual references include background appearances by characters from other animated series (for example, in the cantina, Bender from Futurama, Jon McGuirk from Home Movies and Roger from American Dad!). Prominent among the films referenced besides the other Star Wars episodes is Airplane!, the source of two gags. First, during the TIE fighter attack, the episode uses a soundbite from the film - Dr. Rumack (voiced by Leslie Nielsen) enters Han's pod and says "I just want to tell you both good luck. We're all counting on you". Later, when the Death Star is under attack, C-3PO jiggles Leia's belly and says "And Leia's getting l-a-a-arger!" after the line "The Death Star is getting closer", which references the lines "The fog's getting thicker!/And Leon's getting l-a-a-arger!". Besides the Dirty Dancing-inspired musical number, the other 1980s films prominently alluded to are the National Lampoon's Vacation series, when the Griswold family drives by the final battle. Television shows alluded to besides Deal or No Deal include Sanford and Son (Foxx dies saying "I'm comin', Elizabeth!", as he often did when playing Fred Sanford).

Reaction

The episode scored a 5.5 overnight Nielsen Rating among the 18-49 demographic, a 17% increase from the previous year's season premiere, and a 13 percent audience share. Viewership increased in the second half hour, and it was the highest-rated non-sports broadcast on its air night, beating out a Desperate Housewives clip show and the season premiere of Cold Case which attracted more viewers but had a lower share.

Critically, the Associated Press's Frazier Moore called it "a dead-on homage that hilariously picks apart Star Wars, along with much of real life". Newsday's Diane Werts rendered a more mixed verdict, saying the episode "veer[s] wildly from bull's-eye satire to gotta-fill-time-now exposition", and was not as enjoyable for non-Star Wars fans. Jon Caraminica of the Los Angeles Times felt it worked by playing to the show's strength, its cutaway gags, by being "almost entirely an aside". He wondered if the Robot Chicken conversation at the end was "a note of self-doubt, maybe, masking as self-awareness."

Sequel and DVD release

With the episode's ratings success, the show producers are considering "devoting an episode to The Empire Strikes Back next year." Fox Television will release a special DVD of the episode in January. Extras include about three minutes of additional footage, bringing the show's running time to about 47 minutes; commentary by creator Seth MacFarlane and other Family Guy staff; two minutes of footage converted to 3-D and viewable with 3-D glasses; interviews with MacFarlane, Star Wars creator George Lucas and others; and a booklet about the episode's artwork.